INTELLINET NETWORK ICC-130 User Manual - Manual (Page 67)

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Network Advanced - UPNP
UPnP stands for Universal Plug and Play. A UPnP-enabled device, such as your
network camera, announces its presence in the local network to other
computers that support UPnP as well. The operating systems Windows XP,
Windows Vista and Windows 7/8 support UPnP. When the network camera is
connected to the network, Windows will alert the computer user of the presence
of the new device (a new icon will be added to your My Network Places folder)
and lets the user connect to the device instantaneously.
Furthermore, UPnP has the ability to instruct the router or firewall to open
certain ports, so that a party from the outside world can contact a device on
the local network, such as the network camera.
UPnP port forwarding is not supported by all routers, however. So, depending
on your router or firewall, you may or may not be able use this function, also,
opening ports in any router or firewall increases the risk of an intruder
successfully breaking in to your network. UPnP automates this task and leaves
it to the devices to negotiate which ports to open. Since this is done without
any form of authentication, enabling UPnP port forwarding in your router is not
necessarily a good idea in a security-sensitive environment. You can always
open individual ports in your router or firewall manually.
In the camera UPnP is enabled by default. UPnP port forwarding is disabled by
default. When you enable UPnP port forwarding, the screen will reveal
additional options. These are the ports the camera will instruct the router to
open. Depending on the camera model, you may see different ports. The new
H.264 Megapixel cameras have a
simpler port model and require
fewer ports than the other
models. Normally there is no need
to change any of these ports,
unless you know that a port is
already in use by a different
device or application.