Setting cameras to static on subnet?

AndrewNorCal

AndrewNorCal

Getting the hang of it
Mar 23, 2023
52
36
Northern California
I'm a relative newbie, but learning fast. I'm setting up BI with POE cameras. (I'm replacing an old Q-See POE DVR.)

I have a PC with two NICs in the case. I want to have the cameras on their own subnet.

My question is: what steps do I follow to set the cameras to static IPs?

Do I configure the camera NIC first with something like 192.168.2.0 with DHCP (I guess IPs assigned by the computer?) then reach the cameras via that to set them to static, then once they are all set, turn off DHCP?

(I've never tried to set a static IP without a router involved!)

Thanks!
Andrew
 
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No you do not assign the camera NIC a DHCP - make it a static number.

Many will use a subnet based on their preferred brand, so Dahua camera default IP is 192.168.1.108, so make the camera NIC something like 192.168.1.100

Then power up your camera and wait a few minutes.

Then go to INTERNET EXPLORER (needs to be Explorer and not Edge or Chrome with IE tab) and type in 192.168.1.108 (default IP address of Dahua cameras) and you will then access the camera.

Tell it your country and give it a user and password.

OR use the IPconfig Tool, but most of us prefer the above as it is one less program needed and one less chance for the cameras to phone home or for something to get screwed up.
 
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Thanks, good to know.

Is there a place to look up the default ip addresses for a given brand/model? On a network scan, about half come up as Dahua but at least four are Tiandy brand...

Wait. I asked Google. Tiandy is 192.168.1.2. Seems I can just do an online search for each brand. Duh.

Just curious, why do the other browsers not work?

Thanks!
Andrew
 
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Many manufacturers have focused the firmware around Internet Explorer (which was the standard once upon a time), even brand new cameras unfortunately. Keep in mind we are not the intended audience of Hikvision and Dahua, it is professional installers with specialized equipment and/or don't update their equipment, so they are not going to invest in changing the firmware until they see a need. As such, those end users usually don't get into the userface like we do, so they haven't really had a need to change what works.

So until their professional installers and their intended market demand or require it, we won't see it and us complaining they don't care because we are not their intended market. They are not going to reinvent the wheel and throw put all firmware and start new until there is a need.

We are just fortunate to be able to get our hands on these cameras.

That doesn't mean that it won't work with other browsers, but most of us have found Explorer to be the tried and true to see and have access to every option of the camera. And some camera models are just more sensitive than others.

For those that do not know...use IE browser for Dahua (and others?) camera GUI to see more options

I've been using Chrome since I bought my first Dahua camera from Andy last year (the good 'ol 4231's). I was able to log in, see menu options, do the config, save, logout....all done. Always wondered how folks were able to see the AI detection boxes livestream and other stuff which I thought...
ipcamtalk.com ipcamtalk.com
 
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OMG, what a PIA. Microsoft has made using IE nearly impossible. I managed to get an IE icon pinned to my taskbar, but when I click it, it launches MS Edge instead.
Microsoft: Windows update to permanently disable Internet Explorer
Microsoft has apparently now disabled most (all?) un-cumbersome workarounds . . . at least with Windows 11 which is on my dedicated BI computer.

Also, if you don't mind more questions... (sorry)

I set the camera NIC to 192.618.1.100 (mask 255.255.255.0) with no gateway and no preferred DNS and IPv4. (As you suggested, thank you!!)

I have a Q-See camera plugged into a POE switch which is plugged directly into the "camera" NIC. (I double-checked, it's the right NIC, this NIC is the TP-LINK card.)

When I got to Edge (no IE, unfortunately), and type 192.168.1.108. It says "This site can't be reached."

The camera NIC settings are set to manual IP assignment, but I noticed that the DNS server assignment is set to DHCP . . . it won't let me set that to manual without entering a DNS IP address, so I suspect "automatic" is ok.

I don't know if it means anything, but when I plug in the camera, the red IR "night lights" around the lens flash then go black. About 30-60 seconds later, they flashed again and something made a "clicking" sound. I tried a second camera and it behaved the same. (These cameras were working fine in testing on my home network, using the POE switch which I have now moved off my main network to the BI computer.)

I tried the Chrome browser and it also couldn't find the camera(s).

I ran Angry IP Scanner on 192.168.1.X and it found the card at 192.168.1.100, but found nothing else. sigh

I'm confused! Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Andrew

p.s. I think I have access to a Windows 7 computer at work that I could temporarily connect the cameras to, if I need to . . . I'll probably want to pick up a POE injector though, or a DC power supply for the camera so don't have to lug around the POE switch!
 
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Do not be too concerned about IE vs Edge. I am using Edge with no major issues. Sometimes in the cam GUI while setting options, I do not get a live view. Not a big deal once the cam is installed to BlueIris as I can see its view there.

For setting up both networks, make sure they are set to Private. Then use the info below:

Screenshot 2023-03-27 215934.JPG

Set up the IP Cam LAN like below, but set the IP address to what you want. I use sub-net 3 (192.168.3.79)

Screenshot 2023-03-27 220357.JPG


Set up the primary LAN side like below:

Screenshot 2023-03-27 220648.JPG
 
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iirc Hikvision and Dahua both have software that can assist ..

example:

Dahua config tool:

DahuaWiki

dahuawiki.com dahuawiki.com

Hikvision ..

