System Stopped Working

[swather450]

I have been running my camera system for 2 years and a few days ago I am no longer communicating with any of my cameras. I am thinking it's the POE switch, but hate to throw down $60 for a new switch to find out that isn't the issue.

I am running windows 10 with two ethernet ports, one to my POE switch and the other to the internet so that I can isolate the cameras from the internet. I run from the isolated ethernet into a BV-Tech 9 Port PoE+ swtich (8 PoE+ Ports and 1 Uplink Port - 120W - 802.3af/at) and then up to 5 cameras. Again, everything was working fine up until a few days ago and I can't really think of what might have caused the issue. The windows 10 computer is running my Blue Iris server and that's all it does, run the camera system and I occasionally log in and update the windows software and the Blue Iris software.

I attempted to ping the cameras using the windows cmd prompt, to no avail. I ohm'd out my network cables from the computer to the PoE switch and that is all fine. I even swapped the two networks on the computer, ensuring that I made the right configuration changes to each network, and that didn't work. It all leads me to think the PoE switch is bad. Is there anything else that I should be trying at this point or do I just need to get a new PoE switch?

If a new switch, is there a different/better switch I should be getting? I am currently only running 5 cameras, but I have network cables to run up to 8, so sticking with an 8+1 is where I would like to stay.

Thanks.

Edited to add all the lights on the PoE Switch appear to indicate that things are working fine.

 

[TonyR]

Do all devices have assigned, unique static IP's?
Do you have a 12VDC @ 2 Amps wall wart power supply to try and power 1 cam? (if so, bypass POE switch for that cam).

 

[swather450]

They do have unique static IP's. Powering them separately may be a bit difficult as they are tucked in the attic, under the house eve's. I can certainly try to get at them, but that will likely be my only option I guess to understand if the PoE is really working or not.

 

[concord]

If you have an extra laptop, change the IP address of the wired network of the extra laptop to your cam network IP range, connect it to your cam network connection and see if it works ((i.e. bring up UI3). This will eliminate the port on the cam computer being bad.

If that works, then go into the attic and connect the laptop using the uplink network cable to see if the cable is good ((i.e. bring up UI3.

If that works, re-connect the uplink network cable and connect to one of the other ports and see if that you can communicate to your cam computer (i.e. bring up UI3).

If that works, try unplugging all but one cam and see if you can see the cam. This may show that your POE switch or the power supply is going bad...

 

[swather450]

I tried the extra laptop and that still doesn't work.

I did find that I have the following PoE injector (

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Passive-Injector-Ethernet-Supports/dp/B07KJB712X/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=tp-link+24V+1A+Passive+PoE+Adapter&qid=1635813196&sr=8-3

) but this is a 24v injector and I don't think it will work, at least when I tried it, it wasn't working.

I will now have to get up into my attic to try and connect directly to one of the cameras.

If I need a new 8 port PoE switch, is there a recommended one to look at?

 

[TonyR]

I did find that I have the following PoE injector (

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Passive-Injector-Ethernet-Supports/dp/B07KJB712X/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=tp-link+24V+1A+Passive+PoE+Adapter&qid=1635813196&sr=8-3

) but this is a 24v injector and I don't think it will work, at least when I tried it, it wasn't working.

Nope, that's a passive 24VDC "POE" injector (some Engenius, Ubiquiti and TP-LINK radios); you want active 802.3af spec POE.

 

[Flintstone61]

TP-LINK 8-Port Fast Ethernet Desktop Switch with Power Over Ethernet (PoE) - Micro Center

Get it now! TL-SF1008P is an 8 10/100Mbps ports unmanaged switch that requires no configuration and ports 1-4 provides PoE (Power over Ethernet). It can automatically detect and supply power with all IEEE 802.3af compliant Powered Devices (PDs).

www.microcenter.com

https://www.amazon.com/Gigabit-Switch-802-3af-Compliant-Unmanaged/dp/B0899CMJ14/ref=asc_df_B0899CMJ14/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459410835726&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17768548269383122001&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019700&hvtargid=pla-966959887834&psc=1

 

[concord]

I tried the extra laptop and that still doesn't work.

I did find that I have the following PoE injector (

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Passive-Injector-Ethernet-Supports/dp/B07KJB712X/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=tp-link+24V+1A+Passive+PoE+Adapter&qid=1635813196&sr=8-3

) but this is a 24v injector and I don't think it will work, at least when I tried it, it wasn't working.

I will now have to get up into my attic to try and connect directly to one of the cameras.

If I need a new 8 port PoE switch, is there a recommended one to look at?

If connecting your laptop directly to your cam computer network card and can't ping your cam computer and can't get to your cam computer via browser on the laptop, then it's your network card! Simple process of elimination, starting with testing your cam computer network card.

 

[swather450]

It was the BV-Tech 9 Port PoE+ switch that died. After reading several recent reviews on Amazon it appears that after 18-24 months this switch stops working. The PoE work, everything appears to work, but there is no network to the cameras. I purchased the Amcrest 8-Port POE+ 96w (AGPS8E8P-AT-96) switch and we will see how well that does. With 5 cameras, I should be fine with that wattage.