Intermittent connection issues with some of my cameras in BI- though they remain constantly connected to native app

[Billtvt]

I'm running the latest BI software and have roughly 10 cameras connected and configured. The cameras are a mix of Foscam, AmCrest and Dahua, most are wifi with two new POE cameras just added. My issues are with four of the wifi cameras that sometimes lose connection and won't pick it back up even if I hard boot the cameras. Two of these are Foscam cameras and in the VMS Foscam app, those cameras never lose signal, so am trying to understand why they do in BI. The AmCrest camera has a different issue. It too is wifi, but when I connect a POE cable it picks up the identity of my Reolink doorbell camera and that is what I see in BI when that happens. So- not sure how to correct that either.

Separately- I've tried about 6x to schedule a support session in the IPCam store but never get to the payment screen, just a confirmation page implying that someone will get back to me to confirm- which is when I assume I would pay. But that never happens. I just scheduled another one today for this coming week- will see if I have any better luck. I am open to paying someone to go through my setup and help optimize and fine tune things.

Thanks for any troubleshooting thoughts on the above.

 

[SouthernYankee]

I have posted this before.

I did a WIFI test a while back with multiple 2MP cameras each camera was set to VBR, 15 FPS, 15 Iframe, 3072kbs, h.264. Using a WIFI analyzer I selected the least busy channel (1,6,11) on the 2.4 GHZ band and set up a separate access point. With 3 cameras in direct line of sight of the AP about 25 feet away I was able to maintain a reasonable stable network with only intermittent signal drops from the cameras. Added a 4th camera and the network became totally unstable. Also add a lot of motion to the 3 cameras caused some more network instability. More data more instability.
The cameras are nearly continuously transmitting. So any lost packet causes a retry, which cause more traffic, which causes more lost packets.
WIFI does not have a flow control, or a token to transmit. So your devices transmit any time they want, more devices more collisions.
As a side note, it is very easy to jam a WIFI network. WIFI is fine for watching the bird feed but not for home surveillance and security.

Any other traffic on the same band (1,6,11) will cause collisions. Also other devices like microwaves can impact wifi.

The problem is like standing in a room, with multiple people talking to you at the same time about different subjects. You need to answer each person or they repeat the question.

Test do not guess.

For a 802.11G 2.4 GHZ WIFI network the Theoretical Speed is 54Mbps (6.7MBs) real word speed is nearer to 10-29Mbps (1.25-3.6 MBs) for a single channel

 

[SouthernYankee]

On your router and in the cameras set static IP address of each camera.

I recommend against using the router WIFI. set up multiple wifi Access points. Set each access point to different channels (1,6,11). Assign the cameras to different channels (1,6,11). Most wifi IP cameras run on wifi 2.4GHZ.

Do not run camera traffic through your router.

 

[TonyR]

+1^^^.
I have 2 dedicated 5GHz access points for my 2 Reolink Wi-Fi doorbells, one at the side door and one at the front door.

Both are wireless routers that I've configured to be access points and perform no routing; this "access point mode" is a feature in many newer wireless routers.

If "access point mode" is not a feature, to accomplish the same function simply disable DHCP, assign its LAN a unique, static IP in the same subnet as the "working" router's LAN but outside of that "working" router's DHCP pool.

 

[Billtvt]

Thanks for the replies- all make perfect sense. It is dawning on me that the issues arose more frequently since adding two new cameras (POE). Those cameras are powered by a powered switch but that switch is connected to a wifi extender node (Linksys mesh system). Even though the two cameras are the furthest away from my router and work perfectly, since they are connected to the switch I am guessing it is just creating too much traffic. I do plan on running ethernet to all cameras in the Spring- it will be a bit of a project.

I'll have to research setting up separate access points - not sure of how to do that but will look into it. My router is a Linksys MR8300 mesh system, 5 child node extenders.

Thanks much for the suggestions