Three new dead cameras, or...?

Hey everyone,

I have 3 new IP cameras from Monoprice that I'm having a strangely difficult time with. They power up, but I can't communicate with any of them in any way. Two of the cameras I bought recently, and one I bought about a year ago. I figured that the first one was just DOA, but now that I have 2 new ones, I'm doubtful that all three are dead, considering that they all have the exact same symptoms.

They all power up, and the IR LEDs come on whenever I cover the ambient light sensor with my finger. The port on my switch where the camera is plugged in lights up like it has a connection, and flashes occasionally but not constantly.

I've installed the SADP (Search Active Devices Protocol) software that comes with the cameras as well as the Dahua ConfigTool, but nothing at all shows up on a scan. I've used an IP scanner (AngryIP) to scan the IP ranges that they might be on (192.168.1.xxx, and 192.0.0.xxx). Everything else on my home network shows up with AngryIP, but not the cameras. I've also tried using my browser to go directly to 192.168.1.64 / 192.0.0.64 / 192.168.1.108 (all of the default IP addresses that I can find) with no luck. Nothing else on my network is assigned to any of those default addresses.

My testing set-up is this: my laptop (PC, Windows 10) is connected via cat5 to a small, basic POE switch. I'll plug one camera into the switch, as well as a single cat5 that connects to my home network switch (a basic Netgear 8-port dumb switch).

I've eliminated all of the hardware suspects that I can think of. The cat5 cables have all been individually tested for data flow between my laptop & the network. The switch has been swapped out with another unit (one unit is a Monoprice 5-port POE switch #18518, the other is a Netgear FS105 non-POE 4-port dumb switch). Both switches pass the internet to my laptop during testing, and I've tried plugging into multiple different ports in various combinations, so I'm pretty sure it's not a port issue. I've also tried connecting directly between my laptop and a camera via a crossover cable. Both POE & local 12v power supply methods seem to work fine on the cameras. I tested the POE voltage, and it measures 48v. The local 12v power was supplied with my variable bench power supply. I've also installed the SADP software on two different laptops (both Win 10 PCs) with the same results.

At this point I think the trouble is network related, but I'm not sure where. My laptop's network settings are as follows: the IP address is 192.168.1.105 (via DHCP), The subnet mask is 255.255.255.0, and the gateway is 192.168.1.254 (my home router). My home router is set to provide DHCP in the 192.168.1.101 to 192.168.1.199 range. I've also tried changing it to provide DHCP in the 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.100 range with the same results. The cameras don't show up on my home router's list of attached devices, either way.

Here are the cameras:
(2 MP, 2.8mm, eyeball style)
Monoprice 2.1MP Turret IP Security Camera, 2.8mm Fixed lens, Matrix IR up to 100ft, IP66 - Monoprice.com
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=30559
(2 MP, 4mm, eyeball style)
Monoprice 2.1MP Turret IP Security Camera, 1920x1080P@30fps, 4mm Fixed Lens, True WDR 120dB, 1 Matrix IR LED up to 100ft - Monoprice.com

The third camera was discontinued just after I bought it, but it's a 2 MP, 4mm, bullet style, Monoprice unbranded unit in the same price range.

The eyeball cameras don't seem to have a reset switch (external or internal). The bullet style camera does, but it doesn't help any.

I'm not the greatest network engineer, nor am I experienced with IP cameras, so I might be missing something painfully stupid. I've read through the wiki / cliff notes (very nice, by the way!), but no luck. Any suggestions? I'm stumped.

I don’t know how Monoprice sets their firmware, but Dahua cameras come from the factory with a static IP address of 192.168.1.108.

If you haven’t already, might be worth removing all three cameras from the network, pinging 192.168.1.108 to verify no other device on your network is currently using that IP address <temporarily remove any device that does>, plugging just one of the cameras back in, and see if it boots up using that IP address.

I think Monoprice's cameras are made by Hikvision not Dahua.

Start by verifying the status of the link light on your network switch.

In order to connect to something like a camera, you have to put your computer in the same subnet or modify the camera's IP so it's in the same subnet.
Lets say your computer is on a 192.168.1.1 network with a 255.255.255.0 netmask, you generally wouldn't be able to access anything outside of 192.168.1.1-192.168.1.255
The camera's default IP is outside of this range.

These camera setup utilities use some different methods of scanning for the cameras and changing the ip address that make it a little easier. Often this takes the from of using Bonjour and allowing ARP to change the camera's IP address.

