INTELLINET NETWORK NSC15-WG User Manual - Manual (Page 73)

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Camera -> Network -> UPnP:
UPnP stands for Universal Plug and Play. A UPnP-enabled
device, such as your network camera, announces its
presence in the local network to other computers that
support UPnP as well. The operating systems Windows XP,
Windows Vista and Windows 7 support UPnP. When the
network camera is connected to the network, Windows will
alert the computer user of the presence of the new device
(a new icon will be added to your My Network Places
folder) and lets the user connect to the device
instantaneously.
Furthermore, UPnP has the ability to instruct the router or
firewall to open certain ports, so that a party from the
outside world can contact a device on the local network,
such as the network camera.
UPnP port forwarding is not supported by all routers,
however. So, depending on your router or firewall, you
may or may not be able use this function. Also, opening ports in any router or
firewall increases the risk of an intruder successfully breaking in to your
network. UPnP automates this task and leaves it to the devices to negotiate
which ports to open. Since this is done without any form of authentication,
enabling UPnP port forwarding in your router is not necessarily a good idea in a
security-sensitive environment. You can always open individual ports in your
router or firewall manually. See Chapter 7 Remote Access and Router Setup.
In the camera UPnP is enabled by default. UPnP port forwarding is disabled by
default. When you enable UPnP port forwarding, the screen will reveal
additional options. These are the ports the camera will instruct the router to
open. Depending on the camera model, you may see different ports. The new
H.264 Megapixel cameras have a simpler port model and require fewer ports
than the other models. Normally there is no need to change any of these ports,
unless you know that a port is already in use by a different device or
application.