Dahua cam dropping off the network each night.

[Ronnie Bailey]

Day 4 and 3 nights, Dahua IP camera and networked tuner still online this morning. Put the SiliconDust tuner, that was determined to be defective by SiliconDust, back online yesterday, and it has not dropped off the network yet.

This is very good news, because in the last 2 of 3 weeks, these devices dropped off the network EVERY night. I still have most of my networked devices offline, but today I will start adding them back into the system. Today, since there are 4 NFL football games playing, I wish to record and watch them today. My DVR is the HDHomeRun DVR running on m WD NAS, so I will turn it on this morning.

Really not sure at this point what is causing my issue. I have gotten some very good suggestions, on these forums, and implemented most of them. Several people have commented about having a ghost HDCP server, so I have disabled any devices that I THINK COULD possibly do that.

Also, it was suggested, that I move all my Ethernet cables from the router to my switch, which I did. It was also recommend that I replace the "Green" switch with a NON "Green" switch, which I did.

I am sorry, if I have not given proper credit to those that have given me the suggestions that I have implemented.

Also, there are other things that has been suggested, that I have done, and really helps in diagnosing this problem. Hopefully, in a couple more weeks, I can definitively say what caused my devices to drop off my network every night.

I will keep posting what I am doing.

Thanks for all the help, I really did not know where to start, and you guys have taught this old man alot........

 

[tangent]

I suspect the problem is either cabling or a particular switch / switch port. Simply moving / wiggling the cables around could be enough to temporarily alleviate the problem.
I had an old netgear switch with bad caps that slowly failed in fairly erratic and unpredictable ways. At first is was just a port or two that were acting up but eventually it was the whole switch.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

I suspect the problem is either cabling or a particular switch / switch port. Simply moving / wiggling the cables around could be enough to temporarily alleviate the problem.
I had an old netgear switch with bad caps that slowly failed in fairly erratic and unpredictable ways. At first is was just a port or two that were acting up but eventually it was the whole switch.

Does the defective piece of hardware have to be in the chain or anywhere in the system?

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

Hopefully in a couple of weeks I can have an answer. But 3 nights without the IP camera or tuner not dropping off the network is a good sign. Every morning, when I check to see it they are still online, I cringe, hoping they are still online. That tells me that I am making progress.

When the IP camera drops off line, I have no live or recorded feed from that camera.

When the tuner drops offline, I can't watch or record any TV.

 

[tangent]

Does the defective piece of hardware have to be in the chain or anywhere in the system?

That can get complicated. An intermittent cabling fault will be more apparent to devices that consume more bandwidth / more bandwidth consistently like your cameras. You would still see packet loss on other traffic that passes through that cable.

Failing switches or other devices can do strange things. I've had a dying switch and print server induce a broadcast storm as an example.

If you really want to isolate the cause, it's better to keep it a controlled experiment and not change too many things at once.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

That can get complicated. An intermittent cabling fault will be more apparent to devices that consume more bandwidth / more bandwidth consistently like your cameras. You would still see packet loss on other traffic that passes through that cable.

Failing switches or other devices can do strange things. I've had a dying switch and print server induce a broadcast storm as an example.

If you really want to isolate the cause, it's better to keep it a controlled experiment and not change too many things at once.

Good info, thanks

 

[guykuo]

I also suffered a 16 port Netgear switch's failing electrolytic capacitors. Was pretty insidious. Wasn't until network was dropping a LOT of packets that I figured out I had a problem.
Replaced the bad caps and the switch was back to normal.

 

[catcamstar]

Good info, thanks

And, if possible, keep the pingtester you used on page 1 running, it will detect the tiniest drop on your network.

But I hope you isolated the issue by now!

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

And, if possible, keep the pingtester you used on page 1 running, it will detect the tiniest drop on your network.

But I hope you isolated the issue by now!

I am still working on it. I have a lot of devices that I have to take off and put back on to my network.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

Day 5, night 4 and my Dahua IP cam and networked TV tuner at still online this morning. This is very encouraging that I am getting closer to solving the issue of some of my networking devices dropping off my network each day/night. Today, I will put my Synology NAS back into service. I am thinking long and hard about putting my Vorke V2 (Windows 10 microPC) back into service, it is running my Emby and Plex servers. If my devices do not drop off then network by tomorrow morning, I will start adding my other devices back into the system.

If I am able to get all my devices back online without them dropping off the network, then I will start backtracking to see what I did to "cure" my issue.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

Day 6, night 5 and my Dahua IP cam and networked TV tuner at still online this morning. Yesterday, I put my Vorke V2 (Plex and Emby servers) back online. Today, I will put my Zidoo X9s (running OpenWRT in the background), back online. If my devices do NOT drop offline tomorrow, then I will put the rest of my networked devices back online. After a couple of days of everything back online, and nothing drops off the network, I will put my Asus router back in place.

