In order to remotely view the Hikvision cameras on your phone you need to do port forwarding, i.e. to open certain ports in the router.
For many people, doing port forwarding is complicated and difficult. Here we will show you an easy way to open the ports. Basically, you can enable the UPnP function in your Hikvision NVR/DVR (or single IP camera) and let the machine open up the ports by itself.
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a method for the Hikvision NVR/DVR/IP camera to ask your router to open a specific port on the router to allow for access to the device.
It sends a command to the router which requests the router to “port forward” any calls to your camera to access the camera. Setting up the UPnP feature in the Hikvision devices requires zero networking skills, however, we recommend following the steps below in order to have everything set up correctly.
The settings are done directly through the recorder, but the procedure is the same if you do it through the web browser.
Step 1. Enable the DHCP mode. If you enable the DHCP the machine will self assign the IP address (technically the router). This way, you don’t need to worry if you have an IP conflict or if the IP format is the same. Let the machine do it by itself.
To enable DHCP: login into your recorder. Go to Main Menu > Configuration > Network and tick the DHCP box.
Add these settings for the DNS:
• Preferred DNS server: 8.8.8.8
• Alternate DNS Server: 8.8.4.4
Step 2. Enable the UPnP. Go to the Main Menu, click on Configuration, and select the option Network. Tick the UPnP box. Click Apply to save the settings. Wait until the Status of the ports is Active (or Valid). It may take a few minutes to switch from Inactive/Invalid to Active/Valid.
Once you see the ports showing as Active, you’re pretty much done with the port forwarding. The machine opened up the ports by itself. There’s no need to do any other settings.
What if the ports still show Inactive/Invalid?
You may run into this issue if the router you’re using is too old and not configured correctly. Most of the latest and new routers support the UPnP function and have it enabled by default.
However, a few routers have this function disabled. All you have to do is access your router and enable the UPnP function.
The picture below shows an example of the UPnP function enabled. Each router has a different interface, but the idea is the same: login into your router, find the UPnP function and enable it as shown below.
After the ports show up valid and open you can try to add the cameras or recorder on your phone app. Consult this article for more information regarding port forwarding on Hikvision devices: How to open the ports for Hikvision recorders.
