General: Help and Troubleshooting

If you are having problems connecting multiple identical USB cameras click here.

If you are having problems connecting an IP camera see MP4, ASF, RTSP and other IP Camera Sources via VLC and Finding Camera URLs with Fiddler/ WireShark.

If you are having problems connecting to iSpy remotely see Troubleshooting Connections.

If you are still having issues please contact us

Run the Troubleshooter tool

A lot of useful information is provided in the troubleshooter tool that is built into iSpy - click on Web Settings then click on the "troubleshooter" button at the bottom of that panel (or "Tools" - "Web Troubleshooter" in iSpy PRO) . That should tell you the reason you can't connect and will give you useful information about why and what you need to do.

There are a number of issues that can prevent remote access from working, all of which are unfortunately out of our control. Here are a list of common problems and potential fixes:

iSpy is unable to setup port forwarding automatically

Try resetting your router. A reboot of your router will frequently solve this issue.

If that fails then your router either doesn't support UPNP or has UPNP disabled. UPNP is an automated way for software to open ports in routers. Either enable UPNP in your router or setup port forwarding manually. Use the information provided in the troubleshooter (ports/ IP address) and see our info here for instructions on how to do manually configure port forwarding. If you still can't get it to work then try portforward.com - they offer a money back guarantee to get it working for you.

Ports are forwarded correctly but I still can't access remotely

• Check in settings that Allowed IPs and Allowed Referrers are both empty. Settings there can prevent access if incorrect.
• Check that ispy isn't blocked in the firewall. Click start, type "Firewall" and press enter. Look for an entry in Inbound Rules called iSpy (or iSpyPRO) - check it is enabled and allow it if it isn't.
• Your router may not be your gateway. Often you will have 2 devices on your network, one which is your gateway (connected to the internet) and the other which is your router. You will need to forward ports from your gateway device to your router for remote access to work.
• Your router or gateway may have a firewall enabled that is preventing the requests from coming through. Either disable your router firewall and try again or add your iSpy computer IP address in as an allowed exception.
• Check your router logs - some other feature may be preventing access (like denial of service detection)
• Check that any third party software running on your computer isn't blocking ispy (like zonealarm or anti-virus). A lot of these programs have firewalls built in that you have to explicitly allow other software to communicate through.
• Check with your ISP. Frequently they will block ports on their side before the request even comes through to your router. They should be able to open a port for you or advise you on which ports are available through their network.
• If you still can't access iSpy remotely then use our Agent DVR platform - which doesn't require port forwarding for remote access. Agent is a stand-alone replacement for iSpy so if you use Agent you can uninstall iSpy completely.

I'm using IPv6 and I can't connect

IPv6 support is currently experimental. Try using the IPv4 options in web settings

I click on Web Settings and ispy crashes

This seems to be a relatively rare issue with some IPv6 setups. Disable IPv6 support in iSpy settings and restart iSpy.

Still not working?

If none of the above help then try a different router or ask a technical minded friend for help. Some router firmware is buggy and no matter what you do the port-forwarding won't work. Unfortunately network related issues are outside of our control.

Dodgy Connection

The connection works for a while (a day or so) then drops out

The number one cause for this is a dynamic IP address for your iSpy computer. For your router to forward ports onto the iSpy computer it needs to be setup with a static IP address on your local network. DHCP networks sometimes re-assign IP addresses every 24 hours. If the IP address of your computer changes that will break the port forwarding rule and remote access will break as well.

Your router may have reset and forgotten the port forward. Run the network troubleshooter in iSpy web settings. That can sometimes fix this problem automatically.

I login and at random see different content or see that my server is offline

You have multiple computers connected to iSpyConnect using the same account details. If your subscription type doesn't support this then you'll only see the last one that pinged our servers.

You have multiple computers connected on the same WAN port. iSpy uses the WAN port to identify distinct servers. Make sure that each iSpy computer you have connected to iSpyConnect is using a different WAN port in web settings. This applies even if the computers are on different networks or IP addresses.

Follow the letsencrypt instructions to install a certificate on your computer.

When you have a certificate generated you will need to convert it to a .cer file

In iSpy Settings, click the button on the Options tab to configure the SSL Certificate. Enable SSL, select the .cer file and click OK.

Check Force SSL on your Account page.

At this point you should now be able to load the web UI.

Alternatively, use our new platform, Agent DVR which supports secure remote connections via the website without having to setup SSL certificates.