Unknowed brand IPcam

Monocle

I have a cloud based Monocle Gateway setup that I am using to test with another user. Once we are done with it, I’ll reconfigure it for your account and we can test using it instead of your local gateway instance. Of course, it can only resolve cameras that are accessible over the Internet, but we should be able to use the “Demo” camera feed just fine.

All I’m trying to do at this point is verify that all systems are working outside of your local Monocle Gateway instance.

I’ll update this thread soon once I have it configured.

Thanks, Robert

Monocle

@Tueftler

OK … I have the cloud hosted monocle gateway server setup and configured with your account.
All you need to do is stop your local Monocle Gateway instance and the cloud server should take over.

Next, ask “Alexa, show me the Demo Camera” and if all is well, it should be displayed on your Alexa device.

You cameras won’t work because the cloud gateway cannot access your cameras on your private network (unless they were exposed over the Internet and a public address were used for each camera).

Let me know if the demo feed is working now.

Thanks, Robert

Tueftler

So I have stopped the local gateway on my Raspberry, and ask Alexa to show Demo and it works.

So what is the next step, and thank you for your help

Monocle

@Tueftler

OK, at this point we have a working Monocle Gateway hosted in the cloud. So there is an issue where the Alexa device is not able to communicate with your local Monocle Gateway server, but we also don’t yet know if Alexa will even work with this camera yet.

So before we further try to diagnose and fix the local Monocle Gateway issue, perhaps we should see if we can get the camera working with the cloud-hosted gateway. This will require that you expose a port (like 554) on your router to the Internet and route (NAT) that to your IP camera internally. Then update the camera settings in the Monocle Web Portal to use your public IP and port to try and access your camera stream. If we can get it working with your camera using the cloud-hosted Monocle Gateway, then all that would remain is trying to figure out why your local Monocle Gateway is not working.

Thanks, Robert

Tueftler

I have opened the port for my iPcam and I have send you a Email with the working URL for VLC.

Hope it works also from you

Monocle

@Tueftler

Some progress but not fully working.

Using some additional tools I was able to connect to the camera and start a RTSP negotiation.
However, the camera seems to stop communicating after the RTSP layer request to SETUP the camera stream using TCP interleaved streaming.

Basically here is the request its failing on:

Jul 27 13:22:18 rpi4b-2g monocle-gateway[6611]: 2019-07-27T17:22:18.336Z [DEBUG] [10.1.2.232:54615 <By-Iu-cMH>] [ENDPOINT REQUEST]  --> [SETUP] rtsp://-!!-REDACTED-!!-
Jul 27 13:22:18 rpi4b-2g monocle-gateway[6611]: 2019-07-27T17:22:18.336Z [TRACE] [10.1.2.232:54615 <By-Iu-cMH>] [ENDPOINT REQUEST]  --> [HEADERS] {
Jul 27 13:22:18 rpi4b-2g monocle-gateway[6611]:   "transport": "RTP/AVP/TCP;interleaved=0-1",
Jul 27 13:22:18 rpi4b-2g monocle-gateway[6611]:   "user-agent": "Fire OS/6.0 stagefright/1.2 (Linux;Android 7.1.2)",
Jul 27 13:22:18 rpi4b-2g monocle-gateway[6611]:   "cseq": "2"
Jul 27 13:22:18 rpi4b-2g monocle-gateway[6611]: }

What is odd is that instead of the camera sending back and error response or failure of some kind, it just stalls and locks up. So Alexa after 30 seconds will see no further communication and will forcefully disconnect the socket.

I used some other RTSP tools to further test and I was able to get further, in fact the RTSP negotiation completed but only when I request the camera transport the video/audio using UDP streaming. So … this seems like the camera does support UDP streaming but maybe not TCP interleaved. Unfortunately Alexa requires TCP interleaved streaming. So the Monocle Gateway does include the support to proxy the camera stream and convert from a UDP stream to a TCP interleaved stream, but that does not work across the Internet – only on a local network.

So what have we learned — well … the camera may only support UDP streaming which means that you must use a local Monocle Gateway instance running inside your network and the camera must have the @proxy tag instead of the @tunnel tag to proxy the UDP to TCP for Alexa.

I was not able to confirm if the camera is working with Alexa yet because it will only work via UDP on the local network. Thus as far as remote testing, I’m stuck.

So the only option moving forward is to get your local instance of Monocle Gateway working and then test the @proxy stream inside your network.

In our previous testing, we still did not see any incoming connections to the Monocle Gateway from the Alexa devices. This still suggests some networking related issue, most likely a DNS issue, a Firewall, a Virtual Network or isolated (Guest) network.

Do you run a local DNS server or does your router have the ability to override DNS hostnames via a DNS resolver?

