Chinese P2P camera lost P2P connection

[walkmann]

Hello,

The main question is : if the vendor of the camera is stopping the P2P servers, is there a way to get back P2P connectivity (all possible ways) or not?

I bought a chinese P2P camera a few years ago. All worked fine, the camera was accessible from LAN and WAN without port forwarding.
Now, I can access the camera only from LAN. P2P connection is stopped working. Seems like chinese P2P servers are offline. I contacted the vendor but not responding. Is there a way to bring back P2P connectivity?
To flash a new firmware with updated working P2P servers IP adresses will help (if I find it)?
Someone used their own cloud server for P2P connection?

I can access my camera by web interface or UART

Why I need P2P? Because my home router have 3g/LTE WAN interface - there is no way to port forward through double NAT, so I can't access my camera when I'm not home.
The only way is P2P or VPN (not tested yet)

 

[wittaj]

Most here do not recommend P2P or port forwarding. But P2P means it needs a server on the outside to communicate.

Updating firmware, if you find one, is always risky.

Most here set up a VPN to VPN back into their system. Not to be mistaken with a paid VPN that hides your IP address for porno and illegal streaming.

You need a VPN that puts you back on your network.

Do that and you don't need to mess with P2P or risky firmware update.

 

[Mike A.]

A lot if not most of these off-brand cams use some third-party servers for their P2P. Might be able to find the same servers available under some other name/domain. Good luck figuring out which and whether you can make a connection to it. Or along the same lines could be that whatever back-end server they were using is gone or whatever arrangement they had to use one is done.

VPN is the better way to go. Zerotier should work even with double-NAT. More secure and don't have to worry about it then.

 

[walkmann]

Most here do not recommend P2P or port forwarding. But P2P means it needs a server on the outside to communicate.

Yes, I understand the risks about P2P. Let's say I can apply different filters and monitor each packet against botnets and protect my network.
I have a VPS server with linux onboard in the cloud with a public static IP. The "easy way" is to create a VPN server on the linux machine and a VPN client on my home router. Then another VPN client on my phone so I can reach my home camera.
But for P2P? Which software is needed to install on linux machine for P2P server?

 

[walkmann]

Might be able to find the same servers available under some other name/domain.

I sniffed the traffic. The camera is trying to connect to 2 IP addresses from China, old P2P servers, offline now. I'm searching how to set my camera to talk to another online P2P servers.
Firstly I need to identify the P2P client service on the camera. Stop then start the service with new parameters, new IP. Not sure if it's possible but I will see.
Another my "crazy" idea is to find exactly the same camera with working P2P service, dump the firmware and flash it to my camera. But there is MAC address, unique P2P ID that I should edit before flashing. Complicated...

Never heard before about Zerotier, but I see is very interesting. I should test it. Thanks for this idea

 

[Mike A.]

Put your energy toward the VPN side. Less time and trouble and gives you a more versatile base for that and to do other things remotely in/out of your network too.

ETA: If you still want to chase the P2P servers, might do a reverse search for the IP address to find where it's hosted and maybe see some other camera-type domains hosted in the same address range. Maybe not though since the P2P providers use a variety of servers that they have distributed all over.