Password Manager

While there are many password manager applications out there, some I have tried such as KeePass and LastPass. Others, that I have not tried include and cannot comment on:

• 1Password
• Bitser
• Dashlane
• Enpass
• Intuitive Password
• Keeper
• Mitto

However I wanted a hardware password manager, so I found Mooltipass Mini.

https://www.themooltipass.com/

Mooltipass is a great little piece of hardware that encrypts your credentials with AES256 and requires two factor authentication (PIN + Smart Card). This device supports Windows, Linux, Mac and even Apple and Android devices (most). It only requires the APP and or Web Plugin to load your passwords, once that is completed you can use it in manual mode and not require any additional software/plugin. Best of all its OpenSource and fairly cheap!!!

Windows Server Disable TLSv1.0

We all know by now that TLSv1.0 is broken we must disable it to protect ourselves from this vulnerability, here are the two registry key's that need to be created to disable TLSv1.0:

Launch RegEdit and navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\"

In the "Client" & "Server" key and create a DWORD (32 bit) entry and call this "Enabled" and set the value to 0, also create a DWORD (32 bit) entry called "DisabledByDefault" in both "Client" and "Server" Folders/Keys.

"Enabled" - Disables TLSv1.0
"DisabledByDefault" - Advertises that the server can or cannot accept TLSv1.0

Hikvision cURL Enable Telnet

Here is how to enable Telnet on my Hikvision NVR using a cURL command, you can use it on the camera's as well.


cURL Command:
curl -T telnet_on.xml http://admin:12345@192.168.1.100:80/ISAPI/System/Network/telnetd

curl -T telnet_off.xml http://admin:12345@192.168.1.100:80/ISAPI/System/Network/telnetd


Contents of telnet_on.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Telnetd version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.isapi.org/ver20/XMLSchema">
<enabled>true</enabled>
</Telnetd>

Contents of telnet_off.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Telnetd version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.isapi.org/ver20/XMLSchema">
<enabled>false</enabled>
</Telnetd>

Hikvision cURL Enable or Disable IR LED

Here is how to turn on or off the IR LED on my Hikvision Camera using a cURL command, you can use it on your camera's as well.


cURL Command:
curl -T irlight_on.xml http://admin:12345@192.168.1.100:80/ISAPI/System/Hardware

curl -T irlight_off.xml http://admin:12345@192.168.1.100:80/ISAPI/System/Hardware


Contents of irlight_on.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<HardwareService xmlns="http://www.hikvision.com/ver20/XMLSchema" version="2.0">
<IrLightSwitch>
<mode>open</mode>
</IrLightSwitch>
</HardwareService>

Contents of irlight_off.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<HardwareService xmlns="http://www.hikvision.com/ver20/XMLSchema" version="2.0">
<IrLightSwitch>
<mode>close</mode>
</IrLightSwitch>
</HardwareService>

Hikvision cURL Enable SSH

Here is how to enable SSH on my Hikvision Camera using a cURL command, you can use it on the camera's as well.


cURL Command:
curl -T ssh_on.xml http://admin:12345@192.168.1.100:80/ISAPI/System/Network/ssh

curl -T ssh_off.xml http://admin:12345@192.168.1.100:80/ISAPI/System/Network/ssh


Contents of ssh_on.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SSH version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.isapi.org/ver20/XMLSchema">
<enabled>true</enabled>
</SSH>

Contents of ssh_off.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SSH version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.isapi.org/ver20/XMLSchema">
<enabled>false</enabled>
</SSH>

Best IP Camera APP

Looking for the best app to view your IP cameras on you phone or tablet? So I have tried a lot of IP Camera APP's for mobile device's and I am writing this to tell you which one is the BEST. Now some of the APP's have niche's or their own speciality but the most user friendly and professional is tinyCam Monitor.

tinyCam Monitor

http://tinycammonitor.com/

tinyCam Monitor is by far the best mobile application out there and I would highly recommend it. There is a FREE version so you can try and a paid version with more features is available. If you try the free version and like it buy the PRO version, its cheap and Awesome!!! I have recommend this APP to numerous friends, family and colleagues, as I am the Go-To person for security camera's. The all loved it, funny thing is I only told them about the free version and they bought the PRO version all on their own and came back to tell me about that version!

Plus this APP supports so many cameras, some of the camera's include:

• Hikvision
• D-Link
• Foscam
• Dahua
• Geovision
• Acti
• ONVIF
• Many more...

For a full list of supported cameras, see here.

The creator of this application is a genius, has the best APP of its kind on the marketplace. His free version is not terribly crippled either, really appreciate this.

Its available on Google Play, Amazon APP store, Blackberry World, Samsung Apps and the Chrome Web Store.







I am not affiliated with the creator at all, I just used this APP for the last 5 years and wanted to share my experience and satisfaction with the product. If the creator wants to send me a APK install file of the PRO version for my personal use, I would not object though. ;) Here's hoping, ha ha ha. As I only have the free versions installed, due to personal reason. However I have used the PRO version numerous times on other peoples devices.

