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9.5.2 UPnP
UPnP stands for Universal Plug and Play. A UPnP-enabled device, such as your network
camera, announces its presence in the local network to other computers that support UPnP as
well. The operating systems Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7/8 support UPnP.
When the network camera is connected to the network, Windows will alert the computer user
of the presence of the new device (a new icon will be added to your My Network Places folder)
and lets the user connect to the device instantaneously.
Furthermore, UPnP has the ability to instruct the router or firewall to open certain ports, so
that a party from the outside world can contact a device on the local network, such as the
network camera.
UPnP port forwarding is not supported by all routers, however. So, depending on your router
or firewall, you may or may not be able use this function, also, opening ports in any router or
firewall increases the risk of an intruder successfully breaking in to your network. UPnP
automates this task and leaves it to the devices to negotiate which ports to open. Since this
is done without any form of authentication, enabling UPnP port forwarding in your router is
not necessarily a good idea in a security-sensitive environment. You can always open
individual ports in your router or firewall manually.
In the camera UPnP is enabled by default. UPnP port forwarding is disabled by default. When
you enable UPnP port forwarding, the screen will reveal additional options. These are the
ports the camera will instruct the router to open. Depending on the camera model, you may
see different ports. The new H.264 Megapixel cameras have a simpler port model and require
fewer ports than the other models. Normally there is no need to change any of these ports,
unless you know that a port is already in use by a different device or application.