Thanks, Robert

Tueftler

Hope I have made it correctly

Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: -------------------------------------------------

Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: INITIALIZE RTSP STREAM:  Garten
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: -------------------------------------------------
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - NAME  : Garten
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - LABEL : PRIMARY
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - URL   : rtsp://192.168.2.102:554/user=admin&password=xxxxx &channel=1&stream=1.sdp
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - UUID  : STREAM:df443cff-97a9-45ac-a21d-9768d4674f63

Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - SESS  : 3d70b93e-5326-4d46-a947-f90dfa16e176
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - MODIF : Sat Jul 27 2019 20:59:02 GMT+0200 (GMT+02:00)
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - TAGS  : @proxy
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: -------------------------------------------------

Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: RTSP STREAM MODIFIED:  Garten
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:   Any existing RTSP steams will be shut down
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:   and a new stream instance will be registered.

Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: -------------------------------------------------
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: 2019-07-27T18:59:55.217Z [DEBUG] <RTSP-PROXY> [REQUEST]  --> [DEREGISTER] rtsp://192.168.2.102:554/user=admin&password=xxxc&channel=1&stream=1.sdp
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: 2019-07-27T18:59:55.218Z [TRACE] <RTSP-PROXY> [REQUEST]  --> [HEADERS] {
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:   "cseq": "1",

Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:   "transport": "reuse_connection=0;preferred_delivery_protocol=udp;proxy_url_suffix=STREAM:df443cff-97a9-45ac-a21d-9768d4674f63"
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: }
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: 2019-07-27T18:59:55.222Z [DEBUG] <RTSP-PROXY> [RESPONSE] <-- [451 (Invalid parameter)] <cseq=1> (session=undefined)

Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: 2019-07-27T18:59:55.222Z [TRACE] <RTSP-PROXY> [RESPONSE] <-- [HEADERS] {
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:   "cseq": "1",
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:   "date": "Sat, Jul 27 2019 18:59:55 GMT"
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: }

Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: 2019-07-27T18:59:55.225Z [INFO]  [RTSP PROXY] REGISTERING STREAM [Garten/PRIMARY]; (STREAM:df443cff-97a9-45ac-a21d-9768d4674f63)
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: 2019-07-27T18:59:55.237Z [DEBUG] <RTSP-PROXY> [REQUEST]  --> [REGISTER] rtsp://192.168.2.102:554/user=admin&password=xxxxxx&channel=1&stream=1.sdp
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: 2019-07-27T18:59:55.238Z [TRACE] <RTSP-PROXY> [REQUEST]  --> [HEADERS] {

Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:   "cseq": "1",
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:   "transport": "reuse_connection=0;preferred_delivery_protocol=udp;proxy_url_suffix=STREAM:df443cff-97a9-45ac-a21d-9768d4674f63"
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: }
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: 2019-07-27T18:59:55.241Z [DEBUG] <RTSP-PROXY> [RESPONSE] <-- [200 (OK)] <cseq=1> (session=undefined)
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: 2019-07-27T18:59:55.242Z [TRACE] <RTSP-PROXY> [RESPONSE] <-- [HEADERS] {
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:   "cseq": "1",
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:   "date": "Sat, Jul 27 2019 18:59:55 GMT"
Jul 27 20:59:55 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: }

Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: -------------------------------------------------

Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: INITIALIZE RTSP STREAM:  Garten
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: -------------------------------------------------
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - NAME  : Garten
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - LABEL : PRIMARY
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - URL   : rtsp://192.168.2.102:554/user=admin&password=xxxxxcc&channel=1&stream=1.sdp
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - UUID  : STREAM:df443cff-97a9-45ac-a21d-9768d4674f63
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - SESS  : 5364f750-0536-461b-80e7-c1fd4f3e1c05
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - MODIF : Sat Jul 27 2019 20:59:02 GMT+0200 (GMT+02:00)
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - TAGS  : @proxy
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: -------------------------------------------------

Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: -------------------------------------------------

Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: INITIALIZE RTSP STREAM:  Garten
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: -------------------------------------------------
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - NAME  : Garten
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - LABEL : PRIMARY
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - URL   : rtsp://192.168.2.102:554/user=admin&password=xxxxx&channel=1&stream=1.sdp
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - UUID  : STREAM:df443cff-97a9-45ac-a21d-9768d4674f63
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - SESS  : f0dfc23f-9fc2-412d-bd24-1908c3abf498
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - MODIF : Sat Jul 27 2019 20:59:02 GMT+0200 (GMT+02:00)
Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]:  - TAGS  : @proxy

Jul 27 20:59:58 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: -------------------------------------------------

Jul 27 21:00:01 FhemServer monocle-gateway[24599]: 2019-07-27T19:00:01.229Z [INFO]  [RTSP PROXY] STREAM [Garten/PRIMARY] WILL BE DE-REGISTERED IN 4 MINUTES

Monocle

@Tueftler

Yes, but the log confirms the same issue as before the Alexa devices are not connecting.

