Windows 11 Ethernet port won't stay enabled

T

tFerguson

n3wb
Jul 2, 2024
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Obviously a noob here so apologies if this is the wrong place for this thread. I have a Windows 11 PC and I wanted to mostly physically isolate my sketchy Reolink camera (don't roast me too much, I know it's not a great camera).

I'm not really a networking guy so my knowledge is limited so maybe some of you can help me here. I had tried in the past to use a fixed IP with a different subnet mask (not even 100% sure I understand what I was doing here) but recently I made some changes to my home network and I figured this was a good time to possibly isolate this camera from the rest of my network as much as reasonable. To do this I added a second NIC to my previously mentioned PC. So now my network looks like this:

PC --> NIC1 internet
|
|
v
NIC2 --> POE switch --> reolink camera

If I have the internet on either of my NICs and then immediately plug in the cable from the POE switch the reolink camera will work for about 10 seconds and then the connection goes down. It's like Windows 11 doesn't want to keep that connection active if it can't get to the internet.

So I guess my question is, how do I do this right? I've read a few threads here and unfortunately they don't quite have enough detail for me to know what I need to do. My hope is that there is an easy solution here.


Long term I'm considering getting something better than the reolink and maybe adding a couple more camera to that POE switch to run to a few places outside my house. I'd still like to keep these cameras off the internet for now. As many of you know the Reolink night performance is a joke. The illuminator is only useful if something is right in front of the camera and it's visible to the naked eye (I thought it was supposed to just be NIR???).
 
Typically, only one nic will be assigned a gateway.

Also, they do not need to be on the same ip scheme. One, with internet, might be dhcp and on a 192.168.1.x setup. Camera/static nic might be 192.168.10.x, 172.x.x.x. 10.x.x.x (look up non routable private ip addresses for more info).
 
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As mentioned above only the side that needs access to the internet needs a gateway. Think of a gateway like a pathway out of your system. So on NIC1 most people usually use 192.168.1.x or 192.168.2.x (whatever matches your router IP subnet, then subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 and gateway would be the exact same as your router IP) since it does need to have a pathway to your router and out to the internet. However anything on the NIC2 camera network would get something like 10.10.10.x or 172.16.1.x (subnet mask 255.255.255.0 with no gateway) since you want that side to be isolated from finding any way past the PC. You can also just use a different subnet from your main network on the camera side like 192.168.100.x but I find it’s alot easier for people new to networking to stick with something totally different like 10.10.x.x or 172.16.x.x since it’s easier to understand and troubleshoot for them.
 
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This is a good start.

I know how to get to the network settings for the camera so I can set a static IP, set the subnet mask, etc. To accomplish this I'm planning to just temporarily plug my POE switch into my regular network that is hooked up to NIC1. Once I do this I suspect the camera reboots and I think I won't be able to see it again until I've set up everything else correctly, and plugged the POE switch into NIC2.

So let's say I plan to set the camera IP address to 10.10.10.10. I assume subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0. I can't remember what other stuff I can set in there but I'll check that out later.

So for NIC2 I believe I'll need to go in and manually set the IP on it. Does it just need to be something like 10.10.10.2? And I assume the same 255.255.255.0 gateway mask as stated above. And I can just leave default gateway blank?

Just checking before I attempt this. Thank you both.
 
tFerguson said:
This is a good start.

I know how to get to the network settings for the camera so I can set a static IP, set the subnet mask, etc. To accomplish this I'm planning to just temporarily plug my POE switch into my regular network that is hooked up to NIC1. Once I do this I suspect the camera reboots and I think I won't be able to see it again until I've set up everything else correctly, and plugged the POE switch into NIC2.

So let's say I plan to set the camera IP address to 10.10.10.10. I assume subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0. I can't remember what other stuff I can set in there but I'll check that out later.

So for NIC2 I believe I'll need to go in and manually set the IP on it. Does it just need to be something like 10.10.10.2? And I assume the same 255.255.255.0 gateway mask as stated above. And I can just leave default gateway blank?

Just checking before I attempt this. Thank you both.
Click to expand...

