Cobra NVR with Reolink Cams - Use a switch?

kd4e

Pulling my weight
Jun 11, 2023
200
111
Nevils, GA USA
I'm discovering that the only way the Cobra (Harbor Freight) NVR will communicate with Reolink cams is if they pass through the router - never direct to the NVR.

I'm using several of the Reolinks as backup and less-critical security cams.

Any preference to using a POE unmanaged switch, a POE managed, or a non-POE switch?

The Cobra does provide POE but I'm concerned that it may be underpowered.
 
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You probably meant "connected to the LAN", I assume the Reolinks can be assigned an IP

So I would recommend a plain jane unmanaged POE switch on the same network as your NVR
 
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And Im not familiar with the Cobra NVR but if it has its own PoE ports and uses a virtual host to issue IPs to the cameras connected to them in a different subnet than the NR/LAN like Dahua/Hik, that's MUCH more secure than having cameras on the LAN without some other type of protection (firewall, VLAN etc)
 
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And Im not familiar with the Cobra NVR but if it has its own PoE ports and uses a virtual host to issue IPs to the cameras connected to them in a different subnet than the NR/LAN like Dahua/Hik, that's MUCH more secure than having cameras on the LAN without some other type of protection (firewall, VLAN etc)
The Cobra is, predictably (Harbor Freight), rather primitive. It's optimized for their own low-grade cameras.
 
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Am I reading that correctly - the NVR will only see the Reolinks IF you have it going thru the router?

And if you take the router out of the equation with reolinks on a POE switch and the NVR connected to the same POE switch it won't see them?

Did you make the Reolink static IPs or are they DHCP and thus need the router to assign an IP?
 
Surely they can be assigned a static IP?
 
Am I reading that correctly - the NVR will only see the Reolinks IF you have it going thru the router?

And if you take the router out of the equation with reolinks on a POE switch and the NVR connected to the same POE switch it won't see them?

Did you make the Reolink static IPs or are they DHCP and thus need the router to assign an IP?
Lemme look at that ... they may be DHCP. Thanks.