I've been messing around with IPCams for about 15 years

[Jeff G]

I've been trying to use IPCams for about 15 years now. I've used such horrors as DLink versions from circa 2003, a few versions of TrendNET IP cameras between 2007 and 2015, and of late have been using Dahua cameras.

Up until recently, I had only used the Motion open source program (Motion - Open source security camera software) up until a few months ago when I switched to DWSpectrum.

At the moment, I have two Dahua DH-IPC-HFW11A0SN and two DH-IPC-HFW11A0S-W cameras of which I'm using three with DWSpectrum.

I use only Linux for my server. I find Windows to not be cut out for long term use as a server and I hate wasting resources running a GUI. I run my Linux machines headless and manage via ssh or http interface.

I like the Dahua cameras performance, but I find the way that they name and release their firmware to lack much logic or much attention to detail. Their file naming scheme has me mystified to this day.

How the heck am I supposed to know that file:

DH_IPC-ACKThemis_EngSpnFrn_N_V2.400.0000.15.R.20170804.zip

is the right firmware for my DH-IPC-HFW11A0SN camera?

Maybe someone here can help me with the incantation necessary to figure this out.

Anyway, thanks for making this site available. I look forward to conversations with you all.

Jeff G.

 

[fenderman]

I've been trying to use IPCams for about 15 years now. I've used such horrors as DLink versions from circa 2003, a few versions of TrendNET IP cameras between 2007 and 2015, and of late have been using Dahua cameras.

Up until recently, I had only used the Motion open source program (Motion - Open source security camera software) up until a few months ago when I switched to DWSpectrum.

At the moment, I have two Dahua DH-IPC-HFW11A0SN and two DH-IPC-HFW11A0S-W cameras of which I'm using three with DWSpectrum.

I use only Linux for my server. I find Windows to not be cut out for long term use as a server and I hate wasting resources running a GUI. I run my Linux machines headless and manage via ssh or http interface.

I like the Dahua cameras performance, but I find the way that they name and release their firmware to lack much logic or much attention to detail. Their file naming scheme has me mystified to this day.

How the heck am I supposed to know that file:

DH_IPC-ACKThemis_EngSpnFrn_N_V2.400.0000.15.R.20170804.zip

is the right firmware for my DH-IPC-HFW11A0SN camera?

Maybe someone here can help me with the incantation necessary to figure this out.

Anyway, thanks for making this site available. I look forward to conversations with you all.

Jeff G.

Window works great for long term use as a server. The gui "wastes" insignificant resources.

 

[tangent]

I like the Dahua cameras performance, but I find the way that they name and release their firmware to lack much logic or much attention to detail. Their file naming scheme has me mystified to this day.

How the heck am I supposed to know that file:

DH_IPC-ACKThemis_EngSpnFrn_N_V2.400.0000.15.R.20170804.zip

is the right firmware for my DH-IPC-HFW11A0SN camera?

Maybe someone here can help me with the incantation necessary to figure this out.

Anyway, thanks for making this site available. I look forward to conversations with you all

Often you're better off leaving the firmware alone.

Cameras are divided into families or groups that have hardware similarities and as a result share the same firmware. In your example, "Themis" is the family.
DH means the firmware has the Dahua logo (some fw is unbranded)
EngSpnFrn are obviously languages
N indicates NTSC, a P would indicate PAL, and NP would indicate a newer fw that blurs this line. There's no meaningful difference, just slight varaitions in frame rate

V2.400.0000.15 is the version and R.20170804 is the release date

There are some websites that have dahua firmware that have spreadsheets from Dahua which show camera/fw compatibility but they're out of date.