moparcruiser
Getting the hang of it
Hi all
I am a newbie at all this and am rapidly getting more and more confused on the RIGHT way to do this stuff.
Hoping y'all can help lead me the right direction.
I have laid out below my quest so far over the last two months or so....its a LOOOONG read so I know some will scroll right past,...but I know that info is important when trying to troubleshoot etc and so I have laid out all of it to that end....
Right now here is what I have going:
DLINK DCS5222L -- OLD wifi PTZ camera, indoors. Actually bought this years ago and at the time it didnt work at all as far as staying connected. Tried changing WIFI channels in the 2.4 GHZ realm but that didnt help much. Ended up shelving the camera til recently. Had workers at my house at one point over the summer and I needed a way to keep an eye on the activity so I dragged it out and tried it....it worked immediately and since then I have kept it up, shooting thru a front window (which I learned kills the use of night vision due to the refection of the IR). But as far as staying up, it has been really solid.
After this initial "success", I bought a DLINK DCS-8630LH-US wifi camera recently to try and get some coverage from my outbuilding (about 30 feet or so away from my house) of my back yard. Worked OK for a week or two...and the wide angle lens was AWESOME....great image when it worked..... but then started dropping like crazy for no apparent reason. The main gateway showed it still connected but no video stream....requiring a power cycle of it.....I had set it up per the instructions. Had nothing but trouble after that first week and got frustrated....
I started watching closely and found that the drops were patterned.......it would drop, stay down for a minute then reconnect.....rince and repeat......only a power cycle of the camera or the gateway would temporaily fix the issue for about 12 hours.......then it would start over .Got ticked and was about to give up......couldnt change the wifi channels to try that (more on that below) and was out of options that I knew to try....
Recently returned it in exchange for a......
Brillcam BRC-S8151W2 wifi camera. It installed directly and immediately and has been pretty solid mostly except it started dropping video at some point just like the DLINK 8630, though not quite as bad. Same thing -- gateway shows it connected and I can even use the brillcam android phone app to reboot......
The old 5222L camera was rock solid in all this, so I assumed location of the gateway and therefore WIFI signal quality was the issue........so I moved the gateway from my basement office up one floor......so it is on the opposite side of an exterior wall that directly faces the outbuilding camera. That seemed to help a little, but still had drops.
During this, I had also bought a Brillcam BRC-S8151P2 POE camera for the front yard. I ran a cable for this one, and bought a Netgear GS308PP 8 port Gigabit POE unmanaged switch to run it.
That has been the most rock solid unit so far...obviously POE is the right way to go rather than WIFI, but there are a few roadblocks to running cable to the outbuilding and in the rest of the house that I wont get into right now.....
Now in the midst of all this, I had started fighting with my internet provider (Comcast)......Up til this past summer I had been renting their internet gateway and it had been allowed me to change the WIFI channels at will (at least back when I first started messing with the first DLINK 5222L camera). At some point in all this pandemic stuff, our entire neighborhood started having major internet drop issues........and of course the first thing Comcast does is make us change our gateways. The problem persisted and it was eventually learned that there a problem at one of the poles that was at the head end of the whole neighborhood.........but in the meantime this new gateway locked out the wifi channel settings.....Comcast first-tier phone support led me down a road of going to their store to get a new gateway again, supposedly which would be able to be set up in the store to allow WIFI channels to be changed. That was wrong......the new gateway doesnt allow me to do it either. I only mention all this to provide background in what I have tried.
So I continued having issues with the new brillcam outbuilding dropping now and then. Same sort of pattern as with the DLINK bfore, though not as bad.....would stay connected for 10-12 hours but then start dropping ...this time dropping more randomly.
I went into the Brillcam WIFI camera and set it to "dual stream" and to reboot once a day. It has been running that way for a couple days now and so far, better. No constant drops. Only one short drop that I caught.
I am using DLINK's DVIEWCAM software on my PC....it allows me to record to the PC. Using the ONVIF settinga and that has worked well.
I am using TINYCAM for viewing the cameras on my android phone (DLINK's mobile app will not run on my phone).
Not sure yet if the dual streaming or the reboot setting will keep this wireless Brillcam running constantly without issues....waiting to see....that is my main goal.....to have the PC reliably recording and the cameras to stay connected 24/7. I really do not know why a scheduled reboot would make things work better ........since it's "only about a one minute piece of time that is lost in surveilance, I guess not a huge issue.....but still, would like to know why.
But another goal is for me to be able to see the cameras remotely...so far can only see the cameras when at home...whether on the DVIEWCAM software on the PC or the TINYCAM mobile app...
The cameras are all set up on my local lan....10.0.0.x....I know that is the issue as far as remote connectivity.
I have no idea how to set up any of this so that I can view when at work etc....I have played with port forwarding on the comcast gateway to no avail.....
SO I guess what I am saying is that I have no idea what I am doing...LOL
So many settings to try and tweak at so many points.....the PC app, the mobile app, the cameras via their own access.....
The DVIEWCAM app on the pc has a whole section for setting up access from remote....video server etc.....and I think THAT would be the most useful as it records all 3 cameras.....but I have tinkered and didnt get too far.....
The brillcam apps do not work remotely on those two cams since the cameras are assigned the local addresses.......
Kinda lost. LOL
I suppose that as long as they are internal IP addresses, the camera are more secure......still, would like to have remote access.
SO there ya go......my whole wordy story.......my head is spinning just typing all that. I hope the read isnt too bad for y'all.
