SiteProxy adds security, reduces network traffic on the camera, and improves performance.

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "SiteProxy adds security, reduces network traffic on the camera, and improves performance."

Christian Harrison
6 years ago
Views:

1 SiteProxy SiteProxy is a cross-platform HTTP server for managing one or more Internet Camera Servers (Canon VB101, VB150, and VB-C10/R, and others) streaming video servers. Location of the SiteProxy Software Before you begin, you should decide where you want to host the SiteProxy software. It can be hosted anywhere that has network access to the Internet cameras that you are using. In some cases, this requirement makes it so that the SiteProxy service runs at the camera location (on the same network.) However, in many other cases, it is more desirable to have the SiteProxy software reside on a faster network away from the camera. Windows 2000, XP, NT Guide This read-me describes installing and running SiteProxy on Windows (XP/NT/2K) as a service. To run and install the cross-platform version on Linux, Mac OS-X, Solaris, etc, please copy the SiteProxyJava to your application directory and follow the readme for further installation instructions. Overview SiteProxy adds security, reduces network traffic on the camera, and improves performance. Security: With SiteProxy, the camera IP address remains private--so users never log on directly to the camera. SiteProxy can work with cameras behind a firewall and for added security; the camera server can be set to block all other IP addresses, providing a highly secure camera system. Bandwidth Conservation: SiteProxy conserves your bandwidth at the camera location--no matter how many people log on to see the camera, only one stream of video is sent to the SiteProxy server. This makes SiteProxy ideal for camera locations with a limited network speed. Performance: SiteProxy overcomes the 20 user limit of the VB-101/VB-C10 for streaming video (although control queuing is still limited to 20 users). It also acts as a single point of entry for all your cameras, simplifying the HTML and layout of multiple cameras. System Requirements

2 SiteProxy was designed for running as a Windows service. Windows System performance will depend on network activity, bandwidth, and system resources. 64Mb of available RAM is recommended for normal use. Use a performance monitor (network, memory, & CPU) for additional monitoring. High usage will require additional RAM and bandwidth. SiteProxy runs on port 8010 by default. See below for instructions on running SiteProxy on the http default port 80. The camera server must be http accessible from the SiteProxy machine. Once installed, additional security can be added to the camera to lock out other users so that only SiteProxy has access to the camera. Firewall Security Precautions SiteProxy can be used as an effective gateway between a public and private network, so that a camera server on a private network can be made public. When used as a gateway between a public and private network, normal steps should be taken to ensure that the gateway machine running SiteProxy is secure. You want to make sure that any vulnerability in the OS or applications running on the SiteProxy server will not have access to your private network. The network admin should take the usual precautions about only exposing the minimum number of applications and network ports to the outside world. A number of firewall products can be used to enhance security. SiteProxy can be run on a very minimal system and does not need to be running any other applications or servers to function. SiteProxy will listen on an HTTP port for incoming requests for video and control. The installation port is 8010, but can be changed to a more common port (80, 81, 8000 or 8080.) SiteProxy will only talk to the camera servers you identify and install via the admin pages. It will communicate with the camera servers on their HTTP port (typically 80), and optionally on a video port (65310 for the Canon). Public IP address: HTTP port In/Out (8010, or any HTTP port) Private network access: IP address of each camera on ports 80 and For maximum security, a firewall may be configured to only allow incoming (viewing public) access to SiteProxy on its HTTP port. Only allow the SiteProxy to access the specific IP address of the camera. Camera Server Pre-Test Before installing SiteProxy, check that the SiteProxy machine can access the camera server using a standard Java enabled Internet browser. If there are any problems accessing the camera via a browser, SiteProxy will not be able to access the camera. If you are unable to see the camera from the SiteProxy location, check that the camera server is installed on an accessible IP address. You may need to enable port

