Cameras- setting up for remote view

[58vwragtop]

I recently purchased a camera system with a stand alone DVR with IP addressing for remote viewing. I am having trouble with viewing them remotely. When I log on to view from a remote location and someone swipes a credit card in one of the bays, it shuts down the internet. Then my internet (DSL), credit card system, and my remote viewing shuts down. I have to reboot the computer to bring it back up. Does anyone else have this problem? I have the Wash Gear credit card system. I talked to David there and he doesn't think it has any thing to do with their system.
The way I have it all connected is- From the DSL modem to a switch box, it splits out from there to the DVR and the other leg goes to the firewall(router) on the computer, to the computer which has all my Wash Gear equipment on it.
I've upgraded my DSL service to a faster and larger bandwidth, thinking I was maxing out the bandwidth and it still doesn't work.
So if any one can help me out or has a Wash Gear system with a camera system that is remotely viewed, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[MEP001]

It could be an issue with having one unit directly off one switch and the rest going through a router. Can you not use the router as the sole switch and connect everything through it?

 

[58vwragtop]

I hooked it up the way that Wash Gear told me to. They said that I had to be in front of their firewall(router) that I got from them. So they suggested putting an ethernet switch box in between the modem and firewall. I was hoping that someone else would have the Wash Gear system with an IP address viewable cctv that might shed some light on this.

 

[Happycarz]

David at WashGear had me set mine the same as yours and I have no problems with credit cards nor video.
Mine comes out of the cable modem to the switch and splits to the DVR and WashGear firewall, just as yours. Static IP on the DVR. After the firewall comes the WG server, then out of the server on a second ethernet port to a workgroup switch and then to the bays.
Since I didn't understand the port forwarding and all the other nomenclature, I just had a techie set mine up according to David's instructions.

 

[Sequoia]

DVR problem

I'm a little unclear on your configuration. Beginning at your DSL modem, you plug that into a hub? And then a cable from the hub goes to your DVR, and a separate cable goes to your router and ultimately the WashGear equipment?

I don't understand why you don't go directly from your DSL modem to the router, and then plug everything in behind the router. That's how the rest of the world works-- I can't imagine why WashGear wants you plugging in ahead of the router???? If it is a security or routing issue, you simply use port forwarding in the router to make all the connections go to the right places.

What kind of DVR do you have, and do you have a Static or Dynamic IP address for your internet?

I don't have WashGear, but the config sounds a little funky to me.

 

[Happycarz]

Duane,
To be PCI compliant with VISA, the computer needs to be isolated from the DVR, and protected with a firewall.

 

[Jeff_L]

Do you have static IPs from your internet provider? If not, then you're using DHCP. How many devices will your provider allow you to grab IPs for? How are you getting to your DVR if you don't have a static IP? Are you using DynDNS or some other free provider?

One of my washes has a WashGear credit card system along with a DVR which I view remotely.

 

[Rudy]

The problem MAY rest in your router/firewall. In my home network, when everyone tries to download a lot of data at the same time, the router sees this as a DoS (denial of service) attack, and it protects the network by "denying" the requests....basically disconnecting from the internet.

As I understand it (be warned...I have just barely enough understanding to be dangerous..), a DoS attack is the situation where hackers "bombard" a router with excessive data requests and shut the system down. It sounds very, very similar to what might be going on with your shutdowns also.

Does your internet connection come back if you reset or power cycle just the router? Usually doing this resets the DoS protection...and this would be a clue to what might be going on.

 

[Jeff_L]

Where are you located in Missouri?

 

[58vwragtop]

Does your internet connection come back if you reset or power cycle just the router? Usually doing this resets the DoS protection...and this would be a clue to what might be going on.

I have only rebooted the whole computer system when this happens. I might try to cycle the power on the router/firewall and see what happens. But then how do you change the settings so the DoS protection does not kick back in?

*Just on the east side of the Kansas City area*

 

[Sequoia]

Router

In your config, the traffic on the router isn't affected by the DVR since the DVR is in front of the router.

Couple of questions:

Do you have a static (non-changing) or dynamic (changeable) IP address? If it is a dynamic IP, maybe something is triggering your system (i.e. credit card swipe) to go fetch a new IP and that could cause such problems. If this is the case, you could probably log back into your cameras after a delay while your DynDns provider caught up with your new IP address.

What kind of DVR do you have? Is it set to default to Port 80, and does your WashGear equipment also use Port 80? That could cause definitely cause this.

Finally, I am curious how you got your DVR installed and working without benefit of a router. My stand alone DVR requires about 4 or 5 different ports which must be configured in the router so the incoming requests actually make it to my DVR (the DVR uses a different port for "monitor", "playback", "configuration", etc.)