Hikvision iVMS Linux

Hikvision iVMS4200 software for linux systems. This was hosted on the Hikvision website as a BETA copy. I downloaded a copy before it was removed and I am posting a copy here for my archival purposes.

Download Link:  iVMS4200-Linux.tar.gz

Hikvision iVMS Mac OS X

Hikvision iVMS4200 software for Mac OS X systems. This was hosted on the Hikvision website. I downloaded a copy and I am posting a copy here for my archival purposes.

Download Link:  iVMS-4200.pkg

Hikvision FTP Sites

List of Hikvision FTP Sites or HTTP Download Sites, to get firmware and documentation.

Hikvision China FTP Site Note: Hikvision FTP Site is no longer active, link is to Hikvision downloads page.

Hikvision EU FTP Site Note: Hikvision FTP Site is no longer active, link is to Hikvision downloads page.

Hikvision USA FTP Site

Access Hikvison IP Camera Directly

Here is how to access your IP camera's directly through the NVR. In this setup the IP Cameras are connected to a Hikvision NVR without virtual host feature.

Note: Your IP address setup may differ, so I will explain the IP Scheme. Also you will have to set your IP cameras to have static IP addresses configured on the web interface of each camera, then add to the NVR manually instead of Plug and Play.

NVR is connected to your home router with the IP of 192.168.1.200 for example, so your laptop connected to WiFi would have IP of for example 192.168.1.210 on the same subnet as your NVR.

Now your cameras are connected to the POE ports at the back of your NVR. The Cameras have an IP such as:

CAMERA 1 - 192.168.20.10
CAMERA 2 - 192.168.20.11
CAMERA 3 - 192.168.20.12
CAMERA 4 - 192.168.20.13

And the NVR's IP Address for the Internal NIC would be on the same subnet as the IP Cameras such as 192.168.20.1.

Set the IP Cameras default gateway to that of the IP Address under Internal NIC IPv4 Address in the Network Configuration page of the NVR (might not be visible from web interface, connect to the NVR directly using HDMI/VGA and mouse).

Once the Cameras IP address and default gateway is configured and the cameras have added to the NVR manually and can be viewed through the NVR. You can Telnet into the NVR and enter the command:  
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward 

Now you should be able to type in the IP Address of the IP camera in your web browser and access the cameras directly. http://192.168.20.10

Note: You will have to re-enter the command "echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward " if the NVR ever reboots.

If this does not work for you, you may have to setup a static route in your router such as:

Destination LAN: 192.168.20.0
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.200

Stream Hikvision NVR VLC

Here is how to stream the video feed from a Hikvsion NVR using VLC.

Create a text file and enter the following line replacing the username/pass/ip with yours.

Main stream:

rtsp://admin:12345@192.168.2.100/Streaming/Channels/101

or

rtsp://admin:12345@192.168.2.100/PSIA/Streaming/channels/101

Substream:

 
rtsp://admin:12345@192.168.2.100/Streaming/Channels/102

or

rtsp://admin:12345@192.168.2.100/PSIA/Streaming/channels/102

Note: In this example 192.168.2.100 is the IP address on the LAN port of the Hikvison NVR. the first 1 ine 101 is the camera number and the second 1 is the main stream, can use 2 for substream.

Save the text file as Camera1.asf or Camera1.m4v(asf or m4v is the extension of the file so your media player will recognize it and open it) now double-click the Camera1.asf or Camera1.m4v file or drag and drop it into VLC and it should start streaming immediately.


See this post on how to stream different cameras/channel and mainstream/substream. Hikvison NVR Streaming URLs

NVR/DVR Software for IP Cameras

This is a list of Security Camera monitoring software that I have tried or like the features. I will try to update if I find something else that is interesting.

Vitamin D(Now Sighthound) (Free with Restrictions, Paid Version Available)
-Like the motion detection


Zoneminder (Free)
-Really customizable and can be integrated with soo many things.


BlueIris (Paid)
-Looks very promising.

webcamXP or webcam7 (Free with Restrictions, Paid Version Available)

iSPY Connect (Free with Restrictions, Paid Version Available)
-Works nicely and has a great feature of automatically finding the camera URL.

Milestone Systems (Free with Restrictions, Paid Version Available)


If you know any other software that is good, please let me know so I can add it to the list after trying it out.

Hikvision NVR Streaming URL

Here is a list of tested URL's for Hikvision NVR streaming URL. This will stream the IP cameras that are connected to the NVR.

