NEW Defender Sentinel NVR NS1T8NVR Static IP config

[AF7U]

Does anyone have any experience with Defender's new IP cameras? I am trying to set a static IP address on one of the 8 cams which come with this kit. The NVR process is pretty easy to follow and edit, but when I click 'Manually Edit' and 'OK', it reverts back to the old IP. Most of the NFO online talks to their old cameras, this model is relatively new. Thoughts???
~Michael

 

[looney2ns]

That's a very low tier brand, I wouldn't expect much from it at all. The cameras after dark will most likely be blind due to poor sensor ratio.
Typically an NVR automatically assigns the IP address on a subnet that is different from the NVR's ipaddress. This acts to isolate the cameras from the rest of the network.
Most of us here will not have had any experience with that setup.

My advice would be to return it and get your money back and purchase better. Best to stick with Dahua or Hikvision.

See this: Sebastiantombs Cam Tips Also study this: Wiki

 

[bigredfish]

Agree with above ^^^^^^

That said, IF it’s anything like Dahua, the “edit” button for the camera communications doesn’t actually change anything. It merely tells the NVR what credentials, IP, port etc to use to communicate with the camera. So if the camera itself is programmed to be at IP-X , changing that info to IP-Y won’t actually change the IP of the camera, thus the camera will still report itself as being at IP-X

The actual camera IP must be set on the camera itself, not via the NVR interface

 

[AF7U]

BigRedFish, thank you for a ‘helpful’ response. Your information makes sense and I’ll pursue other avenues to reach the camera. At first, I was taken aback by the initial response from this group, let me explain my reaction, some years back I owned a high-end audio/HiFi repair clinic, operational from the late 60s through 89 when I sold and pursued Networking and IT (High-quality audio gear was nearly pas·sé and the Internet was becoming mainstream and I was taken by how it worked). My store specialized in extremely expensive and high-quality audio and sound re-enforcement equipment. However, every once in a while someone would come into the clinic with an Electrophonic, a Goldstar, a Panasonic, or some other inexpensive K-mart sort of gear. We always tried to help them, we NEVER talked their gear down nor did we tell a customer, ‘You should just toss this and go by a Marantz, a MacIntosh or maybe replace those Sanyo speakers with a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls. We NEVER told them their stereo would sound muddy, or tinny, or explain ohms law to them. That’s silly talk… it’s unnecessary, or over their head, and more often than not, wrong advice for their needs. We DID try to explain what was wrong with their gear and how much it would cost them. Often they were shocked by our rates, at that point they usually wanted to know the ‘Whys’ of our hourly rate. If they were truly curious and wanted details, only then did we dig in deeper and help them understand the ‘Whys’.

Again, I want to thank you for the brief reply and helpful information. You are right in the assumption that the ‘edit’ button only steers the NVR and does not affect the camera. I wish I would have thought of that earlier. Interestingly, contrary to earlier advice, the cameras were not assigned a different subnet, they were on the same subnet as the NVR, but there was no way to change its unique IP. (sillytalk/ Maybe a new forum name; "Expensive IPcamTalk" <Chuckle> /sillytalk)

 

[looney2ns]

BigRedFish, thank you for a ‘helpful’ response. Your information makes sense and I’ll pursue other avenues to reach the camera. At first, I was taken aback by the initial response from this group, let me explain my reaction, some years back I owned a high-end audio/HiFi repair clinic, operational from the late 60s through 89 when I sold and pursued Networking and IT (High-quality audio gear was nearly pas·sé and the Internet was becoming mainstream and I was taken by how it worked). My store specialized in extremely expensive and high-quality audio and sound re-enforcement equipment. However, every once in a while someone would come into the clinic with an Electrophonic, a Goldstar, a Panasonic, or some other inexpensive K-mart sort of gear. We always tried to help them, we NEVER talked their gear down nor did we tell a customer, ‘You should just toss this and go by a Marantz, a MacIntosh or maybe replace those Sanyo speakers with a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls. We NEVER told them their stereo would sound muddy, or tinny, or explain ohms law to them. That’s silly talk… it’s unnecessary, or over their head, and more often than not, wrong advice for their needs. We DID try to explain what was wrong with their gear and how much it would cost them. Often they were shocked by our rates, at that point they usually wanted to know the ‘Whys’ of our hourly rate. If they were truly curious and wanted details, only then did we dig in deeper and help them understand the ‘Whys’.

