Local IP address ranges (explained)

When a client, such as XProtect Smart Client, connects to a surveillance system, an amount of initial data communication, including the exchange of contact addresses goes on in the background. This happens automatically, and is transparent to users.

Clients may connect from the local network as well as from the Internet, and in each case the surveillance system should be able to provide suitable addresses so the clients can get access to live and recorded video from the recording servers:

When clients connect locally, the surveillance system should reply with local addresses and port numbers.
When clients connect from the Internet, the surveillance system should reply with the recording servers' public addresses, that is the address of the firewall or NAT (Network Address Translation) router, and often also a different port number (which is then forwarded to recording servers).

The surveillance system must therefore be able to determine whether a client belongs on a local IP range or on the Internet. For this purpose, you can define a list of IP ranges which the surveillance system should recognize as coming from a local network.