All of the DVR and NVR video recorders offered by CCTV Camera World have video based motion detection and email alert notifications as standard features. Although setting up motion detection based video recording is easy, integration of your email account and configuring email alerts can be challenging for the user unfamiliar with our DVR interface. In the guide below, we demonstrate how to setup email notification in your Surveillance DVR using the web service menu. Depending on the model and year of manufacture of your DVR, the menu may not be identical, but this guide should still be easy enough to follow.
Email notifications are no longer officially supported due to two-factor authentication requirements by major free email providers and mail server blocking by ISPs in an effort to reduce email spam. If you would like assistance with your own email server on a business network connection, feel free to purchase a paid support session.
For all other users, we recommend following our guide about push notifications with your security camera system.
Step 1) Click Setup
Login to your DVR or NVR using Internet Explorer so you can access the Web Service of the DVR. Then click Setup.
Step 2) Go to Email Settings
Navigate to the Email Settings page by clicking NETWORK -> EMAIL, and you should see the page similar to the one below.
Step 3) Enter Email Address Settings
On the top of this page, enter account information for the the email account that will be used to send email notifications. We recommend using a GMAIL account as that has been tried and tested. You can find more information about which SMTP server to use for GMAIL here: https://support.google.com/a/answer/176600?hl=en
Here is what our email settings page looks like after all the settings are applied and tested:
Here is what we did for email settings:
First, so you don't forget, check the Enable box.
For our example, we will use the following settings:
SMTP Server: smtp.gmail.com
Port: 587 - be sure to use this port for encrypt type TLS
User Name: [enter your gmail email address in full]
Password: [enter your gmail account's password]
Sender: [enter your gmail email address in full] - same as User Name
Encrypt Type: TLS
Subject: NVR ALERT or any other subject line you'd like
Attachment: *Be sure to check Attachment if you want to send a picture snapshot as well with the text alert
Receiver: Enter the email address you would like to send the email alert to. In our case it is the same as the sender.
Interval: 120 sec - this is the default time in seconds that you want to wait between alerts
Health Enable: Check this setting if you would like update health alerts sent to you at the specific time intervals (in minutes) about the health and operation of your recorder
Remember to click on the SAVE button, and then click on the Test button to check whether the settings you used are working. If all works well, you should get a Test Succeeded message on the page.
Step 4) Enable email notifications in the Video Detect settings
Navigate to EVENT -> VIDEO DETECT and make sure that the following check boxes are checked:
- Enable - to enable motion detection in the video for that chosen Channel or Camera number
- Record Channel - to make sure you are recording video on motion for this Channel
- Snapshot - to record and email a snapshot on motion detection for this Channel
- Send Email - to enable email notification on motion for this Channel
Notice the settings on this page are per Channel or Camera. You need to enable these settings for each channel you would like to enable motion detection and email notifications for. In our case we enabled them for Channel 3.
Step 5) Enable Motion Detection Recording for Snapshots
Up to this point you have configured email notifications to be sent, however a snapshot will not be included with each notification until you enable Motion Detection Recording for Snapshots.
- Navigate to STORAGE -> SCHEDULE
- Select the Snapshot tab
- Click Setup
Select Motion as the recording method for Snapshots
1) Uncheck Regular to disable snapshots from being recorded all the time.
2) Check Motion to enable motion activated snapshot recording.
3) Check All to enable this method for all days of the week
Remember to Save Your Settings
Press SAVE to make sure your settings are saved and applied. In our example above, we show how to enable motion detection, email notification on motion with snapshot for Channel 3. Steps 4-5 needs to be repeated for each Channel you would like email notifications for.
Success - Email Notifications
Here is a snapshot from our GMAIL account showing what the email notifications sent from the DVR look like.
It is important to note that the process is identical for configuring email notifications on motion when using our PoE security cameras. If you have any questions how to configure these settings on your DVR or NVR, feel free to leave a comment below.
