Blue Iris worked and now it doesn't

[Hal Roberts]

I have spent upwards of 80 hours trying to get a remote Dahua SD59230S-HN camera to work over a DSL connection remotely. I can log into it no problem but I cannot maintain a stable connection for more than a few minutes.

You can try it at:
lhi.minnetonkayachtclub.org
User: myc
PW: myc

The video will stop and go black with an error message: "Resource is limited, failed to open video". See error message below:

Dahua refuses to say what this error message means, i.e. what latency or lost packets will trigger it, at least they will not tell my sales agent, Wrightwood Surveillance. I just tried this and got 10 minutes of video, tried again and got 18 minutes, which is kind of a record. It usually dies within a few minutes, see connection test chart below.

It can be restarted by refreshing and logging back in or more simply by switching from TCP to UDP (which never works) to TCP again using the drop down protocol selection on the top.

Dahua says my 1.5Mbps DSL uplink isn't fast enough and I need >5Mbps. Has anyone gotten a Dahua camera to work with my uplink speeds? In any case this is absolutely not true since I can get good HD video albeit at low FPS for minutes at a time. Perhaps the DSL experiences low rates occasionally but I have done many local speedtest.net tests and always get the same speeds. You can see the speed tests below and the duration of keeping the video alive in minutes in the chart below.

In any case I turned the video down to lowest resolution and frame rate and only need about 260kbps and still the video freezes. Clearly Dahua software is too fragile if I can restart the video but the Dahua browser plugins cannot restart the video themselves. In fact I can use Blue Iris software to view the camera and it does not freeze up. But since this is for a sailing club to view (hundreds of members) I can't ask everyone to buy the BI software.

I worked with the Network Camera Critic to get an Unreal Media Server on a laptop which is within the LAN the camera is on and use it as a camera web server. I opened port 5119 on the DSL router for this purpose. This works. However it is just a video viewer on the browsers and has no PTZ buttons to control the camera. I do not have the expertise to write PTZ code to work with the UMS.

See NCC's instructions: http://www.networkcameracritic.com/?p=1290

However, Blue Iris has a web server. I loaded BI onto the laptop and again set it to use port 5119 to web serve. This was not working but suddenly with no changes on my part it started to work. Since it has PTZ controls I was in business! Until a day or so later it stopped working and hasn't worked since. I have been back and forth with Blue Iris support and they cannot help me.

I fired up the Unreal Media Server again and it does work, again using port 5119, so there is nothing wrong with 5119 and I also confirmed that with canyouseeme.org.

So I can see only two solutions:

1. Figure out how to put PTZ buttons on the web page for the UMS.
2. Get Blue Iris working again.

Any help would be HUGELY appreciated.

Hal Roberts

 

[fenderman]

Welcome to the forum.....The login credentials you provided were not admin credentials so i cant look at your video settings...I have seen this issue come up in posts from time to time but there is no proper solution that ive seen...
As far as blue iris, did you ensure that the unreal server is not interfering with the port? As a test, use a different port for blue iris and see if the issue returns...

 

[Hal Roberts]

Fenderman,

Thanks! Here is an admin login you can use:

User: CameraCritic
PW: Dahua

I have been thinking exactly along the same lines as you are, i.e. maybe there is a port conflict between unreal server and BI server. I disabled the unreal server and thought that would eliminate that possibility. I would have started the BI server with a different port if there wasn't another MADDENING issue that cropped up about a month ago: I no longer can log into the CenturyLink DSL router to change settings. The last time I was able to change settings was when I set up 5119 port for the unreal server. I have spoken with CenturyLink and they have no solution other than re-powering the router. However the camera, LAN and router are all on an island on Lake Minnetonka. Boats have long been put away for the winter. We have had to wait for the ice to freeze so we have access to the island again. The ice has just frozen enough to consider walking out to the island. I really don't understand what happens within the laptop when traffic comes through port 5119. How does the laptop know what application the traffic is dedicated for? Should I completely uninstall the unreal server, not just disable it? Is there some setting in the laptop operating system (Windows 7) that forever now assumes Port 5119 traffic must go to unreal server application?

Hal

 

[fenderman]

Settings look ok, except i would lower the i-frame from 6 to 3 to match your fps...also try using h.264 instead of h.264h and see if that helps...disable the substream if you are not using it...
Not sure about the port conflict issue, but i would uninstall and reboot the system to test..

Also, i would remove those credentials from your earlier post so someone doesn't sabotage your camera (in the future its best to private message the info)..

