Network configuration
Axon Body Cameras capture video and audio recordings. Place the camera in an Axon Dock to securely upload the content securely to your agency’s Axon Evidence or Evidence Local instance.
An Axon Body Camera can be docked in any compatible Axon Dock and still connect to your evidence repository to upload video. When docked, the camera obtains its own IP address to establish a direct encrypted communication channel. The dock functions as an ethernet adapter, unmanaged network switch, and charger.
To get a dock up and running, you may need some assistance from your IT department.
If you have questions, contact Axon customer service.
Never connect a dock directly to the internet. The dock must be connected behind a firewall or secure network.
Network requirements
To get the dock up and running, you may need some assistance from your IT department.
An Axon dock generates Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packets to the DNS and gateway every 3–7 minutes to update the status of the gateway/DNS on the status page. Your network must allow for the transmission of these packets.
Although the dock is hardened against external intrusion, follow industry standard security policies and place the dock behind your agency’s firewall or secure network for maximum security. Do not connect the dock directly to the internet.
Firewall configuration
The dock and Axon devices do not require any incoming data ports for regular operation. All video and data files transmit securely using HTTPS (SSL) and
- Port 443 (TCP) opened for outgoing traffic to your agency’s Axon Evidence instance (youragency.evidence.com). This is used to send video and data files to Axon Evidence or Evidence Local using the HTTPS protocol.
- Port 53 (UDP) opened for access to DNS, if your network uses external (internet) DNS servers. When using external DNS servers this is necessary for the dock to locate the servers for your Axon Evidence account.
- Port 80 (TCP) for time synchronization.
Accessing the dock interface through HTTP:80 will always redirect to HTTPS:443 for a secure connection.
If the Accept only SSL Requests option on the Admin page of the interface is unchecked, you can access Dock UI using HTTP:8080. If checked, you won't be able to access Dock UI via HTTP:8080.
Once registered to your agency, the dock uses one of two methods to synchronize clocks on Axon devices:
- HTTP over port 80 (TCP) to synchronize time from youragency.evidence.com
- HTTPS over port 443 (TCP) to synchronize time from youragency.evidence.com
The dock requires only one of the above methods to be available. By default the dock uses Method 1 and requires port 80 be enabled for outbound access on the firewall. Method 2 is the most secure, requiring no additional ports to be opened in a firewall. However, in certain rare circumstances the HTTPS connection can fail if the clock on the dock is too far out of sync with the actual time. To enable Method 2, select the Require SSL For Initial Time Check checkbox on the dock Admin page.
Before being registered to your agency, the dock will perform time synchronization against “time.evidence.com.”
The Axon system does not currently support HTTP/HTTPS proxies. If you put the dock on a network where a proxy is used to access web sites, the IP assigned to the dock must be allowlisted. Depending on the specific network setup, this may require a static or reserved DHCP IP. We recommend using a DHCP reservation whenever possible to minimize configuration overhead.
Axon systems no longer support Microsoft Internet Explorer.
IP address configuration
By default the dock uses standard DHCP to obtain an IP address from your agency network. If your agency uses the 10.10.1.x IP address range for your internal department network this may conflict with the default IP address used by the configuration port (10.10.1.1). In this case it is necessary to set the dock’s configuration network address before connecting the dock to your network the first time.