......any advice on where to start attacking these issues? Please be gentle. LOL
I am a newbie at all this and am rapidly getting more and more confused on the RIGHT way to do this stuff.
Hoping y'all can help lead me the right direction.
I have laid out below my quest so far over the last two months or so....its a LOOOONG read so I know some will scroll right past,...but I know that info is important when trying to troubleshoot etc and so I have laid out all of it to that end....
Right now here is what I have going:
DLINK DCS5222L -- OLD wifi PTZ camera, indoors. Actually bought this years ago and at the time it didnt work at all as far as staying connected. Tried changing WIFI channels in the 2.4 GHZ realm but that didnt help much. Ended up shelving the camera til recently. Had workers at my house at one point over the summer and I needed a way to keep an eye on the activity so I dragged it out and tried it....it worked immediately and since then I have kept it up, shooting thru a front window (which I learned kills the use of night vision due to the refection of the IR). But as far as staying up, it has been really solid.
After this initial "success", I bought a DLINK DCS-8630LH-US wifi camera recently to try and get some coverage from my outbuilding (about 30 feet or so away from my house) of my back yard. Worked OK for a week or two...and the wide angle lens was AWESOME....great image when it worked..... but then started dropping like crazy for no apparent reason. The main gateway showed it still connected but no video stream....requiring a power cycle of it.....I had set it up per the instructions. Had nothing but trouble after that first week and got frustrated....
I started watching closely and found that the drops were patterned.......it would drop, stay down for a minute then reconnect.....rince and repeat......only a power cycle of the camera or the gateway would temporaily fix the issue for about 12 hours.......then it would start over .Got ticked and was about to give up......couldnt change the wifi channels to try that (more on that below) and was out of options that I knew to try....
Recently returned it in exchange for a......
Brillcam BRC-S8151W2 wifi camera. It installed directly and immediately and has been pretty solid mostly except it started dropping video at some point just like the DLINK 8630, though not quite as bad. Same thing -- gateway shows it connected and I can even use the brillcam android phone app to reboot......
The old 5222L camera was rock solid in all this, so I assumed location of the gateway and therefore WIFI signal quality was the issue........so I moved the gateway from my basement office up one floor......so it is on the opposite side of an exterior wall that directly faces the outbuilding camera. That seemed to help a little, but still had drops.
During this, I had also bought a Brillcam BRC-S8151P2 POE camera for the front yard. I ran a cable for this one, and bought a Netgear GS308PP 8 port Gigabit POE unmanaged switch to run it.
That has been the most rock solid unit so far...obviously POE is the right way to go rather than WIFI, but there are a few roadblocks to running cable to the outbuilding and in the rest of the house that I wont get into right now.....
Now in the midst of all this, I had started fighting with my internet provider (Comcast)......Up til this past summer I had been renting their internet gateway and it had been allowed me to change the WIFI channels at will (at least back when I first started messing with the first DLINK 5222L camera). At some point in all this pandemic stuff, our entire neighborhood started having major internet drop issues........and of course the first thing Comcast does is make us change our gateways. The problem persisted and it was eventually learned that there a problem at one of the poles that was at the head end of the whole neighborhood.........but in the meantime this new gateway locked out the wifi channel settings.....Comcast first-tier phone support led me down a road of going to their store to get a new gateway again, supposedly which would be able to be set up in the store to allow WIFI channels to be changed. That was wrong......the new gateway doesnt allow me to do it either. I only mention all this to provide background in what I have tried.
So I continued having issues with the new brillcam outbuilding dropping now and then. Same sort of pattern as with the DLINK bfore, though not as bad.....would stay connected for 10-12 hours but then start dropping ...this time dropping more randomly.
I went into the Brillcam WIFI camera and set it to "dual stream" and to reboot once a day. It has been running that way for a couple days now and so far, better. No constant drops. Only one short drop that I caught.
I am using DLINK's DVIEWCAM software on my PC....it allows me to record to the PC. Using the ONVIF settinga and that has worked well.
I am using TINYCAM for viewing the cameras on my android phone (DLINK's mobile app will not run on my phone).
Not sure yet if the dual streaming or the reboot setting will keep this wireless Brillcam running constantly without issues....waiting to see....that is my main goal.....to have the PC reliably recording and the cameras to stay connected 24/7. I really do not know why a scheduled reboot would make things work better ........since it's "only about a one minute piece of time that is lost in surveilance, I guess not a huge issue.....but still, would like to know why.
But another goal is for me to be able to see the cameras remotely...so far can only see the cameras when at home...whether on the DVIEWCAM software on the PC or the TINYCAM mobile app...
The cameras are all set up on my local lan....10.0.0.x....I know that is the issue as far as remote connectivity.
I have no idea how to set up any of this so that I can view when at work etc....I have played with port forwarding on the comcast gateway to no avail.....
SO I guess what I am saying is that I have no idea what I am doing...LOL
So many settings to try and tweak at so many points.....the PC app, the mobile app, the cameras via their own access.....
The DVIEWCAM app on the pc has a whole section for setting up access from remote....video server etc.....and I think THAT would be the most useful as it records all 3 cameras.....but I have tinkered and didnt get too far.....
The brillcam apps do not work remotely on those two cams since the cameras are assigned the local addresses.......
Kinda lost. LOL
I suppose that as long as they are internal IP addresses, the camera are more secure......still, would like to have remote access.
SO there ya go......my whole wordy story.......my head is spinning just typing all that. I hope the read isnt too bad for y'all.
......any advice on where to start attacking these issues? Please be gentle. LOL
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