Lorex Camera Connectivity Issues – Need Help!

molinakrs

molinakrs

n3wb
Feb 27, 2025
2
1
PH
Hey everyone,

I have a Lorex security system at home, and I’ve been running into some frustrating connectivity issues. My setup includes:
  • Cameras: Lorex E893AB
  • NVR: Lorex N844A8
The problem is that my cameras keep going on and off the network. Right now, only 4 out of 8 cameras are accessible. At first, I thought it was a cable issue, so I went ahead and replaced the cabling for every single camera. But now, the same issue is happening again.

Here’s what’s really confusing: the cameras that are "inaccessible" are actually powered on. Motion detection still works, and when I walk in front of the cameras, their lights turn on. So, it seems like they have power but aren’t properly connecting to the NVR.

I’m scratching my head trying to figure out what’s going on. Has anyone experienced this before? NVR settings, or something else? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
 
Out of the 8 cameras are they on 1-4 or 5-8 of the NVRs POE ports? If they are, I would try a few different things.. First if you happen to have a POE switch I would remove from NVRs POE ports and connect to a Switch, Connect and check if the issue happens even on a different POE switch..

Kind of bites without knowing what is going on, But it could be there is an issue with 1 camera that is taking out 4 on a PD of the NVRs circuit.. Oddly you said that the camera is getting power? Are they connected POE only or are they backed up by 12v power? Also have you tested that all 4 of the cameras are powered? Or you just noticed 1 or 2 of the lights come on and assume all of them would?

Test, Mark position of the cameras on cable if you have not already. Mark with marker on cable port it was pulled from, remove the 4 cameras and plug them in 1 at a time confirm that the cameras come back on.. However if there is a video protection going on I would remove the 4, Reboot NVR and then test plugging them in 1 at a time and confirm. If you happen to get 2 of them to come online and you plug in the 3rd and it takes them off again. Remove, reboot and let the 6 come back online and plug in the next one you have not tested.. If that one works with the rest then let it run for a while and confirm that they are all ok. Then once you know for sure them 7 are working, then plug in that one that took it offline and see if it does again.. If it does you know that the issue is that camera..

However if your issue isn't 1-4 or 5-8 then it could be hard to tell what the issue is when it comes to 4 going offline.. Normally POE NVRs and Switches will have PD and Video protection in place that takes out a bank

Just an Idea..
 
Revo2Maxx said:
Out of the 8 cameras are they on 1-4 or 5-8 of the NVRs POE ports? If they are, I would try a few different things.. First if you happen to have a POE switch I would remove from NVRs POE ports and connect to a Switch, Connect and check if the issue happens even on a different POE switch..

Kind of bites without knowing what is going on, But it could be there is an issue with 1 camera that is taking out 4 on a PD of the NVRs circuit.. Oddly you said that the camera is getting power? Are they connected POE only or are they backed up by 12v power? Also have you tested that all 4 of the cameras are powered? Or you just noticed 1 or 2 of the lights come on and assume all of them would?

Test, Mark position of the cameras on cable if you have not already. Mark with marker on cable port it was pulled from, remove the 4 cameras and plug them in 1 at a time confirm that the cameras come back on.. However if there is a video protection going on I would remove the 4, Reboot NVR and then test plugging them in 1 at a time and confirm. If you happen to get 2 of them to come online and you plug in the 3rd and it takes them off again. Remove, reboot and let the 6 come back online and plug in the next one you have not tested.. If that one works with the rest then let it run for a while and confirm that they are all ok. Then once you know for sure them 7 are working, then plug in that one that took it offline and see if it does again.. If it does you know that the issue is that camera..

However if your issue isn't 1-4 or 5-8 then it could be hard to tell what the issue is when it comes to 4 going offline.. Normally POE NVRs and Switches will have PD and Video protection in place that takes out a bank

Just an Idea..
Click to expand...
That’s a great point—I hadn’t considered a potential PD issue. The cameras are plugged directly into the NVR and are only powered via PoE. I’ll test this out, likely over the weekend, and update the thread with my findings.

