Configure Amcrest with Remote NAS - Possible??

[sydney]

Hello,

I have various Amcrest cameras in two locations. Let's say Location1 and Location2 and my
Synology NAS is at Location1. My question is very simple: can my cameras at Location2 be configured
to take snapshots & record to my NAS? If yes, how and can you post some links or point me to
some instructions? Thanks

Sydney

[Revo2Maxx]

Hello and Welcome to the Forum...

I am not 100% sure but I am going to guess the best way would be OVER FTP...

https://www.synology.com/en-us/knowledg ... AS_via_FTP

[sydney]

Thanks James.

Yeah... I did have some thoughts about the FTP option. I know the FTP destination on the Amcrest camera
does provide a screen to fill out the login & pw whereas the NAS is just the IP and path. Right now I have all of my
Amcrest cameras at Location1 to record to my NAS. So I was hoping to be consistent in my setup. I guess I'll probably need to setup the cameras at Location2 to use FTP then. I was just also researching to see if it would be possible to setup my Netgear router (at Location2) to point to my NAS at Location1. Doesn't appear to be possible either.

[Revo2Maxx]

While I don't want to say that is only way to make it work. That would be the Easiest for the normal user...

There is something if you wanted to spend some time researching if it would work for your use...

That is a VPN Tunnel.

While I know you said you looked in your Router and it might be that you didn't know what it was used for or maybe your router isn't overly advanced. While I haven't used VPN in a while and i have not setup a VPN for CCTV that I can remember however my mind isn't as sharp as it once was... Asked my wife said she don't know go look at my old notes lol.. Last thing I want to do is go digging looking for my notes from yester year lol... My router does have VPN in my Advanced Setup under the Advance tab...

So what is a Tunnel? Well it is like moving your Network into your other network over the Internet. It is Private between the sender and receiver. You can under most setups choose if it would be TCP or UDP setup..

Seeing FTP is an OPTION.. I would use that to start.

Only thing that might make that little hard for most ISP users is the ISP like to Change your IP from time to time... however looking in your Router you can tell when the next lease is set to renew... Pros and Cons in all things we do.

[sydney]

I'm more familiar with FTP than VPN Tunneling. My NAS has FTP. I just need to set this up and give this a try.
I understand the concept of VPN. I use it everyday to establish basically two private endpoints (ie Home -> Office).
I'm interested in learning VPN Tunneling in relation to what I'm trying to do as well. If you or anyone who has this
experience and believe it would offer as an alternative to FTP, please share some links/instructions. Thanks!!

[sydney]

James,

You said "Only thing that might make that little hard for most ISP users is the ISP like to Change your IP from time to time". I've DDNS. So I know what my external IP is at all times. Just a side question. How does Amcrest keep track of my external IP? Obviously it has to know otherwise my Amcrest App wouldn't work on the phone when I'm away.

[Revo2Maxx]

Well it is going to work off because of your DDNS when you setup your system... However right now if your asking how are you able to access your system outside your network when away form home or the office... I am going to guess that you set up your system with your SN and it is working off P2P. Or you setup your system and have your system to allow P2P.

P2P is a old term stands as I am sure you already know but for others that may read this that don't. Peer to Peer. The SN of your camera is TSR in a server that is waiting for Ping to the SN once it gets the PING the Server sends data to both ends to make a Connection. There is only info sent from your Phone to your Camera or NVR nothing stored anywhere Meaning it don't Store your data, unless you also have Cloud then you will want to make sure any changes you make in the Camera you make on the Cloud because the Cloud will change your camera back to a state it was last configured in lol...

[sydney]

Just wanted to follow up on this.

So I enabled my FTP Server on my Synology device. I can FTP to it from inside my network and from a remote site.
No issues and working perfectly. I then tried to configure my Amcrest which is located in "Location2" to run FTP. Remember my Synology FTP service is running out of "Location1". (See above for reference). Every time I clicked "Test", I got the error "Failed to connect". At this point, I have come to a conclusion that you can't have
the Amcrest camera take snapshots and/or record videos using external FTP service. In my case, I can't use
both the NAS and FTP options when both of these services aren't running inside the same network as the Amcrest.
I have no problem running IF ALL devices are located on the same network.

[sydney]

If anyone is thinking about doing what I wanted to do, don't. I just confirmed with Amcrest. Your FTP & NAS MUST BE in the same network as the camera.

[jack7]

An Amcrest camera ftp client can communicate with a remote ftp server, depending on the ftp client and the camera firmware. But I suggest trying to attach your loc2 cam to the loc1 NAS doing something like this:
https://www.synology.com/en-global/know ... ce_Station

UPnP port forwarding is not very secure so I would suggest later trying to set up a VPN connection between the two locations as mentioned by Revo2Maxx in an earlier post. That is another subject...

Here's one example of an Amcrest camera used on a remote ftp server:
https://www.cameraftp.com/CameraFTP/Sup ... c426234859