How to reboot a wifi camera (Amcrest IP2M-841B to be exact)

[BiigRich]

I have an Amcrest IP2M-841B installed in a tough to reach location.

It was working fine and I haven't accessed it in a few weeks. Now it is VERY sluggish. It is updating but it is taking 30 seconds to a minute to complete commands and the clock is only moving sorta when it wants to. At a quick glance you would think it's hung, but it's just crawling along.

Is there a way to reboot it or power cycle it remotely?

 

[Ssayer]

I have an Amcrest IP2M-841B installed in a tough to reach location.

It was working fine and I haven't accessed it in a few weeks. Now it is VERY sluggish. It is updating but it is taking 30 seconds to a minute to complete commands and the clock is only moving sorta when it wants to. At a quick glance you would think it's hung, but it's just crawling along.

Is there a way to reboot it or power cycle it remotely?

Use it's own web interface in your browser. Go to Setup -> System -> Auto Maintain -> Manual Reboot

 

[TonyR]

@Ssayer is spot-on.
BTW, if this is something that you have to do periodically, note that the very page he directed you to has an "Auto-Reboot" function that you can set to happen daily or on a specific day and time.

 

[BiigRich]

Well, thanks for the info. It is a bit different for me since I'm using Amcrest Surveillance Pro to control/monitor the camera so the commands are slightly different.

I call the camera "Crawlspace9C". I started the Amcrest Surveillance Pro interface and selected "Device". In the device list I selected "Settings" (which is a gear icon on the device line). In the subsequent "Device Config" screen, I selected "Maintenance", and under Maintenance, I selected "Auto Maintenance". I then selected "Restart".

The camera went offline and I received a message indicating it was offline, about a minute or so later, it returned and the status was online and the indicator was green.

Unfortunately for me, The device was still extremely sluggish and the time display only updates every minute or so. Impossible to monitor movement in the camera's video.

I guess it needs a hard reset, or it is perhaps toast?

 

[Ssayer]

OR, have to ask just in case... are you running it via WiFi or wired? When I hear - sluggish, slow to update, clock only moving when it wants to... my first thought is WiFi issues. So... that's my first question...

 

[TonyR]

Well, thanks for the info. It is a bit different for me since I'm using Amcrest Surveillance Pro to control/monitor the camera so the commands are slightly different.

You can still use IE to view the cam's built-in webGUI to configure as mentioned, including the auto-reboot by schedule.
But it does sound like quite possibly a Wi-Fi issue.
Can you switch to wired to see how it acts?

 

[BiigRich]

Ssayer and TonyR,

Let me start by saying the unit is now working like when it was new.

Yes, it is connected via WiFi, and it would be very difficult to get it hardwired to RJ45.

As I mentioned in my previous reply, I rebooted it and it was still sluggish. Since then I found the circuit breaker that it is powered from and turned it off for a minute and back on again. Checked it a few minutes later and it was still sluggish, and again a half hour after that, still slow and jerky.

I run a number of items around my home on WiFi and the WiFi is not slow for any other device including a no-name Chinese surveillance camera I have installed. I will probably open another thread to try to deal with that one for various concerns but that's a different topic.

The strange thing is that I connected to the Crawlspace9C (Amcrest) camera this morning with both my smartphone and PC based interfaces and it is working like new. Almost like it had something "stuck in its craw" and finally resolved it. I have no clue as to whether the reboot or the power cycle did anything to help but they sure don't seem to be part of the resolution.

I am curious about the web based control Ssayer mentioned in the first reply to my issue ("Use it's own web interface in your browser"). Where can I find this web interface? As I've eluded to, I'm using a LAN based program for the unit which, I might add, does not support my no-name Chinese camera.

For the Chinese camera I've only found a smartphone app to control it. Any PC based program wants to run though a smartphone emulator on my PC. I started to try that but it would not configure and suggested I turn off my virus software for it to get started and that's where I draw the line. I'm not going to install a program downloaded from the Internet and install it with no protection so that's my problem for another thread.

Anyway, the Amcrest problem disappeared and now I'm curious about the web based control Ssayer mentioned.

Thank you both for your input so far.

 

[BiigRich]

OK, I found references to the WebGUI for Amcrest... I'll play with that for a while as another means to access the camera. Thanks Ssayer.

How To Access Your Web UI

 

[Ssayer]

Ok, but in all honesty... if the cam really matters, don't use WiFi. Sorry, but it's that simple. There is more than one way to get wired Ethernet in. Even Ethernet over Power is better than WiFi...

 

[BiigRich]

Point taken.

It's a situation where the camera is needed sometimes and mostly just sits there. I use it for troubleshooting the machines in my crawlspace because I'm just too old to go down there to check on the function of things down there. I used the camera many, many times while troubleshooting a very intermittent whole house humidifier down there. It took me months working with Aprilaire to get it fixed. So, I guess the camera has paid for itself and now it's just a test device to see how far I want to get into surveillance.

I guess the rest of the WiFi devices in the world are just more stable because I see more and more of my home devices filling up my WiFi. I have the main PC in my house connected via RJ45 for reasons like yours but all others, including my smartphone are WiFi and they work flawlessly. What can/should I expect from a $60.00 camera?

Since then a friend of mine gave me a no-name Chinese camera as a thank you for getting his computer and smartphone set up and wow is that a challenge . )

Thanks again Ssayer.