Cameras lose signal then return

[castlemark]

My system has 3 Hikvision POE outside cameras wired to a 4 port POE switch, then one cable to a wireless network router which is wired to my PC and has been running just fine with Blue Iris 4, Win 7, for 4 years or so. Suddenly last week the Blue Iris screens would have all 3 cameras report no signal for a few seconds then start working. Then do it again 3 to 7 minutes later, over and over. This seemed like a power problem to me so I checked the power brick for the switch. It's supposed to be 48v power but it checked 47.2v so thinking it was slowly dieing, I bought a new more powerful 4 port POE switch with a power brick that has a 70v output. Now I still get the same no signal error but it's 30 minutes to an hour apart and the no signal condition only lasts about 2 seconds. So it's working better but that wasn't problem or only problem. Any ideas what I can do to fix this?

 

[sebastiantombs]

Assuming when you say "router" you mean the router supplied by your ISP or perhaps supplied by you, get it out of the "loop" in terms of connecting to your PC. Home grade routers don't have the bandwidth capabilities to handle constant, high volume, video traffic from surveillance cameras. Streaming a movie allows buffering so that's not a problem. There is no buffering in a live video stream and any lost/dropped packets result in retries which lead to more dropped packets in a circularly increasing number. That will drop the connection for you.

 

[pozzello]

try swapping out the ethernet cable between your PoE switch and the rest of your network. the fact swapping PoE switch (probably using same ethernet) had any effect indicates a connection issue on that link (ie, it may have been the act of disconnecting/reconnect on that ethernet plug that caused the change in behavior, not the switch itself)

 

[castlemark]

Assuming when you say "router" you mean the router supplied by your ISP or perhaps supplied by you, get it out of the "loop" in terms of connecting to your PC. Home grade routers don't have the bandwidth capabilities to handle constant, high volume, video traffic from surveillance cameras. Streaming a movie allows buffering so that's not a problem. There is no buffering in a live video stream and any lost/dropped packets result in retries which lead to more dropped packets in a circularly increasing number. That will drop the connection for you.

The router is mine it's a D-Link AC3200 ultra router that has worked fine for years on this setup. I have built a new using a ASRock x570 PG Volentia motherboard which has WiFi6 built in so it's probably time to update my router. So you say home grade routers don't have the bandwidth to handle surveillance cameras, what routers with WiFi6 will have? Or is there a better way to set this up?

 

[castlemark]

try swapping out the ethernet cable between your PoE switch and the rest of your network. the fact swapping PoE switch (probably using same ethernet) had any effect indicates a connection issue on that link (ie, it may have been the act of disconnecting/reconnect on that ethernet plug that caused the change in behavior, not the switch itself)

I left this setup alone, it has been problem free for years so the cable between the switch and router and switch to cameras have not been removed at all since first plugging them in. I do have another cable to give your suggestion a try with.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Are your cameras actually connected via the WiFi? If so any change, like a neighbor adding a WiFi network an AP can easily deep six your WiFi connection for the camera. Rule of thumb is that WiFi is not for surveillance cameras. I just had a quick look and D-link doesn't seem to list what the backplane bandwidth is so maybe it can handle constant video and then again maybe not. They do talk about streaming video but, again, that's not the same as constant video streams from surveillance cameras. Have a look with a WiFi scanner and see what's going on in the WiFi signal end of things.

I have two switches on my network, one for the cameras and one for everything else including the connection to the router. The machine has dual NICs and one is dedicated to the cameras and on a totally different address scheme for security so it connects to both switches. I could, if I didn't want that added security, just daisy chain the switches.

 

[pozzello]

those cams seem to use a proprietary P2P wireless connection to the reciever unit that plugs into the DVR via BNC connection on an adapter/octopus cable. So 'normal' wifi bandwidth and troubleshooting will not apply. That said, they could still be knocked out by the microwave or other such interference...

edit: my bad, this response about wireless cams was intended for another thread i was follwoing...

 

[castlemark]

Are your cameras actually connected via the WiFi? If so any change, like a neighbor adding a WiFi network an AP can easily deep six your WiFi connection for the camera. Rule of thumb is that WiFi is not for surveillance cameras. I just had a quick look and D-link doesn't seem to list what the backplane bandwidth is so maybe it can handle constant video and then again maybe not. They do talk about streaming video but, again, that's not the same as constant video streams from surveillance cameras. Have a look with a WiFi scanner and see what's going on in the WiFi signal end of things.