Every device on your network needs a UNIQUE ip address. If you plug 3 cameras in that are all trying to use the same static default IP address, none will work.
You need to set up your cameras one at a time.

aristobrat said:

If you haven’t already, might be worth removing all three cameras from the network, pinging 192.168.1.108 to verify no other device on your network is currently using that IP address <temporarily remove any device that does>, plugging just one of the cameras back in, and see if it boots up using that IP address.

Click to expand...

Good suggestion; thanks. I did another IP scan covering the entire 192.168.1.xxx range, and everything is currently at 192.168.1.10 or lower (except the router, which is at 192.168.1.254). My router's list of active devices confirms this as well.

tangent said:

Every device on your network needs a UNIQUE ip address. If you plug 3 cameras in that are all trying to use the same static default IP address, none will work. You need to set up your cameras one at a time.

Click to expand...

Good point. To clarify, the cameras have only ever been plugged into the network one at a time.

I've also heard that Monoprice's cameras are unbranded Hikvision models, but I don't know those units well enough to be sure.

tangent said:

I think Monoprice's cameras are made by Hikvision not Dahua.

Click to expand...

Yep, those appear to be Hiks.

Nashville said:

Good point. To clarify, the cameras have only ever been plugged into the network one at a time.

I've also heard that Monoprice's cameras are unbranded Hikvision models, but I don't know those units well enough to be sure.

Click to expand...

Please check the link lights on your switch.

Hik Default IP is 192.0.0.64
Change your computers IP address to 192.0.0.1 temporarily.

looney2ns said:

Hik Default IP is 192.0.0.64
Change your computers IP address to 192.0.0.1 temporarily.

Click to expand...

*computer's
you only need to change the ip of one device

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

That's what I was missing. I needed to change my laptop's address to 192.0.0.1. I knew it had to be something I overlooked. Thanks for your help!

Being able to reach devices on other address ranges depends on whether one has a router connected....

No router - computer must be in same address range as the camera to reach the camera. No router is available to direct the communications (aka route) packets into another address range. This is what you do when you have just a cable running between the camera and computer.

With router - router knows about different IP ranges that are connected to it. The router can direct packets between different address ranges. Sometimes, the camera must also have its default gateway address pointed at your router for routing to work.

NB: POE switches are not usually routers. So, simply having a POE switch connecting multiple devices doesn't mean you have any routing capability between IP ranges. You still need to assign them address in the same range. If you have a router or NVR doing DHCP assignments, your devices get assigned into the same IP range.

I normally assign a static IP for each camera during initial setup (with just that camera connected to computer ethernet port and computer set to default IP range of camera)

It's nice to have a second set of eyes to look things over! Sometimes it's that *one thing* that gets you.

Other things I've learned today:

- None of the three cameras would let me access or modify a lot of the features in the menu until I accessed them via Internet Explorer. Yuck. Even downloading & running the "WebComponents.exe" file as mentioned in the camera menu didn't help when I was using Firefox (55.0.2) or Chrome (68.0.3440.106). I think it's because the on-camera software uses ActiveX for the video-related menu functions. I also had to click "allow" on a pop-up within IE to let the plugin run.

- The SADP program that came with the cameras (v.2.2.0.50) would still not show anything in its scans, even when I could dial up the camera in my browser. I downloaded the newest version (v.3.0.0.16) from the Hikvision website, which worked. Out of curiosity, I uninstalled the new version & reinstalled the old one. It miraculously started working, too. Who knows...

- The new turret/eyeball cameras would let me get to the splash screen through my browser, but it had an "Activation" pop-up that I couldn't get past. I tried entering the default password of "12345", as well as "admin". No matter what I entered, the pop-up just sat there. Once I got the newer SADP program running, it said that the camera was not activated yet, and gave me a box to enter & confirm a new password. Once that was done, it changed the status to "activated", and I could login through my browser just fine (using "admin" as the username). Interestingly, while the SADP software would see all of the cameras even if my laptop's IP was in a different subnet (192.168.1.xxx instead of the camera's default of 192.0.0.xxx), the software would give me an error of "Others" if I tried activating a new camera while my laptop wasn't in the same subnet. Once I changed my laptop's address to 192.0.0.xxx, the camera activated fine.

Isn't technology grand? LOL.

For security reasons most browser are now blocking puggins and add ins. The browsers do not support the cameras. The cameras will not be full featured with out the plugins.

Use IE or palemoon browser with the plugins.