Access Point for Wireless Cameras

R

rfj

Pulling my weight
Oct 26, 2014
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I am putting all my cameras in a separate VLAN. I have a few wireless cameras that are on my "main network"/LAN (with internet access). I want to connect a separate AP to the camera VLAN and then have the wireless cameras connect to that AP. Are there any particular things to look for when selecting an AP since all devices are streaming devices? I don't think I will have more than 6 wireless cameras and probably most of them Amcrest 841. Maybe I get a couple of the higher resolution ones. Most cams seem to require 2.4GHz but some seem to support 5GHz. I expect that each cam will probably produce about 1MByte/s so with 6 streams that would be 6MBytes/s or about 50Mbits/s. I am thinking of something like a TP-Link EAP225 (AC1350) which also has PoE.
 
If you have an old wifi router sitting around, simply use that and do not plug it into the internet or connect it in any way to your internet router. Just plug it into an available port on the camera switch.
 
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I recommend wireless of at least a 802.11n-rated, not as far back as 802.11g.

To convert a wireless router (that doesn't have an AP feature) to an AP, turn off (disable) the wireless router's DHCP server and give the router's LAN a unique static IP in the same subnet as the cams but outside of the DHCP pool for that subnet's actual (functioning) router.

Connect a LAN port of this "wireless router-converted-to-AP" to a LAN port of your actual functioning router. Have no other Wi-Fi devices connected to the AP, just the wireless cams.

I have 3 non-critical Amcrest 841's connected wirelessly to a dedicated Asus wireless router that I configured to function as an AP as outlined above.....works very well.
 
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Thank you. I gave an older wireless router away about a year ago... It looks like there aren't too many requirements. Based on this, I just bought a used TP-Link EAP225 for $35 incl. shipping. It seems to more than meet requirements and it also supports 802.3af/at PoE so I can avoid another cable.
 
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rfj said:
Thank you. I gave an older wireless router away about a year ago... It looks like there aren't too many requirements. Based on this, I just bought a used TP-Link EAP225 for $35 incl. shipping. It seems to more than meet requirements and it also supports 802.3af/at PoE so I can avoid another cable.
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That's a very good one. I installed one a year ago in the ceiling of a local Mexican restaurant.
 
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With Deauth attacks being cheap and gaining popularity, you may want to consider going all-wired instead depending on your threat environment. As most wifi cameras don't support WPA 3
 
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