I have two switches on my network, one for the cameras and one for everything else including the connection to the router. The machine has dual NICs and one is dedicated to the cameras and on a totally different address scheme for security so it connects to both switches. I could, if I didn't want that added security, just daisy chain the switches.

As mentioned earlier, my cameras are POE thus they are not wireless. If I do buy a new router that might handle the bandwidth it needs to be WiFi6 capable to go with my new PC. Since the cameras are not WiFi I dont see how some new neighbor's wifi network would effect my POE cameras.

 

[sebastiantombs]

If the cameras were WiFi they could be effected. I didn't understand exactly how that PoE switch was connected to the router.

Personally, you'd be better served getting another, non PoE switch to aggregate the the PoE, PC and other equipment and connect that to the router. If you're worried about speed to other devices I get 800/800on a wired connection and 400/400 on a WiFi connected laptop. A 16 port gig switch can be had for around $50 versus at new router at $100-$200.

 

[wittaj]

If hardwired cameras are passing through a wifi router it can be an issue - as others have mentioned - they are very poor at passing the data heavy requirements of these types of cameras. And all you need is a wifi device at half signal somewhere in a corner of the house slowing the whole thing down. Or a microwave or neighbors wifi interference.

Go from the POE switch into another switch that the BI and other hardwired devices connect to and then that switch to the router. That way the camera feeds are not passing thru the router.

You could try temporarily turning off wifi in the router and see if it improves. I was running an old wifi router not connected to the internet as a switch but allowed wifi so I could just jump on that wifi and view the cams but the system was slow and non-responsive. As soon as I turned wifi off the system stabilized.

 

[castlemark]

If hardwired cameras are passing through a wifi router it can be an issue - as others have mentioned - they are very poor at passing the data heavy requirements of these types of cameras. And all you need is a wifi device at half signal somewhere in a corner of the house slowing the whole thing down. Or a microwave or neighbors wifi interference.

Go from the POE switch into another switch that the BI and other hardwired devices connect to and then that switch to the router. That way the camera feeds are not passing thru the router.

You could try temporarily turning off wifi in the router and see if it improves. I was running an old wifi router not connected to the internet as a switch but allowed wifi so I could just jump on that wifi and view the cams but the system was slow and non-responsive. As soon as I turned wifi off the system stabilized.

The old PC, the one i'm still using for the cameras, doesnt have WiFi built in so the camera feed comes in on one port and right back out another port to BI on my old PC. I can try turning off the WiFi but I still need the WiFi to run things around here. Also I don't now but soon want to setup cloud storage for a few days bandwidth. It has worked fine for years. I'm thinking something has worn down and the switch power brick is down in volts enough to cause this. I'll try these suggestions and see if it gets better.

 

[castlemark]

If hardwired cameras are passing through a wifi router it can be an issue - as others have mentioned - they are very poor at passing the data heavy requirements of these types of cameras. And all you need is a wifi device at half signal somewhere in a corner of the house slowing the whole thing down. Or a microwave or neighbors wifi interference.

Go from the POE switch into another switch that the BI and other hardwired devices connect to and then that switch to the router. That way the camera feeds are not passing thru the router.

You could try temporarily turning off wifi in the router and see if it improves. I was running an old wifi router not connected to the internet as a switch but allowed wifi so I could just jump on that wifi and view the cams but the system was slow and non-responsive. As soon as I turned wifi off the system stabilized.

Ok , I see what your getting at. I just happen to have two network switches so I can try what you want. Since BI is running on a PC with your setup I could run the cameras or internet connection but not both except that PC just happens to have 2 LAN ports so I can run both.

 

[beepsilver]

Have you changed the video compression on your cameras from H264 to something else? How about smart codec settings? And finally is Blue Iris set to use hardware decoding for your cameras?

Try setting a camera to use H264, no hardware decoding and no smart codec settings to see if that resolves the issue.

 

[castlemark]

I haven't changed any camera settings in months and the settings mentioned are what I had already. During that cold time we got down to -17 and electricity went on and off 6 to 10 times. I think that may have had an effect. Any way I turned everything off, then rebooted everything and the signal loss has stopped . Cameras work fine now but I may never know why they lost signal.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

 

[TonyR]

Cameras work fine now but I may never know why they lost signal.

With luck it'll last another 4 years!