New milesight user - advice wanted

[mules]

Hi from Australia,

I have been searching around for an IP camera for a while and decided on a Milesight setup.

Their is limited info in Oz about these but I liked the look of there mini NVR and the dome cameras.

I purchased an MS-N1009-UPT, 4 x MS-C5375-PB's & a 4Tb WD purple.

Updated the firmware on the NVR to 72.9.0.2-r3 and a camera to 41.7.0.67-r14. Also changed my passwords

I have installed 1 camera and temporarily run a 15m cat5e cable to the NVR and then a 1m cat5e cable to the router which then runs to the fibre optic modem in cat6.

The setup was OK but struggled a little with the networking, I'm technically minded but it has been a few years since I've played with networking. I setup DMZ in my Telstra (Aus ISP) router. I read this on a Telstra forum.

I can use the m-sight pro app on the phone, smart tools on the computer which is on the same LAN and connect to the NVR from computers external to the LAN. I also have a monitor plugged into the NVR.

I am just chasing some answers, I'm confused with:

Can someone give me a rundown with the networking in regards of how to make sure my LAN is secure with DMZ, I did a little bit of googling and I don't understand how it works. I have all the 'network' menus in the NVR turned off (IPv4, IPv6, UPnp, DDNS, P2P etc).

How the camera has stutter. When I look at my NVR directly and my 1 camera the feed stutters. I can't figure out why?
The photos of my settings are attached. It looks like the FPS drops.
I have tried lowering my bit rate and MP and there is still a stutter also in the recorded footage when I look back.
I haven't tried another camera yet.

Ill have many more questions as I learn more.

Thanks
Sam

 

[Mal]

Hi Sam,
It would be better not to use your NVR in the DMZ zone. If you need external access you could open a port to the NVR in your router. Still better is to set up a VPN server inside your home network and thus avoid open ports.
Of those closed network menus (disabled functions) others are ok but you should have IPv4 enabled.

If you decide to open a port for external access with M-Sight Pro, it would be better to change the HTTP port in the NVR settings from 80 to something else between 1024 and 49152 in order to have less unwanted traffic at your open port. See Assigning TCP/IP Ports for In-House Application Use
Depending on the options in your router you can also use that higher port number externally and forward it internally to port 80 and thus avoid changes in Milesight.

I have seen some unpredictability in the frame rates. 16 fps should be running smooth. Perhaps there is still some configurations to be done in your network.

BR,
Mal

 

[mules]

Hi Sam,
It would be better not to use your NVR in the DMZ zone. If you need external access you could open a port to the NVR in your router. Still better is to set up a VPN server inside your home network and thus avoid open ports.
Of those closed network menus (disabled functions) others are ok but you should have IPv4 enabled.

If you decide to open a port for external access with M-Sight Pro, it would be better to change the HTTP port in the NVR settings from 80 to something else between 1024 and 49152 in order to have less unwanted traffic at your open port. See Assigning TCP/IP Ports for In-House Application Use
Depending on the options in your router you can also use that higher port number externally and forward it internally to port 80 and thus avoid changes in Milesight.

I have seen some unpredictability in the frame rates. 16 fps should be running smooth. Perhaps there is still some configurations to be done in your network.

BR,
Mal

Thanks Mal,

Im going to buy an ASUS router so I can setup an openVPN server. I need more ports then I currently have with the standard router anyway.

As for the frame rates, I was originally testing the camera using a SD card to record to. I may have a setting incorrect causing the glitches.

Thanks
Sam

 

[Mal]

Hi Sam,

Nice to hear about your choice. I am currently using Asus RT-AC66U B1 with Merlin firmware for RT-AC68U and can recommend the combination. Especially the OpenVPN is relatively straightforward as compared with some others.
RT-AC66U-B1 Difference between HW Ver: A1 and B1
About | Asuswrt-Merlin

My previous comment was missing an important point: the router needs to get public IP address in order to be accessible from outside. With Asus you need to configure your ISP modem/router as a bridge. Some models allow also partial bridging that is very nice in some situations. Depending on ISP public IP address costs some extra. A dynamic (occasionally changing) IP is cheaper and works fine when used with e.g. free DDNS service by Asus or other provider.

