Need help picking new cams

[McCarthy]

I installed that EmpireTech IPC-B22IR-ZAS S3 cam. Took a while to find a compatible DAHUA model for the Synology Surveillance Station control interface (it is: IPC-HDBW2231R-ZAS).

And the frame rate is finally a full 30 FPS at 1080. No more lagging. Both stream and recordings!

I'll order more EmpireTech IPC-B22IR-ZAS S3 cams and replace the other 2 lagging and old Vivoteks.

Thanks guys for the help.

 

[mat200]

I installed that EmpireTech IPC-B22IR-ZAS S3 cam. Took a while to find a compatible DAHUA model for the Synology Surveillance Station control interface (it is: IPC-HDBW2231R-ZAS).

And the frame rate is finally a full 30 FPS at 1080. No more lagging. Both stream and recordings!

I'll order more EmpireTech IPC-B22IR-ZAS S3 cams and replace the other 2 lagging and old Vivoteks.

Thanks guys for the help.



View attachment 192288

FYI - posting info on the camera mentioned for future reference .. EmpireTech IPC-B22IR-ZAS S3

 

[McCarthy]

Bad news.

I just found out that this EmpirTech cam stopped recording 10 days ago. This is REALLY bad, because if I ever need evidence of an incident, I need to be able to count on this hardware! I also need to be able to trust this cam and not stressing out that I have to check it every few days!

So I went into the admin of my Synology surveillance station in order to see whats going on. All the settings seem to be normal. Then I tried to log into the cam, and I get a "The online user amount has reached the threshold". And now it even blocked the Synology surveillance station software and I can't do ANYTHING with it.

I fukking hate it when devices become so ""smart"" that they can lock you out. What the heck is that?! How am I supposed to get back into the setting of this cam? If I have to pull it off the wall for a hard reset, they all will go straight back to Amazon!

 

[wittaj]

Bad news.

I just found out that this EmpirTech cam stopped recording 10 days ago. This is REALLY bad, because if I ever need evidence of an incident, I need to be able to count on this hardware! I also need to be able to trust this cam and not stressing out that I have to check it every few days!

So I went into the admin of my Synology surveillance station in order to see whats going on. All the settings seem to be normal. Then I tried to log into the cam, and I get a "The online user amount has reached the threshold". And now it even blocked the Synology surveillance station software and I can't do ANYTHING with it.

I fukking hate it when devices become so ""smart"" that they can lock you out. What the heck is that?! How am I supposed to get back into the setting of this cam? If I have to pull it off the wall for a hard reset, they all will go straight back to Amazon!

Sounds like maybe you were hacked. That error is classic signs of either hacked or your Synology system doesn't know WTF to do and is logging in multiple times. You did say you had to use a different camera in Synology to make it work, so maybe it is actually your VMS and not the camera... Maybe scream and yell at Synology to get their act together and support the most popular camera...

That error means there are too many simultaneous logins and only a few ways that can happen....

If Dahua cams were that bad, they wouldn't be a $5 billion per year company.

None of us are experiencing this.

Are your cameras going thru the router or have you isolated them via dual NIC or VLAN? I think you mentioned they are separate but your system was still connected to the internet.

Have you port forwarded or using P2P?

How do you access your system remotely - do you use something like OpenVPN? You mentioned this was a weekend project...

Did you try killing power to the camera and restarting to cancel all of the simultaneous attempts at logging in?

But yeah lets send the cams back without seeing if it is an issue with your own system.....

 

[mat200]

Bad news.

I just found out that this EmpirTech cam stopped recording 10 days ago. This is REALLY bad, because if I ever need evidence of an incident, I need to be able to count on this hardware! I also need to be able to trust this cam and not stressing out that I have to check it every few days!

So I went into the admin of my Synology surveillance station in order to see whats going on. All the settings seem to be normal. Then I tried to log into the cam, and I get a "The online user amount has reached the threshold". And now it even blocked the Synology surveillance station software and I can't do ANYTHING with it.

I fukking hate it when devices become so ""smart"" that they can lock you out. What the heck is that?! How am I supposed to get back into the setting of this cam? If I have to pull it off the wall for a hard reset, they all will go straight back to Amazon!

This is a rather unusual issue .. I don't recall seeing this posted often here ..

of course Synology Surveillance Station is not the top VMS used ..

"The online user amount has reached the threshold"

Wondering exactly what happened ?
This sounds typically of a bot guessing passwords .. are the cameras on a separate vlan ?

 

[bigredfish]

Either hacked or something repeatedly logging in and not getting properly logged out.
Saw this behavior with an old version of iDMSS once. It would sit there and login repeatedly very fast and fill the default 128 users in a matter of a few minutes.

Dahua NVR - "It has reached the connection threshold!"