Again, I want to thank you for the brief reply and helpful information. You are right in the assumption that the ‘edit’ button only steers the NVR and does not affect the camera. I wish I would have thought of that earlier. Interestingly, contrary to earlier advice, the cameras were not assigned a different subnet, they were on the same subnet as the NVR, but there was no way to change its unique IP. (sillytalk/ Maybe a new forum name; "Expensive IPcamTalk" <Chuckle> /sillytalk)

For the most part, we tell it like it is around here, and you're welcome to use the info as you like or not.
No need to get worked up about it.
By the way, you are NOT my customer. I didn't "sell" or try to "sell" you anything. All I did was provide FREE information that has been gleaned from hundreds of users here. Take it or leave it.

 

[AF7U]

Hi Loon, thanks for your thoughts... Yeah, I probably did get "worked up" a bit, no doubt because I took customer service in my career very seriously, sort of my pet peeve. (I'm sure you can understand that dealing with us newbs all day) The useful reply that I received was exactly what I needed and solved the issue. Unfortunately, advising me to return the NVR and purchase a different brand really missed the mark. But thanks for taking a crack at it...

 

[sebastiantombs]

IPCT isn't a customer service department at a for profit business. It's a collection of miscreants and experts who have all been there and done that with cheap cameras. The advice here is given freely, openly and with no charge based on the tremendous accumulation of years of experience spread across so many users of IPCT. As a result we hate to see anyone waste money on cheap stuff when it will always result in wasted money. That actually makes it expensive in the end since those kinds of cameras end up in the recycle bin or garbage, money wasted. That's why you got the reaction you did.

 

[wittaj]

Just to piggyback LOL, the cameras most here recommend are not "top shelf" in terms of price and aren't that much more than what you are getting this for.

I am sure you could find a Dahua OEM like an Amcrest or Lorex for about the same price that would be better and give you the flexibility to add on with better Dahua OEM cameras later. With this one you will pretty much be stuck with their brand.

Whenever I see cameras with the ring of IR lights, you know it is cheap end.

Many of us started with cameras with the IR ring and you will get alerts all night due to cobwebs and spiders that love the ring of IR.

I have a box full of cameras that look like that that I didn't even use for a full year before replacing.

 

[AF7U]

Hi Sebastian, I wouldn’t want to mislead anyone, I’m retired, just an old fart making sense of all this, I have no customer badgering me about fixing their NVR. I agreed with Loon about my reaction and tried to explain it, not justify it. That said, I’m sure I’m falling under the miscreant category…

Your view of inexpensive equipment is spot on, that’s exactly why I departed the HiFi game. The crap… er… I mean equipment from Japan, now China, was flooding the market with, in my view, worthless gear. Likewise, in my view, anyone setting up a home stereo/theater with cheap Japanese ‘Black Plastic Faced’ gear was just exacerbating the ‘landfill issue’ as you pointed out. I guess I felt poked when the reply to my very first post recommended that I just toss (my words) the gear and pull money from my retirement account (again my words) and buy better gear. Sadly, until we ALL collectively stop buying from Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, and many other such Chinese suppliers we are just going to have to live with our disposable junk. Interestingly, where are the ‘better’ brands made?

Here’s a sad and a funny story, my neighbor, while building their new $1M dream home, (way too close to me I might add) then, at my recommendation (not my work, remember I’m retired), equipped it with a ‘Network’ closet, prewired Cat6 Ethernet and provisions for cameras, security, fire, ingress detection, etc., etc. and made power available for several APs in their attic. All good in happy camp… Then the ‘Pros’ came back and trimmed it with nearly $20k in gear. But they still can’t get their doorbell to work (poor pix, poor audio), the cameras bloom in bright sun and are pissy in the dark, there are many dead spots in WiFi, I could go on. Funny, on the other hand, I picked up a ‘junk’ NVR and ‘junk’ cameras, and spent a day or so mounting various cams in a test setting. Everything worked… Wooo Hooo I was just looking for a way to alter the camera's IP address.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not blowing the Defender horn, far from it, they really are of classic overseas quality. I get your point, but that was just a funny story I wanted to share… I think the real issue here is qualified personnel. I strolled over to my neighbor’s house while the ‘Network’ guy was there. The guy was absolutely the nicest guy you ever met, and he knew very little about networking and even less about security and such. Not his fault, the company was having a hard time finding qualified help. I understand they couldn’t afford to pull out a real card-carrying Network guy from the NOC at $350/hour to hold the customer's hand... and explain why they should have just bought a cheap NVR. Hahaha I'm just BS'ing there...