I really appreciate the detailed troubleshooting steps. Thank you. :)
 
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I am having the exact same issue. The issue is on longing runs using high end, gel filled, cat 6. Runs are probably 200 feet. I even tried adding a POE+ pass through booster to thinking maybe it would help but it doesn't. As you mentioned, the camera powers up just fine, just can't get it to connect. If i connect the same camera to a short cable, it works great. I hooked up an aruba access point to the 'longer' run and the AP connect great and has excellent bandwidth. If I can power and run an Aruba AP off a standard POE switch I don't see why even adding POE+ to the same cable run wouldn't be enough to power and connect he camera. I am at a loss..... I do feel like I read somewhere that the Lorex cameras only work up to a 100 feet and any longer they need to be hooked up to a switch. That doens't make sense. The POS NVR that I bought doesn't allow me to connect cameras to a networked switch, they have to be connect directly to the NVR.... They should be ashamed for calling it an NVR!
 
madsensg said:
I am having the exact same issue. The issue is on longing runs using high end, gel filled, cat 6. Runs are probably 200 feet. I even tried adding a POE+ pass through booster to thinking maybe it would help but it doesn't. As you mentioned, the camera powers up just fine, just can't get it to connect. If i connect the same camera to a short cable, it works great. I hooked up an aruba access point to the 'longer' run and the AP connect great and has excellent bandwidth. If I can power and run an Aruba AP off a standard POE switch I don't see why even adding POE+ to the same cable run wouldn't be enough to power and connect he camera. I am at a loss..... I do feel like I read somewhere that the Lorex cameras only work up to a 100 feet and any longer they need to be hooked up to a switch. That doens't make sense. The POS NVR that I bought doesn't allow me to connect cameras to a networked switch, they have to be connect directly to the NVR.... They should be ashamed for calling it an NVR!
Click to expand...
Doing some addional trouble shooting and found something even more strange. I cut off a piece of my cable and made a 5 foot cable. I wanted to see if there was something about this cable that just wasn't working with the lorex system. Sure enough, even at 5 feet the camera turned on but won't connect. I confiremd the cable worked with other devices. I then ran a generic cat 6 to a poe injector, and the '5 foot cable' to the camera. Same result. But then I ran the '5 foot calble' from the NVR to the injector, and from the injector to the camera the generic cable and it connected!! Something about that cable doesn't jive with that camera. The cable in question is 'direct burial cable as i am running it to an exterior gate. I have both gel filled and non gel filled direct burial cable and both have the same result.
 
If you happen to have an issue with longer run and your camera is working it sounds like that your camera might have a bad Ethernet Transformer.. One of the issues that can happen is that the camera if you might have bought used had been used on CCA and or your cables even being cat6 gel filled cables could infact be CCA. I personally was in a pinch and bought 100 feet of cable that was 2 day shipping and couldn't get cables from the company I normally buy from in 2 days so I bought it seeing they said it was real but as soon as I connected the cable to my tester Fluke DSX8000 said the cable was not quality cable, It felt right, So i cut off the ends and even after a couple of scraps the cables looked good. It wasn't until I got deep enough to know that it was infact CCA.. Anyway there are other reasons that an Ethernet Transformer can go bad but CCA is one sure way.. Always want to be careful how you connect your POE devices.. You want an Active POE switch. One of the things that can also happen is that someone uses a passive POE device to power the cameras and this can cause damge to the PHY circuit and or the Ethernet Trasnformer.. Not sure what NVR you are using but most are setup with PD chips that should power your cameras af/at at least 300 feet. CCA cables raise resistance in the connected devices and if you know that your cable is true pure copper then the camera may need a new Ethernet Trasnformer. it is a 16pin device that is going to be really close to your cameras bridge Rectifers..

Also have to keep in mind when you are trying to connect different devices to your cables there are different power requirements and that might be why one device will work and your camera will not on that long run.. I would bet if you did a search in youtube or Internet about a camera that won't power on longer runs but will on shorter ones it was related to the Ethernet Transformer..

