Network problems - tracking down issues

[Richard Aman]

Newbie question kind of camera related.

I have a friend running several Nest cameras around his home. The problem is the camera's keep coming on and off line. They work here and there, but keep drop connection. Not all at once, one here and one there.

He's running a stock Spectrum Wave 2 Router in a 1400 square foot house. It appears that the wifi signal is fairly strong around the house and all the cameras are able to connect.

My question is, Is there a program that I have leave running on his network to track what's causing the cameras to go of line? Can I track - Does his wifi signal get interference from something? Does his internet connection drop?

It would be nice if I could place a device by the camera and just let it run and track the wifi signal.

Any suggestions, Please let me know.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Does his wifi signal get interference from something?

Could be if there are neighbour APs using the same channels with strong signals.

A useful tool on an Android phone is WiFi Analyzer - Kevin Yuan / farproc
This shows channels, signal strength, SSID etc and may indicate a need to switch channels.

 

[Richard Aman]

I have iPhones. Does it have a Mac version?

 

[tangent]

More than 2-3 wifi camera is often trouble.

 

[bguy]

It's a common consensus that wifi sucks for security cameras. It will never be as reliable as a wired connection. This is even more true as you add cameras.

That said, trouble shooting wifi is a lot like putting a jigsaw puzzle together in the dark. Your best bet on figuring out the problem is if either device has logs, but I doubt they have decent logs. The analyzer will let you see what other wifi there is, so you can pick a better channel, but isn't likely to tell you why this is happening. You should optimize your wifi network, but you are going about it the hard way by trying to "see" the wifi problem. You have 3 devices that randomly disconnect from the ISP router, so the router is the common denominator. Easily tested by adding an access point and connecting the cameras to it.

As an ancillary note, I found my Comcast wifi router to be unreliable. When I first moved into my place I used wifi for my PC, but found the connection dropping randomly despite a strong signal. I tried different wifi adapters, and still had the same issue. Other people in the house reported the same issue. So I ran a hard wire, plus added an AP, and all was better.

 

[SouthernYankee]

Wifi is not a good for IP cameras.
Comcast routers the wifi is not good.

In the past I had wifi cameras, when I watched chromecast or roku the cameras dropped off line. I had a comcast modem/router.

Use a new router (ASUS) and put the comcast router into pass through or bypass mode, so the comcast device is only a modem.

The nest camera is not a good idea. Build a good wired camera based system

 

[bob2701]

I have 3 of the Amcrest cameras inside running on wifi without a problem, they have been rock solid.
I also have 6 cameras outside all hardwired to a Ubiquiti network.

 

[SouthernYankee]

Wifi depends on interference. My wifi analysiser indicates more than 24 separated wifi network s in the exists area. My next door neighbor what multiple accesses points covering all the available channels. Also the 2.4 network also has non wifi interference from wireless home phones, alarm systems,....

The continuous success of a wifi connection depends on your enviorment.

 

[JNDATHP]

If you’re going to upgrade your network, go with UniFi by Ubiquity. Still, though, try to hardwire the cameras.

 

[NoloC]

Another plug for UBNT. They also have a free Wifi analyzer app called wifiman that is pretty cool.

Agree with what has been said here about using a wifi analyzer app of some type to give you a spectrum analyzer type view so you can see if there is interference. I am sure there are many apps for iphone but I am an Android user. Without this troubleshooting step you will be literally fumbling in the dark.

 

[bob2701]

@JNDATHP your system is almost identical to mine, add one more switch.

 

[Richard Aman]

Update. There are 7 Nest Cameras in this network. I've gone into the router and changed the DNS lease to a longer time, lowered the camera's quality and I reinstalled all the cameras on the 2g wifi network for longer range {as per Nest}. I also did a scan of the existing wifi signals and changed the router channel to a less busy channel. Lastly I hard wired the wifi extender to the modem to alleviate some of the stress on the Wifi signal. Everything seams to be working correctly now.

 

[lifeatredline]

I have wired and wifi cams in my system. I find that most of my neighbors routers are on "auto channel". A channel may appear no or low usage while running analyzer, but awhile later all the neighbors routers move to it off and on continually. I spread wired access points around my house each manually locked on their own channel so no wifi cam is far enough from one to have interference knock it out, plus the access points are all a different ssid so the wifi cams are assigned to their nearby AP. All cameras should have permanently reserved IP too. Wifi cameras absolutely suck next to wired, but they can be made more reliable with a solid network.

Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk