[SOLVED] Double NATing security cameras with VPN to remote NVR

[tmarshallg]

Hi,

I have a unique need as a production company where I would like to put together a portable security camera kit. I would take these to different venues where they will provide me with an internet thru their router so it will be double NAT. The issue is getting it thru their firewall? Most of the time it is in convention centers or hotels where I have no control over their router/firewall

The kit would contain 1 Router, 1 AP, POE Switch, and 2 or 3 wired IP cams + 1 or 2 IP wireless cams.

What would be the best way to set these up to pretty much no matter where I plug them in, they will be able to remote in to my Dahua NVR or Blue Iris (camera software) server back at home? I use an edge router and already have a few locations using site to site VPN for cameras and works fine. I would like to stick with my edge router there.

Options I've thought:
1- VPN on router I plug into the venues internet line (probably will run into a double NAT firewall issue here)
2- DDNS on the cameras individual settings (Again think I will hit firewall issue here)
3- Using something like a PC with dual LANs to create some other kind of VPN that doesn't depend on ports?
4-Using something like himachi or NGROK on PC with dual LAN for connection sharing (issue here is trying to route all traffic thru Himachi when doing connection sharing, and will I be able to see the proper IP of each camera from the server end?)

I don't want to blow the bank, but buying proper hardware and spending money is not a problem. The more critical factor would be keeping it simple and in a small footprint.

I'm sure there has got to be a way, just like Ring is able to connect to any network and communicate without any opened ports...

I technically don't need two way communication, just making sure the NVR on the other end can capture video and ideally audio too.

Any thoughts?

 

[bill001g]

The VPN on the router should work, You would of course need a fixed ip or ddns on your DVR side.

If you use openvpn you can tell it to use port 443 which will pass though pretty much anything. Your ISP on the DVR side might block 443 but it is not very common.

Using 443 you appear as normal https traffic. Very technically openvpn does not 100% follow the rules for SSL but unless they REALLY want to block vpn like china does it should work.

After that pretty much everything else should just work. You might have to some issues with the DVR software since all cameras will come from a single shared ip on the vpn. There are ways around this but it is much more complex vpn configuration. You may have to go to something like dd-wrt that supports more complex openvpn configurations.

 

[Alabalcho]

Rent a VPS (Virtual Private Server), install VPN server on it, and make your home and remote both connect to it. This way, you'll create your own private network.