 

[Jeff_L]

You're not too far from me. If you want me to take a look, I could swing by. I have a wash in BS and one in LS, so I can make it over if you'd like.

Rebooting the computer would force its network card to go back out and request an IP address. Probably give it the same one, conflict would probably arise when the computer would try to go across the internet to authorize a credit card. Do you see any errors pop up on the computer such as "duplicate IP address found"? Personally, I would move your router just behind the DSL router. Then you could use DynDNS or other free company to post a user friendly name out on the internet and you could port forward your camera system. You can secure it down pretty tight provided you have a good router.

 

[Jeff_L]

...I am curious how you got your DVR installed and working without benefit of a router. My stand alone DVR requires about 4 or 5 different ports which must be configured in the router so the incoming requests actually make it to my DVR (the DVR uses a different port for "monitor", "playback", "configuration", etc.)

It is possible the DVR has a setting in the network page to utilize dyndns or other org. Mine has this option, but i don't use it for i also want to be able to remote into my computer there, so i have my router register with dyndns.

 

[58vwragtop]

My dvr is a Nuvico brand. It is a stand alone one that can be set up as DCHP or static. I have it set up for static on port 7000. Could it be my anti-virus on the computer system shutting it down?

 

[58vwragtop]

Just want to get my 5th post so I can PM Jeff L !

 

[bigleo48]

First what I see here is a complete confusion as to the terms, equipment and how they communicate. So a little terminology first.

Hub is just a repeater at level 2 (Ethernet) Ip datagrams (packets) ride in the Ethernet packets). Anything that goes in one port will come out of all the others.

Switch. A Device that looks up the Ethernet MAC addresses (physical address of the equipment interface, every Ethernet port has its own unique address) before making a decision as to what port it goes out. So it keeps tracks as to what hardware is on what port

Router. Looks at the IP addresses (that are inside the Ethernet packets) before making what a routing decision. So it keeps track of IP addresses.

Firewall. Firewalls (software or hardware) look at the TCP (or UDP) ports to send the information to and if that port is open or closed.

So when you try to use a web browser, it will initiate port 80 at the other end and negotiate a return port number. So in this case, the website info will be encased in a TCP segment (where the port info is listed), this data then goes into the IP datagram and then into the Ethernet packet (this is why they call it a stack). More on next posting.

 

[bigleo48]

In most cases, people have a DSL service. DSL is used instead of Ethernet for longer distance. There is more to it than that, but I'm making it simpler to explain.

Out of you DSL modem (toward you) is an ethernet connection usually to a DSL router (unless they are combined in one unit). This unit is a router/switch/firewall all in one. So the "internet port" (router) is connected to the DSL modem. The other ports are switch ports. They connect to various devices in your site (DVR, Credit Card server, PCs, etc). If you need to log into any of these devices from home or the wider internet, you need to open the ports associated with them. Plus you also need to know their IP address. So you should have a static IP address (never changes) from your internet provider instead of DHCP (dynamic address) that always changes (or use a service like DynDNS).

You also need to tell the router that certain services (like in your case a DVR on port 7000 needs to go to the internal IP addressof your PVR. So say your static IP address is 67.155.119.33 and the DVR's internal address is 192.168.1.10. In the router you need to tell it that when traffic from the outside world comes in on port 7000, that data must go to 192.168.1.10 (DVR). Thats called a translation.

Make sense?

 

[bigleo48]

So to sum up,

DSL->Router/Switch->PC devices (DVR, Credit cards). I know that Washcard wants their stuff ahead of the router, but thats because they don't want to deal with the firewall, but I would not do it that way.

Its hard for me to exactly figure out whats going on, but it sounds like a routing loop. When the loop occurs, all the devices affected shut down. You reboot and everything is happy until it happens again.

If you know what your doing, this is easy to test for using a protocol analyzer. But need to to know how to capture and read those packets. This is where getting a good network tech would be good.

 

[58vwragtop]

Well I met with Jeff L, and he gave me some great ideas to look at. Thanks again Jeff. It sounds like that since I have a switch in before the router with a couple of devices off of it that it might be trying to assign 2 IP addresses when the DSL service only assigns 1 address per account. So with that being said, it looks like I need to move the DVR behind the router and configure it to the ports and correct IP address.
I will mess with it on a slow day, I don't want to end up losing my credit card system and send my customers to Jeff's wash
Thanks once again Jeff.

 

[Jeff_L]

Jim - it's no problem sending them all my way on a temporary basis. I'll make sure to explain to them that they'll need to go back to you once you have everything running smoothly.

Just give me a call if you get stuck, I think you understand the basics of the system. It's all about the plumbing, you just have to tell the water...err...data where to go!