You mentioned that the Alexa devices are behind a different Fritzbox. Is it possible to put a laptop or computer on the same network/router as the Alexa devices and test the DNS hostname (FQDN)? It could be that that specific Fritzbox is blocking the DNS requests to the Alexa devices.

I will also go ahead and remove the cloud gateway instance, it has served its purpose for now and we need to get your local one working before we are able to test this specific camera stream.

Thanks, Robert

Tueftler

The Alexa device is connected the my 1. FritzBox via WLAN and also the Raspberry on this is running the gateway service. The camera is connected via WLAN to the 2. FritzBox and this is connected to the 1. FritzBox via Cable.

All Device at in the same Network 192.168.2.x 255.255.255.0

So what can I do for testing if DNS is Working?

Monocle

@Tueftler

OK, so both the gateway and Alexa devices are on the same router. Good.

I think we need to look into the Fritzbox settings and add a provision for the DNS hostname.
This is pretty common on Fritzbox routers.

See:
https://en.avm.de/service/fritzbox/fritzbox-7390/knowledge-base/publication/show/663_No-DNS-resolution-of-private-IP-addresses/

You will need to allow DNS hostname 9dd28fe1-40f2-4459-805d-daa62fdc6ff5.mproxy.io (unless it has changed in our testing efforts, look at the startup messages in the monocle gateway log) Or allow anything with “mproxy.io”.

I know we tested the DNS resolution in the past – thinking it was fine, but something is just not right. The Alexa devices should be able to resolve the hostname to the gateway’s local IP address and then connect. We have demonstrates that they will connect to a public IP when we ran a gateway in the cloud. So its not likely to be a problem with the Alexa devices.

Thanks, Robert

Tueftler

Okay I have white the address in the FritzBox, in the DNS Rebind protection.

It theems a little bit better

But the cam is not showing

INITIALIZE RTSP STREAM:  Garten
-------------------------------------------------
 - NAME  : Garten
 - LABEL : PRIMARY
 - URL   : rtsp://192.168.2.102:554/user=admin&password=xxxxxx&channel=1&stream=1.sdp
 - UUID  : STREAM:df443cff-97a9-45ac-a21d-9768d4674f63
 - SESS  : e336adda-557d-47c9-ae78-3b76f60a26a7
 - MODIF : Mon Jul 29 2019 16:21:39 GMT+0200 (GMT+02:00)
 - TAGS  : @tunnel
-------------------------------------------------

2019-07-30T07:22:38.024Z [INFO]  [192.168.2.50:34792 <rJLHluTzB>] RTSP CLIENT SOCKET CONNECTED
2019-07-30T07:22:38.139Z [INFO]  [192.168.2.50:34792 <rJLHluTzB>] RTSP CLIENT ATTACHED TO STREAM: Garten (STREAM:df443cff-97a9-45ac-a21d-9768d4674f63)
2019-07-30T07:22:38.259Z [INFO]  [192.168.2.50:34792 <rJLHluTzB>] RTSP ENDPOINT SOCKET CONNECTED {192.168.2.102:554}
2019-07-30T07:22:38.268Z [DEBUG] [192.168.2.50:34792 <rJLHluTzB>] [CLIENT REQUEST]  --> [DESCRIBE] rtsp://9dd28fe1-40f2-4459-805d-daa62fdc6ff5.mproxy.io:443/STREAM:df443cff-97a9-45ac-a21d-9768d4674f63?session=e336adda-557d-47c9-ae78-3b76f60a26a7
2019-07-30T07:22:38.268Z [TRACE] [192.168.2.50:34792 <rJLHluTzB>] [CLIENT REQUEST]  --> [HEADERS] {
  "accept": "application/sdp",
  "user-agent": "stagefright/1.2 (Linux;Android 5.1.1)",
  "cseq": "1"
}
2019-07-30T07:22:38.278Z [DEBUG] [192.168.2.50:34792 <rJLHluTzB>] [ENDPOINT REQUEST]  --> [DESCRIBE] rtsp://192.168.2.102:554/user=admin&password=xxxccccc&channel=1&stream=1.sdp
2019-07-30T07:22:38.278Z [TRACE] [192.168.2.50:34792 <rJLHluTzB>] [ENDPOINT REQUEST]  --> [HEADERS] {
  "accept": "application/sdp",
  "user-agent": "stagefright/1.2 (Linux;Android 5.1.1)",
  "cseq": "1"
}
2019-07-30T07:23:08.136Z [WARN]  [192.168.2.50:34792 <rJLHluTzB>] RTSP CLIENT SOCKET TIMEOUT
2019-07-30T07:23:08.147Z [INFO]  [192.168.2.50:34792 <rJLHluTzB>] RTSP CLIENT SOCKET CLOSED
2019-07-30T07:23:08.148Z [INFO]  [192.168.2.50:34792 <rJLHluTzB>] RTSP CLIENT DETACHED FROM STREAM: Garten (STREAM:df443cff-97a9-45ac-a21d-9768d4674f63)
2019-07-30T07:23:08.150Z [INFO]  [192.168.2.50:34792 <rJLHluTzB>] RTSP ENDPOINT SOCKET CLOSED [192.168.2.50:34792 <rJLHluTzB>]

