Unplugged NVR and now no cameras!!!! please help

[issaq]

Hi there


we recently moved our NVR to a ore secure location in the house. The installers supplied us with a lot of cable and we were advised to shut down the system and simply unplug the connections and then reconnect everything once we had moved the NVR.

however on reconnecting only one camera will work. All others have the following message - no link.

I have tried everything that I can see online without much success. I used the plug in play setting and then changed this to manual but I am not sure which password is required. I tried the initial password of 12345 and then the same one as the NVR. but this didn't work either.

I have asked the installers for help but they have said that we shouldn't have disconnected the cables and this has caused the problem. they have advised that they will contact us on Monday and will likely need to bill us to fix the problem. I have no issue with this but the cameras were only installed 1 month ago and we had significant issues initially with being able to view the cameras remotely when we were not at home until finally they sent someone out to fix the issue.

I would be grateful for any advice/help

 

[alastairstevenson]

however on reconnecting only one camera will work. All others have the following message - no link.

A slightly dumb question, for which apologies - did you plug them back in the same ports they were originally in?
If not - you'd get the symptoms you describe.
If you have web GUI access to the (unspecified) NVR, you will likely be able to see the camera passwords, and the channels and the IP addresses (will help if there are different and you have mixed up the cables) if you do an IPC configuration export under the Maintenance menu, and load the resulting file into Excel.
Then with SADP and a PC plugged in to a spare PoE port of the NVR (I'm making an assumption the (unspecified NVR) has PoE ports or I doubt you'd have the problem) you can see the camera IP addresses, and so get them all plugged back where they should be.
I hope that makes sense ...

*edit* Oh, and don't go messing with the NVR config - you will make the problem worse. There is no reason why it needs to be changed.

 

[issaq]

A slightly dumb question, for which apologies - did you plug them back in the same ports they were originally in?
If not - you'd get the symptoms you describe.
If you have web GUI access to the (unspecified) NVR, you will likely be able to see the camera passwords, and the channels and the IP addresses (will help if there are different and you have mixed up the cables) if you do an IPC configuration export under the Maintenance menu, and load the resulting file into Excel.
Then with SADP and a PC plugged in to a spare PoE port of the NVR (I'm making an assumption the (unspecified NVR) has PoE ports or I doubt you'd have the problem) you can see the camera IP addresses, and so get them all plugged back where they should be.
I hope that makes sense ...

*edit* Oh, and don't go messing with the NVR config - you will make the problem worse. There is no reason why it needs to be changed.

hi alastair

thanks so much for your speedy reply. I am very grateful indeed. the NVR is also HIK. You are correct in that I didn't put the cables back into the original ports as they weren't labelled. I then tried in turn to put each cable into every POE but this didn't work either. I can't see the camera passwords although I did a IPC configuration after I managed to get a pc (I have a Mac and couldn't open the file). the password was the same as the one for my NVR. I tried changing the password using the manual setting rather than plug and play but it still doesn't like this.

I also did what you said and plugged my pc into one of the PoE ports and then ran the SADP software but I could only see the camera that is working. the problem I have is that the camera cables are not labelled Bar the one which is working. we have marked this as camera 3 and its in port 3 of the NVR. this is what I see on the configuration

 

[alastairstevenson]

I also did what you said and plugged my pc into one of the PoE ports and then ran the SADP software but I could only see the camera that is working.

The cameras do not need to be working with the NVR for SADP to find them.
So your problem is actually that the cameras are not powered / connected properly.
Presumably on the non-working cameras the link detect / activity light on the PoE ports they are plugged in to are not showing?

 

[issaq]

yes it is showing. it lights up as all 6 cameras are drawing power. something I forgot to mention. when I switched the system back on initially 4 out of the 6 cameras were working. I thought that I had connected them incorrectly in the wrong ports but I couldn't work out which camera wires corresponded to the cameras which were not showing so I took out the connector but unfortunately I went from 4 working to 1!!!
I am concerned it might be a connector issue as the connections are a bit filmsy.

on the configuration screen. under the section status is says - offline (user password error). do you know what the original password would have been. I have tried 12345 but this doesn't seem to work.

