Offline Camera

AdrianJS

n3wb
May 5, 2024
2
3
South Africa
Good evening everyone. can someone please provide me with some guidance.
I have a HIkvision DS-7608NI-K2/8P NVR and three hikvision cameras connected. I used the SADP tool to activate all three cameras and entered there passwords through a switch. I was able to view the images etc.
I then connected the cameras to the NVR and changed the IP addresses to match that of the cameras as well as the passwords.

The cameras however remains offline, I have tried the web browser as well with no luck. the ip addresses and passwords all match. The cameras however stays offline.

When I use the SADP tool with the cameras connected to the NVR, I only see the NVR and none of the three cameras. When I connect the cameras to the switch, I see all the cameras on the SADP tool.

I updated the firmware on the NVR and the cameras. Cameras and NVR are all Hikvision.

Please HELP.
 
I was waiting for someone more knowledgeable about NVR's (I use Blue Iris VMS on a PC) to help but here goes...

Usually a POE NVR will act like a private server and assign IP's to the cameras on a subnet different from the NVR's LAN. This is to isolate the cameras from the Internet.

Enable the "virtual host" that I'm speaking of somewhere in the NVR's settings. I'd unplug all the cams but one, perform a hard reset on that one cam and allow the NVR to assign an IP to it.

Wait until that cam is seen by the NVR then plug in another and reset it; repeat the process until all the cams are up and running.

@alastairstevenson , am I way off base here?
 
Usually a POE NVR will act like a private server and assign IP's to the cameras on a subnet different from the NVR's LAN. This is to isolate the cameras from the Internet.
That is correct, the NVR has administrative control of the cameras via the Hikvision command&control protocol and the admin userID/password.
When the camera is 'activated', such as when a new Inactive camera is first connected, the camera IP address is assigned by the NVR to match the IP address that the NVR PoE port has been configured to expect it on.

(Point of information though - when Virtual Host is enabled, a camera can access the LAN, and therefore the internet, via the NVR, if the camera default gateway setting is the IP address of the NVR PoE interface, usually 192.168.254.1)

I then connected the cameras to the NVR and changed the IP addresses to match that of the cameras as well as the passwords.
If you changed the NVR PoE channels IP addresses to be in the same range as that used by the address range of the LAN (you've said you used SADP to activate the cameras and set their IP address, so I'm assuming this was done on the LAN) then you have broken the network of the NVR with an invalid configuration.
The NVR PoE ports must be on a different IP address range than that of the LAN address range.
The ports are by default in the 192.168.254.x address range - and should ideally be left there.

Suggestion :
Set the NVR PoE interface IP address back to the original 192.168.254.1
Reboot the NVR and note down the new IP addresses of the NVR PoE ports. These by default would be 192.168.254.2 , .3 , .4 etc
Use SADP, with the cameras on the LAN, to change the camera IP addresses to those that the NVR PoE ports are now expecting, and connect the cameras to the corresponding NVR PoE ports.

Alternatively -
Put the NVR PoE ports and interface IP addresses back to what they are by default (see above).
Reset the cameras to 'Inactive', and assuming the NVR PoE ports are in 'Plug&Play' mode (the default) simply plug the cameras in to the NVR PoE ports and the NVR will 'Activate' them and assign the correct IP address to them and connect them.