Question

I have a website running on a NAS server and I also have a ip camera on my network. I can configure port forwarding on my router to forward http requests to either my nas website (192.168.1.64) or ip camera (192.168.1.200) from the internet. I have configured both independently and was able to access from internet. However, I only have one IP address so I have configured port forwarding on my router to forward http requests ( port 80) to the web site on my NAS where I have provided a hyperlink on the default html page to the IP camera (href=http://192.168.1.200/….html). From home the link works because the internet browser is running on a computer on my network. But browsing from a computer ouside of my router ( the internet) the link does not work. The browser is attempting to communicate with ip address 192.168.1.200 which do not exist on the internet. How can I link to the ip camera website from a html page on my NAS website behind the router. I hope I have explained this in enough detail for you to understand.

Answer 1

You can’t, plain and simple. This is because you can never get your browser to connect the device that does not have the port forward directly, therefore you can never load a page directly from that device to your browser, however you try and work it.

When I refer to “the other device” in this is answer, I am referring to whichever one does NOT have the port opened through the router to it.

Setting aside the security problems you are creating by doing this that frankly, horrify me, you have two options:

1. Set up a port redirect on your router to the other device, so that a different public port is redirected to port 80 internally. This would mean you could access both devices directly across the internet. Not all routers support this (albeit fairly basic) functionality.
2. Set up some form of proxy script that will fetch the page from the other device and display it on a page (in an iframe maybe?) on the device that does have a port forward. This will probably require a third web server inside your network, since it is unlikely either the NAS or the camera will support any form of scripting language.

I do not recommend either of these options, but that is what you are left with.

You are creating a huge hole in your network security by doing this. Only do it if you 100% trust the fact the neither device could under any circumstances be hacked into. Are you that confident in some software you didn’t write – or even some you did?