 

[alastairstevenson]

do you know what the original password would have been

This is listed in the exported configuration file, which I think you said you'd managed to read OK on the PC.
But ..... if you have changed the NVR configuration, which you really don't need to do, the exported file will reflect any password changes you made.

Current firmware cameras do not come with any default passwords - they come as 'inactive' requiring that one be created.
And the '12345' default is from some years ago.

I am concerned it might be a connector issue as the connections are a bit filmsy.

It sounds like there are cabling issues, if you are getting inconsistent results.
If the cameras are active, inactive, strange IP addresses, but powered on and working - then SADP (the V3.x version) will see them all when the PC is plugged in to a spare NVR PoE port.
Try having the camera plugged in one at a time to see if SADP finds them, just in case the IP addresses have mysteriously ended up the same.

 

[issaq]

thank you again for your replies. I wish I had posted on the forum on Friday when all this happened. I literally moved the NVR from our old TV cabinet to the new one but had to disconnect the cables to do so. Now I wish I hadn't bothered.

I will try again tomorrow with my PC laptop plugged into the PoE and will run the SADP.
if the SADP finds the camera. how do I then change the IP address? you are correct about the strange IP addresses - they don't seem to follow a logical order of 1-6. also did my second post show a copy of my configuration screen from my online GUI access? if not I can upload it as a file

 

[alastairstevenson]

N

also did my second post show a copy of my configuration screen from my online GUI access?

Nope, no screenshot.

if the SADP finds the camera. how do I then change the IP address?

SADP can do this - but only with the right password.

But why would you need to change the IP address? Isn't it just a matter of getting the cameras back into the original ports?

you are correct about the strange IP addresses - they don't seem to follow a logical order of 1-6.

Where do you see these IP addresses? On the NVR web GUI, the IP addresses listed are simply what you tell the NVR to use to connect to the camera on that specific channel. If the IP address of the camera that's plugged in to that specific channel is different, the result will be 'no link'.
If the IP address of the camera and channel do match, but the password does not, the result will be 'incorrect password'. It won't know it's incorrect until it can connect and try it.
Did you try the NVR password for the camera IP address? It's an option in the current NVR firmware to do that.

 

[issaq]

yes I tried the NVR password for the each of the cameras. if you select the camera on the configuration page then click modify it then allows your to select plug and play or manual. if you select manual you can change the username and password.

with regards to changing the IP address. I don't want to do that but I don't know how I find out which camera should be in which original port.
I am pretty sure the sadp doesn't give me this information.

attached is a screen grab of the web GUI where I can see the ip addresses.. in the status column where it says offline - the full wording is offline ( user password error)

 

[issaq]

sorry forgot to attached files

 

[issaq]

interestingly when I went through each of the camera's to modify them camera 4 and 5. the camera password seems to be 6 characters which is less than the number in the password for the NVR.

can it be that the cameras password were set by the installers? we know that they are not 12345. so any others ideas what they have been set has??

 

[alastairstevenson]

can it be that the cameras password were set by the installers?

They would have to do that, as I've already explained, current cameras come as 'inactive' and require activation with a strong, user-created password.
If you haven't already attempted to change ALL the existing passwords that were set in the NVR configuration, the NVR IPC export file will list all passwords in plain text. If there are any channels remaining that you have not already changed (such as channel 3 for example, the only one that's still working), that may be the password that was used for all the cameras by the installers.

with regards to changing the IP address. I don't want to do that but I don't know how I find out which camera should be in which original port.
I am pretty sure the sadp doesn't give me this information.

As already explained, SADP will help you determine what cameras should be plugged in where.
You already have the NVR web GUI camera configuration screen that lists the IP addresses versus the channels.
When the PC is plugged in to an unused NVR PoE port, with just one camera plugged in you will see that camera's IP address, and so you will know which channel it needs to be plugged in to.
Repeat for all cameras one by one.

