Browser Access To HDX Across NAT'd Home Router

[Tom_W]

Hey all,

I have a couple of HDX-4500 units that I am deploying to users with a home office setup, i.e. a cable modem with a Cisco or Netgear router behind it.

Getting it to work is NOT a problem.  I have the NAT traversal working, it's registering with the VBP-ST, places and recieves calls just fine, thank you.  Users are quite pleased.

What *is* my issue is that because it is using a NAT'd address, I can not directly browse to and administer the unit in terms of pushing software updates, updating the Directory, etc. 

It's not a serious problem but it does limit my ability to remotely support these video units.  Does anyone know of any tricks to work around this?

[Mike_v]

Tom,

It seems that RP VDM 400 (reincarnation of CMA 4000) or RP RM (CMA 5000) - depending of the number of devices to manage - are just you need. They are intended for centralized provision and S/W update and work fine with VBP-ST. More details can be found >>> here <<< and >>> here <<<.

Hope this could help.

Mike

[Uwe_Ansmann]

Hi there :)

if you want to have full management, you would need another video border proxy (VBP-E) in the remote locations.

The simpler way would be to get some dyndns accounts for your remote locations (to have a fixed address for remote management), open port 80 on the router and forward that port to the lan ip of the vc machine (make sure, that your webinterface is password-protected).

[luriep]

Both @Mike_v and @Uwe_Ansmann have valid solutions. 

Certainly the preferred way would be RP VDM 400 or RPRM  as that would give you full control of the endpoints from a central location (e.g. you can proactively get alerted if something is wrong.)  

If you don't have either of those, open/map port 80/443 in your firewall to the HDX, set an admin password and you can reach out and touch the EPs.  

Take a look at the guide Polycom Recommended Best Security Practices for Unified Communications at http://bit.ly/1flKubO and see the note near the left-bottom of pg2. 

"Organizations that cannot use a firewall to protect video endpoints for cost reasons should disable remote management through the Security -> Enable Remote Management configuration menu, ensuring that Web, Telnet, and SNMP are not selected. "   For what you need to do, you're going to need to leave Web open.  Please be sure to set a strong admin password! 

Finally, keep an eye on http://www.polycom.com/security  and your system properly patched.