Started getting this last night. At first, I was having issues saving configurations from the cameras. I know the device has a"'connection limit" of 128, but I don't know what it considers a connection. Clearly not a user session - as there are only two actual users, and we both use the admin...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[TonyR]

Sounds like the Synology issue here, entitled "Your User Quota Limit Reached:"
:

Synology Community

Hi! Come and join us at Synology Community. A place to answer all your Synology questions. Ask a question or start a discussion now.

community.synology.com

 

[McCarthy]

I didn't use the Synology surveillance station over night, hoping that any connections would fall off. Just tried to access the cam through the browser again. First attempt it claimed "Failed login" (whatever that means). Second time it came back to "The online user amount has reached the threshold".

So I disconnected and rebooted the cam at my Cisco switch and I was able to log in.

For what ever reason, the main stream resolution was changed to 720p, it was on 1080 before. I changed it to 1080, and now the stream is scrambled when I watch it on my monitor stations. Yet another problem.

Yes, all cams are on their own vlan.

Its not a Synology quota issue, the cam only allows 10 default connections, max is 20, and it can't be turned off, and it doesn't show when and if there is a timeout. That is a horrible design flaw!

That's why I wanted to stay with Vivotek cams. None of my 10 "made in Taiwan" Vivotek cams got ever hacked in 10 years or have any connection limitations like that. None of them can block my connection like that either!

@bigredfish This cam just "collects" 10 connections, and that guy in your linked thread didn't figure out when and if they time out.


In surveillance station I have it running as a "IPC-HDBW2231R-ZAS" cam, because the model version I bought is not listed. It worked fine for several days until it stopped recording.

I just overwrote the stream settings from in the surveillance station, it took forever to activate (3 min), and now the stream is fixed and it records again.


So now I still have THREE problems:

1. Why did it stop recording all of the sudden?
2. How can I disable the connection limitations? What are the time outs? Where can I change the timeouts?
3. How can I trust this cam ever again and assume it won't just stop recording again?

 

[McCarthy]

What is the exact DAHUA equivalent model for the EmpireTech IPC-B22IR-ZAS S3 ?

 

[wittaj]

The camera stopped recording because it got overwhelmed with too many connection requests. I think a VMS system constantly logging in to the camera is a fault of the VMS system, not the camera. You have enough simultaneous connections to any device and it will have trouble and lockup. Look at TicketMaster when Taylor Swift concerts went on sale LOL.

With the one exception bigredfish showed - none of us using NVRs or Blue Iris have this issue. If you haven't been hacked, then it is a Synology issue.

What browser did you use to access the camera GUI? These types of cameras can be browser sensitive and settings won't hold with some browsers.

How do you know it isn't a Synology problem - is your Vivotek cameras part of the pull-down in Synology - if so, then it is using the correct protocol that probably isn't opening up a lot of simultaneous connections.

 

[bigredfish]

Are you port forwarding to the outside world?

The camera didnt stop recording, Synology stopped recording.
I dont know why but it sounds like something got overloaded with requests, and the camera doesnt make those requests, so...

I think thats a 2MP bullet IPC-B22IR-ZAS S3
Probably this one Dahua - IPC-HFW2241T-ZAS - Dahua International

 

[McCarthy]

The camera stopped recording because it got overwhelmed with too many connection requests. I think a VMS system constantly logging in to the camera is a fault of the VMS system, not the camera. You have enough simultaneous connections to any device and it will have trouble and lockup. Look at TicketMaster when Taylor Swift concerts went on sale LOL.

With the one exception bigredfish showed - none of us using NVRs or Blue Iris have this issue. If you haven't been hacked, then it is a Synology issue.

What browser did you use to access the camera GUI? These types of cameras can be browser sensitive and settings won't hold with some browsers.

How do you know it isn't a Synology problem - is your Vivotek cameras part of the pull-down in Synology - if so, then it is using the correct protocol that probably isn't opening up a lot of simultaneous connections.

The connection issue is based on unknown and unchangeable timeout settings of that cam. Its a new(er) security feature that wasn't tested properly. Not being able to turn it off or change it to unlimited connections is yet another design failure. I could bring out my masters in computer science on that topic, but I won't.

Where did your text regarding "5442-ZAS S3" go? That model is nowhere listed in Synology.

 

[wittaj]

I deleted it because I misread the camera you got. You have the 2MP not the 4MP (5442).

 

[McCarthy]

Are you port forwarding to the outside world?

The camera didnt stop recording, Synology stopped recording.
I dont know why but it sounds like something got overloaded with requests, and the camera doesnt make those requests, so...

I think thats a 2MP bullet IPC-B22IR-ZAS S3
Probably this one Dahua - IPC-HFW2241T-ZAS - Dahua International

And that's the model version I could find 2 weeks ago when I set everything up. It is not listed, so I picked the closest version: IPC-HDBW2231R-ZAS

That was working until it stopped recording. What now..?

