Can someone explain IP addresses to me?
Does the ISP's modem and your personal router have different IP addresses?
I'm wondering because I know it's possible to create the semblance of a static ip address for a device in your home based on your location IP number.
What puzzles me is that the number is the same for everyone. Its that number that begins with 192. So, if we all have the same number, is it the MAC that makes each and every one of us unique?
I don't understand how it's possible for me to type in that IP address on a computer and get the correct login page for a device I have at my home (In this case, a DVR), when we all have basically the same IP address. Unless this only turns up because I've already programmed my laptop and IPhone to recognize it, though I'm not even sure how I was so clever. I must have input the numbers in during my sleep.
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It's like after the IP designates your router, then you enter your own private IP universe, sort of. Know what I mean?
The world can connect to your router, or any device on the net, but your router is the gatekeeper to the devices you connect to it.
Your router knows the MAC addresses of any devices you have attached or associated to it. It just knows 
Let's assume you have a wireless aware phone, a laptop, a desktop, a PS3, a tablet and a wireless printer. For ease, we'll say they have the following IP Addresses:
192.168.100.1 Phone
192.168.100.2 Laptop
192.168.100.3 Desktop
192.168.100.4 PS3
192.168.100.5 Tablet
192.168.100.6 Printer
192.168.100.7 Neighbor who is riding your bandwidth 
192.168.100.254 Router
Think of this little network as a town. 192.168 is essentially a placeholder It generically means "this town." for this example. the 3rd byte is the street. Desktop is at House #3 on 100th street in this neighborhood.
The router is a post office at the corner. All communication internal to the neighborhood is handled there. The post office has access to a pony express office., It is usually on the side street of the post office and might have an address of 192.168.1.254. The pony express has an IP address that can communicate outside of the neighborhood.
On the outside This town that the townsfolk simple call "192.168" for short is known as "168.94.57.21" (I just pulled that number out of my ass and have no idea what it is.) to the outside world.
Sometime, click on start. Type cmd in the search bar. Type tracert www.democraticunderground.com (or tracert whatever address you'd like). When it works, you can see how things are getting from here to there.
...as you do for your security DVR.
I enter my home IP address and a port number. The IP address gets me to the external address for my modem/router. The router then takes over looks at the port number and forwards my message to the IP on my home network according to the port forwarding table.
There are what are called "private IP" ranges. IP v4 addresses consist of 4 numbers between 0 and 255. The common private range for home routers is 192.168.X.Y where X and Y are assigned to each device on your network usually by the router. By convention ISPs do traffic addresses in the private ranges. If a device on your network at home sends data to an address in the private range not found on your network, and it is sent to your ISP, it will be (or at least should be) discarded.
The MAC addresses play a role at a lower network level than IP addresses. My laptop, when I work at home gets the address 192.168.1.5 from my router. When I'm in the office, my laptop gets a completely different IP on that LAN but it keeps the same MAC address.
Hope this helps. 
Well done. 
...default to 192.168.1.1 as do most Netgear routers. I would caution against enabling "remote administration" which would allow you to access your router from outside your home network. Things can get confusing in short order. 
...that the app you use to access your DVR while away from home has retained the IP:port info the same as it may retain www . google . com. This probably brings up the DVR login page which wants that 5 digit code. Using an obscure port number is a wise security precaution.
Port numbers range from 0 to 65535. Some of these are in common use by some applications and protocols so its best to pick one not already used.
< http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/portnumbers.asp > Here's a short list. I generally use numbers between 4096 and 65535.
Modem receives an external IP from the ISP this provides internet access. Some providers offer static IP's while others offer Dynamic IP's however the lease time for a Dynamic IP is generally weeks if not months so your external IP will seldom change if ever.
