Outgoing packets from cam to internet.

[sonomats]

Hi! I'm not sure this is the right forum. If it's not please point me in the right direction.

Basically, my question is: Will "IP-camera stream" generate outgoing internet packets (thru router) even if there is no one watching (over internet)?

I have one camera installed. DS-2CD2032-I wich is hooked up via my router (Asus RT-AC66U) to my server computer and Hikvision iVMS-4200 software. In my router there is a "Traffic Manager" wich let's me se incoming and outgoing packets.

I may not understand the true nature of internet protocols. But to me it seems strange that the cam's stream is sent to internet without me recieving it "on the other side". Is someone else viewing my cam?

 

[fenderman]

Welcome to the forum. It does not get transmitted unless being viewed. You can look at the logs and see of someone is loggin in..i doubt it...most likely your router is misreporting it...

 

[bp2008]

More likely, you are looking at some kind of LAN traffic chart. If you show a full screenshot we may be able to help you understand what you are looking at.

 

[alastairstevenson]

The Asus RT-AC66U user manual shows a traffic monitor screen that does differentiate between internet / wired / wireless volumes for outbound and inbound.
sonomats - how do you know it's the camera generating the traffic? Does it disappear if you disconnect the camera? And what is the volume of the traffic?

 

[sonomats]

Hi! And thank you for answering!
I know it's the camera generating the outgoing traffic since it stops when I shut down the camera. My cam is wired to a bridged router wich wirelessly (correct word?) transimitts it to my main router. In the router I can see the amount of packets coming in from wireless network, and also see the amount of packets going out to internet. They are the same. I also see that the volume changes when i change camera resolution or framerate.

In what log can I see who is logging in? Are there any logs from the camera interface?

Tried to upload screenshots to this post, from the routers interface showing the traffic, but I get an error: "This is not a valid image file." They are PNG, 53kb size.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Well that makes for a more complex picture.
A few more questions if I may.
What's the typical volume of the traffic as seen via the main router, for both inbound and outbound, for both the wireless and internet measurements? The Asus manual suggests it shows the traffic in MBps as opposed to Mbps.
For a DS-2CD2032 the outbound video traffic will be a few Mbps, depending on frame rate etc. Inbound traffic will mostly be acks and be in Kbps. Does the traffic equate to this volume? And can you confirm you are not pulling video from any live view session or via your NVR while you are seeing the traffic you are concerned about?

The network topology may be a factor in what you are seeing. If you are bridging or routing with your outlying wireless relay, the Asus router may interpret the traffic as non-local depending on the source addresses.
What's the network segment on the camera side of the wireless relay, and what's the network segment on the wireless side of the Asus router?

As has been said by others earlier - it's unlikely to be anyone on the internet viewing your video stream. You would have had to deliberately open up your network to the internet.

 

[sonomats]

Hi! With this camera setting it's about 450-500 KB/s both into router from wireless and out to internet. Also wired network have the exact same amount of traffic. I poked around a bit now and I discovered that if iVMS-4200 software was not running all streams from the camera disapeared. No outgoing cam stream to internet, no inbound traffic from cam on wireless and no outgoing to wired network.

From that I know that nobody is logged in to the cam's interface at least. But still the question, why is iVMS-4200 software sending cam stream to internet.
Still no luck with my images. Strange why they won't upload.

 

[alastairstevenson]

That's good - now you can be sure that nothing bad is going on.
It looks like your Asus router is treating the bridged/routed traffic as off-LAN for some reason. Maybe you have the camera segment on a 'public' address range and the traffic is being routed not bridged.