Always having problems w/ IP setups. Why???

Check your NVR's Bandwidth capabilities and reduce your cameras stream quality to Medium or something. Just because it is capable of running at 3mp per cam on every channel doesnt necessarily mean that it is able to handle it. Here's a bandwidth calculator I use http://www.supercircuits.com/resources/tools/network-ip-security-camera-system-bandwidth-calculator?

Thanks for the heads-up, but I'm not using an "NVR" in the sense of a Chinese appliance. I'm recording and have confirmed the lockups with 3 different video management systems that I assure you are not bandwidth constrained ;) It's a slow fault finding process with an iteration time exceeding some 16 weeks though. I can confidently say the lockup is in the camera, as in it stops responding on the network to any request (ARP or ping) while maintaining a link. The "fix" is a quick port power cycle on the switch.
 
In your case, it could be anything from bad cabling/termination, fluctuating current in your PoE Switch, noise on the ethernet line, etc. I'd check your terminating job. I had a camera which kept going out constantly and it was a bad termination job with exposed cable on the male end
 
In your case, it could be anything from bad cabling/termination, fluctuating current in your PoE Switch, noise on the ethernet line, etc. I'd check your terminating job. I had a camera which kept going out constantly and it was a bad termination job with exposed cable on the male end

5 Cameras, 3 different switches, 2 different locations and 4 different manufacturers patch leads. I've checked *all* the variables. When you try 3 cameras on one switch and reboot one of them 4 weeks into the test so they are staggered and the first 2 lock up after 4 months, the third locks up ~4 weeks later it's not the switch. I've use 2 TP-Link (one managed, one un-managed and a Cisco) and reproduced on all 3. Currently I have 4 cameras with 4 different firmware versions recording to two different VMS simultaneously to see if it is version dependent.

Only happens with Hik 2-line R0 cameras. I have R3 & R4 cameras that are fine on the same hardware/software. They have other ONVIF bugs, but they don't lock up.
 
In your case, it could be anything from bad cabling/termination, fluctuating current in your PoE Switch, noise on the ethernet line, etc. I'd check your terminating job. I had a camera which kept going out constantly and it was a bad termination job with exposed cable on the male end

It's an issue with Hikvision cameras that have been reported by multiple users in two different forms. All of my other 4mp Hikvision, Dahua, Longse and Imporx cameras don't have this issue. Only the 3mp Hikvision Cameras.

Now the question is if I can get Blue Iris to utilize only the RTSP stream so I don't have to worry about the problem in the future.
 
It's an issue with Hikvision cameras that have been reported by multiple users in two different forms. All of my other 4mp Hikvision, Dahua, Longse and Imporx cameras don't have this issue. Only the 3mp Hikvision Cameras.

Now the question is if I can get Blue Iris to utilize only the RTSP stream so I don't have to worry about the problem in the future.
Yes simply select the camera from the drop-down and blue iris and it will pull the rtsp Stream
 
Also be aware of environmental issues that can create the problems you describe, bad weather, wind and rain can enter systems and cause issues that are not visible when you troubleshoot later when they dry out, also power surges or even cleaners using power vacuums, had many an error that needed human monitoring and turned out to be people unplugging power to switches and the like, don't always assume it is 'technical' , look for patterns, check logs and cross check with human interventions. You also have to do basic trouble shooting, swapping CAM3 to another port and see if it remains, if not then single steps of change are needed, cable - power - unit - location.