Modem acts as a Switch/Router and allocates private non-routable IP's to your devices (192.168.x.y as a firm rule). The login IP for your Modem will normally be 192.168.1.1 (from inside you home network) although depends on the modem manufacturer and further devices added will be allocated in numeric sequence thus 2nd will be 192.168.1.2 etc
You normally must port forward on the Modem to access attached devices from the external network for this you need to know the Modem external IP which will you can get from the Modem i.e. log in and you should see it. Allocate a port number in port forwarding and enter the local IP address of the device. Ensure you have a secure passphrase for the Modem at all times. Use web browser point at you external IP say 92.22.22.01:1024 (IP
ort number) and your login screen should pop up.
If you find you have many devices that are switched ON/OFF regular their internal IP's may change in which case you can allocated static IP's for each device on your network.
Others solution is VNC for those that want to access their PC remotely I'm unsure which offer end to end encryption but go for the one that does.
http://www.tightvnc.com/
http://www.uvnc.co.uk/
Some, I'll call them "givers of IP addresses" not only must keep tract of the addresses but will not reuse an address they have given out. If using dynamic addressing you're PC doesn't OWN the IP address, it is a lease.
After an amount of time the lease must be renewed. A new address is provided. You can see this in the Windows event logs.
The "giver of addresses" should free up the old address for later use. Some do, some don't. Not a problem.
Gently shut down all attached devices.
Gently power down the "giver of addresses".
Count to 10.
Power on the "giver of addresses".
Count to 10
Power on the attached devices.
You should now see fewer IP addresses.
Do note that I didn't use 
when I said have fun.
Enjoy.
Page 40 of the manual explains Dynamic DNS setup which allows you to use a web address to get to your home network.
http://homedownloads.cisco.com/downloads/userguide/1224694474459/EA-Series_UG_Full_3425-00125C_EN_FR-CA_Web.pdf
I use http://dyn.com/dns/ my address looks like name_I_pick.dyndns.info
I add the colon and port to the end and I can access my devices at home from anywhere (almost).
Let me know if you have problems.
I'll check out your link. But I think I found the same thing called DVR DDNS Support Application Note (DynDNS)
What I'm reading is that I'll be paying $15.00 a year for the service, which isn't too bad.
The only bummer is that it says that the instructions are only for DVRs with Build nu. xxxxx and my DVR is about 200 units less than that. 
Thanks again! You rule!
...your DVR shouldn't need to know about the DDNS if it's implemented properly in your router.
Now, aside from the one I already mentioned, there are services like:
http://www.noip.com/services/managed_dns/free_dynamic_dns.html
...which are supposed to be 100% free.
I signup for their service just now and it seems to work fine.
Just out of curiosity, are any of your PCs running a "Professional" version of Windows?
I'm staying away from java for a bit until all that is resolved.
I ask about Windows Pro such as XP Professional or Win7 Pro because they incorporate a feature called remote desktop that I use a good bit. Remote Desktop:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/878451
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/remote-desktop-connection
This feature lets you log into another pc and operate it remotely, from across the room or across the country. From a pc on your home network you only need the IP of the computer you want to connect to. From the internet you need to add another port to your router's port forwarding table. Remote Desktop works on port 3389. Since that port is commonly known I change the port forwarding when I'm not using it to an unconnected IP. It does open the PC to which you forward to the outside. Theoretically, if you had a PC with a very weak password or none at all, an malicious outsider could log in and have full access. For that reason, it's best to check in the control panel > user accounts to make sure all users have strong passwords:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/passwords-create.aspx
Remote desktop client is on all versions of Windows but only the Pro versions often the server app so while you can connect using mostly any version, you can only connect to PCs with Pro versions.
But maybe look into that when your DVR issues are settled.
At this point I'm sure you're saying, "No, ya' think!"
Well, here's the issue: there are 2 sides to your router: the internet or WAN side and the intranet or LAN. Each one has a different IP address. The WAN or internet side is assigned a public IP by your ISP. The LAN side address I think you've said is 192.168.1.1. Your public address can change. The IP you gave is owned by Brighthouse:
http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-142-196-0-0-2/pft who, I think, you've mentioned. They apparently own all of the IPs starting with 142.196.___.___. They probably own (or lease) many other ranges as well like a range that starts with 97 that you mentioned.