 

[haykong]

is the CenturyLink DSL router the only router that you have there? I never liked using the routing functions of consumer DSL routers they tend to crash once in a while. If you wanted something reliable and cheap, I recommend EdgeRouter Lite it's about $99, but is a router that is not easily to configure, but has a few wizards that can get you going. However, it's very reliable and considered a business class router. Oh does the club have a static ip or dynamic ip?

 

[haykong]

Fenderman,

Thanks! Here is an admin login you can use:

User: CameraCritic
PW: Dahua

I have been thinking exactly along the same lines as you are, i.e. maybe there is a port conflict between unreal server and BI server. I disabled the unreal server and thought that would eliminate that possibility. I would have started the BI server with a different port if there wasn't another MADDENING issue that cropped up about a month ago: I no longer can log into the CenturyLink DSL router to change settings. The last time I was able to change settings was when I set up 5119 port for the unreal server. I have spoken with CenturyLink and they have no solution other than re-powering the router. However the camera, LAN and router are all on an island on Lake Minnetonka. Boats have long been put away for the winter. We have had to wait for the ice to freeze so we have access to the island again. The ice has just frozen enough to consider walking out to the island. I really don't understand what happens within the laptop when traffic comes through port 5119. How does the laptop know what application the traffic is dedicated for? Should I completely uninstall the unreal server, not just disable it? Is there some setting in the laptop operating system (Windows 7) that forever now assumes Port 5119 traffic must go to unreal server application?

Hal

You're centurylink could be the issue that responsible for the inconsistent link to the camera... especially now that you can longer log onto the centurylink. I recommend putting the centurylink in bridge model get something reliable like Edgerouter Lite and a separate wireless access point if it's one of the centurylink that has wireless. What else does the club have in terms of network and devices ? I can recommend a few good products since I'm an IT network consultant.

 

[Hal Roberts]

haykong,

The DSL router is the only one we have, but it is a special DSL bonded-pair router, latest and greatest, so I can't replace with a generic. It has been more stable than our previous single pair router for everything except this recent inability to log into the GUI. I want to reboot the router when we get a chance to cross the ice to see if it comes back. Otherwise we need CenturyLink to fix it.

Hal

 

[fenderman]

Century link may be able to reboot it remotely....also dont forget to delete the credentials in the above post..

 

[haykong]

haykong,

The DSL router is the only one we have, but it is a special DSL bonded-pair router, latest and greatest, so I can't replace with a generic. It has been more stable than our previous single pair router for everything except this recent inability to log into the GUI. I want to reboot the router when we get a chance to cross the ice to see if it comes back. Otherwise we need CenturyLink to fix it.

Hal

That fine keeping the centurylink since you guys have a bonded pair so i presume you have a static ip right? Do you guys have a 5 static ip range? You should be able to install your install your own router in back of the centurylink and not depend so much on the centurylink and configure it with one of the other static ip that's provided.

 

[Hal Roberts]

Settings look ok, except i would lower the i-frame from 6 to 3 to match your fps...also try using h.264 instead of h.264h and see if that helps...disable the substream if you are not using it...
Not sure about the port conflict issue, but i would uninstall and reboot the system to test..

Also, i would remove those credentials from your earlier post so someone doesn't sabotage your camera (in the future its best to private message the info)..

I changed the video settings as per your suggestions and removed the admin credentials. Thanks.

 

[haykong]

oh that reminds me, have you tried calling the DSL provider to see if they can log in and reboot it remotely ? They should be able to login through ssh and bypass the gui to remotely reboot it.

 

[Hal Roberts]

That fine keeping the centurylink since you guys have a bonded pair so i presume you have a static ip right? Do you guys have a 5 static ip range? You should be able to install your install your own router in back of the centurylink and not depend so much on the centurylink and configure it with one of the other static ip that's provided.

I don't think we have a static IP, we do use a DDNS service. I will definitely look into a different router if we can't get this to work. I'd rather not add yet one more box to our increasingly complex system.

I had asked this before but does anyone know what happens to the ported traffic once it gets into a laptop and how that traffic is routed to the proper server?

-H

 

[Hal Roberts]

oh that reminds me, have you tried calling the DSL provider to see if they can log in and reboot it remotely ? They should be able to login through ssh and bypass the gui to remotely reboot it.

Yes, I thought that they could do this too. I called them and at least the person I talked to said that he could not do that. Seems lame, an access network operator should surely be able to reboot remotely.