 

[issaq]

hi there

I am afraid when I plugged my laptop in the POE port and ran the SADP I could only see my nvr. I tried each camera one by one but nothing else came up on the nvr.

 

[alastairstevenson]

That IP address does not look like a PoE port on the NVR.
That looks like the LAN IP address of the NVR.
You've definitely plugged the PC into the NVR PoE port, where you'd plug a camera?

The expected IP address of the NVR as seen on an NVR PoE port would be 192.168.254.1

 

[issaq]

yes I definitely plugged it into POE port 8 of the nvr. is it worth me doing a system reset?

 

[alastairstevenson]

yes I definitely plugged it into POE port 8 of the nvr. is it worth me doing a system reset?

No reset - the original problem was simply that the camera cables were not plugged back into the ports they were originally in.
No changes should be needed.

But the IP address is definitely consistent with a LAN address, not an NVR PoE port address.
If the PC is plugged in to a router port, what IP address do you see for the NVR?
If you have a display connected, what is shown for the IPv4 addresses for the 2 interfaces under the network menus?
Is there any possibility that you have not plugged the NVR LAN port back in to the router, but plugged a PoE port in instead?

 

[issaq]

I finally managed to get the company out today. they sorted the issue out by calling HIK vision directly. HIK initially advised plugging in the laptop to the POE port. but we still couldn't see the cameras. only thing would come up was the NVR. they then advised resetting each camera manually in turn. Thankfully this seem to work. I have now labelled each wire according to which POE port it is in. However I am not convinced this matters as I am pretty sure when only camera was working it worked in every port. I now have a list of all the camera IP addresses but they don't seem to follow a logical list i.e. 1-6. I just hope that if we move the NVR when we come to decorate that this doesn't happen again.
Alastair - many thanks for your continued help.

 

[alastairstevenson]

However I am not convinced this matters as I am pretty sure when only camera was working it worked in every port.

The cameras are assigned individual IP addresses that need to match the IP address configured in the specific PoE channel.
And remember that mixing up what was plugged in where was the original cause of the problems.
You can guess from that that it does matter.

they then advised resetting each camera manually in turn. Thankfully this seem to work.

What they have done is set each camera back to 'inactive' and allowed the Plug&Play feature of the NVR to assign firstly a password (an option is to use the NVR password) and then the IP address that matches the channel.
So now the IP addresses of the cameras match the IP addresses of the channels they are connected to.

 

[issaq]

The cameras are assigned individual IP addresses that need to match the IP address configured in the specific PoE channel.
And remember that mixing up what was plugged in where was the original cause of the problems.
You can guess from that that it does matter.

What they have done is set each camera back to 'inactive' and allowed the Plug&Play feature of the NVR to assign firstly a password (an option is to use the NVR password) and then the IP address that matches the channel.
So now the IP addresses of the cameras match the IP addresses of the channels they are connected to.

many thanks. so if I decide to (probably unlikely now having endured this experience) move the NVR again ( I really wanted to hide the box under the floor, because friends of mine had theirs stolen when their house was broken into) what should I do? each wire is now labelled per corresponding POE port. is that sufficient to then just plug them back into the same port.

lastly do you know if the HIK vision dir allows you to upload directly onto the cloud?

one last question. another reason for moving the NVR was the noise it makes. is there an option to change the fan or slow it down so its no so noisy. we have it stored in a tv cabinet and despite this it still makes a considerable noise.

 

[alastairstevenson]

each wire is now labelled per corresponding POE port. is that sufficient to then just plug them back into the same port.

Yes, that will be fine.

is there an option to change the fan or slow it down so its no so noisy. we have it stored in a tv cabinet and despite this it still makes a considerable noise.

I have not done this myself, as my NVRs are located in unoccupied areas, out of sight, but there are quite a few posts on fan changes for other equipment.

lastly do you know if the HIK vision dir allows you to upload directly onto the cloud?

Sorry, I don't know, nor do I have enough upload bandwidth for that to be practical.
I have multiple destinations locally for the recorded video from the CCTV cameras.