How to have remote access to zoneminder

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eiger3970
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2014 10:58 pm

How to have remote access to zoneminder

Post by eiger3970 »

Hello,
I was out and checked my security camera by logging in remotely in a browser with <public WAN IP>:<port number>.

I then realised I can't see the recordings of movement in ZoneMinder.
Is there a way to remotely access ZoneMinder to check for motion recordings?

My thoughts were, instead of accessing ZoneMinder in the LAN with Browser > LANIP/zm, I could remotely open a browser > <public WAN IP>:<port number> and see the same type of browser GUI to navigate to motion recordings.

I've been looking for where I can set ZoneMinder's port for traffic to be sent to, but I'm having trouble finding this.
I tried logging in to ZoneMinder > Options > Network > but not sure if HTTP_TIMEOUT, MIN_RTP_PORT or MAX_RTP_PORT is the right spot to configure the port?
Last edited by eiger3970 on Thu Oct 23, 2014 6:37 am, edited 2 times in total.
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knight-of-ni
Posts: 2404
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:55 pm
Location: Shiloh, IL

Re: How to have remote access to zoneminder

Post by knight-of-ni »

Zoneminder sends all traffic across the port that your web server is configured to use, and by default that is port 80. That is why you cannot find that setting in zoneminder.

If everything works fine when on the local lan, then you should start by looking at things like available bandwidth and your web browser. Try setting zoneminder to "Low Bandwidth" and see if it makes a difference. Firefox pretty much always works, but I have no idea if any mobile browsers do (my phone is not smart). As always, look in your logs for error messages.
Visit my blog for ZoneMinder related projects using the Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi, Odroid, and the ESP8266
All of these can be found at https://zoneminder.blogspot.com/
bbunge
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2012 11:40 am
Location: Pennsylvania

Re: How to have remote access to zoneminder

Post by bbunge »

I have checked ZM with Android and Apple mobile products and have had no problems. Just make sure your router is set to port forward to the LAN IP address of your ZM server. You should also have security set on ZM to use a password as you would not want to leave the system open for anyone to "change." If you want a bit more security set your ZM server to use https:
Optional Add SSL to Apache2

Create a self-signed certificate:

make-ssl-cert generate-default-snakeoil --force-overwrite

It creates the following files:

/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
/etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem

Activate Apache SSL module:

a2enmod ssl

Activate Apache default ssl virtual host:

a2ensite default-ssl

Restart Apache:

service apache2 restart


You should now be able to access the web server using https://servername
eiger3970
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2014 10:58 pm

Re: How to have remote access to zoneminder

Post by eiger3970 »

Thank you.

I tried the SSL security but the command # service apache2 restart, gives error:

Code: Select all

* Restarting web server apache2                                                                                             AH00558: apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1. Set the 'ServerName' directive globally to suppress this message
                                                                                                                      [ OK ]
root@ubuntu:/etc/ssl/certs# ServerName localhost
ServerName: command not found
I tried this solution, but no fix yet: http://askubuntu.com/questions/329323/p ... ng-apache2
Nerre
Posts: 100
Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2014 10:22 am

Re: How to have remote access to zoneminder

Post by Nerre »

That's no error, it's just a warning. It does not prevent Apache from starting.

And setting ServerName globally means editing configuration files, it's not done from the command line.

You just need to figure out which file to edit, that is distribution dependent. In the linked post people are trying to add it to non-existing files...
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