Need help with port forwarding for Camstream streaming video

[Alan_S]

Friends,

Desperately desperately need help! Been working on this for almost a week, and I know I'm so close, but I just can't make this work.

I'm trying to get a camera set up to stream to the internet. Had an old cam that worked just fine, but setting up the new cam is driving me nuts!

Here's our set-up:

PC with US Robotics wireless NIC which connects to our Netgear router.

Hawk Eye Bird cam sends to Dazzle DVD adapter via USB 2.0 to PC

Camera works fine, feeds fine.Camestream media encoder sees camera perfectly.

BUT
It seems that when trying to port forward, it doesn't work. We get the following info when we work through to Step 5 of the "Simple Port Forwarding" application:


Router: NetGear - WGR614 v7 (NetGear Firmware)
Loading Commands...
Number Of Port Forwards To Send To Router (1)
Running Commands...

(Current -  1/1)
Adding Ca01 (TCP) For Ports 5700-5700 To 192.168.1.184()

Running Script From Database For Selected Router
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 01. nav_first_only("")
(Successful) (http://admin:password@xxx.xxx.x.x/)
Step 02. set_frame_name("formframe")
Step 03. set_frame_number("2")
Step 04. nav("FW_forward.htm")
(Successful) (http://admin:password@xxx.xxx.x.x/FW_forward.htm)
Step 05. check_if_name_exists("")
Step 06. click_button("Add")
(Successful)
Step 07. set_name("portname")
(Successful)
Step 08. set_type_choices("TCP|UDP|TCP/UDP")
Step 09. set_combobox("srvtype")
(Successful)
Step 10. set_start_port("port_start")
(Successful)
Step 11. set_stop_port("port_end")
(Successful)
Step 12. set_ip1("server_ip1")
(Successful)
Step 13. set_ip2("server_ip2")
(Successful)
Step 14. set_ip3("server_ip3")
(Successful)
Step 15. set_ip4("server_ip4")
(Successful)
Step 16. click_button("apply")
(Successful)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Finished Adding Ca01


-------------------DONE! (All Commands Finished)-

Then we do Step 6, which seems to work fine.

Then we do Step 7, which is testing that the ports work, and it fails with the message:
STATUS:Address in use  
OPEN? Failed

Can anyone tell me where I'm going wrong?

Many many thanks, and if you can help solve this, I'll buy you a beer next time you're on Cape Cod.

Alan

[Shane]

Hello 

Address is use means another program is using that port on the computer. Most likely your camera software.
How the port tester tool works is by opening the port and listening for a connection. So for the test just close your camera software and give it another try.

If the test still fails make sure to give this page a good read over. It has helped a lot of people so far and I keep it updated any time I find new problems  :D
http://www.pcwintech.com/common-problems-fixes-port-forwarding

If you still have trouble just let me know.

Shane

[Alan_S]

Hi Shane,

Thanks very much for helping us with this. We rebooted, tried all the steps again, this time with the camera off. No luck. Message is "5700 is offline and can not be reached".

We also worked through the steps in the link you posted, and none of those situations seems to apply.

What should we try next?

Many thanks.
Alan

[Shane]

Ok so you made sure your not behind more than 1 router, the rule was added correctly and pointing to the right IP?
Also did you try rebooting the router as well?

Feel free to email me, we can use msn or yahoo and I can chat with you can help get it going. If you did do everything on the link I sent you then I would like to see whats going on

Shane

[Alan_S]

Hi Shane,

Thanks again for your help... Here's my responses to your questions/advice:

* Ok so you made sure your not behind more than 1 router ... The only router we have is for our small (4 PCs) home network.
* the rule was added correctly ... Ummm... Not too sure about what the "rule" is. I'm pretty sure that I configured the port forwarding correctly manually (as I've done in the past)... When that didn't work, I turned to your SW and that seemed to produce very successful results based on the "Step 5" info shown before.
* Pointing to the right IP? ... I keep pointing the software to our US Robotics wireless USB adapter on this machine (the one with the camera). Control Panel sees that as connected, and we have complete Internet connectivity.
* Also did you try rebooting the router as well? ... No... Too chicken. Will re-booting the router mess up the cable modem and network?
* Feel free to email me, we can use msn or yahoo and I can chat with you can help get it going. If you did do everything on the link I sent you then I would like to see whats going on ... That's very nice of you... I'm pretty sure we've covered all the bases as outlined on that link you sent... If you'd prefer to communicate via email or IM, that's cool.

Alan

[Shane]

Feel free to email me And rebooting the router will not hurt it. I have a netgear as well, and normally it doesn't need reset, but sometimes the port forwarding rules when added wont work, its rare but it has happened to me, and rebooting the router lets it get going fresh again A router is just like a computer, sometimes it needs rebooted hehe.

Shane

[Alan_S]

Hi Shane,

re rebooting the router... I crossed my fingers, brought down all browsers, and rebooted the router. (Very frightening to watch all the lights on the router go out!) Anyway, the router came back fine as did Internet connectivity. So I re-ran "Simple Port Forwarding"... Still the same problem... 

Alan

[Shane]

Ok your all set.

Turns out everything was setup properly, but for some odd reason his netgear thought the port was already in the port forwarding rules (All other ports worked fine), yet nothing was listed for it. Not sure how that got like that, but after simply resetting the netgear back to factory defaults it cleared the blocked port and we where able to get the rule added and the camera working

Take care, locking thread.

Shane