Ahh, what the hell… I feel I’m getting off on a roll now. I really just wanted to give the guy props for his thoughts on camera IP operations and topology, he sure helped… I guess I got carried away.

OK, I was about to press ‘send’ when I saw ‘wittaj’ chime in. His information caught my attention, as I said earlier, my neighbor bought literally thousands of dollars in ‘Top shelf’ gear, (so I was informed) so I’m really curious about the brands you mentioned. I read some brands were banned by the FCC. (note1) BTW, those lights you see in the Defender image you posted, ‘ring of IR lights’, are actually white lights. There are no IR lights AFAIK, just FYI. To mention short-lived cameras, I have NTSC video security cameras which have been in operations around the farm here for nearly 7 years of 24/7 use and still look good, of course, good as in NTSC video. (Isn't it something, whenever you say this or that didn't last, another person jumps up and says mine worked for 20 years.) <Grin>

Of course, me being unfamiliar with ‘...cheap end’ cameras, I have to agree with your comment about cobwebs and bugs. I remotely added IR lights via an internal camera hack and solved the bug issue. Now if I could just get rid of the ghosts in the machine.

Being stuck with their brand also caught my eye… I do not like being roped into a brand; these cameras are advertised as ONVIF and RTSP: capable, but I have not yet proved that. Does anyone have ANY experience with these? Their earlier cameras were analog, I was told that these new line of cameras were digital. I would think to offer a functional opinion you would have some hands on with them. Just me being curious…

Note1: StackPath

 

[wittaj]

The cameras we recommend are $120 to $250ish Dahua OEM cameras. Top End Axis are over $1,000. Just for a point of reference.

Interesting those are white lights instead of IR. My concern would be the exposure getting washed out due to that ring of white light. But still a 1/3" sensor is good for your 720P NTSC video, but horrible for 8MP. A 2MP camera will outperform these.

Lorex and Amcrest are two brands to compete with the lower end competition, but they are made by Dahua. They use lessor quality sensors like the 1/3" sensor on an 8MP, but there are a lot more brands that will work with this system as Dahua makes a lot of camera brands sold under different names. So we recommend these kits for the true cost-conscious person because you can add Dahua cams later. My neighbor bought a Lorex kit from Costco and after he saw my 2MP cameras kicking his 4K cameras butt, he started replacing them with cameras like mine and it was literally plug and play with his NVR.

You will find in many instances ONVIF doesn't mean much. Even as a standard, there is no "standard" that every manufacturer follows.

In reality, ONVIF is a paid designation, so a camera can set up their protocol however they want, but if they belong to ONVIF, they can slap ONVIF on their stuff. Some manufacturers are better than others at providing a standard that can be used with other devices.

https://www.onvif.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/onvif-brand-standards-20220315.pdf

Regarding the FCC ban you mention, keep in mind that EVERY camera has security issues. It is why most of us here isolate cameras from the internet. If you don't use P2P and UPnP, no reason for worry.

Hacking vulnerabilities are the same regardless of who makes the cameras...or any IoT for that matter...and that is why most of us here isolate our cameras from the internet...it's just irony that they are surveillance cameras...it flows better saying security cameras are not very secure but many here do not consider them security cameras as they are for surveillance!

And our wonderful government decided to "ban" Hikvision and Dahua from government installations due to being partly owned by the Chinese government and the potential to be hacked...yet fail to recognize the real problem are the cameras can be breached and then they get exploited with other manufacturer cameras because they failed to isolate them from the internet. End result is people/governments that shouldn't see the camera feeds are now seeing them...

Keep in mind this proposed ban is for government installations....not your home, private business, etc...and even at that the ban is just words at this point with no official document for agencies to go upon. The bill requires new rules for FCC approval and authorizations be established. Those new rules must be published before 11/22 - a lot can happen between now and then...

Yep, instead of our government forbidding public agencies from using Chinese brand cameras like Dahua and Hikvision because they could be used to be spied on by the Chinese government, they should have been looking at what the real issue is, and it is this issue that will be same regardless of who makes a camera. You need to get the cameras off the internet period.

We have already seen countless examples where governments facilities that installed expensive AXIS cameras that are NDAA compliant were hacked into...

And of course other camera companies are now going to try to use this ban to their advantage, but as a consumer, you need to decide what marketing nonsense to believe and which one to pass on.

Regardless of who makes the camera, it should be limited in its ability to reach the internet. So at that point, go with the camera that is going to give you the best chance of a good capture.

TL : DR - isolate the cams from the internet and they will not phone home.