IP Cameras Using 3G/4G Connection With No Public IP

th3bloody9

th3bloody9

Young grasshopper
Jan 22, 2016
76
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Hi, I want to install some IP cameras in a remote location (farm sheds) with no internet access. My plan was to create a network at the farm sheds using a 4G router:


  • 8 Hikvision cameras
  • Hikvision NVR or PC NVR
  • Internet connection using 4G router & external 4G antenna

I would like to be able to live view the cameras remotely on occasion. However it seems no UK based mobile ISPs provide individual public IP addresses so they won't accept any incoming connections. There are a couple of specialist companies who sell 3G fixed IP sims but data is stupidly expensive and they aren't on the same network that provides the best 3G/4G coverage in the area (Vodafone).

Has anyone successfully managed to run IP cameras (with remote view) from a mobile connection with no public IP? I can't seem to find any documented examples on the internet, apart from a few people saying it should technically be possible using a VPN as a middleman.

The most promising thing I've found so far is EZVIZ Cloud P2P service. If I'm correct this won't require a public IP? Are there any other known solutions out there that I'm missing?
 
Have you considered using a portable 3G router (TP Link make some good ones) that you can flash with custom firmware (openWRT / Gargoyle / etc) that supports OpenVPN?

If you have line of sight to sheds, could consider Ubiquiti gear.
 
SquareEyes said:
Have you considered using a portable 3G router (TP Link make some good ones) that you can flash with custom firmware (openWRT / Gargoyle / etc) that supports OpenVPN?

If you have line of sight to sheds, could consider Ubiquiti gear.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Yes I'm planning on using a 3G/4G router (TP-LINK TL-MR3420). That appears to be openWRT compatible.

How does the OpenVPN work? Will it be likely to slow speed compared to peer-to-peer?
 
Excellent work.

OpenVPN is very straight forward to configure, especially if you flash the router with Gargoyle firmware (my preference) as you can enter the OpenVPN credentials into the firmware and the router takes care of everything for you. Pretty sure that OpenWRT would do the same thing as Gargoyle is based on OpenWRT.

There is a free version of OpenVPN and that is all that I have ever needed.

Will it be likely to slow speed compared to peer-to-peer?
Click to expand...

I am not sure what you mean regarding P2P but OpenVPN will not create much (if any) overhead on your 3G/4G connection.

The beauty of using OpenVPN compared to other methods of remote access is that it is extremely secure and virtually impossible to hack into. I consider this to be it's most important feature as cameras are a security product. I cringe whenever I read about port forwarding or using 3rd party cloud services.

A little bit of googling and you should be good to go.
 
Hello,
I have the same issue and almost the same project. I want to access to ip cameras that are connected to internet with a router 4g. So, they don't have public ip. What is the best or easier solution to have access to theses camera from internet?
Thanks a lot for your help

Fred
 
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Agree with @TonyR, I believe Zerotier may work if you use a PC-NVR and install the Zerotier client on both the NVR and your home computer, then use Remote Desktop to log into the Zerotier subnet that you created. If I remember correctly Zerotier doesn't require that the Target device has a fixed IP. Texting this from my lunch break so I can't look it up at the moment. You can potentially do a dry run with existing equipment if you have a laptop and a 2nd computer and your phone has a wifi Hotspot. Connect the laptop to your Hotspot and the other computer to your home network. Install zerotier on both devices, then try to access the laptop using RDP. Watch one or two tutorials on YouTube and try it and you'll find o out quickly if it will work. I spent 2 weeks trying to get OpenVPN configured before giving up but had Zerotier running within 30 minutes. It's intuitive and stupid-simple.
 
I'm following this thread as the fly on the wall, waiting for the "never use P2P", "P2P is insecure", etc. demonizers to chime in. Looking forward to some good fireworks. :)
 
I'm in the US, so I am not familiar with the cell service elsewhere, but if I understand correctly (saying you don't have a public IP address) if you type "What's my IP address" in Google while on that service you don't get a valid response?

Or is it just that you can't get a permanent IP address?
 
The Automation Guy said:
I'm in the US, so I am not familiar with the cell service elsewhere, but if I understand correctly if you type "What's my IP address" in Google while on that service you don't get a valid response?
Click to expand...
With my current AT&T Fixed wireless and when I had the mobile wireless version, you'd get a WAN IP, but it's not public and/or unique...shared with others on the system due to IPv4 running out of numbers.

I'm not an expert (by far) on CGNAT, perhaps someone else can explain it better... all I need to know is the IP is not public and I can't come in remotely via "conventional" means as I did when I had ADSL.
 
TonyR said:
With my current AT&T Fixed wireless and when I had the mobile wireless version, you'd get a WAN IP, but it's not public and/or unique...shared with others on the system due to IPv4 running out of numbers.

I'm not an expert (by far) on CGNAT, perhaps someone else can explain it better... all I need to know is the IP is not public and I can't come in remotely via "conventional" means as I did when I had ADSL.
Click to expand...

So I guess using a DNS forwarder won't work because of the shared addresses then?
 
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Hi,

Sorry for the delay and thank you for your contribution. In attached, you can see a small drawing of the installation.

Concerning the IP, it's exactly what it's said above. The WAN ip address that I can see on the router setup page is different than the ip that I can see on "What's my IP address" in Google. The Ip saw in google is shared with several users.

When I connect a PC on the router 4g, I have access to all cameras, it means that the TV-NVR104 is like a switch.

I made a first test, with my adsl router (where I have a private public ip) instead the router 4g. I setup the right port forwarding and I can access the camera from internet. But in this case with a router 4G, I can't and it's what I want to do :-)

I have no pc running on the camera network, so the zerotier solution is not adapted, doesn't it?

What is the easiest solution?
Is there any easy solution with a VPN? If yes, what kind?
I have a raspberry, is there an easier solution with it?
Or is there another device that I should buy to do that in an easy way?

Thanks a lot
 

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Tibouss said:
But in this case with a router 4G, I can't and it's what I want to do :)
What is the easiest solution?
Thanks a lot
Click to expand...
Did you read my post #6 ? That's the easiest solution, IMO.

@esoteric did it last month here.
 
i guess he is looking for easiest & "free" solution .

P2P is not a bad soution given that for a remote location looking at some farm sheds, if an attacker is able to intercept the audio/video stream at will, what's the benefit for the hacker here?
 
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