What causes my Dahua cams to broadcast their presence on a private network?

[Blackhawk]

I have multiple IPC-HDW5231R-ZE and IPC-HDBW4231F-E2-M on a private network with static IP addresses. uPNP, Bonjour, DDNS etc are all disabled. Running latest firmware from Andy.

When I open the network folder on the PC on that net, I see all four cameras appear under 'Other devices' e.g. IPC-HDBW4231F-E2-M plus a number which appears to be a UUID.

I can right click on properties and see more details e.g. uuid:www.dahuatech.com.device_3_0-(UUID)

I'm not sure what is broadcasting this info. Is there a way to turn it off?

 

[rmalbers]

I have to run my Dahua camera's on a separate subnet because they have some IP conflict with Windows media center extenters! I looked at wireshark and everything and couldn't figure it out. I would isolate them and then port forward.

 

[concord]

I assume you have Blue Iris and have one network card going to your normal network and have another separate network card for your camera network. You will see the cameras on your "Network" because you have access to the camera internal web server via your private network. If you double-click on one, it should launch your default browser to the login page of the cam.

 

[biggen]

Under Camera Network -> UPnP make sure its disabled AND uncheck "Start Device Discover". See if they disappear from File Explorer.

 

[concord]

Good catch, I switched over to my cam system and they didn't come up...so I checked one cam, turned on discover and sure enough they showed up.

 

[tigerwillow1]

Don't know if this is related or not, if I disable Multicast/Broadcast on a 5231 or 5442 camera, Config Tool doesn't find it. I also wouldn't know if that's the only way that Config Tool finds cameras. There could be multiple ways and I just happend to catch this one. I don't see any cameras in my network folder. My standard configuration is to turn everything off that I can get away with.

 

[biggen]

UPnP is pretty useless for anyone that has even a "hint" of networking knowledge. More for gamers that need ports open but most decent routers don't even support it. Turn it off as its a chatty protocol.

 

[Blackhawk]

Under Camera Network -> UPnP make sure its disabled AND uncheck "Start Device Discover". See if they disappear from File Explorer.

THANKS! This did the trick. UPnP was disabled but I hadn't realized 'Start Device Discover' was separate. Once I turned that off, they vanished from the Network window in File Explorer.

I realize it's beyond paranoid since this is a private, non-Internet connected network they are on. But if someone does break into my network, I'm going to make them work damn hard to figure it out!

 

[Kameraad]

But if someone does break into my network, I'm going to make them work damn hard to figure it out!

This is a false sense of security, a person who is able to break in is going to find them in a matter of seconds. If you want real safety you should look into vlans/firewalls, separate networks etc..

 

[alastairstevenson]

But if someone does break into my network, I'm going to make them work damn hard to figure it out!

Please don't be lulled into a false sense of security by the changes you've made.
In reality all you've done is to reduce some of the useful functionality of the network.
10 seconds with nmap and it's all mapped out, including what each device is likely to be, and who made it.

 

[biggen]

I agree with those saying it’s not much to help security. But UPnP is also needed for cameras about as much as another hole in the head is.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Agreed, UPnP is a trap for the unwary.
But the discovery and notification broadcasts form some of the small cogs in the network whole.

 

[Flintstone61]

Slinks over to google "Nmap"....and downloads it......

 

[ludshed]

There’s a little iOS app called net analyzer I use all the time to see everything on a network.