3 forwarding on the router that the camera is attached to or open a path in the firewall. Installation To install, simply run the Install_SiteProxy executable. An Install Wizard will guide you through the installation process. Use the default answers to the prompts unless you have a reason to do otherwise. When you finish the installation, continue to the next step. Starting SiteProxy Windows Service To start the SiteProxy service, log on as Administrator and go the Start Menu: Control Panels: Administrative Tools. Select the "Services" control panel. Scroll down the list of services and select SiteProxy. Right click on the service and click start. If you have any anti-virus software, it may detect the SiteProxy service connecting to the default port (8010). Allow this connection. In about 30 seconds or less, the SiteProxy service should be up and running and you can continue to the next step. Accessing SiteProxy SiteProxy includes its own HTTP server that lets users access streaming video, image archives, camera control. Access your SiteProxy server via a web-browser. You can use a browser on the machine running SiteProxy or any machine that has a network connection to SiteProxy. SiteProxy by default starts on port so to access SiteProxy on your Windows machine, from a browser, enter: The term localhost will point to the machine the browser is located on so if you re accessing SiteProxy from another machine, substitute the IP address of your camera where it says localhost. The IP address should be static and accessible from any machine that needs to access the SiteProxy server. Troubleshooting If you get an error message when trying to connect to your SiteProxy server via the browser, check that the service is still running. If it is stopped, an error will be logged to the Administrative Tools Event Viewer. Open the Event Viewer and search the application logs for events created by SiteProxy. Call NuSpectra technical support if the problem is not clear. Additional logs are generated in the Program Files:NuSpectra:SiteProxy directory with the day s date appended to the log file name. SiteProxy Configuration

4 In the previous step, you ve ensured that you can access all camera servers that you intend to rebroadcast. Each should be accessible from the SiteProxy server machine. You will also be given a SiteProxy license serial number or evaluation code. If you do not have it, SiteProxy will run for a limited time and some features may be disabled until a valid license is provided. Any unregistered copy may stop working at a future date without notice--please contact NuSpectra if you have any questions. A demo or unregistered version may not be used for commercial purposes. From your browser, enter the IP address of your SiteProxy machine. If you're using a port other than 80, you will need to enter " where localhost is the IP address of SiteProxy and PORT is the server port. SiteProxy Administration Remote Administration is done by clicking on the Admin link (or accessing the /admin/) from your browser. Use the default admin user name and password to access the admin pages. Use the Access settings to change the default password as soon as practicable. Default Admin User Name User: admin Pass: pass When you access this page, you should see the following: Home Main Admin Status License Logging Access Server Tools Home takes you back to the home page (root level) of your SiteProxy server. Main Admin Shows all camera servers linked to this SiteProxy. Click on the "Add Camera Server" link to add a camera server (VB101, VB-C10, etc.) to your SiteProxy. To edit existing camera server preferences, click on the name of the camera server. You may want to read about the other admin features, such as obtaining a license file to run SiteProxy or setting up user/passwords. Or you may wish to skip right to the Adding a Camera section. Admin Toolbar Options Status Shows information about the SiteProxy and camera servers attached. Some of the information provided is useful for seeing framerate, traffic, and when events are scheduled, such as preset tours and image capture. Other status messages are used for diagnostic purposes by NuSpectra support and can be safely ignored. License Set or change your SiteProxy license here. If you did not receive a license for SiteProxy, please note the Install ID code and call NuSpectra (MF 9-5 PST) or

5 our support team with the install ID code and your contact info. Calling NuSpectra is the best way to get a license code generated quickly. If you use , please include the word SiteProxy in the subject line and we will send a license to you that will bind your license to the IP address of your SiteProxy. To change the license, contact NuSpectra support. Logging Lets you review the log file settings. You may review the current log file and can specify how many days of logging are saved. In addition, if you are experiencing trouble with SiteProxy, NuSpectra support may have you enable additional logging on a part of the server. Access Enable Passwords to protect SiteProxy and add/modify users and passwords. Passwords are saved in your user.properties file and obfuscated. For security, never reuse important passwords. Multiple user accounts can be added. Add them one at a time by entering their user name, password, and account type into the last line of the form. Different account types are available for different users. Check to see what each account type has access to. Accounts can have access to everything, just video, just archives, etc. The public settings are a series of checkboxes that are areas that are open to the public. To require passwords for all sections of the SiteProxy site, uncheck all items and save. By default, SiteProxy is designed to allow public access to the cameras. While not supported, if you need to password protect individual cameras (say, user A can see camera 1 and user B can access only camera 2), you ll need to run separate instances of SiteProxy. Server Tools Set additional application settings or restart the server. You may also set the http server name and port SiteProxy uses. You can also enable and disable camera servers that are used. Changing the HTTP Port The server port be changed to the standard port 80 (or any other valid port) one of two ways. The easiest way is via the Admin settings page under "Server Tools." This will modify the SiteProxy/etc/app.properties file so that SERVER_PORT is set to the new setting. You may also edit this file yourself and set the port manually. Restarting the SiteProxy service (via the web or via the Service manager) is required to use the new port. SiteProxy will not be able to start if another HTTP server (such as IIS or Apache) is already running on the port SiteProxy attempts to use. In that situation, you ll need to either stop the other server and attempt to restart SiteProxy, or change the server setting my modifying the app.properties file as described above. Modifying Active Camera Servers

6 The Server Tools page also lets you modify which camera servers are used. To deactivate a camera server from SiteProxy, uncheck the camera server in the list. Click on the Save button, then restart SiteProxy. Verify that the camera is no longer listed by going to the Home page. To permanently delete an inactive camera server, read the properties file name listed in the server list and manually delete that from the Program Files/NuSpectra/SiteProxy/etc/ directory. The server will be removed from the list when you next restart SiteProxy. Adding a Camera Server to SiteProxy From the Main Admin page, click on the Add Camera Server link. A new window will appear where you can enter the camera server type, IP address, and user name and password. (The user/password is required if you wish to restrict the camera to SiteProxy access only, and for synching the image database on the VB101.) Once entered, the SiteProxy software will go out and attempt to determine the type of camera server and do the initial setup. If contact is made and the server is identified, a new screen will appear that lets you modify the rest of the camera server settings. Camera IP Address is the IP address (and optional port, as in :81). Camera Name is your name for the camera. It can be anything, such as Camera 1, Stadium Camera, or whatever. It can be changed at any time and is only used to let the SiteProxy viewers know what the camera is called. Admin Name is the root user name for the camera (default: root) Admin Password is the root user password for the camera (e.g. VB-C10 or VB101) Camera Timezone is the timezone that the camera is located in. This is used to get the archived pictures saved correctly. The camera server also has a timezone and date/time set, so that should be set correctly as well. See the camera server admin pages and user manual for more details. Video Logo URI is an optional location of an image, local to the HTDOCS directory of SiteProxy. This image, when enabled (below) will show up on each Video only stream. Video Logo Position tells SiteProxy whether to use the above video image logo and where to position the image on the video. Options are Off, and the cardinal compass points, North, South, etc. Anti-Hijacking support allows you to protect your video and control applets from unauthorized use in other web sites. This can be important for public use web cams, since it is common for other web sites (especially those that feature lists of web cam images) to borrow the live streams without permission. Anti-hijacking uses updating tags that change so that simply copying and pasting the applet tags into

7 HTML will only work for either 10 minutes, Hourly, or Daily. Manual hijack protection is available for custom applications that require a high degree of control. Video Source Video from the camera server can be either obtained on the (slightly faster) port, or from the (more accessible) http port. If passwords are enabled on the camera server, you must use the HTTP port. Archives SiteProxy will record a history of images from your camera server. To enable this feature, click on the Enable Archives and click the save button to open the archive settings. Enable Archives turns on or off the image database used to store images collected from your camera server. Synchronize database is available only in the VB101, and involves FTPing into the camera server to retrieve images. This feature is generally not needed unless you are recording based on an external trigger. Maximum images to keep lets you specify how many images are saved on your systems hard drive, specified in thousands. Delete Images Older Than n number of days lets you automatically delete images from the database that you are no longer interested in. Delete Old Images Will start the process of deleting images that are older than the specified date. Use this button with care. Rebuild Database will rebuild the database by going through the list of images one by one and re-adding them to the database. This can take several minutes. This feature should be used when you delete images from the database by hand or if you suspect there may be corruption in the database. Export Database will save a list of all images in your database in a comma separated list that can be imported into any database application, such as Excel. The data file will be saved as a.csv file in your Archives directory for the camera server. Preset Tours SiteProxy can automatically move pan/tilt/zoom cameras to each preset throughout the day. To enable this feature, click on the Enable Preset Tour and click the save button to open the Preset Tour settings. Enable Preset Tour lets you activate a feature that automatically moves the camera through various preset positions. The presets are defined and set up via the admin page for the camera server itself. Please refer to the camera server s admin page and manual for more information.