Tools

us.hikvision.com us.hikvision.com
 
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Thiere is also The IE tab for edge and or Chrome
1679986248056.png
1679986285415.png
 
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Thanks to everyone, you are all extremely helpful! :)

sdkid said:
Follow the instructions on this post and you will have IE back...
Click to expand...

Thanks, worked like a champ!


samplenhold said:
For setting up both networks, make sure they are set to Private.
Click to expand...

This allows devices to be findable on the network and can be a security risk, right? If you don't mind my impertinence, would you mind taking a sec and explaining why we'd want to do this?

Aside form that and the subnet being different, I had my NICs set correctly.


tangent said:
You could always give this a read it's only 962 pages :lol:
Click to expand...

My degree is in CS and part of me really wants to sit down and read that whole thing!!


mat200 said:
iirc Hikvision and Dahua both have software that can assist ..
Dahua config tool..
Click to expand...

Super helpful. Using the Dahua utility, I reset the used Q-See camera from 192.168.4.xx to 192.168.1.120. (Though it wouldn't let me leave the gateway empty, so I set it to the same as the NIC which is 192.168.2.100.) When I click on "Web" in the utility, it opens a browser window with 192.168.2.120:85 ... BINGO!

I've now got a great start!

Thanks!
Andrew
 
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AndrewNorCal said:
This allows devices to be findable on the network and can be a security risk, right? If you don't mind my impertinence, would you mind taking a sec and explaining why we'd want to do this?
Click to expand...
...
AndrewNorCal said:
My degree is in CS and part of me really wants to sit down and read that whole thing!!
Click to expand...

What year?
 
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AndrewNorCal said:
This allows devices to be findable on the network and can be a security risk, right? If you don't mind my impertinence, would you mind taking a sec and explaining why we'd want to do this?
Click to expand...
Setting it to Private vs Public? Is that your question?

You want your devices on YOUR network to be able to find each other, especially if you use NTP. You want to segregate your home LAN from your IP Cam LAN. That is the purpose of using two NICs.

Network Topology 0.JPG

Nothing on sub-net 2 can see devices on sub-net 1 (Main LAN with internet access).
 
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SpacemanSpiff said:
What year?
Click to expand...

What year for degree? 1989. I was coding mostly using Unix and one class writing assembly for a DOS box. The Unix stuff still comes in handy. I taught my son basic commands on a road trip to college a few years ago while he was in the Unix shell of his MacBook . . . cd, rm, cat, vi, pwd, chmod, etc.

Andrew
 
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samplenhold said:
You want your devices on YOUR network to be able to find each other, especially if you use NTP. You want to segregate your home LAN from your IP Cam LAN. That is the purpose of using two NICs. Nothing on sub-net 2 can see devices on sub-net 1 (Main LAN with internet access).
Click to expand...

Thanks, and that diagram pretty much matches what I'm doing here.

I'm sure I'm going to run into some other hurdle, but I'm excited to work on this more!

Andrew
 
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AndrewNorCal said:
My degree is in CS and part of me really wants to sit down and read that whole thing!!
Click to expand...
In that case you're also likely to appreciate this one which is written with programmers in mind it's only 282 pages Even just reading the first 100 or so pages of the Tanenbaum link would be pretty helpful. A few other resources that are shorter or in video form are quoted below
tangent said:
I watched bits and pieces of some youtube networking tutorials a while ago to find something worth recommending. Very few met my standards.

I highly recommend Eli the Computer Guy's tutorials: Networking - YouTube

A couple other good resources:

Good but more technical than you need (I occasionally reference these two):
Click to expand...
 
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AndrewNorCal said:
What year for degree? 1989. I was coding mostly using Unix and one class writing assembly for a DOS box. The Unix stuff still comes in handy. I taught my son basic commands on a road trip to college a few years ago while he was in the Unix shell of his MacBook . . . cd, rm, cat, vi, pwd, chmod, etc.

Andrew
Click to expand...
C++ was boring... too simple when I was in CS. Assembly language was far more interesting
 
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Uh, question.

I have my camera NIC set to 192.168.2.100. One camera is set to 192.168.2.120. I have it connected to BI and seems to be working fine. (Yay! Thanks!)

I connected a second used Q-See camera (it was working fine during earlier testing) but Dahua utility—while it easily found the first camera set to 192.168.4.xxx before I reset it to 192.168.2.120—can't find this second camera. It only finds the first one. (Maybe the utility found that .4.x camera because it turns out my home network range was set to 192.168.4.x, I've changed it since to 172.16.x.x to be completely different!)

I just added a third used Q-See camera to the POE switch and the utility can't find that one either.

I ran Angry IP Scanner on 192.168.2.x but it only came up with the BI PC and the x.120 camera.

I changed the camera NIC to 192.168.4.1 and ran Angry IP again on the .4.x range to see if the cameras would show up, but no dice.

I changed the camera NIC to 192.168.1.1 and ran Angry IP again on the .1.x range . . . nada.

Just when I thought I had this figured out... sigh

Do I need to take apart these bullet cameras and do a hard reset? (PIA)

Thanks!
Andrew
 
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