Just like businesses have a main phone number like 321-555-WXYZ. Then you get either a live or automated receptionist that you can give an in house extension to in order to reach someone's desk. The main phone # is like your router's WAN address. The LAN IP is the extension on the desk.
Hope this helps.
...is what you get from IP chicken. From outside your home network, that will get the data packet to your router. The port number after the WAN IP and colon will be seen and by your router and forwarded according to the port forwarding table.
Private v corporate: the short answer is I don't know. My guess is that either is fine but both are probably regulated. I would image more so by other entities on the net than by the government. I have heard that not playing nice may get you de-peered.
For example, if you bought or leased a single IP (for example 99.98.97.96) and you or someone you allowed access did something (I'm not sure what) to offend another entity (let's say Comcast or IBM) they may respond by altering there gateways to return a 404 error to request originating within or traversing their networks when your IP is accessed. Governments (you can probably surmise which) will sometimes de-peer certain addresses or ranges due to those sites hosting info the governments feel is "dangerous". They enforce this by requiring the gateway owners to set these policies.
FYI: we are fast approaching the limit of my experience. Feel free to ask anything and I'll try to remember to highlight the differences between what I believe is correct and what I know to be fact. If there is something that I say that doesn't checkout, please let me know. One never learns anything quite so well as when you try to teach someone else.
...looks like it does the same job as the DDNS services/sites I've mentioned. It may be "tuned" a bit better to your router's functionality.
Sine that site and the S/W you downloaded works with your router I would try that first. Check what it says in your router manual. What should be listed on the linksyssmartwifi site should be (I think) the WAN address that you see from home using IP chicken. See page 18 to get a list of the devices and their IPs which are on your LAN.
Then make sure that port forwarding is set correctly so that the port which the DVR listens to is the one forwarded to the DVR's current IP address.
I'll look into the linksyssmartwifi site more when I have a chance.
Cheers
I've changed the port numbers and the passwords and my smartwifi is seeing the dvr. So check that off.
I've managed to fix the WAN issue with my Iphone. I just typed in my WAN number and it took it.
But I think I will still have to get a dynamic number/name for my laptop. I don't think my laptop is as smart as my phone.
...DDNS and DNS are not the same. 
Routers operate generally to "route" traffic appropriately. When you type a URL into your browser's address bar or click on a bookmark, windows will look in its dns cache (and some other places) to see if it has been told what IP that URL resolves to. If the URL isn't there, windows will construct a message and send it to the IP address of whatever windows has for its DNS resolver. Generally, at home that will be the same as your the address of your internet gateway. Most home networks have their router listed as the internet gateway. When your router gets that message, it will forward it to whatever you've as its DNS resolver. Most often that will be you ISP. However, as we've seen, some ISPs sometimes have issues. To help out with this difficulty there are a number of services that offer public URL resolving. Google's servers' addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. I use OpenDNS which are at 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.
This message eventually is transferred to a server that knows the URL you typed or clicked and send the IP address back to your PC. Your PC will send its traffic to the address returned and also, generally, save the IP address and URL name in its cache for further use.
Dynamic DNS, on the other hand, is a subscription service that you signup for. The idea is that most ISPs don't offer home users what are called static IP addresses. If you turn you modem and router off and on, the IP where your home network is seen from the internet can change. This is problematic if your trying to access your devices at home from elsewhere. Besides the fact that even if you have a static IP, it's just easier to remember names than numbers. The DDNS service will register with name servers on the internet. Your router will regularly message the service with which you signed up (the router will need the user name and password for your DDNS account) and let the service know what its external IP is.
Hey, it's all just ones and zeroes, how hard could it be?
