Can't figure out how to login to IP Cam through browser?

[Xizenta]

Thanks for the help in advance.

I bought several Dahua OEM cameras for a LaView NVR. They were not plug and play. With significant difficulty I finally got them initialized and set to a static IP and added to my NVR. However, they encode in H265 and my NVR cannot display the streams.

I understand I should be able to login to the cameras directly and change the encoding format on each camera to H264 but HOW??

For reference, all the cameras are POE through the NVR and have IPs of 192.168.254.xx

My computer is a Mac and is connected to the same router as the NVR via WIFI. If I try to go to the individual camera IP addresses in my browser, IE. 192.168.254.7, I don't get anything to load.

 

[alastairstevenson]

My computer is a Mac and is connected to the same router as the NVR via WIFI. If I try to go to the individual camera IP addresses in my browser, IE. 192.168.254.7, I don't get anything to load.

2 ways to do this :

Assuming the LaView NVR is a Hikvision OEM model (just guessing here) :
In the NVR web GUI under Network | Advanced settings enable 'Virtual Host'.
Then there should be a new right hand column of links in the Camera Configuration page.
Click those to access the connected camera's web GUI.

If Virtual Host isn't a feature -

Set the Mac IP address to be on the same range as the NVR PoE ports use, for example 192.168.254.100
Connect the Mac via an ethernet cable (does it have an ethernet port?) to an unused NVR PoE port.
Then you can access the cameras directly on their actual IP addresses.

 

[Xizenta]

2 ways to do this :

Assuming the LaView NVR is a Hikvision OEM model (just guessing here) :
In the NVR web GUI under Network | Advanced settings enable 'Virtual Host'.
Then there should be a new right hand column of links in the Camera Configuration page.
Click those to access the connected camera's web GUI.

If Virtual Host isn't a feature -

Set the Mac IP address to be on the same range as the NVR PoE ports use, for example 192.168.254.100
Connect the Mac via an ethernet cable (does it have an ethernet port?) to an unused NVR PoE port.
Then you can access the cameras directly on their actual IP addresses.

Thank you for your suggestions. I don't have an ethernet port on my mac. I tried the first suggestion and it did indeed produce a column of links in the camera management page, all of which were the IP address for the NVR )192.168.254.135, followed by a colon and a random port. IE: 65001.

Unfortunately however, none of the links worked. They all time out in both the Seamonkey and Chrome browsers.

Another weird thing I should mention is that I cannot ping any of the ip addresses for the cameras from my router. The cameras also don't show up in the router as connected devices (though they are connected through the NVR and I can view their feeds from other devices on my network).

 

[alastairstevenson]

Unfortunately however, none of the links worked.

I tried the first suggestion and it did indeed produce a column of links in the camera management page, all of which were the IP address for the NVR )192.168.254.135, followed by a colon and a random port. IE: 65001.

Unfortunately however, none of the links worked. They all time out in both the Seamonkey and Chrome browsers.

That should definitely work - what you've described for the addresses is normal. That port number corresponds to the channel number, it's not random.

Another weird thing I should mention is that I cannot ping any of the ip addresses for the cameras from my router.

That's normal - the cameras are on a separate IP address range within the NVR, isolated from the LAN IP address range.

The cameras also don't show up in the router as connected devices

They are not on the LAN - they are on an internal network on the NVR PoE ports.

(though they are connected through the NVR and I can view their feeds from other devices on my network).

You are seeing a camera feed that the NVR is providing - it doesn't come direct from the camera, it's from the NVR.

I don't have an ethernet port on my mac

That's a pity - that connection method would have worked OK.

There is another possibility - as 'Virtual Host' does seem to be available (though oddly it doesn't work for you) as indicated by the links in Camera Configuration.
If you can set the default gateway on one of the cameras to 192.168.254.1 - it's likely set to 192.168.1.1 (or whatever default gateway address the NVR is set to use), it should be possible to access the cameras directly at their actual 192.168.254.x IP addresses.

In the NVR web GUI pick a camera channel and set the mode to Manual instead of Plug&Play
Can you temporarily connect the camera from that channel to the LAN, power it separately from the NVR (eg 12v supply, or PoE switch) and use SADP to set the default gateway to 192.168.254.1 then reconnect the camera to the NVR.
In your LAN router./gateway create a static route, something like -
"For network 192.168.254.0/24 (ie subnet mask 255.255.255.0) use <NVR_LAN_interface_IP_address> as the gateway"
If that works OK- you should be able to access the camera directly using its 192.168.254.x IP address.

 

[alastairstevenson]

all of which were the IP address for the NVR )192.168.254.135

I just noticed - that address range is the one usually used internally by Hikvision NVRs for the PoE ports.
If that's your LAN address range - then there will be a conflict with what the NVR is using which would explain why the links don't work.

What is the IP address range used by your LAN?


**edit** Don't make the static route change in your router - that would have some adverse effects.

Do you have access to the VGA/HDMI interface of the NVR, and can you log in to it?
What does it show for the IP address of the 'Internal NIC' - not the LAN IP address, the other one?

 

[Xizenta]

I already attempted to access the cameras at their ip addresses, 192.168.254.11, for example. But that didn't work.

At some point i assumed it was because my router was giving my mac a subnet outside of 254, so i had my router assign all of its ips in the range of 192.168.254.100-199. There are no cameras in that range.

The internal NIC is 192.168.254.94, the actual address for the NVR assigned by my router is 192.168.254.135 though.

If I had a power brick I think I could access the camera by hooking it up to the router, but I don't have a 12 volt adapter.

 

[Xizenta]

I already attempted to access the cameras at their ip addresses, 192.168.254.11, for example. But that didn't work.

At some point i assumed it was because my router was giving my mac a subnet outside of 254, so i had my router assign all of its ips in the range of 192.168.254.100-199. There are no cameras in that range.

The internal NIC is 192.168.254.94, the actual address for the NVR assigned by my router is 192.168.254.135 though.

If I had a power brick I think I could access the camera by hooking it up to the router, but I don't have a 12 volt adapter.

Nevermind, obtained a power brick and was able to connect all cameras to router one by one and change encoding type to h264 so they are compatible with NVR now. All fixed. Only took like 13 hours. Thanks for the help.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Nevermind, obtained a power brick and was able to connect all cameras to router one by one and change encoding type to h264 so they are compatible with NVR now. All fixed. Only took like 13 hours. Thanks for the help

Well, it's good that you have made the required change.

However -

The internal NIC is 192.168.254.94, the actual address for the NVR assigned by my router is 192.168.254.135 though.

Unless it's the default range for an LTS (Hikvision) NVR, which I doubt, that's an unusual arrangement of addresses that is giving rise to the routing problems you're seeing with Virtual Host not working and no direct access to the cameras.
I presume that the 'Internal NIC' address isn't the original default value (usually 192.168.254.1), and has been customised.
Assuming that the original default address range for the Internal NIC was 192.168.254.0 , that does clash with your LAN range which is the same, so the NVR would have had to be changed away from the default when the NVR was set up.
The same type of situation applies with more than one NVR on a LAN, when there is a requirement to access each NVR's PoE-connected cameras directly using a static route.
If so - something like 192.168.253.0 could be used for the Internal NIC.

In theory - you could re-address the Internal NIC and the connected cameras and thus gain camera access either directly or via Virtual Host.
In practice, though, unless you have a strong need to do more detailed camera configuration, it may be best to leave as-is.

I hope that makes sense.