16 cam Lorex system functioning abnormally

[Regulator]

Ive had a system working flawlessly for almost a year and while on vacation I started receiving notices that power monitors, home automation, cameras etc had gone offline.

Once I returned and was able to troubleshoot everything I found the internet was down to a crawl, .5-2 Mbps. ISP replaced the modem/router etc and I found the only cure was to shutdown my NVR.

The NVR (NR916-N) and cameras run perfectly when operational with the minor side effect of dropping the speed of the residential system to dial up.



I dont know what all the variables could be but have wondered is it possible for ATT (DSL) to throttle an IP?
Would changing the cameras and NVR over to static fix the sudden change?


Im really at a loss as it was working so well for many months and then suddenly its become incompatible with our network.

Also, there were no power outages, surges or strikes during that weekend. no additional equipment was added.


System:
12 4k X LNE8974
4 2K X LND4751AB

NVR NR916-N
Lorex 16ch switch


8 cameras direct to Lorex switch
4 cameras on network

ATT ISP avg U=12-15 D=2-3 (before issue)

 

[mat200]

Ive had a system working flawlessly for almost a year and while on vacation I started receiving notices that power monitors, home automation, cameras etc had gone offline.

Once I returned and was able to troubleshoot everything I found the internet was down to a crawl, .5-2 Mbps. ISP replaced the modem/router etc and I found the only cure was to shutdown my NVR.

The NVR (NR916-N) and cameras run perfectly when operational with the minor side effect of dropping the speed of the residential system to dial up.



I dont know what all the variables could be but have wondered is it possible for ATT (DSL) to throttle an IP?
Would changing the cameras and NVR over to static fix the sudden change?


Im really at a loss as it was working so well for many months and then suddenly its become incompatible with our network.

Also, there were no power outages, surges or strikes during that weekend. no additional equipment was added.


System:
12 4k X LNE8974
4 2K X LND4751AB

NVR NR916-N
Lorex 16ch switch


8 cameras direct to Lorex switch
4 cameras on network

ATT ISP avg U=12-15 D=2-3 (before issue)

Hi @Regulator

What are you sending through the router?

Did you port forward?
Do you have UPnP turned on?
P2P?

 

[Regulator]

I have all the cameras plugged into a 16 port lorex switch. The 16p switch has one of its 16 ports plugged into a 4P switch that has the network plugged into it.

I did not make any port forwards
honestly not sure what UPnP is
I think P2P is peer to peer but that's about it for my knowledge

 

[Regulator]

Also, Ill add I wired the entire system myself so there is no tech support. I wanted hard lines for everything without wireless cameras so its been a process getting them all mounted and wired. Everything runs into the 16p switch. From that lorex switch a single cat6 connects it to another switch that has a connection to the house ISP. I can unplug the NVR from the network and the speed immediately kicks back to normal. Unfortunately Ive been doing that for a few weeks now, come home, need internet, unplug the NVR.....time for bed, go downstairs and plug the NVR's internet access back in. The wife hates it because we have to disconnect our phones from WiFi to get any service while the cameras are connected to the network. This symptom only occured a few weeks ago and I cant figure out why.

The odd thing is how it all came to an abrupt stop. Maybe an IP conflict? Throttling? I dont think its a hardware issue because the NVR runs great when on, it just kills the speed to the house completely. I actually had to pull the NVR to network cable to get on here and type this.

 

[mat200]

I have all the cameras plugged into a 16 port lorex switch. The 16p switch has one of its 16 ports plugged into a 4P switch that has the network plugged into it.

I did not make any port forwards
honestly not sure what UPnP is
I think P2P is peer to peer but that's about it for my knowledge

HI @Regulator

The 4 port switch that connects the NVR to your LAN should not be plugged into one of the POE ports ( one of the 16 ) but into the one port that is designed for the NVR to connect to the LAN.

Please see the image.

If you had it plugged into one of the other 16 ports you should have had some issues.

Got to your router and check UPnP - this allows items to magically open up port forwarding - you do not want this to happen, as many IoT devices are not carefully designed to be secure.

 

[Regulator]

Just checked the NVR and your image matched the correct port where it is plugged in currently.

checking on the other

 

[Regulator]

Just checked the NVR and your image matched the correct port where it is plugged in currently.

checking on the other

not sure where to go here (image)

 

[mat200]

Just checked the NVR and your image matched the correct port where it is plugged in currently.

checking on the other

Hi Regulator,

If you disconnect the NVR from your LAN switch - does your situation improve?

