Vodafone 3G or 4G Publicly Accessible IP Address

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#216702 9-Jul-2017 12:11

I am looking to setup a remote IP camera in an area with no phoneline but strong 34/4g connectivity and electrical power.

I had planned to use an outdoor wireless IP camera connected via wifi to a router with a 3g/4g data stick in it and a vodafone sim (i have one additional data only sim on my current vodafone plan).

However, some research seems to indicate that the old direct APN no longer works on 3g and that its also not possible to directly access a device on 4g? Has anyone got a setup similar to this and a good way to remotely access the device - preferably through vodafone but open to other providers also.

Thanks

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#1817192 9-Jul-2017 12:14

Don't do this.

Cameras especially are often targets to malware and the last thing you want is having become a part of a botnet and doing a DDOS over a mobile network. Have it upload files to a remote web server or set up a VPN.

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raytaylor

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#1817198 9-Jul-2017 12:34

I cant agree more.

Google Mirai Botnet for more info - it specifically targets devices such as internet connected cameras.

Never, Ever make a port forward to a security camera or DVR recorder

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#1817199 9-Jul-2017 12:36

Please don't. Read above. If in doubt, read above.

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RunningMan

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#1817204 9-Jul-2017 12:56

The OP hasn't actually said how they intend to configure this, just that a routable IP is required for access. This doesn't mean that the camera itself is either going to have a public IP, or have public facing ports. If the router is running a properly configured VPN server which is used to get access to the camera, then this should be sufficiently secure.

I can't answer the question about what (if any) APN will provide the required service, but lets not jump to conclusions (yet!) about how the OP intends to configure the setup.

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#1817206 9-Jul-2017 12:58

Good point, we should know more. But preempting anything of the sorts, "port forward to a camera" is always a bad solution.

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#1817211 9-Jul-2017 13:05

RunningMan:

The OP hasn't actually said how they intend to configure this, just that a routable IP is required for access. This doesn't mean that the camera itself is either going to have a public IP, or have public facing ports. If the router is running a properly configured VPN server which is used to get access to the camera, then this should be sufficiently secure.

Wow that was a barrage! Yes... I am in the infosec business - so know what I am doing - simplified my setup for the purposes of the question though... lesson learnt! Although you have perhaps given me an idea to see if i can get the router to VPN back to me rather than the other way around.. downside is increased traffic in keeping the VPN alive 24x7 but it shouldn't be too many bytes.

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RunningMan

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#1817259 9-Jul-2017 14:16

Even if you got a public IP, it may still not be static, so would still require a reverse DNS service to give you a FQDN to address it. If you could put up with the overhead of keeping the VPN connection up all the time, having the VPN client at the camera end could be easier, and far less dependant on the connection type if you needed to change providers or have a fallback connection as well.

raytaylor

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#1817261 9-Jul-2017 14:18

Most decent reputable cameras and recorders coming from china now have a cloud service that they can connect to so you can be on a dynamic and natted ip address but still connect to it without the complications of maintaining a VPN.

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#1817403 9-Jul-2017 17:27

raytaylor:

Most decent reputable cameras and recorders coming from china now have a cloud service that they can connect to so you can be on a dynamic and natted ip address but still connect to it without the complications of maintaining a VPN.

Cchinese cloud server was what i was trying to avoid..

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#1817405 9-Jul-2017 17:28

RunningMan:

Even if you got a public IP, it may still not be static, so would still require a reverse DNS service to give you a FQDN to address it.

Most routers (including the one i was looking at) - support no-ip/dynamic ip updating services so I think I can solve that part

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surfisup1000

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#1817416 9-Jul-2017 17:56

Filterer:

Wow that was a barrage!

Nothing like invoking the wrath of GZ. A fearsome foe indeed.

Good advice though . . . Isn't it great how tech people share knowledge.

I sometimes wonder if there might be a 'lawyerzone' equivalent forum for kiwis?

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#1817425 9-Jul-2017 18:27

I concur with many of the above posts. I have a public IP address range with my internet connection but I exclusively use RFC1918 and NAT for all embedded devices. Put another way, I do not connect anything directly to the internet which I don't fully understand what is going on in terms of firewalling, etc.

With the increasing use of IPV6 I expect this will open up a whole new Pandora's box.

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DonGould

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#1817701 10-Jul-2017 11:01

A VPN will chew ~3gb a month aiui. Use a mikrotik router with USB dongle and you can do this quite easerly.

You can then, also lock the camera down to only be talking to your endpoints and nothing else, so it can't get instructions from the mother ship.

Have you ever wondered why the 'spy ware' is in those cameras and the benefit of it?

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Filterer

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#1818836 10-Jul-2017 13:53

DonGould:

A VPN will chew ~3gb a month aiui. Use a mikrotik router with USB dongle and you can do this quite easerly.

You can then, also lock the camera down to only be talking to your endpoints and nothing else, so it can't get instructions from the mother ship.

3GB / month just idling? Hrrm that's too much for my purpose. Just to link back to original topic of the thread - no-one knows if it is still possible to connect to 3g/4g direct? Is this different with rural broadband?

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DonGould

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#1818921 10-Jul-2017 15:13

Filterer: 3GB / month just idling? Hrrm that's too much for my purpose.

If I've done my math correctly, that's about 9.7bits per second CIR, or about 1 byte every second. It adds up.

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