Use Two LAN Ports (1 for cameras only)?

[strathglass]

If I add a second NIC to my Blue Iris PC and put all my cameras with this second Blue Iris LAN port onto one VLAN that cannot reach the internet, and use the current/main Blue Iris PC LAN port for internet connectivity, will this work OK? Has anyone tried this?

I am waiting for a used Cisco switch to arrive, and when it does I can try this.
In the mean time I added a second NIC card and hooked it up ... both LAN ports on the Blue Iris PC work OK.
The issue I found so far is that when the second NIC card is plugged into the router (along with the main port), the port works but the Blue Iris PC will not let me access it using my IOS app from the internet, only works if I am not on my local WIFI network. (Unplug that second port and all is OK again)
Any ideas why this would happen?
Now this would not be the configuration once I get my switch: the 2nd NIC will be configured to be on a different network and will connect as noted to a VLAN on the switch with the cameras.

 

[SantiagoDraco]

It would. This is one approach to isolate your cameras from the internet. You could also do this with two physical switches (rather than a VLAN) and you'll not have to mess with assuring you have your VLAN properly configured and to avoid things like broadcast storms on the switch if you don't.

As for your problem you need to explain a bit more. What is it you cannot access? BI itself? You should only have one of the NICs connected to the router/switch on the Internet side, not both. The other NIC should only be connected to another switch for the camera LAN. Assuming you isolated them via physical networks. By using two NICs on the same switch you could have several different issues including BI watching for connections on one NIC but that NIC is not actually functioning as the gateway/route for the Internet itself.

Use one NIC on the router and one on the camera lan and you'll be fine. Make sure to set the router connected nic as the default gateway. And of course use different subnets for each NIC like 192.168.0.x and 192.168.1.x.

 

[nethfel]

Honestly, this is exactly how I have mine setup. 2 VLANs, one isolated to just the cameras and the BI machine, the other has just has my BI machine and a router interface. I also have a NTP server running on the BI machine for the cameras to sync their clocks to. It works well and keeps the cameras off the live internet.

In terms of your problem - do you have BOTH NICs currently connected to the router? If you do, that's a bad idea and possibly creating some confusion for BI, plus I don't know how you have BI setup in terms of which IP it's bound to etc.

 

[strathglass]

Thanks guys. You are right - the two LAN connections on the same subnet to the same router confuses things.
Now I have received my used 11 year old Cisco switch (48 port POE C3560G, $150 IIRC) and configured a VLAN with 16 ports for cameras and second Blue Iris PC NIC: this VLAN of course has its own subnet 192.168.2.xxx.
The second Blue Iris PC NIC is now configured for and can reach the VLAN (switch configured as 192.168.1.1; Blue Iris NIC#2 as 192.168.1.2), and I can also now reach and use one test camera plugged into one of the switch VLAN ports, after I updated the camera IP to another address on the 192.168.2.xxx VLAN subnet.
This is all working great now, and I can reach the system from the internet!!
So now I just need to slowly migrate the other cameras: give them a VLAN-based IP (192.168.2.xxx) and move the cable over to one of the VLAN ports on the Cisco switch.

 

[strathglass]

I also have a NTP server running on the BI machine for the cameras to sync their clocks to.

This is an interesting idea, but then I realized it has no value for me: Blue Iris puts its own time stamp overalay on the video.
I think this idea would only be useful if you had an SD card in your camera for local recording, which I do not do.

 

[fenderman]

This is an interesting idea, but then I realized it has no value for me: Blue Iris puts its own time stamp overalay on the video.
I think this idea would only be useful if you had an SD card in your camera for local recording, which I do not do.

It has tons of value, blue iris only records the overlay if you dont use direct to disk, which results in a severe increase in cpu consumption. Yes you can add the timestamp back at the time of export but that requires the database to be intact and also means that you are editing the original video which may present issues in certain circumstances.

 

[strathglass]

It has tons of value, blue iris only records the overlay if you dont use direct to disk, which results in a severe increase in cpu consumption. Yes you can add the timestamp back at the time of export but that requires the database to be intact and also means that you are editing the original video which may present issues in certain circumstances.

Funny ... I was just reading the help and noticed the point you made: I was going to come back here to make an update but you beat me to it.
Thanks.