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How-to: How to use Hik-Connect

Phil

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Hikvision's standard App for use with their security cameras and recorders is called Hik-Connect.

It is available for both Android and Apple's IOS based mobile devices, from the usual App stores.

For Android devices, from the Google Play store here:​
For Apple IOS devices, from the iTunes store here:​

Hikvision's Hik-Connect App works with their Hik-Connect portal at www.hik-connect.com
We would recommend that you access the portal in a web browser first and create an account.
Then, add your NVR to that account - using the 9-digit serial number on your NVR is simplest.
NB - the 9-digit serial number that you need is shown on the product label on the device AND on the retail box (it is a separate 9-digit serial number, all numbers, NOT a part of the device's main serial number)
Adding your NVR will grant you remote access to any cameras connected to that NVR.
If you don't have an NVR, you can add individual cameras to your account.

The Hik-Connect portal and App work together.
Your devices use a peer-to-peer connection to 'call home' to the portal, confirm that they are online and ready, AND tell the portal their current world wide web IP address.
This capability means that you do not need a static IP address at the camera/NVR site.
Nor do you need to configure port forwarding.
It's all taken care of for you by the portal and the App.

All being well, you should see your Hikvision devices showing at the portal as 'online' and reporting their current world wide web IP address:

1540304666955.png




Install the App on your mobile device, and sign-in with your user name and password that you used to create your account, and you should straight away be able to access the devices that you added at the portal.

THE most common problem that prevents this solution from working is the lack of DNS settings being entered in your camera or NVR's Configuration settings.
Without DNS settings your Hikvision device is unable to lookup and contact the portal.
These settings can be found in Configuration -> select Network, Basic Settings at the left -> select TCP/IP at the top (usually it defaults to this)
We would recommend that you set your DNS settings to Google's DNS servers as below:
Preferred DNS Server = 8.8.8.8
Alternate DNS Server = 8.8.4.4
Don't forget to click 'Save'.

1540302920757.png



In the App on your mobile device you should see something like this:

1540304974090.png



Hik-Connect Screenshot 23-10-18.jpg


There's an earlier basic description (with links to much deeper information on setup and sharing) here:
HikConnect - In a nutshell how does it work.

Final Note - the first time that you access a Hikvision device from a new device e.g. a mobile phone or a browser on a PC/Mac you are likely to be asked for an encryption key. This is just a secure means of checking that you are the owner of the Hikvision device / have permission to remotely access the device. You set the encryption key/code that you want to use - please take a look at this post for details of where to set the code (in screenshot 2):
HikVision NVR "Invalid encryption key" error message
 
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