Lorex NVR -- Two buildings, 2 NVR's, one monitor?

GeneJr88

n3wb
May 19, 2025
3
0
Connecticut
Hello all,

I’m looking for some insight or guidance on a multi-building Lorex NVR setup, and I’ll keep the explanation as clear and concise as possible.

We have two buildings, each with its own Lorex Elite Series 4K 32-channel NVR. Each building houses 16 cameras, for a total of 32 across both locations. The buildings sit across the street from one another, so running additional cabling between them isn’t feasible. However, we do have a fiber optic connection between the two buildings, which ties both NVRs into the same local network via access points connected to a central router.

Here’s the interesting part: While setting up the NVR in Building 2, one of the cameras physically connected to NVR #1 in Building 1 appeared in the device search and could be added to NVR #2. That camera is now visible on both NVRs.

After some investigation, I noticed that the camera which successfully shows up on both NVRs is assigned a 192.168.x.x IP address, unlike all the other cameras, which are on a 10.1.x.x subnet—presumably assigned by NVR #1’s internal DHCP for its PoE ports.

This leads to my goal:
We would like to display all 32 cameras on monitors in both buildings, meaning each NVR would ideally have access to all 32 cameras. I know this should be impossible using the NVR PoE ports alone, since those usually assign a private subnet and isolate traffic. But since one camera has somehow retained or received a 192.168.x.x LAN IP and is visible across the network, I’m hoping there's a way to replicate this behavior.

So far, I’ve tried the following without success:

Disconnecting and reconnecting cameras

Resetting NVRs

Switching network settings to static

Attempting to reassign IPs via the NVR interface

It seems that once a camera is plugged into the NVR’s PoE port, its IP is locked into that private subnet and not visible to other devices on the LAN. However, the fact that one camera is clearly an exception has me wondering if this was a fluke, a static IP config that stuck, or a hint at a possible solution.

My question is:
Has anyone successfully shared cameras across two Lorex NVRs when the cameras are plugged directly into the NVRs’ PoE ports?
Or better yet—can anyone explain how I might replicate this 192.168.x.x IP assignment for the rest of the cameras so both NVRs can see all devices?

Any insight or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
 
The camera on the 192.168.x.x IP can't be plugged into the NVR PoE port, or its broadcasting a Wifi IP (like my cheap Amcrest indoor shed camera that has both a HW IP and Wifi IP)

The easy way would be to simply put your two NVRs into "Bridge Mode", making them effectively plain old pass through switches. The NVR switch will behave like any other switch on the LAN

Bridge-Mode.jpg
 
The camera on the 192.168.x.x IP can't be plugged into the NVR PoE port, or its broadcasting a Wifi IP (like my cheap Amcrest indoor shed camera that has both a HW IP and Wifi IP)

The easy way would be to simply put your two NVRs into "Bridge Mode", making them effectively plain old pass through switches. The NVR switch will behave like any other switch on the LAN

View attachment 221295
Hmm, i like this idea. I noticed that when I plug these cameras into a switch, i can then discover them on the network. Do you know how I can go about enabling the NVR's in bridge mode? I have scoured the settings several times and have never come across this option unless I have missed it.
 

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I showed the screen grab from a Dahua NVR, sorry can't help you with Lorex? It may not have that functionality, they're lower end stuff IMHO
 
I showed the screen grab from a Dahua NVR, sorry can't help you with Lorex? It may not have that functionality, they're lower end stuff IMHO
Makes sense, I think i am SOL in terms of what I am trying to do. Can you think of any out of the box suggestions to get my idea to work? Only thing I can think of, is manually plugging into every camera and forcing IP address change if allowable, or plugging every camera I have into a switch and plugging the switch into an NVR.
 
Yes plugging the cameras AND the NVR into an external switch and the LAN port from the switch to your LAN would work