Quadrox WebCCTV Installation Manual - Manual (Page 20)

WebCCTV Installation Manual 20
Version 4.4 Series
> Network settings page. In that case, Quadrox recommends you to open a number of
spare ports to avoid switching issues, e.g. 4 ports extra. The first port in the range
should be even.
Like all applications which communicate over networks, WebCCTV uses communication
channels to pass data (commands, video, web-pages, etc …) back and forth. The network
language that the WebCCTV uses is called TCP/IP. This is not a unique language but a
family of related network languages, called network protocols. These TCP/IP protocols are the
network protocols used on the Internet and on most networks throughout the world today.
WebCCTV uses two protocols specifically: TCP and UDP.
A communication channel on a TCP/IP network can be represented as a tunnel with two
endpoints. The two programs communicating with one another are each said to be at each
endpoint. These endpoints are called ports.
When the two programs communicating with one another are not located on the same
corporate network (like most communication between a program on a client PC and a program
running on another computer on the Internet), often there is some kind of guardian device in
between them. These guardian devices are called Firewalls. Their job is to guard all network
communication between the corporate network and the Internet and block certain unwanted
communications while allowing the desired communication to pass.
There are several levels on which a firewall can guard network communication. The most
common way is to allow or disallow certain ports to be used, depending on which applications
are allowed to communicate.
A firewall guards a port in a certain direction. Communication that is initiated from the
Internet towards the corporate network is called incoming traffic, while communication from
the corporate network towards the Internet is called outgoing traffic. Note that the initiation of
the communication is important: once a connection is made, data can be transferred in both
directions.
Let’s apply this principle to WebCCTV network communication. The WebCCTV client (the
ActiveX component embedded in Internet Explorer at the client machine) will try to create
network connections to the WebCCTV server. The eventual result of these connections will be
video data streaming from the WebCCTV server to the WebCCTV client, but since the
WebCCTV client initiates them, they are referred to as connections towards the WebCCTV.
From the client perspective, it is outgoing traffic, while for the server it is incoming traffic.
In order for the WebCCTV to function correctly, the appropriate ports need to be
opened for communication towards the WebCCTV.
There are three port configurations to perform:
1. TCP Port 80: to allow external users to see the web interface (HTTP traffic). This port
is usually opened by default.
Some ISPs block port 80. Please inform yourself.