It would be nice to know what your local IP of your router is so we can be more specific for your situation. If you want to see something on your network then it needs to be on the same subnet or you won’t be able to see it. So hypothetically if your camera is currently at 192.168.56.100 and plugged into your main network (NIC1 side) then you need to change your ipv4 network adapter settings on your computer to 192.168.56.x in order to be able to access the camera and change its static IP. Then let’s say you now set the camera to 10.10.10.10 and plugged it into the NIC2 side, then if your NIC2 on the PC was set to 10.10.10.2 it would now be able to see and access it.

Let’s say you make your NIC2 set to 10.10.10.2 (subnet mask 255.255.255.0 with no gateway) then if you set the camera with a static IP then it would be something like 10.10.10.10 (subnet mask 255.255.255.0 and gateway is 10.10.10.2 because you do want it to find the path back through NIC2). NIC2 does not need a gateway because we want everything routed through that side to stop at the PC (no path to your main network or the internet). Hopefully that all makes sense.
 
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tFerguson said:
This is a good start.

I know how to get to the network settings for the camera so I can set a static IP, set the subnet mask, etc. To accomplish this I'm planning to just temporarily plug my POE switch into my regular network that is hooked up to NIC1. Once I do this I suspect the camera reboots and I think I won't be able to see it again until I've set up everything else correctly, and plugged the POE switch into NIC2.

So let's say I plan to set the camera IP address to 10.10.10.10. I assume subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0. I can't remember what other stuff I can set in there but I'll check that out later.

So for NIC2 I believe I'll need to go in and manually set the IP on it. Does it just need to be something like 10.10.10.2? And I assume the same 255.255.255.0 gateway mask as stated above. And I can just leave default gateway blank?

Just checking before I attempt this. Thank you both.
Click to expand...

in your example you’d need to put one of the NICs on a separate subnet so 10.10.11.x If you do configure them as above then windows will disable 1 NIC as it will detect that it can get to the same network via either and should keep the NIC that offers the best route active.
 
Just to add I run my BI system with 2 NICs. My home network is on 192.168.0.x so I have 1 configured with 192.168.0.30 and the other NIC I have configured as 192.168.1.x and all my cams are on this 2n subnet. In both case the net mask is 255.255.255.0.

My 1st NIC is plugged into my home network and from my home network I can’t access the cams directly, if I need to access them to configure them for example I do that by logging onto the BI box.
 
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So these are the settings I can mess with on the camera. What should the preferred DNS address be? I'm just asking now because once I change the IP address I won't be able to communicate with the camera (without physically accessing it to hit the reset button) again unless I get everything set up right.

Wh0HHaG.png
 
tFerguson said:
So these are the settings I can mess with on the camera. What should the preferred DNS address be? I'm just asking now because once I change the IP address I won't be able to communicate with the camera (without physically accessing it to hit the reset button) again unless I get everything set up right.

Wh0HHaG.png
Click to expand...

The most important settings on the camera to get right are IP address, subnet mask and gateway. As long as you have those correct, you can always access the camera again to make changes. The DNS doesn’t matter since it won’t be getting to the internet at all so usually I just enter 8.8.8.8 for primary and 8.8.4.4 for alternate and forget about it.
 
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I keep a spreadsheet with:

1. cam location/name
2. MAC address
3. original/default ip
4. current ip
5. original login/pass
6. current login/pass

Regarding #2. If you 'lose access' to the camera because of an unwanted ip change/etc, you can scan your network and find it via mac address.... then you will know that the current ip is. Also, for advanced users, you can use the arp command to translate between mac and a temp ip.
 
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abita_brewing said:
I keep a spreadsheet with:

1. cam location/name
2. MAC address
3. original/default ip
4. current ip
5. original login/pass
6. current login/pass

Regarding #2. If you 'lose access' to the camera because of an unwanted ip change/etc, you can scan your network and find it via mac address.... then you will know that the current ip is. Also, for advanced users, you can use the arp command to translate between mac and a temp ip.
Click to expand...

good tips. info recorded and saved.
 
Also helps to use managed POE switches (Ubiquiti, Netgear, etc). Then if you lose a camera you can locate both the current IP and the MAC address by simply logging into the switch and looking at the port info that it’s plugged into. Once you have the IP you just switch the ipv4 settings to match the subnet and login like usual. Definitely helps to be organized with logins, passwords, etc as was mentioned above.
 
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