How to Hook Up a Security Camera Through a Firewall
Firewalls are designed to protect your internal information from being accessed by outside sources. Unfortunately for many devices, this goes both ways, limiting what you can see on the outside because of potential security risks. In order to access devices that exist outside of your firewall, you will need to add a special exception directly to your firewall. Usually this is done during the installation process, but can be done after the fact. This process will create a special tunnel that will allow an unrestricted flow of information between the device and your internal network.
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Instructions
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Open the router control panel from your computer. This is typically accessed by entering one of the following addresses into your browser: 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1, 192.168.100.1 or 192.168.1.100. Check your specific router documentation for details on how to access.
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Click on the Security Settings option of your router. From here you can control user accounts, approved devices as well as traffic rates.
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Click "Add-Device" or "Add-Exception" to open up a new dialog window. Depending on your brand of router, it will typically be "Add-Exception." You will also get a list of all devices currently connected to your network, including the ones like your camera that do not yet have full access.
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Click on the device or IP address that represents your camera. With higher quality cameras, their entire name will be listed in this dialog box. You can even change the name of the cameras to be representative of what they are watching, like Main Entrance Camera #1.
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Click the "Accept" button to permanently add the firewall exception to your router and firewall.
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Tips & Warnings
You can find your camera IP address by checking the documentation that came with the camera. Typically your camera will be auto assigned an address by your network router. If you need to reassign the address, you can simply unplug the camera from the network, wait a few minutes, and then plug it back in. It will be assigned the lowest number address available on your network. You can also see what devices are connected to your router from the router control panel.
Running a cable directly from the camera to your internal network may seem like the most efficient method to bypass your firewall. It is, but it should be avoided if at all possible. That same direct access point can be unplugged and then accessed by a portable computer or through a wireless redirect so that a hacker could directly access all of your secure information. Wired cables should be a last resort.
