XtendLan XL-ICA100U User Manual - page 22
XtendLan XL-ICA100U User’s Guide
Static versus Dynamic IP address
The IP address (or addresses) that your ISP provided you will either be static, which means it
never changes, or dynamic, meaning it will change periodically. Dynamic addresses present an
additional challenge when trying to locate your network from the Internet since your address may
have changed since the last time you checked it. How often your dynamic address changes vary
from one service provider to another. Also, any time you reboot your cable or DSL modem, you
are likely to get a new address when reconnecting.
The solution to the ever-changing IP address is known as DDNS or dynamic domain name service.
A DDNS will allow you to find your network by a domain name, such as DynDNS, ZONEDIT,
no-ip.com, rather than needing to know the IP address.
Network Address Translation (NAT)
Most home routers and business firewalls today perform something called NAT or Network
Address Translation. NAT translates your external or WAN IP address into an internal address
inside your gateway router. What it means is, you can think of your router as being divided into
two halves, the LAN side (inside) and the WAN side (outside or Internet side). When a
connection request arrives at your router from the Internet, it will not get any farther than the
WAN side unless you have specifically instructed your router to pass this type of request to a
specific device on your LAN. This process is known as port forwarding or port redirecting.
Port Forwarding
All the TCP/IP (Internet) networking uses software ports. Ports can be thought of as channels on
your television. By default, all webpage traffic is on channel (port) 80.
By default, the XL-ICA100U IP Camera uses port 80 to deliver its web page to your browser.
Therefore, channel (port) 80 must be open (is not blocked by your outer/firewall) to incoming
traffic in order to connect XL-ICA100U IP Camera from the Internet.
Note: port 80
If there is server in your LAN already used port 80, you must open another port for your
XL-ICA100U IP Camera.
XL-ICA100U IP Camera will answer commands from any port > 1024, what it means is, a port >
1024 (ex.: 8080) must be open to incoming traffic in order to connect XL-ICA100U IP Camera
from the Internet.
If you have installed multiple XL-ICA100U IP Cameras in your LAN, multiple ports (unique port
for each camera, all greater than 1024, not used by other devices) must be open to incoming traffic
in order to connect those XL-ICA100U IP Cameras from the Internet. Also, port must be
forwarded or redirected to the camera’s LAN IP address by your gateway router. Your router’s
setup software should provide a utility for port forwarding or redirecting. Router configuration
contains setup help for some popular home networking gateway routers currently on the market.
Note:
Forwarding ports to your XL-ICA100U IP Cameras does not pose any additional security risk to
your LAN. Before setting up port forwarding, it is best to configure your XL-ICA100U IP
Cameras to use a static LAN IP since your port forwarding setup will need to be updated if the
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