Getting started with a box

From the label on the box to the first monitored device, in the portal's own words.

Last reviewed · Checked against portal 1.30, box software 1.8, software agent 1.7.0, local relay 1.32

This guide takes you from the label on a Relayant box to the first monitored device. The portal's own button and field names are in bold, so you can follow it at the keyboard.

Inside the site The site's router and switch, the Relayant box and five devices on one network. The box sweeps the network; the camera, recorder, controller, printer and UPS light up one after another and each is given an address and port. Router Switch Relayant box Relayantbox Camera 10.0.0.21:554 Recorder 10.0.0.30:80 Controller 10.0.0.40:502 Printer 10.0.0.50:9100 UPS 10.0.0.60:161
The box sits on the site's network, searches it and lists each device with the address and port it will use. The addresses shown are examples.

Before you start

You need a Relayant box registered to your organisation. Its serial number is printed on the label, with a QR code. You need a sign-in to the portal as an owner or operator. At the site you need a spare LAN port on the router and a power point. Any internet connection works: fibre, DSL, 4G, 5G or Starlink. Nothing on the router needs changing: no static IP and no port forwarding.

If you have just signed up, the portal offers a guided setup that walks through these same steps. You can follow it or this guide; both end in the same place. Continue guided setup on the Sites page brings it back.

Create the site

  1. Sign in to the portal and open Sites.
  2. Choose Add a site.
  3. Give it a Site name. Add its Address if you like.
  4. Choose Create site. The portal opens the new site's page.

Add the box to the site

  1. On the site's page choose Add a box.
  2. Stay on the Relayant box tab.
  3. Choose one of your boxes from the list, or type its Serial number as printed: ABCD-EFGH-JKMN-PQRS. Dashes and capitals do not matter.
  4. Choose Add this box.

Whoever is at the site can scan the QR code on the label with a phone instead. It opens the portal with the code filled in.

If the box is at another of your sites, the portal offers Move from that site to this one, or Keep it where it is. Moving takes the box off its old site.

The serial number is not a secret. A box belongs to the organisation that bought it, so another organisation's box is refused, and so is a box reported lost. The owner is emailed.

Plug it in

  1. At the site, connect the box to a LAN port of the site's router with the network cable.
  2. Power it on.
  3. The site's page shows the box Online once it has checked in. The page updates by itself.

The box takes an address from the router by DHCP and needs nothing configured on the router. It connects out to Relayant over an encrypted tunnel, so nothing is opened or forwarded at the site.

A box plugged in before it is added to a site waits. The portal shows it as online but not assigned to a site.

The box searches the site's network as soon as it is online. The site's page lists what it finds under On the site network: cameras, recorders, controllers, printers and the rest. The maker and model are named where the box can tell.

  1. If a device is missing, check that it is powered and on the same network as the box.
  2. Choose Resync devices. The box searches again.
  3. A device the box cannot find by itself can be added with Add a device by IP or MAC.

Devices on another network or VLAN appear only if that network is routed to the box.

Connect each device your control room needs

For each device your monitoring software needs to reach:

  1. In the network list, choose Connect on the device's row.
  2. Under Which ports does your software need? tick the ports. The usual ones are already ticked. A port that is not listed goes in Port not listed? Add it; Check it asks the box to test it.
  3. Name it (optional). Your name beats whatever the device calls itself.
  4. Under How should you reach it? choose Through our relay. The other choice, On your own network, is for local relays; the local relays guide covers it.
  5. The first time, the portal asks Which address will your software connect from? Type your control room's public internet address. It is asked once and applies to everything you connect. Only that address can reach the devices you publish. If you have no fixed address, tick I don’t have a fixed address — allow any. The portal warns you what that means.
  6. Save. The device gets an address and port on Relayant. It stays the same even when the device changes address on the site's network.

Every address you have published is listed under Connections as Addresses for your monitoring software. Enter each one in your monitoring software once. Any software that connects to a camera or recorder by address and port works.

To change which addresses may connect later, open How you connect and edit Addresses allowed to connect.

Turn on monitoring

  1. In the network list, switch on Monitor for each device the control room should hear about. The box checks it every minute, and the portal shows when it stops answering.
  2. Monitor all connected devices switches it on for everything you have connected.

A device changes state only after three results in a row, so a single missed check does not raise an alert. The first result takes a few minutes to settle.

The box checks that a device answers. It does not check video, picture quality or recording: that would need the device's login, which we do not hold.

An older box asks for a software update before it can monitor, and the portal says so.

Choose who gets told

  1. Open Alerts and choose Who gets told.
  2. Tick the roles that receive alert emails: owners, operators, viewers.
  3. Add Other addresses: a control-room inbox, a supervisor.

Slack, Microsoft Teams and webhooks are added on the same page. Alarm signals into your own monitoring software are set up under Alert forwarding; the alarm signals guide has the receiver settings.

Sending alerts is part of the Relay + Alerts plan. On the Relay plan, alerts appear in the portal but nothing is sent.

If it does not work

The box does not show Online. Check that the site's internet reaches the outside world from another device on the same network. The box only connects out, and it needs outbound UDP; some private mobile APNs and business firewalls block it. After a long power cut the box waits for its clock to be set before it connects. Make sure the router has internet and DNS.

The portal refuses the box as registered to another organisation, or as lost. Email us with the serial number.

Devices are not found. The box must be on the same network as the devices, or that network must be routed to it. Choose Resync devices after fixing the cabling.

Still stuck? Email [email protected] with the site name, the serial number and when the portal last saw the box.

Sign in Talk to us

Something in this guide is wrong or missing? Tell us: [email protected].