Remote access to local storage

[Newtonhill]

I have an Arlo Pro 3 Base Station VMB4540r3 connected to three Pro 3 cameras, three Pro 2 cameras and doorbell.  We have a hard drive connected to the Base Station which is recording all events. We can view the locally stored recordings while on the same home network but would ideally like to access these remotely with a view to possibly cancelling our Cloud storage subscription.

Firstly, are there any pitfalls in this approach?

Secondly, I can see in the app that Arlo recommend configuring a VPN on your router and mobile device.  Has anyone done this, and if so, how successful was it?  Arlo also suggest as an alternative to modify port forwarding settings on the router rather than using a VPN but I’m a bit concerned about security if I were to do this. Our IT guy asked if the Arlo ports can be changed away from 80, 123 or 443.  I haven’t quizzed him about these numbers yet as I’m a bit naive when it comes to this geeky stuff!

Any feedback or personal experience of any of this would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

[StephenB]

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@Newtonhill wrote:

Firstly, are there any pitfalls in this approach?

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Activity zones on battery power and smart notifications are also subscription features.

Direct access to local storage has several limitations:

• Recordings are only available from the app, not the web browser (my.arlo.com)
• Recordings are only available from the primary account, not friend accounts
• You will not be able to make manual recordings or take snapshots
• There are no thumbnails, recordings need to be downloaded to your phone before seeing anything.
• Remote access requires router setting changes that some find difficult (and which don't work with some internet service providers)

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@Newtonhill wrote:

Our IT guy asked if the Arlo ports can be changed away from 80, 123 or 443.  

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The base has to make outbound connections on those ports.  IT doesn't need to forward them in the router, but any http/https (ports 80 and 443) proxies are likely to interfere with the base->cloud traffic.  Port 123 is used for NTP (which is the normal use for that port).

Port forwarding for direct access to local storage will use different ports, and those would need to be forward.  Best to reserve an IP address for the base.

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@Newtonhill wrote:

Secondly, I can see in the app that Arlo recommend configuring a VPN on your router and mobile device.  Has anyone done this, and if so, how successful was it?  

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I use OpenVPN (which is built into my Orbi router).  It works well.

[jguerdat · Accepted solution]

1) Using local recordings only does not have the same experience as cloud recordings. Make sure you're happy with how viewing local recordings works for you first.

2) Use of a VPN is more secure and is what I use. However, your router must support this since it has to be the VPN server and your phone just loads a client app. Many Netgear routers support this as do other manufacturers' models but you have to check the manual to be sure. And you can't change ports in the Arlo setup nor would you likely want to.

If using port forwarding, be sure to set a static IP address for your hub in the router's DHCP settings. Otherwise, the address may change when either the router or hub reboots, causing the port forwarding to fail and have to be set up again. The VPN solution doesn't care - all that's needed is that connection to access your internal network.

[StephenB]

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@jguerdat wrote:

If using port forwarding, be sure to set a static IP address for your hub in the router's DHCP settings. 

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FYI, technically this is a reserved address, as static IP addresses are normally configured on the device itself, and do not use DHCP at all.

Different router manufacturers use a variety of different names for this.  Netgear calls it Address Reservation.  Some call it IP Address Reservation, MAC Address Binding, ARP Binding, etc.  So it might take some time to find the feature (and some routers might not support it).