-m-

 

[mules]

Hi Sam,

Nice to hear about your choice. I am currently using Asus RT-AC66U B1 with Merlin firmware for RT-AC68U and can recommend the combination. Especially the OpenVPN is relatively straightforward as compared with some others.
RT-AC66U-B1 Difference between HW Ver: A1 and B1
About | Asuswrt-Merlin

My previous comment was missing an important point: the router needs to get public IP address in order to be accessible from outside. With Asus you need to configure your ISP modem/router as a bridge. Some models allow also partial bridging that is very nice in some situations. Depending on ISP public IP address costs some extra. A dynamic (occasionally changing) IP is cheaper and works fine when used with e.g. free DDNS service by Asus or other provider.

-m-

Thanks Mal,

I purchased a RT-AX88U and have updated it to the latest merlin firmware.

I don't know 100% if I have done the right thing but it works?

I set the router up in its default mode, went into the VPN options, started a OpenVPN server and then set up the OpenVPN app on my phone with the .ovpn file from the router.

I can turn on the OpenVPN and then open the milesight app and it works on my phone on the mobile network.

Is this the incorrect way?

Tomorrow night I'll swap the cameras over to see if my stuttering stops

Thanks
Sam

 

[Mal]

Wow - you chose a piece of the future. AX is beyond my current experience. However - most of the connecting devices today use AC and N standards so it could be better to configure it as an AC router. Seeing it supported by Merlin gives some guarantee of maturity. (some earlier models with their standard firmwares often needed a couple of upgrades after initial releases before OpenVPN was free of bugs)

You did not yet describe the client setup on the phone. As far as I know, e.g. Android and IOS don't have native support for OpenVPN. OpenVPN Connect works in both environments.
If you have all settings correctly in place then you should be able to create the VPN tunnel from the phone via the cellular network and access your cameras etc. at the same local addresses as you use while being logged into your home network.

 

[Mal]

Be prepared for some experimentation with the settings.
Here are my settings as an example. The version of Merlin is 384.8_2.

 

[mules]

Wow - you chose a piece of the future. AX is beyond my current experience. However - most of the connecting devices today use AC and N standards so it could be better to configure it as an AC router. Seeing it supported by Merlin gives some guarantee of maturity. (some earlier models with their standard firmwares often needed a couple of upgrades after initial releases before OpenVPN was free of bugs)

You did not yet describe the client setup on the phone. As far as I know, e.g. Android and IOS don't have native support for OpenVPN. OpenVPN Connect works in both environments.
If you have all settings correctly in place then you should be able to create the VPN tunnel from the phone via the cellular network and access your cameras etc. at the same local addresses as you use while being logged into your home network.

Thanks, it wasn't the model I wanted to buy. I originally wanted the lower model but the stores around me had no stock and I wanted to get it setup sooner rather then later.

I'm not sure if the router setup in the default configuration is AC or not. Another thing for me to check.

OpenVPN have an android app in the play store. I downloaded this and when opened I am presented with 3 choices. I selected the 3rd choice which was to setup a OpenVMS client with a .opvn file. I created the .opvn file in the Asus router settings, sent it to my phone via email and used the openVPN to configure the client on the phone. Once the phone was connected on the OpenVPN I enabled IP4v on the NVR to get an IP address. I used this IP address on the mile sight app with the admin logon and updated password and it works.
If I am not connected to the OpenVPN on my phone I can't access it and if I am using my phone at home connected to the WiFi I can access the milesight app without using the VPN

I won't get any time until tomorrow to play with it any more and it still works as of right now.

Thanks Mal, your advice has been very helpful!

 

[Mal]

You are welcome
Great to see that it worked out of the box for you.