Networking issues - Help needed installing cameras

[johnnydough]

Hi guys.
So this forum (and the cliff notes) have been great helping me get my IPCam setup.
I now have 3 cameras (Dahua), a 8 port POE switch, and a decent windows computer - oh and I purchased Blue Iris.

But I can't figure out the networking side of things.

I have 0 experience with networking, and have tried following all the guides, but I'm not having any luck getting the ConfigTool to find the cameras.

At the moment I have:
Windows computer --> plugged into a spare wifi router --> plugged into my poe switch ---> which is plugged into my IPcameras.

I can access the wifi router settings, but the IPconfig tool doesn't pick the cameras.
When I type 192.168.1.108 into the browser I just get a time out error.

As I mentioned, I have zero experience with networking.

So I've probably done something silly. But I've already spent 5 hours tryingt o figure it all out and I'm getting nowhere but frustrated!

A few questions:

1) My security network is going to be 100% offline. So do I need the wifi router (it's not connected to my network). Can I just go PC --> Switch --> Cameras? Or do I need a router of some form in there?

2) If so, my router has various settings - wireless router, hotspot router, access point, range extender - which one should I select?

3) My router has 4 ports and a WAN port - should I be using the WAN port for anything?

4) My switch doesn't have an uplink port - just 8 POE ports, is this a problem?

5) I have a fresh install of windows and BlueIris - I haven't used windows since win XP - Do I need to make any changes to windows to get my network working?

Sorry for all the newbie q's. I have tried to figure this out on my own, but I'm getting no where, so would appreciate some pointers.
Thanks!

 

[johnnydough]

Ok so an update.
I found the camera in IPConfigTool - I ticked 'Current Segment search' in search settings and I found it.

So I initialised the camera. I left the IP as default.
Progress

But then when I try and access the camera through my browser (using 192.168.1.108) I get a 'this page cannot be found' error

And BlueIris doesn't pick it up either.

So the hardware all works, it's just some network settings that I must have wrong. Any tips?

 

[TL1096r]

do you have all 3 cameras plugged in or just 1?

you said you do not have any internet connection you just have 1 plug going from NIC to switch and 1 to camera?

Did you set a password? I think you might be missing a step in ipconfigtool maybe.

Can you go into settings of your NIC card to see what is going on? See here:
Dual NIC setup on your Blue Iris Machine

Go to network card and type in use following IP address as:
192.168.1.50

 

[TonyR]

Have you read and/or tried "Dahua Camera Initial Setup" in the Cliff Notes ?

 

[aristobrat]

If you’re going to be 100% offline, ditch the wireless router and just plug the PC and cameras directly into the PoE switch. You’ll plug the PC into any of the PoE ports on the switch, that port will become the uplink.

@TL1096r brought up two good points.

If the IP address assigned to your PC doesn’t start with 192.168.1.x, ConfigTool may be able to talk to the camera but nothing else on your PC can (like your web browser or Blue Iris). So go into Control Panel on your PC and give the network adapter a static IP address that starts with 192.168.1.x and that doesn’t end in 108. Subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0 and since you’re running 100% offline you can leave the default gateway and DNS entries blank (or enter all 0s if it won’t let you leave them blank).

Also make sure you only have one new device plugged into the switch at a time. They all come from the factory with the IP address of 192.168.1.108. You can’t have multiple devices with the same IP address on the network at the same time, so plug the cameras in one at a time, give it a new, unique IP address (that starts with 192.168.1.x but doesn’t end with 108 or any other number currently in use). When you can web into the camera using the new IP address, then it’s safe to plug in the next new camera and do the same...

 

[TonyR]

+1^^.
@johnnydough , since a router routes AND no Internet access is sought in your instance, it can be left out. Then, by connecting all network devices to a switch and assigning unique static IP's all in same subnet to all devices, that will allow those devices to communicate as needed....no routing required.

 

[johnnydough]

Hi all.
Thanks for all these responses and sorry for not acknowledging them sooner. I was working on this last sunday and my week has been crazy, so only getting back into it now.

So I managed o get them working (thanks to your help!) heres the issues I had and what I ended up doing:

Ok so the problem is without the wireless router going in between the PC and the PoE switch I can't access the cameras through IE.

I followed the steps in this article - Dual NIC setup on your Blue Iris Machine - and changed my network card IP to 192.168.1.10 - saved it and checked the Network Connection Details - this shows IPv4 Address as 192.168.1.10
But when I type this into IE I get a 'cannot reach this page' error.

Anyway I plugged in one IPcam into the switch, and CONFIG TOOL sees the camera (and it has been intialized) and I type in the cameras address (192.168.1.108) and yes I can login and see the camera - great.

But - when I try and change the IP address on the camera through Config Tool - I get an error.

Here's what I'm doing:
1. I click the camera, hit 'Modify IP' then enter:
192.168.1.20 in start IP
and 255.255.255.0 in subnet.
and 192.168.1.10 (Network Card) as gateway.

I hit save, and then next to the IP address in Config Tool there is a error symbol - and the IP of the camera still reads 192.168.1.108. When I click the error symbol I see:

IP - 192.168.1.108
Config Type - Modify IP
Config Result - password error

Realising that I CONFIGTOOL couldn't access the camera settings, I went direct to the camera IP through IE - and changed the IP address in the software settings there.
As I changed the IP I added a new camera until all were setup

Now they are all working in Blue Iris! Whoop

Thank you!!

Now I just need to setup Blue Iris and then get out the drill and ladder.

Thanks again.

 

[aristobrat]

With Config Tool, you may have to change the camera’s password before you can change other settings. Glad you were able to get things done thru the webui!

 

[TL1096r]

Hi all.
Thanks for all these responses and sorry for not acknowledging them sooner. I was working on this last sunday and my week has been crazy, so only getting back into it now.

So I managed o get them working (thanks to your help!) heres the issues I had and what I ended up doing:

Ok so the problem is without the wireless router going in between the PC and the PoE switch I can't access the cameras through IE.

I followed the steps in this article - Dual NIC setup on your Blue Iris Machine - and changed my network card IP to 192.168.1.10 - saved it and checked the Network Connection Details - this shows IPv4 Address as 192.168.1.10
But when I type this into IE I get a 'cannot reach this page' error.

Anyway I plugged in one IPcam into the switch, and CONFIG TOOL sees the camera (and it has been intialized) and I type in the cameras address (192.168.1.108) and yes I can login and see the camera - great.

But - when I try and change the IP address on the camera through Config Tool - I get an error.

Here's what I'm doing:
1. I click the camera, hit 'Modify IP' then enter:
192.168.1.20 in start IP
and 255.255.255.0 in subnet.
and 192.168.1.10 (Network Card) as gateway.

I hit save, and then next to the IP address in Config Tool there is a error symbol - and the IP of the camera still reads 192.168.1.108. When I click the error symbol I see:

IP - 192.168.1.108
Config Type - Modify IP
Config Result - password error

Realising that I CONFIGTOOL couldn't access the camera settings, I went direct to the camera IP through IE - and changed the IP address in the software settings there.
As I changed the IP I added a new camera until all were setup

Now they are all working in Blue Iris! Whoop

Thank you!!

Now I just need to setup Blue Iris and then get out the drill and ladder.

Thanks again.

This is a much better way of doing it. I always have an airgapped computer I use to configure all cams before putting it on the dual NIC BI server switch.