Tough connection question (hotel apt)

[vercrj]

Hi,

I have been reading the forum for a solution, but difficult for me since I am not very adept with computers.
On my Wifi connection icam works just fine with my 3 webcams, but not on 3G / Edge.
Looking through all the wonderful advice here, I think I discovered the problem, just need some extra help resolving it...
This is my setup:

- I am living in a hotel apartment, that allows only 1 concurrent login to their ethernet.
- To work around this, I have installed a D-link DIR-655 wireless router which works just fine, I gave in the hotel login once and voila, all MAC's & PC are on the net. I have an old IBM laptop and 1 PC desktop running XP, 1 macbook pro and another macbook with snowleopard connected to it.
- Recently, I have installed time capsule for my backups. In order to keep the login of the hotel working, I had to connect it to my DIR-655 as wired ethernet extension, so I have AND my D-link wireless working AND my time capsule wireless (All PC's are connected to the time capsule,  mac's and IBM wireless, PC desktop direct ethernet).

So it seems quite obvious; I have a dual NAT something, and it also shows that when in Icamsource I check the autoconfig, I get the message "UPnP Dual NAT ext_ip: 172.16.10.30"

According to your support page, I now need to put the router of my time capsule in "bridge" mode somehow...?

Only problem is, I don't have a clue how to do that exactly. I am not at all adept with UPnP, DHCP and all that stuff...

Any suggestion more than welcome!

Thanks a lot

Johan

[Jay]

Since your local network has two routers, you'll need to put the Time Capsule into Bridge mode so that there's only one router on your network.  To do that, open your Airport Utility on your computer and look at this setting for the Time Capsule:  Internet -> Internet Connection -> Connection Sharing

That setting should be set to OFF.  If it isn't, please set it to OFF.  If it's ON, then the Time Capsule will act as a router, which can cause the problem you're experiencing

[vercrj]

Hi Jay,

Looked up my time capsule settings and teh connection sharing was already in OFF... it says "brideg mode".
Still, when I activate autoconfig, I get the message "UPnP Dual NAT ext_ip: 172.16.10.30"
Also, when I activate autoconfig it does not work at all anymore...!

When I go on 3G, most of the time I don't see anything, but sometimes it connects to 1 camera only... so it is a  bit erratic on 3G...
Any other idea?

[Jay]

Does it behave the same if you connect the computer directly to the D-Link router?

[vercrj]

Yes, does the same when the PC is wired directly into the D link 655. Nothing to be seen when I go on 3G network.

Since I live in a "screened" environment (United Arab Emirates, Dubai) where the internet is blocked for offensive sites, I tried to engage tunnelblick on my Macbook (my VPN connection), but to no avail. Still does not show my cams on 3G... apart from very rarely just 1...

Sigh....??

[Jay]

Is it possible for you to try connecting your computer directly to the apartment's internet connection (temporarily)?  That will show whether the connection from your internet provider is blocking the iCam traffic.  You should still be behind the building's NAT, since you're getting the Dual NAT error but you only have one active router.  Please try it once with the Auto-Config Router option enabled and once with that option disabled.

[vercrj]

Sorry for the late response.

I connected 1 macbook directly to the hotels network.
This is what I found:

On autoconfig: does not work at all, on the bottom I get "error: UPnP 0  NAT-PMP 3,-7,61. But on the top of the window it say connected to server?

Not on autoconfig: I do not get any error, on the top of the window it say connected to server, but on my iphone through 3G no connection. I DO notice that, just above the autoconfig checkbox, I see "Num connected: 1" appearing when I open the app on my iphone. I do not get an image though.

Puzzled.... any further clues?
Thanks
Johan

[Jay]

The Num Connected indicates that an iCam client is connected or attempting to connect.  In your case, it's attempting to connect, but failing because of the network configuration.

The fact that you see the error message when the MacBook is connected directly to the network indicates that the hotel's network is blocking the iCam network traffic.  Unfortunately, hotel and corporate networks both have a tendency to be configured not to allow you to run server software on the network (iCamSource is technically server software, similar to a web server or an FTP server). 

[vercrj]

Thanks Jay for the clarification.

Still a little strange though... from time to time I get one out of my 3 webcams images over 3G... but not always the same one...seems the hotel network is blocking stuff irregular? Is that possible?

[Jay]

Yes, it is possible.  The reason the network is blocking the connection is because it uses a complex form of port translation, so that the iPhone never knows the correct external port to use to communicate with iCamSource.  However, there is a chance that the iPhone will use the correct port by accident, and the app will work in that case.  Unfortunately, there's no way to know what external port is, since it changes with every connection.