Purchased $800+ worth of cameras but will be returning them soon..

[user_844373869711561_844373869711561]

Hi everyone, let me start off by saying I absolutely love my Reolink cameras. They were really easy to setup and have been working great. 

The only problem is I cannot get an FTP server to work and I’ve asked countless times for help/guidance on Reddit and no luck on resolving it. I’ve asked quite a few subreddits as well lol. 

See, I’m not a programmer/coder/etc. I purchased a dedicated brand new PC just for the FTP server setup. I downloaded FileZilla, filled everything out and when it comes to connecting it to Reolink, I keep getting the “454 Test Failed Connection Failed. Please check your network connection” error code. 

Here’s my setup: my 6 Reolink cameras & NVR at my store. Havan’t installed the other 2 (came in a bundle of 8).

I am trying to setup the FTP server at my home. 

2 different cities. 2 different WiFi networks. 

If it comes to it, I am willing to pay for someone’s services (only over DM/text back and forth, no video calls because of the sensitive IP info I would be sharing)

Some of you may ask why don’t I rent a server or use those cloud services. And that’s a valid question. That would actually be very expensive because I’m recording in 4K 12MP w/ 6 cameras. I am going to purchase a HDD that’s at least 14TBs for my FTP setup at home. This will be less expensive for me. I’d probably get about a week’s worth of backup at a time and that’s more than enough for me. 

I will give this FTP server one more shot. I have spent the past week (countless hours) on it. I’ve read many articles & forums and watched the limited number of videos out there on FileZilla and PoE cameras. 

If it comes down to it, I’ll definitely return these (got them at Costco, 90 day return policy). Then I’d purchase some sort of other cameras. Maybe WiFi enabled that have their own cloud backup. I don’t know. Haven’t had time to think about that yet. 

For some background, here is where I’m stuck:

https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/s/K38X6E3EW6

I actually ended up doing a hard clean reset/wipe on my PC last night to give myself a brand new start (uninstalling & reinstalling FileZilla didn’t seem to remove what I had entered). So right now I will be working off a brand new blank slate. 

Also, thank you to mblaster for all of the help throughout my other posts. You linked me this article and it did help a bit getting the initial things setup: https :// www. microfusion. org/blog/setting-up-a-simple-windows-ftp-server-using-filezilla/ (had to separate the link since this forum doesn't allow links)

On my PC, I download the Server version of FileZilla.

On my MacBook, I downloaded the Client version of FileZilla to test it out and connect to it. Didn’t end up working btw.

Some question I have on the top of my mind:

• When I launch FileZilla, it has 127.0.0.1 and 14148 pre-filled out. Do I keep these in the fields?
• When connecting to Reolink, do I set the port as 21 or 14148 or 61000 or 62000?
• When connecting to Reolink, do I set the IP address as the IPV4 IP address of my PC the Server version of FileZilla is on? Or the IP address of my PC that I get when I Google “What’s My IP?” I did a CMD search and typed “ipconfig” and the IPV4 was different than the Google search one. 
• I downloaded the Google Home app (have the google mesh thing at home and it promoted me to download this when I typed my Router’s IP on the internet) 
  • Went into Network Settings, Advanced Networking, then Port Management. Added 2 new ports:
  • 21 to 21 TCP/UDP 
  • 61000 to 62000 TCP/UDP
  • The first text box was External and the second was Internal. Should I flip it and enter 62000 first and then 61000?

[joseph_1979]

@user_844373869711561_844373869711561 Try yo install Cerberus ftp server on your Win machine. Create a user account and grant all permissions. The ftp server gets an IP from the DHCP of the router...you shall see it on the right hand window.

Now go to configuration...protocol and enable update to TLS.

From the home camera....enter the ftp ip and credentials of the account you created on ftp server. Once finished do a test from the camera. On the ftp go to logs to see the commands exchanged between camera and ftp server.

So this should work for the case when ftp server and cameras are on the same network.

Now we need to get it working for local and external networks. We need to use DDNS. You need to get a ddns account from a site of your preference which provides this service....free. then you need to have this added to your ftp server and the camera. This is because the IP assigned to your BB router is dynamic and can change. So here comes the use of DDNS. Here the ftp server will be sending HB packets to the DDNS service to update the source IP.

You also need port forwarding on the BB router. You need to forward port 21 traffic to ip of the ftp server.

..... and I tried to add comments to your questions but site didn't allow me...pity..

[Crimp On_62210811129]

The FileZilla FTP port is definitely 21. (That's what I use, and it works.)
Might be useful to look at the FileZilla Server documentation (right side of page)
wiki.filezilla-project(dot)org(slash)Documentation

Any time a server on a home network is accessed from another location, it is critical that:

• The home network has a public IP address. Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) install a combination modem/router/WiFi device and then the customer connects their own WiFi router to it. This results in a "Double NAT" situation where it is very complicated to reach devices on the customer network.
• Because most ISPs configure customers with dynamic addresses, there needs to be an internet name (URL) that changes automatically whenever the customer IP address changes. Most home routers have the ability to define DDNS.
• The correct ports (in addition to 21) are forwarded to the home server. This is where the FileZilla server documentation is essential.

There is also a FileZilla user forum where people can ask questions.