Remote Networking Help Please!

[Dr0ppinFrames]

Hey guys!

im in a little bit of a predicament..

i have a family member who i have installed a full NVR camera system into their place. They are absolutely positively not a tech person at all (94 years old)and they live about 3.5hrs away from me.. my issue is I need to be able to pull days worth of footage from the NVR and be able to have access to it from a remote machine… the NVR will only let me export in bulk to a USB hard drive (see my issue here) a piKVM is my current solution for getting NVR level access remotely but still can only export to a usb based hard drive.. no ftp.. no networked storage… 

 

 

 

so I guess my question is— is there a way I can have remote access to a permanently connected hard drive that lives plugged into the NVR? Is there a nas or something similar that can hook into two devices at once so I can throw a mini pc at the remote site and access it that way? 
 

this has been racking my brain for a few weeks now so I thought I’d try the brains trust  

 

thankyou for reading! Hopefully someone has some ideas!! 

[FilipposTechGR]

A couple of options you might try:
Mini PC or Pi at the site → plug the NVR’s USB export drive into it, then share that drive over the network via SMB/FTP. Since you already use PiKVM, this adds proper file access remotely.
NAS with USB backup support → some Synology/QNAP NAS boxes can present themselves as a USB drive to the NVR, but still store/export files over the network. That way the NVR thinks it’s writing to USB, while you get remote access.
Cloud sync → if you don’t want to maintain hardware, running something like Resilio/Nextcloud on a mini PC at the remote site can automatically sync footage to you once it’s exported.
So basically, the trick is putting something in between the NVR and the USB hard drive that can share the data online for you. That way you don’t have to drive 3.5 hours every time.

[Dr0ppinFrames]

2 minutes ago, FilipposTechGR said:

A couple of options you might try:
Mini PC or Pi at the site → plug the NVR’s USB export drive into it, then share that drive over the network via SMB/FTP. Since you already use PiKVM, this adds proper file access remotely.
NAS with USB backup support → some Synology/QNAP NAS boxes can present themselves as a USB drive to the NVR, but still store/export files over the network. That way the NVR thinks it’s writing to USB, while you get remote access.
Cloud sync → if you don’t want to maintain hardware, running something like Resilio/Nextcloud on a mini PC at the remote site can automatically sync footage to you once it’s exported.
So basically, the trick is putting something in between the NVR and the USB hard drive that can share the data online for you. That way you don’t have to drive 3.5 hours every time.

This seems interesting.. are you saying plug the pikvm directly into the NVR then host a share on it also? Sorry very new to pikvm still learning the curve 

[FilipposTechGR]

15 minutes ago, Dr0ppinFrames said:

This seems interesting.. are you saying plug the pikvm directly into the NVR then host a share on it also? Sorry very new to pikvm still learning the curve 

Not quite PiKVM itself is for remote console/management, but it doesn’t act like a storage device. What I meant was: use a small extra box Raspberry Pi, Intel NUC, or any mini PC sitting next to the NVR.
Plug the USB export drive from the NVR into that box.
On the box, share the drive over SMB/FTP/Nextcloud/etc so you can access it remotely.
So the NVR still thinks it’s writing to a local USB drive, but you gain network access to the files.
If you want to get fancy, some NAS devices can emulate a USB disk too, so the NVR sees it as USB while you still get full network access.
That way PiKVM stays as your remote management tool, and the mini PC/NAS handles making the footage accessible online.

[Dr0ppinFrames]

2 minutes ago, FilipposTechGR said:

Not quite PiKVM itself is for remote console/management, but it doesn’t act like a storage device. What I meant was: use a small extra box Raspberry Pi, Intel NUC, or any mini PC sitting next to the NVR.
Plug the USB export drive from the NVR into that box.
On the box, share the drive over SMB/FTP/Nextcloud/etc so you can access it remotely.
So the NVR still thinks it’s writing to a local USB drive, but you gain network access to the files.
If you want to get fancy, some NAS devices can emulate a USB disk too, so the NVR sees it as USB while you still get full network access.
That way PiKVM stays as your remote management tool, and the mini PC/NAS handles making the footage accessible online.

This might sound extremely dumb and I’m sorry if it does but I’m a bit lost.. how would I plug the external drive into both the NVR and the Mini pc at the same time? 
 

I know the NVR won’t write to an smb or ftp share either 

[FilipposTechGR]

10 minutes ago, Dr0ppinFrames said:

This might sound extremely dumb and I’m sorry if it does but I’m a bit lost.. how would I plug the external drive into both the NVR and the Mini pc at the same time? 
 

I know the NVR won’t write to an smb or ftp share either 

You wouldn’t plug the same USB drive into both at once, the NVR can only see one device. The trick is to let the mini PC be that device.
Two common ways to do it:
USB gadget mode Raspberry Pi / some NAS units: they can pretend to be a USB hard drive. So you plug the Pi/NAS into the NVR’s USB port, the NVR happily writes to it, and at the same time the Pi/NAS makes those files available over the network.
If the NVR really insists on a ‘dumb’ USB disk: use a small PC with USB passthrough software or a NAS with USB backup port. To the NVR it still looks like a normal external HDD, but the PC/NAS is actually intercepting and sharing the data.
So the drive is not being plugged into two places, the intermediate device is acting as the USB disk for the NVR, and then giving you remote access on top.