Hikvision DS-7608NI-E2/8P - I can't get Virtual Host to work

[Klaus Schmidsrauter]

I have just acquired this NVR for our church and I cannot get the Virtual Host to forward the camera web interface to our LAN. Firmware is V3.4.95 Build 170228 has the Virtual Host feature and I have it enabled. The internal POE segment is the default 192.168.254.xx (Foscam FI-9901 EP cameras are .11, .12, .13 and .14) and the LAN address is 192.168.1.230:6230. The camera streams work fine via the NVR and the NVR can be accessed remotely. The camera web interfaces can be accessed if I plug my laptop into one of the POE ports, but not via the LAN and Virtual Host interface. The NVR's web interface shows the camera connectivity as 192.168.1.230:65001 -65004, but clicking on these links, or typing the URL into a web browser directly does not bring up the camera web interface - I just get "Unable to Connect". I'm at my wits end - been browsing the web and wrestling with this for over a week now with no results. I followed several threads and suggestions from this forum but nothing has helped so far. I can use a spare router as was suggested by another member, but I would like to see this Virtual Host feature working so I don't have the clutter of extra hardware. Anyone see what I might have missed or anyone know of a bug in Hikvision's Virtual Host in this firmware?

 

[alastairstevenson]

Anyone see what I might have missed or anyone know of a bug in Hikvision's Virtual Host in this firmware?

No bugs that I have seen - Virtual Host works OK.
But it interacts with the Hikvision API to access some camera details, so may not work with Foscam cameras, if the HTTP port is not 80.
What HTTP port is set on the cameras?

However - you can directly access at their native 192.168.254.11,12,13,14 IP address cameras that are connected to a Hikvision NVR PoE port when 3 conditions are met:

- Virtual Host is active. You have that already.
- The camera default gateway is set to the IP address of the NVR PoE interface. By default this is 192.168.254.1 To make it permanent, the NVR channel has to be set to 'Manual' mode, not Plug&Play. With non-Hikvision cameras, you probably have that set already.
- There needs to be a static route defined in the LAN gateway/router (or the PC networking if the LAN has no gateway) to specify where to direct packets that must reach the NVR PoE IP segment.
Something like "For network 192.168.254.0/24 (ie subnet mask 255.255.255.0) use <NVR_LAN_interface_IP_address 192.168.1.230> as the gateway."

 

[Klaus Schmidsrauter]

Thanks for the reply Alastair. I've already found some of the info you mentioned by reading some of your other posts. The first 2 items in your reply I had done already. I also tried port 80 on the cameras, but that made no difference vs other ports, including the 650xx range.
To try your 3rd condition, unfortunately I have no access to the church router (a SonicWall unit, not a home-type router) - their IT consultant will have to set up any routing. I still have the NVR at home, so I'll add the static route to my laptop's routing table and see what happens.

 

[Klaus Schmidsrauter]

Hello Alastair, you have solved my problem. Thanks again for presenting the 3 requirements so clearly. I tried a couple things, based on your "static route" point:
1. Added a static route to my laptop's routing table, with the laptop connected to the NVR's LAN port - cameras on POE segment are fully accessible on the POE segment using ports 650xx.
2. Simulated the final site installation by using a spare Linksys router I had lying about with a static route pointing to the POE segment and with the NVR LAN IP as the gateway - cameras on POE segment are fully accessible on the POE segment using ports 650xx.
Although frustrating, this was a great learning exercise for me as I do not know very much about routing - this forced me to do a lot of reading. Regards, Klaus.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Excellent!
You've done pretty well getting to grips with what sounds like a new topic, well done!

cameras on POE segment are fully accessible on the POE segment using ports 650xx.

If that's the IP_address : port from the Virtual Host links - that will only allow HTTP access.
The cameras should be fully accessible at their native 192.168.254.11 etc IP addresses for any protocol.
Is that something you've tested? eg in the browser for web GUI, or video via VLC using RTSP?

 

[Klaus Schmidsrauter]

Excellent!
You've done pretty well getting to grips with what sounds like a new topic, well done!


If that's the IP_address : port from the Virtual Host links - that will only allow HTTP access.
The cameras should be fully accessible at their native 192.168.254.11 etc IP addresses for any protocol.
Is that something you've tested? eg in the browser for web GUI, or video via VLC using RTSP?

I am connecting via the 192.168.254.xx IP addresses to access the cameras' web gui for configuration changes and that accesses all features of the Foscam cameras. The video streams will be recorded and viewed on an HD monitor connected to the NVR and any staff that wants remote viewing will be connecting via the NVR's LAN address. It's all good. Project completion and final testing is going to have wait a while - right now we have over 30 cm of snow on the roof where the cameras are going and the temperature is around -15 C with the wind chill. I'm not working out there, thank you.