Main RTSP Stream:   

Channel/Camera 1 - rtsp://admin:12345@192.168.1.100/Streaming/Channels/101
Channel/Camera 2 - rtsp://admin:12345@192.168.1.100/Streaming/Channels/201
Channel/Camera X - rtsp://admin:12345@192.168.1.100/Streaming/Channels/X01
  
Sub RTSP Stream:
Channel/Camera 1 - rtsp://admin:12345@192.168.1.100/Streaming/Channels/102
Channel/Camera 2 - rtsp://admin:12345@192.168.1.100/Streaming/Channels/202
Channel/Camera X - rtsp://admin:12345@192.168.1.100/Streamin/Channels/X02 


Remember to change the username and password as well as IP address of the NVR (in this example its 192.168.1.100) to match your setup. You can also add ?tcp to the end of the URL if you get corrupted frames. Example: rtsp://admin:12345@192.168.1.100/Streaming/Channels/102?tcp

OpenVPN TUN Interface Force Traffic

To force all client traffic over the tunnel in OpenVPN when using TUN not TAP, please add the following to your server config file:

push "redirect-gateway def1"
push "remote-gateway VPN-Server-IP"
push "dhcp-option DNS 4.2.2.2" 


This will also force internet traffic over the vpn.

D-Link DCS-2230 IP Camera Auto Format SD

So I came across a problem with a D-Link IP camera, the MicroSD card would get full and I would have to manually reformat the card because the camera did not support overwriting when set to motion detection.

So I setup a script to run a cURL command to format my SD card on the camera automatically every month. Please see my other posts to find out how to use the curl command.


curl username:password@192.168.1.100/cgi-bin/format.cgi?SD


Keywords: IP Camera, D-Link, DCS, Format, SD Card, curl, remote format, curl format.

OpenVPN Test On LAN

Here is how to test your OpenVPN on the same network (local network) as your VPN server.

Change the remote line to point to the local private IP of your OpenVPN server, now you can connect to the vpn server while sitting on the same subnet.

For example your remote connection is MYDNS.dyndns.org, change this to point to the actual IP of the device on the network ex 192.168.1.100(If your OpenVPN server is your router, it will be the address of the router 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1, etc.

In the image above I added a second remote line and commented out the first one by using a # sign, when I want to revert back I can just comment out the local remote line and uncomment the dynamic dns one.

GV-CAW220 with Zoneminder Working

This is how I got my Geovision GV-CAW220 IP Camera working in Zoneminder.

Step 1) Follow instructions here to install H264 for Zoneminder if you don't already have RTSP streams working in Zoneminder.

Step 2) Add the camera to Zoneminder:
          i) Create a new monitor and choose source as ffmpeg
         ii) Click on source tab, add rtsp://username:password@192.168.1.120:8554/CH001.sdp?tcp to  the source(change your IP as neccessary on your network, and your username and password.
         iii) Colours is 24 bit, Width is 1920, Height is 1080, Click save and it should now work. Please note if you want to use the Sub stream change the CH001 from 001 to 000.

Please note, with motion detection recording to SD card of the camera and zoneminder streaming ON simultaneously I get RTSP drop outs. I had to disable Audio and change monitoring mode to scheduled. If you have found a way to avoid video dropouts in ZM when using RTSP please let me know. Or at-least an auto reconnect feature.

This should also work with GV-CB120, GV-CB120W, GV-CB220, GV-CBW220 and other Geovision IP Cameras in Zoneminder. Please leave a comment if it worked for other cameras so I can list them here.

My pfSense Alix 6B2 Passive Cooling

So I bought a Alix 6B2 embedded system kit to install pfSense and use it as a standalone OpenVPN server. Before I set it up I decided to add some heat sinks to it to keep all the chipsets nice cool and hopefully prolong the life of the board and reduce errors(run more stable and cool). Heat kills components quickly so by adding these I have essential reduced the temperatures that these chips would normally be under.

Here is what it looks like:

I put copper heat-sinks on all ram chips(4 chips on the left) and on a small chip(possibly a bridge) on the right. I put a big aluminum heat-sink on the main CPU and 2 small aluminum heat-sinks on the two VIA chips for the NIC's.

I purchased all heat-sinks from Dealextreme with the exception of the CPU heat-sink which was from an old motherboard. However there are heat-sinks the same size of the CPU on ebay sold as Linksys heat sinks.

I just thought I'd share what I did and what it looks like, this was an upgrade from my WRAP 1E2. I will make a post of my VPN throughput increase by upgrading to this board when I get some time.

Linksys CURL Command to Release and Renew WAN IP

Someone asked me to provide the cURL commands to release and renew the WAN IP on Linksys routers so here they are:

Release WAN IP:
curl http://username:password@192.168.1.1/apply.cgi -d "submit_button=Status_Router&submit_type=release&change_action=gozila_cgi&wan_proto=dhcp"

Renew WAN IP:
curl http://username:password@192.168.1.1/apply.cgi -d "submit_button=Status_Router&submit_type=renew&change_action=gozila_cgi&wan_proto=dhcp"

Embedded Zoneminder Stream

Here is how to embed a IP camera stream from Zoneminder into your own website (I recommend only use it for local site(site accessible only internally), since the password and username is visible.)

<img src="http://zoneminder-server-ip/cgi-bin/nph-zms?mode=jpeg&monitor=1&scale=100&maxfps=10&buffer=1000&user=username&pass=password" width="640" height="480">

Dont forget to change the ip to your zoneminder server ip, and the username and password. I recommend creating a non admin account for this. and monitor=1 to the camera you want to view from ZM. 1 would be the first camera hover over the camera url in ZM to find out the monitor ID.