Blocking camera from phoning home - recommended for initial setup?

JimLS

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I understand the basic idea of blocking the camera. However, for initial setup it seems it will have network and internet access unless I set up the cam an da PC on a blocked subnet for those steps. Most of what I have read start something like - set a fixed IP for the camera... Have done a little network setup but definately not a guru. How do I go about the initial steps without allowing the cam to access the internet or is ongoing access the most worry and initial access isn't a serious concern?
 

looney2ns

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I understand the basic idea of blocking the camera. However, for initial setup it seems it will have network and internet access unless I set up the cam an da PC on a blocked subnet for those steps. Most of what I have read start something like - set a fixed IP for the camera... Have done a little network setup but definately not a guru. How do I go about the initial steps without allowing the cam to access the internet or is ongoing access the most worry and initial access isn't a serious concern?
Plug the camera into your POE switch, plug the computer you want to use into the same POE switch. Don't connect switch to router.
Set the IP address to the same range as the default camera IP range in the computer.
 

tigerwillow1

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I set the camera's gateway address to a nonexistent IP address on my network. I suppose the camera could have intelligence in it to probe for the real gateway address, but so far I haven't seen any traffic from the cameras going out through the router. You need to assign a static IP to the camera to also specify the gateway address.
Added on edit: I realize now you're talking about initial setup. With Dahua cameras, the Config Tool finds cameras even if they're not on your subnet. With a new camera, the first step is to initialize, and the 2nd step is to change the IP address to your subnet. The gateway address is specified at the same time. The complication is if the camera's initial IP happens to be on your subnet and has an address conflict. In that case you have to do something to at least temporarily remove the conflict.
 
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SouthernYankee

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If you have a Router (ASUS or other vendors) that allows you to block the camera MAC address do that. Some times this is called parental controls.

If using Blue Iris use a second NIC card to crate a different separate sub net for cameras only.

If using BI or an NVR use a different VLAN for the cameras.

On an NVR use only the provided POE ports on the NVR.
 

JimLS

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I am running ddwrt on my router (asus). Planning to use zoneminder but haven't looked at the NVR options too closely yet.
 

JimLS

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Looks like I can block by MAC, IP or block of IP addresses. I can block all access or specific items although I don't see how to block everything but NTP (which I have read most cameras need). Camera is SV3C and also has a sticker with B01POE-3MPL-A. Just getting started so thought I would get one going before I bought more hardware. If I plug this into my POE switch how does it get an IP? I have a spare router I could also connect for DHCP without connecting to my regular network or internet.
 

looney2ns

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Looks like I can block by MAC, IP or block of IP addresses. I can block all access or specific items although I don't see how to block everything but NTP (which I have read most cameras need). Camera is SV3C and also has a sticker with B01POE-3MPL-A. Just getting started so thought I would get one going before I bought more hardware. If I plug this into my POE switch how does it get an IP? I have a spare router I could also connect for DHCP without connecting to my regular network or internet.
It will come with a default IP set, you will need to know what that is before hand.
 

looney2ns

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Ask the seller.
Ask the manufacture.
Google says it's 192.168.1.108.....took me 10 seconds to find. Just sayin'. ;)
 

JimLS

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Ask the seller.
Ask the manufacture.
Google says it's 192.168.1.108.....took me 10 seconds to find. Just sayin'. ;)
I found those quickly too (although after I saw your post) but they refer to the IP of the NVR used with the camera not the camera itself. Those sites just say the camera should be on the same IP range but don't say how to set it.

After a bunch more searching I found posts that say it is DHCP by default which makes sense for people to easily add it to their network. I will use a router without internet to provide dhcp and do initial setup.

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catcamstar

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I set the camera's gateway address to a nonexistent IP address on my network. I suppose the camera could have intelligence in it to probe for the real gateway address, but so far I haven't seen any traffic from the cameras going out through the router. You need to assign a static IP to the camera to also specify the gateway address.
"Security by obscurity" was a common technique, but I personally would never advice your non-existing-gateway strategy. There are known network devices (eg IoT's) which spawn new (virtual) network devices with "common gateway" addresses and probe those. It's not that if you don't see it, it is not existant.

Good luck!
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