Hi,
It's a good question, and probably something we should have explained previously with a brief overview.
Thanks for the prompt.
A simple overview of HikVision's Hik-Connect:
Hik-Connect is essentially a web portal.
They provide a service on the internet.
You go to
www.hik-connect.com
You register an account there - enter your email address and password.
You then add your HikVision devices to your account (various methods, details elsewhere - see link below for deeper information, setup videos and documentation).
[If you have multiple cameras connected to an NVR - just add the NVR to your Hik-Connect account - you will be able to see the cameras connected to it.]
You enable your HikVision devices to effectively 'phone home' to this Hik-Connect web portal (known as allowing 'Platform Access').
In doing so they are able to report their current world wide web IP address back to the Hik-Connect portal.
Using UPnP your HikVision device is also able to configure your router to permit access to it from the Hik-Connect portal.
So, you can then access your account at that
www.hik-connect.com portal from anywhere in the world, click a link, and access your HikVision NVRs/cameras (without lots of technical setup e.g. DynDNS / port forwarding).
HikVision also provide Apps that work with this service.
You can use either the App of the same name 'Hik-Connect' or the 'IVMS-4500' App.
Both are available for Android or IOS (from the usual places Google Play App Store / iTunes App Store).
People feed back that the 4500 App is the more basic of the two.
Purists would argue that you are reliant upon HikVision's servers, portal, etc. for access and for security, and therefore reliant upon them to do a good secure job.
Hope that helps ...
Click the link for more detailed documents on
setting-up HikVision's Hik-Connect service