INTELLINET NETWORK NSC15-WG User Manual - Manual (Page 71)

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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.