Setting Up DVR Remote Viewing

Most DVRs now a days have the ability to be remotely viewed across the Internet using either a built in web server or a client program of some sort. This a three part series of instructional videos to help offer some guidance and suggestions on how to configure a DVR to not only talk to a simple network, but how to get the network to allow the DVRs information to be passed back and forth without turning off basic network security. Network configurations can vary wildly depending on the individual users needs and these videos assume that the DVR will be attached to a simple home-based network.

Step 1: Locating an open IP on a network and setting up the DVR IP

For DVRs and NVRs to remotely send video across the network they need to be attached to and able to communicate with the network. In addition to that, they need to occupy the same spot on the network over and over again. This makes the process of accessing the video consistent. It is almost impossible to pull video from a DVR remotely if you don't know what it's current IP address is, and hence don't know where to go to get the video. This little instructional shows not only how to locate an empty IP address on a network, but how to configure the DVR to utilize that empty IP address.

Step 2: Port forward the DVR across the router

A router's main job is to direct traffic across the network. In most cases, this means blocking incoming request for information. It is one of the most basic forms of Internet security available. However, it is the very thing the remote view feature of a DVR is trying to do: accept incoming requests for information. By doing a port forward, all incoming requests that are looking for a specific single port get automatically re-routed to a specific internal IP address. Anything else gets refused just like normal. This allows that one single port to be used for remote viewing once it is configured properly.

Step 3: Configuring Internet Explorer for remote viewing

Many DVRs and NVRs have remote viewing features that use Internet Explorer instead of a separate client program. However, these plug ins are not usually Microsoft signed ActiveX plug ins. The following video shows the user how to create a trusted site that can download the unsigned ActiveX plug in necessary to run the remote view functions... without compromising Internet Explorers basic Internet security settings.