Ip camera going offline

[carolp]

I’m hoping someone out there can point me in the right direction with the problem I am having with my ip cameras. I am not very tech savvy you should know so small words please.
I have several ptz wireless ip cameras I use to keep an eye on my home especially when I am away. I view all these cameras with Blue Iris software. From time to time one of my cameras will just lose signal and if I am home at the time I can just unplug that camera and replug it and it comes back on. Obviously I cannot do that if I am away.

Can someone please tell me why this happens., and what I can do to stop it. It’s not just one camera or one brand of camera, just random.

Thank you

 

[Noctilum]

This has been happening to myself over the last week or so. I am not sure the cause yet as I have been running Blue Iris pretty flawlessly over the last year. Link light is definitely on for the camera so there is some communication going on. I run Blue Iris 4 with Dahua cameras myself.

 

[SouthernYankee]

How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!)

Many camera networks are unsecure, even those installed by professionals. This guide gives basic instruction in how to secure a camera network from the most common types of attacks. Perhaps the most important rule of securing a computer network is to not forward ports to unsecure services...

ipcamtalk.com

What version of BI are you using ?

If your cameras are wireless they are not security cameras. It is simple to shut down any wifi system.

Your wifi cameras should be on a seperate channel, sidd and access point then your home system.
Your video should not go through your home router to BI.
Does your network have interference. Your neighbor watch a 4K movie and your cameras drop off line.

Does the Blue Iris log give any indication of the problem.

 

[fenderman]

Your problem is wifi...run cable.

 

[Tinbum]

I have a similar problem, all direct wired. I have 4 panasonic cameras that have been loosing signal every now and then. Putting them as static IP's within the camera itself rather then the router cured it for a while but then it came back again. Thankfully they only loose signal for long enough for it to register in BI.

I now have 4 other cameras, different makes, that have started to loose signal within BI and the signal is not restored without me going into BI and restarting the camera. If I login to the IP address of the camera directly the camera seems ok.

 

[SouthernYankee]

Provide a network diagram.

1)do not run camera signals through the router
2) Are cables home made or premade ?
3) are cables copper or CCA?
4) Test one of your problem cameras , take it down and plug it into the neared switch to the BI PC, with a premade cable.
5) do a long term ping test for each camera. By long term i mean many hours. If you loose a packet you have a network problem.
from a post from @bp2008 Windows 10 and BlueIris

GitHub - bp2008/pingtracer: Graphical pinging and traceroute application. Ping Tracer continuously pings each network host between your computer and a given destination, helping identify the source of connectivity problems.

Graphical pinging and traceroute application. Ping Tracer continuously pings each network host between your computer and a given destination, helping identify the source of connectivity problems. -...

github.com

MultiPing - Network Monitoring and Alerting

www.multiping.com

 

[Tinbum]

1- They aren't
2_Homemade
3 Copper
5 see attached

The cameras in the 160 range have all been ok over the last few days but then BI did an update yesterday and today they have started dropping out again. These cameras don't connect again until I restart them in BI.

The ones in the 150 range have been dropping out daily but they always reconnect in BI within seconds.

 

[SouthernYankee]

The diagram indicates that you have 4 GS724TP switches,

Does the camera 192.168.3.154 reconnect ?

is there a reason that the routers are daisy chained together. I prefer a tree type structure.

Why is there two connections to the BI PC. on the same subnet?

 

[Tinbum]

The cameras in the 150 range are Panasonic and yes all reconnect within seconds.

The switches are in different buildings and it was just how I could connect them using the ducting that was available.

yes both connections on BI computer are on the same subnet.

The non 150 cameras had been ok for a few days but then BI updated and they are dropping out a few times a day again. I've shut down the computer and restarted and they are still doing it.

 

[usaf_pride]

Probably WiFi interference as @fenderman alluded to. With a good wifi signal, no devices should disconnect. The fact that all of them disconnect shows you have an issue. Unsure of what router/access points you are using, but it would be interesting to see if any log files are available and if they show the WiFi stack restarting.

 

[mikeynags]

If those graphs are primarily showing your wifi cams, I don't really see an issue. Your timings are typically 6ms or less. I ran a test on the one wifi cam that I still have (which I have zero issues with from a network standpoint) and I see ping times hit just shy of 20ms. I'd be interested to know more about the rest of the network layout as well as the details on the BI server in terms of its performance, network usage etc. One other question, do all the cameras drop out at the same time or is it random cameras dropping at all different times?

 

[Tinbum]

Mine has no wifi at all for the cameras or BI computer.
Network usage is about 100Mb/s on BI computer all on one of the LANs.
They dropout in 2 batches (150's) and (160's/143) and all at the same time in each batch. (None of my other cameras drop out at all and they are on the same switches).

 

[looney2ns]

Turn off auto update in BI, always wait for things to shake out a few days before updating.
Roll back BI to the last version you had.

 

[Tinbum]

Turn off auto update in BI, always wait for things to shake out a few days before updating.
Roll back BI to the last version you had.

Thing is it's been doing it intermittently. (My BI is always latest version). Someone has to try the latest versions! If i was away I would turn auto update off.

The 150 cameras have been doing it for a while ever since going from BI4 to BI5.

I'll try a roll back and see if it disappears.

 

[usaf_pride]

Thing is it's been doing it intermittently. (My BI is always latest version). Someone has to try the latest versions! If i was away I would turn auto update off.

The 150 cameras have been doing it for a while ever since going from BI4 to BI5.

I'll try a roll back and see if it disappears.

It sounds like a network segmentation issue. You need to get into your switch logs and see what is going on.

 

[Tinbum]

It sounds like a network segmentation issue. You need to get into your switch logs and see what is going on.

I'm not sure what you mean and couldnt find anything about it other than setting up segmentation to increase security and i've not done that. I cant see anything of interest in the switch logs. There are very few errors.

 

[usaf_pride]

I'm not sure what you mean and couldnt find anything about it other than setting up segmentation to increase security and i've not done that. I cant see anything of interest in the switch logs. There are very few errors.

There more than likely is something in your network topology causing you grief. Verify none of your switches are running a DHCP server (i don't think those switches have that option). Because the switches are daisy chained, start your troubleshooting by disconnecting the downstream switches and see if the problem persists. If not, add one back and test again. BI shouldn't be knocking anything off line as IP addresses are assigned by the DHCP server and BI just reads the IP's you give it.

If you truly believe BI is causing it, pull the network cable out on that machine and test.

 

[SouthernYankee]

Why do you have two network cables in the BI PC to the same subnet.

 

[usaf_pride]

Why do you have two network cables in the BI PC to the same subnet.

That could be the cause as it could be a loop. Unsure if his switches have STP built in.

 

[Tinbum]

Why do you have two network cables in the BI PC to the same subnet.

I have 2 WAN connections through the router. One is hard wired through the telecom company (static IP) and the other is via a mobile phone hotspot. Because I live so far from the exchange the wired connection at its very best is 3mbs. In this router I can set which LAN IP addresses can use which WAN connection.

The BI computer has one LAN IP that can connect using the fixed wire WAN and other that can use the mobile phone WAN. BI is set to only use the hard wired WAN.

Since rolling back to BI 5.0.5.8 the 160's, 143 cameras have not dropped out.