Accessing EmpireTech IP cam web interface behind legacy Dahua NVR - current best practices?

[Derek Kwei]

Hi guys,

For those still wanting to plug a newer EmpireTech IP cam into an older Dahua NVR for its PoE port, what is the current sanctioned/supported method to access the IP camera web interface behind the NVR?

SmartPSS is now discontinued, but I believe there was a feature called Link 2 web. I haven't tried exploring SmartPSS Lite yet, but screenshots don't make it look possible.

Must I unplug the IP cam from the NVR internal network each time I want to modify the IP cam settings? Is there no way around this?

Thanks very much

 

[wittaj]

You should not be changing the cameras settings in SmartPSS.

Best practice is and continues to be accessing the camera GUI via a web browser. That is the same whether it is old or brand new. And it has never involved unplugging the camera from the NVR and in fact that can cause issues later with the NVR and the camera, especially if you plug it in to a different POE port.

To get into the camera GUI from the NVR, you need to first access the NVR GUI by going to a computer and opening up a browser (preferably Internet Explorer (yeah we know) but Pale Moon will work as well) and type in the IP address of the NVR and login that way. Next go into the camera settings page on the NVR and look for the Microsoft e Web Browser and select it and it will go to the camera GUI (photo credit bigredfish from his PSA thread). Your screen may look a little different to get into the camera gui and see if doing it this way gets you access to some other features the NVR is blocking - do not worry about the Port number and circle as that was from another issue someone posted.

Much simpler than disconnecting the camera from the back of the NVR and hooking it to a POE switch and using IPConfigTool to temporarily change the IP address to your subnet to log into the camera GUI and then reverse it to plug it back in to the NVR.

The user/pw should be the same as the NVR unless YOU changed the camera user/pw.


How to enable native Internet Explorer in Windows 10 and 11:

• Open Notepad:
  • Copy then paste the single line of code below into Notepad:
  • CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application").Visible=true
  • Save as OpenIE.vbs
• Make sure the the file name ends in .vbs not .txt, If it ends in .txt you must rename to .vbs
• Create a shortcut to the above file and double-click it anytime you want native Internet Explorer.

 

[bigredfish]

No you dont have to unplug anything

You can access it via logging into the NVR and clicking on the blue IE icon, which will ooen a new window for the caera web interface if you need to make setting changes
Or
You can use SmartPSS and SmartPSS Lite to Liveview/playback/download clips etc

 

[bigredfish]

SmartPSS Lite works exactly the same as the regular SmartPSS

Under Devices Add the NVR by IP or Serial Numbers (Must use P2P for this method) (serial numbers hidden)


And the Cameras will be discovered automatically by SmartPSS Lite

 

[Derek Kwei]

Oh wow - thank you both !

I'm currently using a Mac and tried Pale Moon (Intel) and accessing through the IE icon link worked! It seems to render everything just fine, including the plug-in videos. As expected - Safari didn't work, but neither did this "IE Tab" extension for Chrome.

My thanks again