3G router and external IP

Gentleman Off The Pitch

Hi lads

I have a IP camera that I'd like to access remotely, over the net. Unfortunately only 3G is available at the site where the camera will be installed and therefore I acquired a 3g router for this purpose. Port forwarding is configured but I couldn't connect to the camera using the external IP. From researching the issue, it appears I had misguided hope that this would work and the issue is down to the way the 3g network is implemented by the provider, Vodafone. As far as I understand there is no mapping of external IP address to single device, instead there is a NAT'd LAN in use.
Is my understanding correct and am I at nothing trying to get this to work?

Here's the result of ipconfig from a laptop connected to the 3g router via ethernet cable

LAN
MAC Address:
E8-94-F6-8D-BC-1C
IP Address:
192.168.1.1
Subnet Mask:
255.255.255.0

Wireless
Wireless Radio: Enable
Name (SSID): xxxxx
Mode: 11bgn mixed
Channel Width: Automatic
Channel: Auto (Current channel 9)
Max Tx Rate: 300Mbps
MAC Address: E8-94-F6-8D-XX-XX
WDS Status: Disable

3G/4G
3G/4G USB Modem: Identify successfully
Signal Strength: 19%
IP Address: 10.63.xx.xx
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway:10.63.xx.xx
DNS Server: 89.19.64.36 , 89.19.64.164

I could view the camera from my laptop on 10.63.xx.xx:<internal port> while connected to the router using ethernet cable

I have successfully performed the same configuration for an IP camera using 3 NBS and port forwarding worked without issue and the camera can be viewed remotely using DDNS

Has anyone got around this problem or can anyone suggest another approach?

Thanks

my3cents

Will never work like that the 10.x.x.x address is a Private network address that isn't routable on the internet you need a public address. If available using a different APN might help if vodafone provide one which gives a public IP address.

Try 3 (test on prepay SIM should be free with the cost of a top up) as their 3internet APN normally provides a public IP address.

Gentleman Off The Pitch

Thanks for the help my3cents, I'm still struggling away at this!

I've configured the modem to use a public APN as per

community.o2online.ie/t5/Broadband-and-3G-Coverage/O2-Mobile-BroadBand-Service-Upgrade-Notice/td-p/625856 (can't post links yet)

and I can use the modem to connect to the net from my laptop via the 3g router.

I also asked O2 to allocate me a public IP and they say that they have

My public IP is now 95.83.249.xxx according to whatsmyip etc.

The router status status shows

3G/4G USB Modem:
IP Address: 100.64.43.zzz
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway:100.64.43.zzz

I have a IP camera connected to my 3g router with
Static IP Address 192.168.1.115
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
Port 65000

I have port forwarding configured in the router for the camera to forward from port 3100 to 192.168.1.115, port 65000

When my laptop is connected to the 3g router via ethernet cable, I can reach the camera successfully using 100.64.43.zzz:3100 and 192.168.1.115:65000

However, I still cannot reach the camera using the public IP 95.83.249.xxx:3100. Various online port checkers show that the port 3100 is not open for 95.83.249.xxx

My question is should the IP shown in the 3G/4G USB Modem section of my router be the same as the public IP?

Thanks

my3cents

Yes the IP address from whatismyip.com should be the same one as on the router. You are still behind a NAT server with a shared IP address.

Gentleman Off The Pitch

Thanks again my3cents!

I think I know what the issue is but not how to resolve it. It appears that when the 3G modem is plugged directly into the laptop it successfully gets a public IP (checking with ipconfig and whatsmyip). However when the modem is plugged into the 3G router it gets a NAT'd ip.
The modem has two profiles, one that cannot be deleted that uses an APN that does not provide a public IP and is configured as default initially and a second one that I set up that allows a public IP to be obtained. Despite setting the second one as the default it appears that the original 'non-public' one is chosen when the modem is plugged into the router.

EDIT:
Actually, I got it working at last. I could manually define the APN in the router too, via advanced settings.

Thanks for all the help my3cents

tippgaafan

Gentleman Off The Pitch wrote: »

Thanks again my3cents!

I think I know what the issue is but not how to resolve it. It appears that when the 3G modem is plugged directly into the laptop it successfully gets a public IP (checking with ipconfig and whatsmyip). However when the modem is plugged into the 3G router it gets a NAT'd ip.
The modem has two profiles, one that cannot be deleted that uses an APN that does not provide a public IP and is configured as default initially and a second one that I set up that allows a public IP to be obtained. Despite setting the second one as the default it appears that the original 'non-public' one is chosen when the modem is plugged into the router.

EDIT:
Actually, I got it working at last. I could manually define the APN in the router too, via advanced settings.

Thanks for all the help my3cents

Just curios as to how well your setup is running. What kind of data usage does the uploaded video use ?