5.4.5 Network Disconnected Exceptions

[Bink]

I purchased a few of these Hikvision PoE cameras and, unlike my other Hikvision PoE cameras, all of these cameras report Network Disconnected Exceptions in their logs every 1-3 minutes. My managed PoE switch reports the ports the cameras are using going off-line every 1-3 minutes and coming back online a few seconds later, even though there are no errors reported for these ports. I’ve tried different switch ports, different network cabling, mounting the cameras in different physical locations, connecting the cameras to an unmanaged switch, using the provided AC adapter and updating to the latest firmware, but the issue persists.

HOWEVER, if I run a constant ping or ping the camera every minute, the issue is solved.

It appears others have had this issue as well per https://ipcamtalk.com/threads/periodic-network-disconnected-exceptions-hikvision-ds-2cd2542fwd-iws-firmware-v5-4-1-build-160525.15645/ and https://ipcamtalk.com/threads/ds-2cd2112-domecam-network-disconnected-errors.12562/, but, since those are old threads, I thought I’d start a new one.

What gives, and how do I resolve (without pings!)?

Cheers.

 

[alastairstevenson]

I don't have a 2442 - but the R0 5.4.5 firmware behaves in a similar way, if there is nothing pulling packets from the camera over the LAN such as an NVR, or Live View client, or SADP polling.
It looks like it's a slightly flawed attempt to fix up soft problems. The packet counter isn't incremented by broadcast packets, for example.

#
# no tx packets
reset eth0.
[06-15 15:15:40][pid:863][SADP][ERROR]get_capture_packet failed, caplen=-1
[  306.893204] net eth0: Could not find default PHY in 9.
[  306.899004] net eth0: Try PHY[9] whose id is 0x00008201!
[  306.907297] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[  308.902827] PHY: 0:09 - Link is Up - 100/Full
[  308.921342] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
# date
Thu Jun 15 15:15:48 UTC 2017
# no tx packets
reset eth0.
[06-15 15:19:41][pid:863][SADP][ERROR]get_capture_packet failed, caplen=-1
[  548.016737] net eth0: Could not find default PHY in 9.
[  548.023498] net eth0: Try PHY[9] whose id is 0x00008201!
[  548.035408] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[  550.022713] PHY: 0:09 - Link is Up - 100/Full
[  550.027491] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
#

 

[Bink]

So every camera on 5.4.5, or at least the R0 and R6s, behaves this way? I had the same issue with 5.4.4.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Certainly I've seen this on all cameras running 5.4.5
It's not a real problem and can be ignored I believe.
It looks like Hikvision have added some code to keep a check on the network activity, outbound packets, and if over a period of several minutes sees none, does a down/up on the ethernet interface to force a reset just in case the hardware has stopped responding.
Ideally it should not do this when there is nothing wrong - but it's treating an idle state as a potential faulty state.

 

[Bink]

It is a problem if you’re like me and don’t need an NVR—when I try to connect directly to my cameras they’re offline and take time to respond so this makes my cameras far less useful. That said, there’s an additional behavior when this happens and every 1-12 hours or so the cameras experience, and log, an Abnormal Shutdown—talk about a broken behavior!

Sadly pings resolve both issues :/ !

 

[aaronwt]

I just picked up one of these last weekend with a second one on the way. I guess this is why it showed once as disconnected, before I had added it to Blue Iris. Since I've had it connected to Blue Iris I have not seen any issues.

 

[Bink]

Thanks for chiming in aaronwt— I’m surprised Hikvision allows this bug to continue to persist for months, but I guess I’m not too surprised.

 

[VorlonFrog]

My DS-2CD2442FWD-IW with firmware V5.4.4_161125 is showing this behavior, as well.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Thanks for chiming in aaronwt— I’m surprised Hikvision allows this bug to continue to persist for months, but I guess I’m not too surprised.

Is your camera just sitting idle on the network, with no video being pulled from it to keep the network packet counters alive?

 

[Bink]

Is your camera just sitting idle on the network, with no video being pulled from it to keep the network packet counters alive?

Usually, yes.

 

[VorlonFrog]

My cube camera was purchased from POE Depot through Amazon, so Hikvision wasn't willing to support it. No surprise there. I contacted POE Depot's Support phone number, and they pointed me to firmware v5.4.5 build 170124. Here's the link to the file, if you're willing to test it.

 

[Bink]

My cube camera was purchased from POE Depot through Amazon, so Hikvision wasn't willing to support it. No surprise there. I contacted POE Depot's Support phone number, and they pointed me to firmware v5.4.5 build 170124.

This is the build I use and it has the issue.

 

[VorlonFrog]

This is the build I use and it has the issue.

If that's the case, I'll call them back tomorrow, and create a support ticket.
These cameras are not reliable as security devices while this issue exists.
Additionally, their value is greatly diminished by the issue.

 

[Bink]

These cameras are not reliable as security devices while this issue exists.
Additionally, their value is greatly diminished by the issue.

At this point I’m “suffering” the issue and have another device sending pings to the cameras every minute. While I’m not holding my breath for Hikvision to fix this poor QA bug—it’s been around for, at least, 6 months (5.4.4 was uploaded to the Europe site on 12/26/2016)!—I’m hoping it’ll get resolved in my lifetime. Definitely unacceptable though.

 

[VorlonFrog]

If they can't resolve it soon, I'm returning it to POE Depot as defective.
They need to feel the problem in order to pressure Hikvision to correct it.

 

[Bink]

If they can't resolve it soon, I'm returning it to POE Depot as defective.
They need to feel the problem in order to pressure Hikvision to correct it.

I feel you. Unfortunately POE Depot is tiny and are not authorized to resell these—so don’t expect much.

 

[VorlonFrog]

Here's something I noticed while reviewing my network settings. The camera defaults to an MTU value of 1500. I changed this to 1492 after loading v5.4.5 on the camera. It seems to be okay right now, but I'm keeping an eye on it in BI this evening.

 

[Bink]

...I'm keeping an eye on it in BI this evening.

If you’re running BI/constantly putting packets on this wire, you shouldn’t be experiencing this issue.

 

[VorlonFrog]

If you’re running BI/constantly putting packets on this wire, you shouldn’t be experiencing this issue.

No, I'm simply reviewing the event log / counters later tonight.

 

[VorlonFrog]

And it appears there were 89 "No Signal" exceptions logged overnight.

I've dropped the MTU to 1454, and decreased the video resolution and maximum bitrate. My feeling is, something is wonky with the network driver. Hikvision firmware should NOT be leaving the wired LAN connection active while the WiFi is active, and vice versa.

Even Foscam cameras don't have this problem.



Nope, even after decreasing the camera's values, the camera has still logged 16 "No Signal" exceptions in just the last 90 minutes.