Best way to access BI5 remotely if I don't have a real world IP

[jakeblue3]

My ISP does not give it's users a 'real world' IP address unless we pay $10 a month extra. I live in a remote area where they are the only real choice outside of satelite or whatever Elon Musk is planning lol. What do you all think is my best bet to get remote access to my video feeds and alerts for BI5? I don't think UI3 is possible without a realworld static IP, is it? Is the Android app a viable solution? Thanks in advance. -Jake

[Thixotropic]

If you mean a static IP address, that's not required to access BI remotely.

Any IP address will do, but you can use a hostname provider or a free DDNS service. You could also use something like ngrok or set up your own VPN through your router interface.

My IP address changes from time to time, and my BI box runs a script on boot up to post the current WAN IP to a website so I can always retrieve it.

[TimG]

Yes, I agree about the free DDNS. No static IP required. Have a look in your router settings to see if they have any listed. That would be simplest. My Asus router has free Asus DDNS built in, and that was easy to set up.

[HeneryH]

And if your router doesn't have DDNS built in, then every DDNS provider has a small client app that can run on any in-home computer that periodically updates the address.

[Matts1984]

Also it's important to note that establishing DDNS only helps get traffic from the Internet to your routers external interface. It would need to then forward that traffic to a specific port on your Blue Iris server. There are certainly areas for security concern here that can get pretty detailed and may impact anyones implementation method. There are many ways to get that traffic from external to your server (many acceptable methods are free) but it needs to be according to your accepted risk level. Just doing direct port forwarding with no security control can result in a lot of unintended traffic hitting your server directly - especially if you use a common port. Other options include a reverse proxy, NGROK as previously mentioned, or something like ZeroTier which has been mentioned in this forum before. I've never implemented ZeroTier as I already have a working solution I'm happy with BUT I did research it a bit and it looks like it could be done without having a degree in networking.

Anyway, there are many many many ways to get remote access to BI5 without that server itself having a routable "real world" IP address. You just need to figure out which method you want and implement it.

[jakeblue3]

First oi all, thank you all for taking the time to answer me!! It's very appreciated!!

My ISP is giving me a non-routable IP address, they are only assigning me a private address. They said in order to have a 'real world' public or routable IP address they would have to charge $10/month. I have thought about using a VPN.

@MATTS, which would you recommend the most given my situation? I looked into NGROK, it looks like the free version changes (randomly?) IP's every time, you have to go up to the $5 version to get a fixed IP. I am computer literate enough, but networking is fairly new to me. Thanks!! -Jake

[TimG]

That does sound different, and I'm no network Engineer. What do you get if you search for "Whats my IP ?" ? Anything recognisable ?

[Matts1984]

@MATTS, which would you recommend the most given my situation? I looked into NGROK, it looks like the free version changes (randomly?) IP's every time, you have to go up to the $5 version to get a fixed IP. I am computer literate enough, but networking is fairly new to me. Thanks!! -Jake

Reading over your whole post - wow. I've never seen an ISP that assigned non-routable addresses. It's normal to get a dynamic address and it's extra (possibly 'business class') to get a static address but thats neither here nor there. If you're getting non-routable addresses I assume they just own a very small routable address space so are handling the NATs further upstream at their end.

Anyway.... if I was in your situation I think I would test out the ZeroTier option first. It looks like a simple downloadable client on your server, another client on any remote endpoints (android, i-device, etc), and then some fairly simple config. I'm just saying what I would try first.

[HeneryH]

FWIW, NGROK and SSL are just encrypting the data as it crosses the internet. Not much value in that in my opinion unless you are recording a sensitive area. You could have super strong encryption of data while leaving the front door wide open.

Energy should be spent in securing the ports and passing authenticated connection requests in a tight manner.

[HeneryH]

Reading over your whole post - wow. I've never seen an ISP that assigned non-routable addresses.

Satellite could be very wonky since it often involves satellite downlinks and phone line uplinks. That might be the reason.