Is there a way to mask the URL in the address bar to reflect something other than the actual port and address?

I am using DynDNS.com to serve my control pages and SecuritySpy camera pages. The problem with this method is that the address reflects the port that is open on my home computers running Indigo and SecuritySpy.

I can't use Prism because the computers at my work place will not allow https:// pages.

Do I need to buy a domain name and have the address redirected? Is there some HTML code that can mask the domain name?

I want to be able to share outside cameras with friends and family without compromising the port numbers or DynDNS.com account setup.

Thanks in advance.

I'm not sure if this would resolve your problem. But, you might try using a tiny url. Enter your DynDNS URL and get a tiny-url back. That would give you a redirection to your home server.

Tiny URL doesn't mask the destination URL after the page is loaded - it is visible in the address bar still

Hmmm, that's too bad. Could you setup a proxy somewhere?

I did a search on Google for "free URL redirect" and found a number of sites that do this for free.

I went to beam.to and opened a free account and registerd my dnysns.com URL and it worked like a charm. Now my Indigo page and up to 9 others can be redirected without the use of port numbers or DynDns account names.

I don't get it - so what if friends can see your port numbers? Anyone wanting to hack you will find out what you have open in seconds.

Well I am not going to stop anyone who is dedicated to the purpose of hacking in to my network.

At least now I can post my outside cameras for friends and family to view without worrying about someone poking around my system by changing a port number to see what they can get in to.

Usually the first step in hacking into anything is to run a "port scan" which is trivial to accomplish using any number of tools - in other words, it requires no degree of dedication at all. This instantly tells the attacker what ports are open on a system. Malicious port scans of every IP address on the internet are taking place 24 hours a day, coordinated by distributed networks of virus-infested windows machines (aka botnets).

What they are looking for is primarily two things: 1) out-of-date servers running software with known vulnerabilities and 2) equipment that ships with default passwords, or services which are likely to have weak passwords.

The overwhelming majority of security breaches are found by these types of scans, NOT in the hollywood scenario where someone is committed to breaking into YOUR network in particular.

The point is, there's no sense trying to hide what port numbers you are using because anyone can and will just test that. What is most important is to secure the services that are running on those ports, which means keeping those programs up to date and making sure you are using a sensible username/password. Your friends are hardly a threat - the zillions of zombie PCs out there testing default passwords is what you need to worry about.

If you really want to get serious about it, you need a proper firewall device which you can use (among other things) to control specifically what remote hosts are allowed to access to which of your services. However, I don't think that's worth the trouble if Indigo is the only thing you're exposing to the world - it's not what most hackers would consider low-hanging fruit, although it would be fun to blink someone's lights on and off in the middle of the night.