Huge increase in network traffic after FW update (Dahua IPC-HFW1320S)

[Teknor]

I upgraded the FW on my Dahua cam beginning of August. It is placed in a summerhouse connected to a mobile 4G router and I noticed after a few days that the included capacity (10GB) in the 4G subscription already was used, even if I had only a few times accessed the camera outside the LAN. From the internet provider, I can see the network is burning approx. 60 MB / hour.

I am pretty sure it's the camera flooding the network with traffic, since monitoring my three Rasperry PI servers does not show anything suspicious (I use iftop for bandwidth monitoring tool) and when I (remotely) switch off the POE plug to the DAhua camera the network traffic stabilizes.

I dont have the exact details of the FW I used, but guess it was Version 2.6-something.

Does anybody else experience the same?

Previously the following FW was installed:
Device Type IPC-HFW1320S
Software Version 2.400.0000.15.R, build: 2015-08-30
WEB Version 3.2.1.291804
ONVIF Version 2.4.2

 

[wittaj]

It is irrelevant now, but the main question is why did you update the firmware?

We have many instances here where someone updated the firmware just for the sake updating and messed up what was a perfectly working camera for them.

General rule is don't fix what ain't broke.

Now with that said, let's troubleshoot - how did you access this camera prior to the update - it it connected to the router, did you port forward or P2P or scan the QR code, or is it hooked to an NVR?

You could turn off P2P and look for the other usual routes that allow it to phone home.

It sounds like something in the update has it phoning home or allowing someone else to access it.

My suggestion would be to factory reset it and set it back up and see if that shakes out the gremlins.

 

[Mike A.]

These cams can try do a lot of various things with the network depending on settings and in some cases they'll ignore settings and use hard-coded values when they can't find what they want. Probably some setting or behavior changed with the firmware update. You'd need to use something like Wireshark to watch the traffic to know exactly what it is. Short of that, go through everything in the network settings and make sure that whatever isn't needed is turned off. In some cases where there's an enable check box at the top of the screen with various things below, that top check box won't turn off all of the services below as you might expect. You need to uncheck the top box and each one below.

 

[Teknor]

The reason for the upgrade was trouble with getting pictures in MotionEye.

Thanks for both of your input. I have not done many changes with the Dahua setup after upgrading, but will see if I can figure it out.

 

[IAmATeaf]

As pointed out above, some firmware updates might enable settings that were previously disabled so would be worth going through each and every setting to make sure it’s set exactly as you wanted.

 

[spammenotinoz]

Firstly, 60 MB\hour (Megabytes per Hour) = a paltry 133kbps, but yes over a mobile adds up.
Suggest going into the cameras settings and disable all and every service, network protocol and feature you are not using.
If you use an NVR then you don't need to specify real DNS servers or gateways on the cameras and they never get out.
How do you access them remotely, via the Dahua Mobile App, well that's not very secure and yes it consumes bandwidth constantly polling home.

 

[moomoo55]

if the settings dont reveal anything, u might have to look in traffic logs or do a wireshark to figure where the traffic is going

 

[Teknor]

Still in the search of an older FW for this camera, ideally 2.400.0000.15.R, build: 2015-08-30 - but anything lower than 2.620.0000002.0.R, Build Date: 2017-08-30 will be tried.

Did some googling, but still no luck.

 

[CCTVCam]

It will be easier for the people above to help you if you give some information as to how the camera is connected ie is it isolated from the internet, or does it have a direct connection via the router? Do you have remote access enabled and how is it accessed remotely eg is it via Port forwarding or some other means / protocol. Often a lot of issues of network traffic relate not only to the camera but it's connection method.