Another thing to keep in mind is that if your camera appears to power up because it is a POE PTZ camera the camera even with a bad Ethernet Transformer to where it won't work on shorter cable but the camera does the dance.. AKA shows signs of life when plugged into POE is because at that point the camera is powering over the second power input area.. If you are using a 4 wire setup it may still power up but most times it won't.. if it does that is because the wires that are burnt up in the trasnformer is only for data.. In a 4 wire setup the power and data come up only 2 pairs. But the Eithernet Transformer on the Center Tap removes the power from the data lines.. But the cameras I have repaired when I remember to test with a 4 wire cable the camera wouldn't power up only when uisng 8 wire setup..
 
Revo2Maxx said:
If you happen to have an issue with longer run and your camera is working it sounds like that your camera might have a bad Ethernet Transformer.. One of the issues that can happen is that the camera if you might have bought used had been used on CCA and or your cables even being cat6 gel filled cables could infact be CCA. I personally was in a pinch and bought 100 feet of cable that was 2 day shipping and couldn't get cables from the company I normally buy from in 2 days so I bought it seeing they said it was real but as soon as I connected the cable to my tester Fluke DSX8000 said the cable was not quality cable, It felt right, So i cut off the ends and even after a couple of scraps the cables looked good. It wasn't until I got deep enough to know that it was infact CCA.. Anyway there are other reasons that an Ethernet Transformer can go bad but CCA is one sure way.. Always want to be careful how you connect your POE devices.. You want an Active POE switch. One of the things that can also happen is that someone uses a passive POE device to power the cameras and this can cause damge to the PHY circuit and or the Ethernet Trasnformer.. Not sure what NVR you are using but most are setup with PD chips that should power your cameras af/at at least 300 feet. CCA cables raise resistance in the connected devices and if you know that your cable is true pure copper then the camera may need a new Ethernet Trasnformer. it is a 16pin device that is going to be really close to your cameras bridge Rectifers..

Also have to keep in mind when you are trying to connect different devices to your cables there are different power requirements and that might be why one device will work and your camera will not on that long run.. I would bet if you did a search in youtube or Internet about a camera that won't power on longer runs but will on shorter ones it was related to the Ethernet Transformer..

Another thing to keep in mind is that if your camera appears to power up because it is a POE PTZ camera the camera even with a bad Ethernet Transformer to where it won't work on shorter cable but the camera does the dance.. AKA shows signs of life when plugged into POE is because at that point the camera is powering over the second power input area.. If you are using a 4 wire setup it may still power up but most times it won't.. if it does that is because the wires that are burnt up in the trasnformer is only for data.. In a 4 wire setup the power and data come up only 2 pairs. But the Eithernet Transformer on the Center Tap removes the power from the data lines.. But the cameras I have repaired when I remember to test with a 4 wire cable the camera wouldn't power up only when uisng 8 wire setup..
Click to expand...
see my add on note above. The camera was bought new, and the cable was bought new from a good manufacture. Now I have discovered that the cable works as long as its not connected directly into the camera. Nvr to injector with direct burial calbe, and cheap cable to camera it works just fine. Cheap cable to injector, direct burial from injector to camera not so fine.
 
Sorry don't know, What is the color pin out you are using for your ends? You trying to use a cross over cable? I don't think I have ever had any issues that you bring up in any of the cameras that I have repaired over the years. I personally use 968B standard for wiring my places.. Sorry I thought you had mentioned that your camera would work on Short cable from NVR or Switch to your camera but wouldn't work on longer cable.. So my answer was with that info in mind.. Then a camera that would work on short cable 1 but wouldn't work on a short cable made from cable 2 isn't something that I have heard of unless the cable has a miss match pair that being connected between 2 active devices could work out the issue and correct the problem.

Outside of that I guess some more info about your NVR and camera might shed some light on the issue? If the camera is not from a quality vender then there could be a bunch of things that are wrong.. Miss wire in the camera?

POE Injector or POE Splitter?

POE injector is something that you would put ethernet cable into a normal switch/router/hub and power from house power, then a second cable would go from Injector to the camera
POE Splitter, POE from Switch/NVR to splitter, ethernet cable with no power to the camera and power out from spitter to cameras power input?
 
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