New to IP Cams, Need help with new home

B

brownsdawg

n3wb
Jan 7, 2019
3
1
Northeast
Hello,

I recently bought a new home and it has a level of tech far above my knowledge base. I want to learn more about everything involved (from the high end router/firewall, to the mesh network, to the home automation hubs), but specifically the IP camera system.

The home has 3 outdoor Panasonic IP cameras that are close to the roof line and one portable/movable Panasonic camera in the garage. All of the feeds are viewable through the IP Camera viewer app from Panasonic. The previous home owner set them up. There is no recording mechanism set up although the previous owner had one, I believe. My concern is that leaving them set up as they are, the previous owner or anyone else for that matter can view the feeds and control them. I just don't know how to change it. When I open up the IP viewer app and go to settings for each camera, it has a URL that is common to each camera, and a unique port number for each. Then there is the username and password for each. Would I need to change the username and password, or go further and have the IP address changed that is used to view the cameras? And I'm not even sure how I can change the username and password on the cameras that were set up by the previous home owner. One of the 4 cameras has a different username and a password that the previous owner did not give me, so I don't know how I can change it.

The cameras outside are Panasonic wv-sw175 and the one in the garage is a BL-C131A (the one with the password I don't have access to).

Eventually I would like to also figure out how to set up some recording mechanism with these, but first things first.

I realize that these cameras are quite outdated, and I will probably replace them at some point but for now they work for what I need them for.

Any advice or help on how to get started with this overwhelming process would be appreciated!
 
Are there already wires running to all these cameras (network)? The BL-C131A appears to be wi-fi, so thats probably throw-away, and the WV-SW175 looks like it has a lux rating for B/W of 0.5 !! Compare this to something like: Dahua IPC-HDBW4231F-AS which has 0.009 lux rating (for $120 from @EMPIRETECANDY ) or if you want something similar in performance but significantly higher resolution - IPC-K35A 3MP for your inside locations (for $90).

I would recommend if you have wiring to most of these locations to get some decent cameras and replace them all. Read the wiki and about Blue Iris or NVR's to setup a recording capability, and be done with the crap from the prior homeowner. It will take some reading, but it's all here in these forums.
 
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Thanks for the advice - I agree, I want to replace these with newer tech eventually, but I'm currently investing in other areas of the new house.

The previous owner shut down his dynamic DNS provider that he was using to view the IP cameras (as well as control some other devices remotely in the house). When he did that I lost the feeds to the IP cameras.

I recently reset the router and wifi that was left behind by the previous owner. When I look at the router and try to find DHCP list, it doesn't show the IP cameras. But when I run Fing on my phone to see what's connected to my network, it lists the 3 cameras.

Since I'm obviously a newbie to this stuff, what do I need to do to gain access/control of these cameras? I'm trying to learn this stuff as I go. Which will hopefully prepare me better for when I finally replace the cameras.
 
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