Lots of (hopefully interesting) setup questions

[Brennan612]

Hi,

New here, hoping for some help with my setup. Apologies for the long question(s).

I currently have 8 wifi IP Cameras around my house – six Foscam and two Wanscam - and using Blue Iris. I recently updated my network setup, and am having trouble getting everything working. I'd had everything running on a single wifi network, but sensed the cameras were slowing it down, so am trying to configure the IP cams on a sub-wifi network.

Previous setup:

• Arris Surfboard cable modem to Apple Time Capsule Wifi: “Network 1”
• All Cameras port forwarded on Time Capsule to no-ip.org domain
• BlueIris controlling/monitoring all 8 cameras through their no-ip.org addresses
• Also using a mobile app, IP Cam Viewer, to access cams remotely through no-ip.org addresses
• This setup was sucking up a ton of bandwidth because everything was going externally through no-ip.org, and it was all on Network 1, my main wifi network that I use for other media

I am trying to configure the setup below. I’m describing it as I currently have it, which is not working well. What do I need to do to make this work?

• Same SurfBoard/Time Capsule setup initially for Network 1
• Powerline adapter (one of a few on Network 1) to an Asus wifi access point creating a new wifi: “Network 2”
• All cameras reconfigured to communicate on wifi via Network 2, (I currently have port forwarding only on the Time Capsule router on Network 1, but all cameras are working fine for my remote IP Cam Viewer so far)
• I’d like Blue Iris to connect to all the cameras only via their local IP address (192.168.x.x) on an internal network, ideally on Network 2 to conserve bandwidth on Network 1
  • When I do this, the Blue Iris feeds cut in and out and nothing works smoothly – cameras frequently lose connection
  • Note I'm using the same local IP addresses on Network 2 that I'd used on Network 1 - not sure why that kinda works

Questions:

• Should the computer that’s running Blue Iris be connected to Network 1 or Network 2?
• Do I need to set up port forwarding (or fixed IP or something) on the Time Capsule router (Network 1), the Asus router (Network 2), or both? If so, what should the configuration be?
  • Does the Asus router need a fixed port/IP on the Time Capsule network?
• When I set a camera's local IP and port in the web config for each camera, is that its location on Network 1, Network 2, or both?
• I’d like to use the Blue Iris web server capabilities for remote access. Does this affect the configuration of Network 1 and Network 2? Could I then get rid of the no-ip.org setup?
• Has anyone had success using dropbox or another free online cloud backup service to synch the motion-triggered recordings from Blue Iris?

I realize there’s a lot of questions here. I’m to the point where I’d be happy just to pay somebody to come for a few hours and fix my setup. Are there any services that do this? Anyway, any help with any of the questions above would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

 

[PSPCommOp]

I'm not a networking guru at all, I'm still learning all the in's and out's but from everything I've read, theres no way a wifi network can take the bandwidth of that many IP cams constantly recording, even if it is separated from the main wifi network of the house. I'm sure one of the experts here will be chiming in shortly some advice but you may need to strongly considering wiring some, if not most of those cameras to get fluid recording and playback. I don't think there are many ways of avoiding it.

 

[Brennan612]

Thanks for the input. I don't really have the ability to hardwire much in my house. I think I'm stuck with whatever latency I have, but if anyone has further advice on the Blue Iris config or other questions, would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[rotorwash]

Brennan,

Can you verify the powerline adapters are working correctly? I've had issues like you describe with powerline adapters in my home (others on this forum have not so YMMV). Also, what channels/frequencies are you using for the two wifi networks? Are they overlapping?

 

[Masejoer]

Can you see what speed that wifi2 is connected to clients at? Is it using the same frequency as wifi 1? Is there more interference on the wifi2 frequency?

If it worked before, you should be able to get it working again. The recorder would do better connected to the wifi2 network.

Powerline networking isn't that great. Tried it again when we moved into our current house - quickly ditched powerline and bought 6 access points to connect four rooms together, all on their own frequencies. One AP talking to one AP, and no other devices connected to steal any bandwidth. Latency was much better, and throughput was twice as fast (30-35MB/sec rather than 15MB/sec with powerline on two different circuits). After winter, we got the house wired up with CAT6.

If too many wifi devices are sharing limited bandwidth, you could setup a wifi3 - wifi2 on one side of the house and wifi3 on the other. Less distance and obstruction will improve speeds, and you won't have lower speeds from distant cameras bringing down the rest of the cameras.

 

[fenderman]

This setup is overly complicated. You should not be port forwarding any cameras. Its a security nightmare. Most routers will not route the traffic externally even if you use the external ip address/no-ip address. Regardless, use the local addresses.

 

[nayr]

Thanks for the input. I don't really have the ability to hardwire much in my house. I think I'm stuck with whatever latency I have, but if anyone has further advice on the Blue Iris config or other questions, would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Its not the latency its the bandwidth, and cameras recording to a remote device need a constant, uninterrupted, connection.. you cannot guarantee that with Wifi, I can knock your devices off Wifi with apps and microwaves and neighbors can introduce interference.. the more devices talking on the same frequency the harder it cuts into everything.. say for example you can get one device transferring data @ 8MB/s that does not mean you can get 8 devices transmitting data at 1MB/s, because of sharing this bandwidth evenly between various radios on the same frequency you'd be lucky to get 8 devices transmitting data at 0.3MB/s.. think of it like trying to listen to one person talk in a quiet room vs trying to listen to 8 people talk simultaneously in a noisy room.. oah and all 8 people have identical voices at the same frequencies.

Your only recourse is to drop the bandwidth requirements dramatically, which will result in you running all 8 cameras at an extremely low quality bitrate/fps.. and then your still succeptable to camera dropouts and other issues caused by environmental factors beyond your capability to control.

PowerLine Networking is your best hope if you refuse to run ethernet cabling.

 

[FrankOceanXray]

A friend of mine uses dropbox for notifications to be stored off-site. I'll see if he still uses this set-up, how it works, etc.

As for running cable... you should just do that. Buy some good tools to assist you. I always just tried the reel of steel tape. Bought a nice brand.. but would not splurge on fish sticks. They make a world of difference. Bought a set of Jameson glow rods for a good price and they make the job immensely simple. Nothing better than running a hard line.