8 Note: The presets defined must be selected for Public use by setting the preset radio button from Picture Recording Only to Picture Recording and WebView Use (actual terminology may vary.) Usually, at the specified time, the camera will move throughout all preset positions after taking control of the camera. The camera is moved to the first preset, a picture is taken and saved, and the process is repeated for all presets. After all presets specified are moved to, the camera is returned to the former position and control is relinquished. The special case is the Only capture a single preset per interval explained below, where the camera is only moved to the next preset. The SiteProxy software will wait in line to control the camera just like any other user, so it is possible for the camera to be too busy to actually take control of the camera. If this happens, a message is logged and can be seen in the Preset Tour Status in the camera status page as an unusual event. Capture Presets Every N minutes lets you specify how often the camera is moved. Preset Tours are activated every N minutes on the hour. (So if you specify 15 minutes, they will be taken 15, 30, 45 and 00 minutes past the hour.) Active Hours lets you specify when the camera moves through the positions. For example, start 09 and stop 20 would take pictures from 9:00AM to 8:59pm. Camera Settle Time is the amount of time to wait for the camera to settle in after moving to the new preset. Usually it takes a second or two to focus in on the new camera position milliseconds is the default, which is 1.5 seconds. If you see a lot of blurry images, you may want to increase the time. When lighting conditions are poor, camera focusing can take longer. There is no way to guarantee that no blurry images will be taken. Save Presets 1 through N lets you limit how many presets are saved. For example, if you only want to record 3 presets, you must have them in order 1 through 3. (You can not save presets 1, 3, and 5.) Save preset tour images to archive will add all preset tour images to the archive for later retrieval and time lapse playback. Save preset tour to recent list keeps track of the last preset tour images. This is useful for web sites that want to provide a limited number of recent images to the users. These can be displayed as a short movie applet or as a list of images. Save preset tour images to remote FTP site lets you have SiteProxy upload the most recent preset images up to an FTP site. This is very useful for sites where the general public needs access to just still images and you want these hosted on an external web page. Click on the check box and click save to display the rest of the settings, including FTP host, path, user name and password. Only capture a single preset per interval is a special case setting that changes the behavior of preset tours. With this option checked, only a single preset is

9 captured at each interval. Starting at preset one, the next interval preset 2 is captured and so on. This feature is good for automatically moving the camera position from one preset position to the next on schedule. It is most often used where a high-traffic site does not allow remote control but they want the camera to move around to all the preset positions. Movie Clips Movie clips are short video files that are captured on command by a user to capture an event as a series of pictures. To enable this feature, click on the Enable Movie Clips check box and click save to display the rest of the movie clip settings. Max Length specifies the number of seconds a movie is limited to. Max Size - Because the movie files are uncompressed, they can become quite large, a maximum size of the movie should be set so that playback is manageable. Framerate is the desired captured framerate of the movie. This value is specified in frames/minute so that a slow framerate can be specified. For full frame rate, specify 900. For 1 frame/second, specify 60. Keep at least N movies - Movies are saved in a local history. The number of movies that are accessible is adjustable. To create a movie clip, enable the above settings and access: (where /1/ is the camera ID) An applet with a start/stop button and controllable video will be seen. Click start to start recording. To stop the movie, click on the stop button or just let the movie stop after it reaches it s max size or time limit. Accessing the Cameras Once you have added a camera server successfully to SiteProxy, it should show up in the home page of SiteProxy. A link to video, control, archives, and movie clips will be available. Video Only Applet The video only applet is good for a fast, live streaming video of the camera. Control Applet The control applet is based on the Canon applet for video. See the Canon documentation for additional details. Recent Images

10 The recent images link is a simple link to a special-case archive retrieval page. It shows the most recent images taken from the last preset tour, if available. It can be modified to display a series of images or a viewer applet. Archive Retrieval The archive retrieval page shows a calendar interface and lets you playback images from the image database. A highlighted link for the date indicates the images are available for that day. After selecting the day, a new page will be displayed that shows the presets available for that day. Click on the retrieve button to generate an applet or list of images that matches your query. If more images than can fit in the retrieve count are available, a next button will be available to get the next batch of images. Customizing the HTML The SiteProxy HTML is stored in the SiteProxy/htdocs directory. The easiest way to modify the pages is to change the header and footer logos. These are stored in the Assets directory. Other HTML changes can be done with a regular html editor or text editor. You should make a back up copy of all files before modifying them. The htdocs/templates directory contains the basic templates for video, control, movie recording, etc. When a file is requested after a /N/ (where N is a document number 1.. number of camera servers) the file is first looked for in the numbered directory. When and if that file is not found (the default behavior) the file is searched for in the templates directory. That file is typically used and lets you modify all your camera s look-and-feel by editing one template. If you want to have a separate web page for each camera, then you can create numbered directories for each camera and copy the template files into them. Licensing The SiteProxy server can be modified by NuSpectra to suit your needs. If you would like to have a customized application that utilizes some or all of the features in SiteProxy, please contact NuSpectra. Comments If you have any questions, feature requests, or comments, please contact NuSpectra.

Network setup and troubleshooting

ACTi Knowledge Base Category: Application Note Sub-category: Application Model: All Firmware: All Software: NVR Published: 2009/12/21 Reviewed: 2010/06/10 Network setup and troubleshooting Contents Introduction