 

[bigredfish]

The connection issue is based on unknown and unchangeable timeout settings of that cam. Its a new(er) security feature that wasn't tested properly. Not being able to turn it off or change it to unlimited connections is yet another design failure. I could bring out my masters in computer science on that topic, but I won't.

Where did your text regarding "5442-ZAS S3" go? That model is nowhere listed in Synology.

OK your attitude sucks, a raccoon ate my prize plant last night, an Owl woke me up crashing into my motion floodlight, and I have to go comb my cat,

But here's where you set max connections on Dahua cameras depending on your FW version - that unknown and unchangeable setting

 

[TonyR]

I could bring out my masters in computer science on that topic, but I won't.

That's the best news I've heard today!

 

[McCarthy]

Are you port forwarding to the outside world?

The camera didnt stop recording, Synology stopped recording.
I dont know why but it sounds like something got overloaded with requests, and the camera doesn't make those requests, so...

I can access the cams through the Synology app on my phone, but that - afaik - only accesses the Synology NAS, connection is made through a Synology cloud, so no port forwarding here. I use that app maybe 3 times a week. If the max 10 connections triggers from those few app connections and 3 perma monitor stations, it is clearly a cam issue, because that's way too low and timeout isn't working right, let alone being adjustable or being able to disable this nonsense.

And now good luck to me trying to get support from Dahua in order to figure out ANYTHING regarding the timeouts

I changed it to the max of 20 connections and that may get triggered too since nobody knows when it times out.

Regarding the settings and stream quality issue, Synology may have stopped adding the settings for newer cams due to the ban... who know. Generic settings are not accepted.

Maybe I should have made this clear in my OP. I don't have the time to fiddle around with a cam that is finicky, a brand that is banned and tries to loophole it with different branding / names / versions / channels, a brand that considers consumers trash and only wants to deal with their wholesale operation.

I don't need the latest tech, I need reliability (proper design and testing) and ergonomics (easy setup, easy adjustments). My Vivotek cams just work.

 

[bigredfish]

Switch to Reolink

 

[wittaj]

What other VMS is flooding a camera with login requests....that should be what you are questioning...

I still stand by it is a Synology issue. But if your masters in computer science says allowing unlimited connections is best practice....

Even though my system is completely isolated, I purposely ratcheted DOWN the number of simultaneous connections simply as another safeguard.

If I had it unlimited, then HTF knows when it is being accessed when it shouldn't be.

Plus, the more connections, the more data being pushed out of the camera and the more likelihood that the little processor won't be able to keep up. Depending on the camera and the settings, every login to the video could be consuming 10Mbps and unlimited connections won't be sustainable. They provide a max number for a reason. And if you think the little processor in your Vivotek is more powerful than what is in Dahua, well.....

 

[McCarthy]

What other VMS is flooding a camera with login requests....that should be what you are questioning...

I still stand by it is a Synology issue. But if your masters in computer science says allowing unlimited connections is best practice....

Even though my system is completely isolated, I purposely ratcheted DOWN the number of simultaneous connections simply as another safeguard.

If I had it unlimited, then HTF knows when it is being accessed when it shouldn't be.

Plus, the more connections, the more data being pushed out of the camera and the more likelihood that the little processor won't be able to keep up. Depending on the camera and the settings, every login to the video could be consuming 10Mbps and unlimited connections won't be sustainable. They provide a max number for a reason. And if you think the little processor in your Vivotek is more powerful than what is in Dahua, well.....

Max settings used to be 128. Maybe they forced it to max 20 because the hardware sucks. Instead of fixing the limitations, they just created a problem for the customer, assuming that most don't run 3 monitor stations plus a few app connections. The access to change settings pushed it over the limit of 10. Retarded.

Any proper application time-outs connections in a rather timely matter. Since nobody seems to know this variable and it can't be adjusted, this IS the issue at hand. 10 or 20 connections is nothing, especially when the HOST doesn't time it out!

OK your attitude sucks, a raccoon ate my prize plant last night, an Owl woke me up crashing into my motion floodlight, and I have to go comb my cat,

But here's where you set max connections on Dahua cameras depending on your FW version - that unknown and unchangeable setting
View attachment 193835 View attachment 193834

I long changed that to 20. I was talking about not being able to change it to unlimited connections or being able to change the time out.

My attitude sucks? That reply was for wittaj who tries to twist the issue by blaming Synology while YOUR very own link clearly showed the issue at hand, with no resolution in this case.

My system was working 100% flawlessly for 10 years until a couple cams started acting up due to age, likely leaking caps. Getting 10 years out of them is great in my book, especially in FL heat. Zero issues with Synology the entire time. I add a new Vivotek cam 3 weeks ago... still zero issues. I add a EmpireTec 2 weeks ago after major issues getting it running and I now face even more issues. But hey, lets blame everything else but the piece of hardware that is acting up. That's why I made my comment.

Either way: the EmpireTec cams go back today. Ain't nobody got time for this nonsense.