Is my network setup ideal?

M

MicahJames

Pulling my weight
Aug 26, 2019
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San Jose, ca
I was doing a bit of reading on the forums and I found myself questioning whether or not my Computer (BI Server) should be plugged directly into the ASUS Router. It is currently plugged into a dumb switch that my POE switches are also plugged into.

Just curious if anyone has any knowledgeable feedback on this? Thank you

bi setup.png
 
You never want the cameras to have to go thru the router to get to the BI computer, so that is correct above.

HOWEVER, you really don't want your cameras having access to the router, so best practice would either be have that a managed VLAN switch or dual NIC your BI computer and have the cameras go from that unmanaged switch to one NIC in the computer and then the other NIC can go to the router.
 
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wittaj said:
You never want the cameras to have to go thru the router to get to the BI computer, so that is correct above.

HOWEVER, you really don't want your cameras having access to the router, so best practice would either be have that a managed VLAN switch or dual NIC your BI computer and have the cameras go from that unmanaged switch to one NIC in the computer and then the other NIC can go to the router.
Click to expand...

Question, what would the recommended setup be the same if just using a NVR (no BI computer)? Be gentle, virtually a techno idiot here. LOL
 
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Kameraad said:
Note 1 is not correct though, depending on the settings the camera's still have access to internet.
Click to expand...
They are physically not connected to the internet. They have no path to the internet.
 
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Kameraad said:
Note 1 is not correct though, depending on the settings the camera's still have access to internet.
Click to expand...
Only if you bridge the connections, enable dynamic routing, or define a static route. Whether or not the cameras can connect to the internet depends on how your configure the PC. Generally I believe the default settings would block camera internet access.
 
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MicahJames said:
The benefit of this is not performance but security ?
Click to expand...
Yes, security. I also keeps all of the cam traffic away from all of your other home LAN traffic. So your other connected devices do not have to compete with the cam traffic. This is why @wittaj stated not to route cam traffic through your modem/router.
 
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tangent said:
Only if you bridge the connections, enable dynamic routing, or define a static route. Whether or not the cameras can connect to the internet depends on how your configure the PC. Generally I believe the default settings would block camera internet access.
Click to expand...
So in other words, only if you force the PC's setting to do just that. The whole purpose is to keep them separate, so why would you change the settings to defeat that?
 
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MicahJames said:
If the cameras have no internet access how do you prefer to set/sync their time? (assuming they can no longer ping an NTP)
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The PC has access to the internet. You set up NTP on the PC and give the cams that IP address for the time sync.
 
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1681860355742.png

192.168.3.79 is the BI PC on the cam LAN side.
 
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MicahJames said:
AH... marvelous. Can you recommend a good NIC for my BI Server? I'm not sure if i should get a USB one or PCIe? Thank you!
Click to expand...
I'd recommend PCIe. The main question is whether or not you need a low profile card (eg a SFF pc)

Use some common sense and you'll be fine. Brands like intel, broadcom, StarTech, SIIG, and TP-Link should all be adequate.
 
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samplenhold said:
So in other words, only if you force the PC's setting to do just that. The whole purpose is to keep them separate, so why would you change the settings to defeat that?
Click to expand...
It's always possible Microsoft could roll out an update that changes this behavior at some point. I suppose technically there's a physical connection and the isolation occurs at L2 or L3. Reminds me of my 9 year old self trying to do something similar unable to make it work screaming into the void and cursing at Windows 95 (before I really understood networking).

There are situations where someone wants to use a PC with multiple NICs to preform routing, often paired with another function like a firewall.
 
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MicahJames said:
AH... marvelous. Can you recommend a good NIC for my BI Server? I'm not sure if i should get a USB one or PCIe? Thank you!
Click to expand...
I used this one, but it was back in 2018:

Intel EXPI9301CTBLK PCI Express Gigabit Adapter
 
samplenhold said:
I used this one, but it was back in 2018:

Intel EXPI9301CTBLK PCI Express Gigabit Adapter
Click to expand...
I installed the NIc to my PC tonight and have everything wired as aforementioned. however, now all my cameras are not showing in BI. I think i'm missing a step. Now that this switch is plugged directly into the new NIC, who or what acts as a DHCP to assign IPs to the cameras?

thanks in advance!
 
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