Dyn DNS overloaded

Jarkko62

I have lately been experiencing difficulties to reach my SecuritySpy using the Dynamic Domain Name Service (viewcam.me).

There seems to be no service available. I get message like "Unable to connect" or "Service Temporarily Unavailable -
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later."

The SecuritySpy server is reachable in the home network put not in the public internet. The router seems to be OK and the port forwarding configuration is correct. The web server test givea a green light in the SecuritySpy control window.

It used to work for weeks, the stopped. It first recovered for days by rebooting the router, but not this time anymore.

How could I debug where the problem might be? Any ideas?

Ben

Hi,

This doesn't sound like a problem with the resolution of the DDNS name itself, as you are actually getting a response from the server. If there were a problem with the DNS system you would get a message such as "DNS resolution failed" or "Host not found".

Additionally, this message you have quoted is not one that SecuritySpy would generate. So it sounds like you are connecting to the wrong server. This points to a potential problem with the port forwarding setup in your router.

I would advise checking that the Mac running SecuritySpy is set up with a manual (static) address on your local network, and double-check that the port forwarding rule is correctly configured for this address and the correct port (by default 8000 for HTTP and 8001 for HTTPS in SecuritySpy).

Hope this helps.

Jarkko62

Thanks for the clear advice, I can proceed with that.

Today, it seems to work again. Perhaps the router reboot helped, even though it helped with a delay. I suppose it will fail again.

So the error message was generated by the DDNS server, indicating that the DDNS is OK but the SecuritySpy web server at home was not reached.

It looks like a router configuration problem as you suggest.

Previously, I did check the port forwarding and static IP's, and I found that the MAC number of the iMac (SecuritySpy server) did not match the one that was indicated in the router table of connected devices. I changed that MAC number in the static IP configuration and it all worked. Now the problem is that the system behavior seems to be about the same before and after modification. It works and fails, and works again. And fails. The prevous configuration worked weeks before this problem occured.

I must double check the router configuration and what was that wrong MAC number in the previous configuration. The iMac has more than one MAC number. But port forward should not work with the wrong one. There is one Ethernet cable connection (this is the right MAC), the wireless connection is disabled.

Ben

Normally, port forwarding rules work with IP addresses not MAC addresses (though I have seen both). So in the port forwarding rule you would specify the IP address of the device to forward the connection to. Does your router work like this?

If so, then you might want to change the Mac's IP configuration (via the Network system preference) so that it has a static (manual) IP address. This should be more reliable than having an address assigned by the router, even though the router should be giving it the same address each time.

This is detailed in the setting up your Mac section of the SecuritySpy Installation Manual.

Jarkko62

Thank you for your valuable comments.

The port forwarding rules work with IP addresses (Huawei B593). However, there is this another setting for the fixed IP addresses which associates the desired fixed IP address with the given MAC address which in this case belongs to the iMAC's Ethernet card. I checked these settings again and they seem to be OK.

The problem reoccurred (after updating my router's software), and I took a look at the router's table of connected devices. The iMAC wasn't there at all! That's strange because the iMAC was active in the home network and I used it on the console and I also checked that SecuritySpy server can be reached in the home network.

I then deleted all other port forward settings except the iMAC's (SecuritySpy server) and took another look at the router. Now the iMAC was there, listed as a connected device.

I don't remember if I already did set the iMAC's IP address to the fixed value, but that could help. I could also try adding a timer to reboot the router daily, or change the router to a better one.

This B593 is too simple for a router, there is no loopback function and the number of fixed IP's is limited to 16. It's not possible to give names to the devices so the list of connected devices is just a list of MAC addresses, which is painful to read. And the maximum length of the password is too small.

Jarkko62

Network setting was "Static IP" for the iMac. I changed that to "Static IP using DHCP" and kept the same IP address.

After that iMac was listed as an active device at the routers table for a brief moment but it soon disappeared again.

Perhaps I should pick another IP just to get rid of all old ghosts ...

There is a Dovado Pro and a Huawei 4G modem which I could try out but it's a lots of work to set up a new system. And I need the modem when I travel.

Ben

Generally it's best to avoid the "DHCP with manual address" option, as this requires the DHCP server to support some extra features, which not all do.

So it's best simply to assign your Mac a completely Manual address, as per our instructions. When you do this, the Mac will not necessarily show up in the router's list of devices but that doesn't matter. In the port forwarding rule, you just enter the ports and the manual address that you assigned to your Mac and it should work.

Jarkko62

It's working today ... with this combination of DHCP and manual address setting on the iMac. Perhaps it is a supported feature in this case.

Supposingly, this happiness will not last too long.

Next time when it fails I will probably just try booting all devices, including iMac. It has been up and running since the first installation last year.

One of the camera views seems to be disappeared, perhaps the camera (Foscam) is broken.

Thanks again for the great support.