- - - Updated - - -

You're centurylink could be the issue that responsible for the inconsistent link to the camera... especially now that you can longer log onto the centurylink. I recommend putting the centurylink in bridge model get something reliable like Edgerouter Lite and a separate wireless access point if it's one of the centurylink that has wireless. What else does the club have in terms of network and devices ? I can recommend a few good products since I'm an IT network consultant.

Haykong, I forgot to answer your other questions, "What else does the club have in terms of network and devices?" We have a weather station and the laptop that is hosting Blue Iris is also acting as the host for the weather station application (Davis Vantage Pro). We share the DSL access with the sailing school, they have a Mac hard wired to the DSL router and connect via the DSL router WiFi with tablets and laptops. To get the Dahua traffic to the DSL router we have a PepLink outdoor WiFi AP hardwired to the DSL router. The Dahua camera is connected via Cat5 to an outdoor Engenius Wi-Fi adapter that connects to the PepLink. The Wi-Fi between the EnGenius and the Peplink is line-of-site and has a very high RSSI and is running at max rates.

So I think we need the firewall functions of the DSL router intact.

-H

 

[haykong]

Yes, I thought that they could do this too. I called them and at least the person I talked to said that he could not do that. Seems lame, an access network operator should surely be able to reboot remotely.

- - - Updated - - -


Haykong, I forgot to answer your other questions, "What else does the club have in terms of network and devices?" We have a weather station and the laptop that is hosting Blue Iris is also acting as the host for the weather station application (Davis Vantage Pro). We share the DSL access with the sailing school, they have a Mac hard wired to the DSL router and connect via the DSL router WiFi with tablets and laptops. To get the Dahua traffic to the DSL router we have a PepLink outdoor WiFi AP hardwired to the DSL router. The Dahua camera is connected via Cat5 to an outdoor Engenius Wi-Fi adapter that connects to the PepLink. The Wi-Fi between the EnGenius and the Peplink is line-of-site and has a very high RSSI and is running at max rates.

So I think we need the firewall functions of the DSL router intact.

-H

Doesn't matter that you don't have static ip. You can put the centurylink to bridge mode and let alternative router do all the routing. In bridge mode it passes the wan ip to the alternative router. However if you do this all wireless functions in the centurylink will be disabled so you would need to either get wireless router or wired router with a separate wireless access point. Personally, I prefer more advanced routers that have built-in VPN and other features.

At this point you might keep current setup til you are ready for more advanced functions and reliabilty.

Going back to your issue with loss of video feed to the camera when using the built-In camera viewing functions. You said you don't have that issue when recording to blueiris via local laptop right?

 

[Hal Roberts]

Going back to your issue with loss of video feed to the camera when using the built-In camera viewing functions. You said you don't have that issue when recording to blueiris via local laptop right?

Yes, when using Blue Iris as a viewer on my laptop, it does not lose the video feed (Note: I'm not 'recording' anything, just viewing). So BI is a solution but for the purpose of allowing hundreds of club members to access the camera, buying hundreds of licenses of BI is not an option. Our previous webcam was a Panasonic, maybe 6-8 years old. It had poor resolution and no zoom, plus the lens clouded over time. But it 'just worked' over the same LAN and DSL as we have now. We spent about an hour configuring that camera and I've spent over 80 hours trying to get this one to work.

 

[fenderman]

fyi, you dont have to buy hundreds of licenses, blue iris has a websever built in..they can all log into that free...
The webserver can even limit how many simultaneous connections can occur so that you dont kill the bandwidth...

 

[bp2008]

I had asked this before but does anyone know what happens to the ported traffic once it gets into a laptop and how that traffic is routed to the proper server?

-H

When a web server (like the one in Blue Iris) starts up, it "binds" itself to a port. This tells the operating system (Windows in this case) that incoming traffic to that port should be delivered to Blue Iris. So if you have Blue Iris set up to use port 5119, then any traffic coming in to the system using port 5119 is delivered to Blue Iris.

Only one application can bind any particular port at once. If another application is set up to use the same network port number, then it will fail as long as the first app is bound to that port. Often, apps do not clearly report this situation and things just appear to "not work". There are ways to determine which ports are bound to apps --- for example try running the command netstat -a | find "LISTENING" in the windows command prompt.

More info: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28609/how-can-i-tell-what-is-listening-on-a-tcpip-port-in-windows/

 

[hmjgriffon]

have you tried basic network connectivity testing? Like run a continuous ping to the IP of the camera while you are using it, when the web page craps out, see if the ping also craps out, if so, you have a problem with the connection. See what the latency of a ping is, maybe the web interface doesn't long hiccups in the connection for too long. If you had a way to monitor the link to see what is going on that would be awesome but you can use some basic tools.