Still maybe too early to call, but it appears that moving the Ethernet cables from the router to the switch, or replacing the "Green" switch with a non "Green" switch may have been the issue of several of my devices dropping off the network EVERY night.

Edit: I added my Zidoo X9S back into my system, along with a couple of other devices, now my Dahua IP cam just dropped off the network. I have to go power cycle it, to get it to connect to my network again.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

Feeling pretty confidant that the cause of my devices dropping off my network, was solved. I started adding my devices back into my network. I added my Zidoo X9S (running OpenWRT in the back ground) in the morning. Later that afternoon, my Dahau IP camera dropped on my network. I again removed the Zidoo X9S from my newtork, and my IP camera was still running this morning.
I had thought by replacing my "Green" switch with a non-(Green) switch and moving my Ehternet cables from my router to that switch, had solved the problem, but obviously, it did not.

Edit: Dangit, my IP cam just dropped off my network again........argggggggggggg. However, my networked TV tuner that has been dropping off the network also, is still connected.........

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

reserved IP's are assigned via DHCP. STATIC ip's (configured manually on each device) may or may not be in the DHCP server's dynamic range...

here's an idea: when your Dahua cam next falls off, run the Dahua config tool and see if you can find it.
I'll bet it's at an IP address that's off your main network subnet. that would confirm the rogue dhcp server theory.

Then it's a matter of tracking that sucker down. My 2 cents is that one of your various Linux devices has a (mis-configured) DHCP server running,
and is occasionally assigning an address to devices when they go to renew their DHCP leases and it manages to respond first.

you could reduce the incidents by configuring your REAL DHCP server (router) to hand out LONGER DHCP leases.
that way devices will renew less frequently and be less likely to get a response from the 'rogue' server, but it
will still happen...

Pozzello, my cam just dropped offline, so I opened and ran my Dahua config tool, but it did NOT find any devices.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

I have an old 10" tablet, that has just been sitting around not being used. I loaded the Android Easyviewer app on to it and using it as a monitor for this camera. I just stuck some velcro on it and stuck it to the wall next to my 65" Samsung 4k TV. That way, I can "see" when it goes off line.......... I attached a picture of it next to my TV.

 

[Euly]

Removing the "Green" switch is more of a precaution independent of this issue. You know there is something suspicious about the Zidoo X9S, but yet, you put it back on your network. You've basically ignored the pattern, repeated the same action, and expected a different result.
Good luck with this one.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

Removing the "Green" switch is more of a precaution independent of this issue. You know there is something suspicious about the Zidoo X9S, but yet, you put it back on your network. You've basically ignored the pattern, repeated the same action, and expected a different result.
Good luck with this one.

Hahaha. Well, i keep thinking a different device is causing the problem, but keep getting proven wrong. At this point in time I think/hope that Zidoo X9S is the problem. Been one day and one night now since l turned off the Zidoo.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

It has been 2 nights since the IP cam has dropped off the network and 4 nights for the HDHR tuner.

This is really a waiting game, every time I **think** I found the culprit, Something drops off the network again, proving that theory wrong. So far, I again, **think** I have ruled out almost everything on my network, EXCEPT my Samsung 4K TV, that is connected to my network via Ethernet. I did have my Ethernet cable disconnected from my TV for awhile, and I think it was during the time that I went a few days without any of my devices dropping off the network, but not positive.

Also, my Hikvision NVR is connected to my network, don't remember if I have ever removed it from my network,

Four of my IP cams NEVER drop off the network and I have another SiliconDust tuner, the Extend, and it NEVER drops off the network either.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

I am still grasping at straws for what is causing some of my devices to drop off my network, in the last few weeks. I just go a brochure in the mail today from DTE Energy, my electricity supplier. It said "We recently completed equipment upgrades to provide you with more reliable electricity."

"Customers in areas where we have completed similar work are already noticing improvements in power quality." It goes on to say to call this number for details.

I called and left a message for them to call me back, so they can tell me what they did, and when and how they did it. As, I stated earlier, I am a retired industrial electrician, so I have dealt with millivolts all the way up to 13k volts. I know, how bad the electricity is, as far as spikes and ripples, and what havoc it can cause.

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

I guess it has been about 5 days now, that my IP cam and TV tuner have not dropped off the network. I will wait a couple more days and start adding my devices back into my system and put my Asus router back into service.

At this point, I still don't know what is the cause of my devices dropping off my network......

 

[Ronnie Bailey]

Day 6 and still going.