Help with setting-up port forwarding for cctv viewing

Product Discussion Peplink Balance
1

Hi,

I’m having a problem setting up port forwarding to work correctly so that I can view my cctv feed outside of the office.

I have setup the cameras to connect to a DVR and the DVR is connected to the office network. I have also assigned a static IP to the DVR and WAN IP is static. I then used the internal IP of the DVR for the inbound server and then configured the inbound services to forward to the internal IP.

However, when I try to access the DVR outside of the office network, I can’t access it as the connection drops. I have checked if I was using the wrong settings for the DVR but I was able to access the DVR while on the office network.

Can someone tell what I’m doing wrong?

2

It sounds as if you have configured everything correctly on the Peplink. A few questions:

  1. You mention that your connection drops. Is this your Internet connections that drops?
  2. Are you able to log onto the DVR (until it drops), or are you not able to log on to it at all?
  3. What ports did you forward to the DVR’s IP?
  4. Have you configured the Peplink firewall (or any other firewall on your network) to block incoming traffic?
3

Hi,

Thanks for replying:

  1. When I try to connect to the DVR I just get a loading bar below the status bar and when the loading bar is halfway to filling up, the connection drops. It can’t be the internet connection as I am able to browse the web.
  2. I’m not able to log-in at all
  3. I tried the default port on the DVR, which was port 80. Then after that, I tried port 81. Right now I’ve set the DVR port back to port 80.
  4. Firewall configuration only blocks outbound access to Facebook, as for the inbound access, I did set up an inbound rule for the DVR allowing inbound access to it.
4

If you enable WAN access on the Peplink (System>Admin Security), can you access the Peplink via your WAN IP? Please keep in mind that your Peplink WAN access port and the port that you forward to the DVR must be different.

5

I tried to do what you suggested but I was not able to access the Peplink through the WAN IP. My settings are as follows:

DVR port is 81
Inbound server is same as internal IP of DVR
Inbound IP address is same as WAN IP with the same port as the DVR
UPnP and NAT-PMP are enabled
Inbound firewall rules allow inbound access from any source IP and port to the destination IP, which is the DVR internal IP and port is DVR port

6

The fact that you cannot access the Peplink’s web admin via your WAN IP is definitely something you need to investigate further. If you are not able to access the Peplink via the WAN, you will not be able to access the DVR as well.

Do you have existing Port Forwarding configurations on the Peplink that work?

Some ISP’s (although not very common) block incoming traffic that originates from outside. Sometimes they NAT your WAN IP as well, and then you need to arrange with them the necessary configurations.