Hello all

[teammoose]

Hey guys, from Northern Indiana here.

I have a few Foscams up and running and I am looking to consolidate them into one feed to view them from. I can only run Chrome at work and unfortunately you can't consolidate with this browser.

I hastily installed BI last night and got 3 of 4 cameras functional. One keeps flaking out and loosing the feed even though I can still view it individually. When I log in at work, BI is flaky at best. It takes awhile to load up and I can only view stills that loaded when I first login. It won't update the feeds at all. If I try to click anything, I get a page unavailable response. I am sure this is all in my settings, or lack thereof.

Anyway, I have a few hours before I get home, so any advice or tips would be great. I plan on getting the companion app for my phone.

I was also wondering if it would be smart or even feasible to put my camera's on their own router with the software, and then forward them through a main router? Since I installed the software, I can no longer view each camera individually. It just times out. I have an older router and an old Windows 7 laptop Dual Core, 2gb ram. Nothing fancy.

Thanks guys,
James

 

[bp2008]

I bet you have those cams on WiFi and maybe the BI machine too. Correct?

Everything you say suggests your WiFi is barely able to cope with the load.

The best fix would be to wire as many devices as possible with network cables, but especially the machine running Blue Iris. If you wire nothing else, at least wire the PC running Blue Iris and disable its WiFi.

If that is not enough, another popular option is to buy a second WiFi access point and split the load across them. When you do this, you have to be careful about which channels you set them to use. 2.4ghz WiFi has 3 non-overlapping channels. Channels 1, 6, and 11. Do not use any other channels and make sure you do not let the channel be chosen automatically. Assign it yourself.

Here is an inexpensive access point that you might consider: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003CFAU00

 

[teammoose]

Thanks BP. I do have everything on WiFi. I have the cameras spread out over 2 buildings with the router mounted up high in a garage. I could connect the laptop to the router and give that a shot. I had a feeling I was keeping my router very busy with this setup. I will look at that access point, but it seems that is exactly the type of thing I was talking about when I mentioned having 2 routers. I would think I could dedicate it to the camera's and BI software, and free up one for the Xbox and work computer. I will be ordering that and giving it a shot.

Thanks,
James

 

[bp2008]

Ok, definitely don't use WiFi with the PC running Blue Iris. Even under ideal circumstances, this would more than double the load on your WiFi system.

Imagine you use a tablet that is at home on your WiFi, and you try to view your cameras. That video has to be sent four times over the same airwaves.

Camera >>1>> Router >>2>> Blue Iris PC >>3>> Router >>4>> Tablet.

If you were to move the Blue Iris PC from WiFi to wired ethernet, you would have just reduced your WiFi usage by 50%, but you'd still be sending the video two times over the same airwaves.

Camera >>1>> Router ---- Blue Iris PC ---- Router >>2>> Tablet.

This is where the second WiFi Access point comes in handy. Imagine you set up the 2nd access point on Channel 1 and put all the cameras on that, and have your original Router on channel 6 with your Tablet connected to it. Now, video is still being sent twice over WiFi, but over two different channels this time so they don't interfere with each other.

 

[teammoose]

Ok, that helped the speed tremendously, but it's not flawless. I plugged the laptop directly through the router and forwarded it's new address.

Maybe I should switch to a different thread, but I have a flaky camera. It is rock solid when I log directly into it, but disappears after a minute on BI and doesn't return until I delete and re-install it. I am not sure what to try with it. I will upgrade it's firmware tonight and see if that helps.

I will order the access point this weekend and see if I can spread the load out.

Thanks for the reply and help. I'm glad I'm finally getting somewhere with my camera system.

James

 

[teammoose]

Just an update. I arrived at work this morning and logged in, there is a huge difference. It has actual live footage and I can play the clips on the side.

Thank you very much for that help.

James

 

[bp2008]

No problem!