Setting up local relays

A local relay is a small program on a PC in your control room. Your sites' boxes dial it directly, and it offers each camera as a local port on that PC. Camera traffic goes from the site straight to your own network and does not pass through our servers.

Before you start

Add a relay and download it

1. In the portal, open Local relays, under Connectivity.
2. Choose Add a local relay.
3. Under What should we call it? give it a name, such as the room or the PC. You can rename it later.
4. Choose Download for Windows, or open the list beside it for Linux (x86-64) or Linux (ARM64 · Raspberry Pi). The portal picks the system of the PC you are on.

The download is made for this relay. It works once and then expires; if that happens, make a new one from the same step.

Run it on the office PC

1. Run the downloaded installer on the PC that will be the local relay. On Windows the program asks for permission to make changes; if you clicked No, run it again. Windows may show More info and then Run anyway for a new program.
2. Antivirus may quarantine new programs. Check its log and allow the Relayant program it names.
3. On Linux, the portal prints a command instead: run it on the Linux PC that will be the local relay.

When it links up, the portal's step changes to Linked up on the PC's name, with its system, version and address on your network. The relay runs as a service and starts with the PC.

Let your sites reach it

The last step of the setup is the relay's settings: where boxes dial it, and who may connect to its camera ports.

1. Addresses: the office's public internet address and port, as boxes will dial it. The portal suggests the address it saw the PC connect from. A PC on a dual-WAN router can have up to four, in order; a box uses the first that answers.
2. Port on this PC: the port the relay listens on. 7000 unless your IT team asks for another. The router forwards each line's port to it.
3. Where does your monitoring software run? One of three choices; the next section explains them.
4. Choose Check from the internet. Each address is tested and a failing one gets specific advice.
5. Save. Your sites move over to the relay. You can also keep the settings as a draft without boxes using the relay yet, and turn it on from its card when ready.

Where cameras are offered

The local relay offers each camera on its own port. Where does your monitoring software run? decides who can connect to those ports.

• This PC only. Your monitoring software runs on the same PC as the local relay. The narrowest choice.
• PCs on the office network. Monitoring software on other office PCs connects to this PC's network address. Choose it under Address other office PCs use; usually one of this PC's own addresses.
• Anywhere, from allowed IPs. Outside your office network, the relay accepts only the addresses you have allowed. They are the same allowed addresses as for the cloud relay, under How you connect, Addresses allowed to connect. With none listed, nothing outside the office can connect, and the portal says so.

Beyond this PC, the office network and your allowed addresses are the only sources the relay admits. Refused connections are closed and counted on the relay's card.

The addresses to enter in your monitoring software are under Camera addresses on the Local relays page, with a copy button for each. Each camera has the same port on every relay.

What to forward on your router

The relay opens the PC's own firewall by itself and asks the router to forward its port. It asks by UPnP or NAT-PMP, the two ways a program can ask a router to forward a port. The relay's card shows the result under Router and PC firewall.

If the router does not allow that, forward the port by hand. The portal tells you what: the public port, the PC's own address, the relay's port and each internet line. For example: "Forward TCP 7000 to 192.168.1.20 on 203.0.113.5". Always forward to the PC's own address, never to a shared or virtual one.

Several relays

You can run two local relays by default, and more by arrangement, up to 20. Each is its own PC with its own name, addresses, port and choice of where it offers cameras.

Every box keeps a connection to every relay in use at once. It is not failover between relays: both are live. Each camera has the same port on every relay, so when one relay is down your monitoring software can use another without a change. Boxes on software older than 1.2 use only your first relay; the portal marks them.

Today, local relays carry on for sites that already reach them while we are unreachable. Local-relay traffic does not pass through our servers.

On a Windows failover cluster

A control room that runs its PCs as a Windows failover cluster installs a relay on each node, set up as usual. Nothing cluster-specific is needed.

1. On each node's relay, choose PCs on the office network.
2. Under Address other office PCs use, type the cluster's virtual address. The relay answers on it whenever that node holds it.
3. On the router, forward to each node's own address, never the virtual one. Each relay has its own key, so a box's connection must always reach the same node.

Your monitoring software reaches cameras at the virtual address. When a node goes down, for a Windows update say, the address moves and the other node's relay answers the next connection. Open streams reconnect.

Updates

We roll out updates. The relay checks the release's signature, updates itself and restarts; if the new version does not check in, it goes back to the previous one. There is nothing for you to do, and the card says so.

A relay too old to update itself shows An update you need to run once, with Download the update. Run the download on the same PC; it replaces the old version in place.

Moving, pausing and removing

Each relay's card has Check now and a menu:

• Edit addresses and settings: the same settings as the setup.
• Move to another PC: a new download for the new PC. Once it links up it takes over with the same settings, and the old PC steps aside.
• Reinstall on this PC: a new download for the same PC, which replaces the old one.
• Pause: boxes stop using the relay; its settings are kept. Resume brings it back.
• Remove: the relay is gone, and cameras are unreachable on its addresses from then on.

Cameras set to On your own network reach you only through your local relays. If a relay is the only way in to your sites, the portal refuses to pause or remove it. It offers the alternatives: Add another local relay first, or Turn our cloud relay back on.

If a site cannot reach a relay

How you connect shows whether each site reaches each relay and names any address that fails. A line that works and one that does not are told apart. The Local relays page has the same as a grid, Sites and local relays, one dot per site and relay.

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