Monocle

@Tueftler

Yes definitely looks better. At least we are getting past the DNS issue and the Alexa devices are now able to connect to the gateway and start a RTSP stream.

So what the log is now showing is that the gateway is attempting to communicate with the IP camera at address: rtsp://192.168.2.102:554/user=admin&password=xxxccccc&channel=1&stream=1.sdp ; however, it’s not able to for some reason.

If this the same result on all your cameras? You can also try @proxy-tcp instead of @tunnel, but if this is a networking issue, that won’t help. You mentioned that the IP cameras are on a separate router — can other devices/computers on the gateway/Alexa network talk to the IP cameras?

Thanks, Robert

Tueftler

I can connect the camera with all other device in my network from all Acesspoints, with the Smartphone with the Laptop and with Kodi on the Raspberry Pi.

Only Alexa will not show the Stream.
I have only one more iP cams but they don’t have a h264 stream

Monocle

@Tueftler

OK, then try using @proxy or @proxy-tcp instead of @tunnel. In some rare cases, some camera’s don’t like our default RTSP client and these alternate tags will attempt to use another RTSP client implementation.

Thanks, Robert

Tueftler

So some old news, I have seen my Cam on Alexa, but,

I must start the Gateway with this command
monocle-gateway

If I start it like
monocle-gateway --start

Alexa can not connect

Also if monocle-gateway --enable after reboot the Raspberry, Alexa can not connect.

Also if I have startet the gateway with
monocle-gateway
Alexa can connect one time and show the live stream for CA 30 second then comes buffering and the connection close after this I must stop the gateway and start again with monocle-gateway.

I must use the tag @proxy-tcp

I hope this informations helps

Monocle

@Tueftler

We can probably sort of the daemon issue and get it running as a background server. However, I think the more pressing issue is to get it running stable first while just running the executable directly from the shell/command line.

Since you are using one of the @proxy* tags, you can also add @hangup in conjunction with @proxy-tcp. This has helped a few users with similar symptoms – cameras that would not reconnect after the first stream. The @hangup tag will make sure to fully shutdown the stream each time the network connection is closed. The default behavior for the proxy implementation is to try and hang on to the stream for a few minutes just in case of a subsequent request is made.

Some cameras, like Reolink, don’t like it when you request the stream again immediately after the previous stream is terminated. These cameras will stream again if you wait about 5 minutes before requesting it again. I’m sure its some Alexa incompatibility issue, but it does come up with the Reolink cameras.

As far as the initial stream timing out after 30 seconds, well – solving that may be more difficult. First, make sure to include the @noaudio tag just in case there is an audio channel in the stream. Some audio channels really cause issues with Alexa’s player. Next, you may have to play with your camera’s streaming video codec settings to see if you can find a combination that Alexa likes better. For example, try changing H.264 profiles (High, Standard, Baseline), try enabling/disabling H.264+ (if you camera support that), try lowering the resolution, bitrate, etc.

Thanks, Robert

dieghito72

@Tueftler and @Monocle

Thank you, I have a Setik NVR with a similar URL to access RTSP stream and I solved using Monocle gateway using @proxy-tcp.

Tueftler

So the problem with buffering after 30 seconds is away also that I can not reconnect without restart the gateway. So the tag @hangup is okay.

Yet I have only the problem that I must start the server with monocle-gateway

But if I close the Console the gateway stopps

The Autostart or with monocle-gateway --start
Alexa can not connect the camera

So I thing we have 80% for my happyness

Monocle

@Tueftler

OK, lets try these command to try to UNINSTALL then REINSTALL the daemon config with systemd on Raspbian:

sudo monocle-gateway --uninstall
sudo monocle-gateway --install
sudo monocle-gateway --restart

Are you using the latest Raspbian Buster distribution?

Tueftler

No on this server is not running buster on this one is running the last Jessy version