 

[alastairstevenson]

I'm guessing a bit here on the network config:

not sure where to go here (image)

I don't think you've said what the LAN port of the NVR is plugged in to - except that if you unplug it 'from the network' the internet is OK.
If the LAN port (as per @mat200 image) is plugged in to the router, that is likely the cause of the problem.
If it is, and the Lorex 16 port switch is a separate switch (ie not PoE ports on the back of the NVR) then all the camera traffic will be flowing through the router.
That can be problematic.
If the NVR LAN port is connected to the router, move it to the 16 port Lorex switch.

 

[Regulator]

Hi Regulator,

If you disconnect the NVR from your LAN switch - does your situation improve?

Yes, once disconnected the cameras go offline and the speed returns.

 

[Regulator]

I'm guessing a bit here on the network config:


I don't think you've said what the LAN port of the NVR is plugged in to - except that if you unplug it 'from the network' the internet is OK.
If the LAN port (as per @mat200 image) is plugged in to the router, that is likely the cause of the problem.
If it is, and the Lorex 16 port switch is a separate switch (ie not PoE ports on the back of the NVR) then all the camera traffic will be flowing through the router.
That can be problematic.
If the NVR LAN port is connected to the router, move it to the 16 port Lorex switch.

Ill draw a schematic of the config but I did just try to plug the NVR direct to one of the 16 ports on the Lorex switch and the cameras don't connect.

 

[alastairstevenson]

I did just try to plug the NVR direct to one of the 16 ports on the Lorex switch

Does this mean that you had the NVR LAN port connected to the router?
It can be the case that giving a router the camera video streams to handle across its switch ports can have a big impact on the internet routing task, affecting download and upload speed.

the NVR direct to one of the 16 ports on the Lorex switch and the cameras don't connect.

That seems a bit odd - if it's just another LAN-connected switch port it should just work.
The diagram will be helpful for informing any helpful suggestions.

*edit* But now that I look at the product detail - that NVR has 16 built-in PoE ports.
If that's what all the cameras are wired to - the camera streaming video traffic will stay local to the NVR.
So presumably my assumption that '16 port PoE switch' is a separate switch is incorrect.

 

[Regulator]

I tried connecting the line direct from the NVR to the Lorex Switch but it could not see the cameras for some reason. If someone wanted a private network I assume this is how they would need to connect it so that doesn't make sense to me. Shouldn't the NVR be able to work with the Lorex switch standalone?

Below is the schematic. I have ATT coming out to provision one of the houses built in CAT lines so they don't have to run through the modem.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Below is the schematic.

Based on that diagram, you have 4 cameras streaming video traffic traversing the router switches to reach the NVR.

As a test - would it be feasible to move the uplink from the switch that the 4 cameras on the far left are currently on to the switch that is connected to the router? To stop the camera traffic traversing the router.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Also - as a test - unplug the left side switch, the one with the 4 cameras, from the router, and see if the internet performance is back to normal.

 

[mat200]

Nice diagram @Regulator

@alastairstevenson I believe pointed out an issue which maybe the cause - I'd wager it is - and that the modem / router - removing the cameras from traversing that should significantly help.

 

[Regulator]

Tested:

Removed 4 cameras from router connection = same .03 Dwn .02 Up

Here is the current config. Im on with Lorex tech support now and they are saying the switch and NVR both have to connect to the router so it can assign IP addresses for each camera and the main switch can not connect directly to the NVR or it will cause an exception which apparently is the case.

I asked him if there is a way to keep the system off the network all together, basically be a private network not connected to the internet. I would be fine with that as long as the cameras record etc. I don't really check it when Im away anyway.

He said a router has to be involved to assign IP's, I have extra routers but he said he doesn't know how that would work because no one has ever asked that.

 

[Regulator]

SOLVED

First, thank you all for your support and suggestions. Ive been tearing out what hair I have left for the past couple weeks over this issue.

The rep from Lorex said I was paying for Premium Cloud subscriptions for each camera which I thought I needed to view the cameras remotely. Conversely, they were continuously uploading HD data streams and sub streams to the cloud crushing my router.

Once he disabled all my cloud subscriptions my speeds popped back to normal.

This will be the first night Ill be able to have all the cameras operational and the wife happily wasting time on facebook simultaneously.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Wow!
Well done for getting that figured.
For sure that's not something that occurred to me.

 

[mat200]

Tested:
..
He said a router has to be involved to assign IP's, I have extra routers but he said he doesn't know how that would work because no one has ever asked that.

Good job figuring out the issue.

FYI - you can statically assigned the IP to the IP cameras instead of using DHCP to assign IPs so you can build an isolated setup if you want.