Network Setup - Questions about running multiple IPCs through a switch into 1 NVR port

[Boston_Engineer]

Hi everyone,

I've attached a photo of what I'm trying to do, which includes the camera models and NVR model I'm working with:

I'm wiring my IPCs myself. I have a plan to get three 3 of the cams into the front end of the house and into my network cabinet in the basement. I also have a plan to get the 3 other cams into the back end of my house in a consolidated area in the basement.

There's an existing ethernet cable running from the network cabinet to the back end of the house. To replace this cable would be hard and probably outside of my skillset. I'd probably need to destroy walls and ceilings. I want to place a POE switch in the back of the house to connect those 3 cams to the NVR.

Here are my questions:

1. I'm having a hard time identifying if the cable currently running from the front to the back of the house is Cat5 or Cat5E. It's marked "4/24 (UL) C(UL) CMP/MPP VERIFIED (UL) CAT 5 SEUPERIOR ESSEX 215 9 H" and is probably several years old if not older. I tried googling, but am having a hard time pinpointing the cable type.
2. Even if the cable is only Cat5, shouldn't that support 100Mbps? And shouldn't 100Mbps be plenty of bandwidth for those 3 cameras?
3. Will my NVR support me sending the signal of 3 cameras to 1 port?
4. Will I lose functionality or configurability in any way due to this setup?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[TonyR]

I would not plug the single CAT cable coming from the POE switch at the back end of the house into a POE port on the NVR; I would install a switch near the NVR and plug it in there along with a cable from the NVR's LAN port.

The cams should have a unique, static IP assigned to them that is in the same subnet as the NVR's LAN but outside of the router's DHCP pool.

Your CAT-5 cable, the POE switch and the switch I mentioned should be OK for 100Mbps.

 

[Boston_Engineer]

@TonyR Thank you for the advice.

Here's the updated diagram.

I have a question about setting up the IPs for the cameras. When I configured the NVR, I put it on my subnet and enabled P2P. But when i connect cams to the NVR ports it doesn't even let me initialize them myself. They automatically initialize to 10.1.1.xx, drop into the camera list, and begin working. I'm able to remote into the NVR and I can see the web portal for the cameras by clicking on them in the camera list of the NVR (see photo), but they're not accessible outside of the NVR. Is private protocol what's happening here? All the videos by Andy talk about putting the cameras on the same subnet as your home network, and you just mentioned doing it as well, but my NVR doesn't seem to like that. I tried going into the cameras and changing their IPs to be on my subnet and they show up in the top list, but once I initialize them they go red, and don't work. If you can give me some clarity on when I'm supposed to let the cameras do private protocol, versus when I'm supposed to give them IPs on my subnet, and what settings do that, I would really appreciate it.

 

[bigredfish]

Those cameras on the NVR PoE ports assigned by the NVR internal switch 10.1.1.x can be reached by clicking on the Blue IE icon

When you log into them that way the first time you'll find they have adopted the NVR Admin login/password

In order to assign cameras to IPs on your home Network, they would need to be plugged into an external switch that is on your LAN. Then they will show as something like 192.168.1.108 and you will be able to connect to them directly. Note if you do that now, after they have been connected to the NVR ports, they should retain that same login/pass as the NVR

 

[Boston_Engineer]

@bigredfish
Ah okay, I understand now. Thank you for the clarification.

 

[looney2ns]

***PSA for those with a New DAHUA NVR with Built-in PoE switch | IP Cam Talk

 

[Boston_Engineer]

@looney2ns This is super helpful. Thank you.

 

[NoTea]

I would not plug the single CAT cable coming from the POE switch at the back end of the house into a POE port on the NVR; I would install a switch near the NVR and plug it in there along with a cable from the NVR's LAN port.

The cams should have a unique, static IP assigned to them that is in the same subnet as the NVR's LAN but outside of the router's DHCP pool.

Your CAT-5 cable, the POE switch and the switch I mentioned should be OK for 100Mbps.

Is there any reason why you couldn’t use a wireless router instead of a switch. My setup won’t be too dissimilar from OP however my router and NVR will be right next to each other. Using the router will allow me to get rid of the switch

 

[mat200]

Is there any reason why you couldn’t use a wireless router instead of a switch. My setup won’t be too dissimilar from OP however my router and NVR will be right next to each other. Using the router will allow me to get rid of the switch

Hi @NoTea

Running video stream traffic from security cameras into typical home routers eventually results in issues from our experience .. thus based on our experience it is better to put that traffic through a decent switch instead

 

[mat200]

@TonyR Thank you for the advice.

Here's the updated diagram.View attachment 191717

I have a question about setting up the IPs for the cameras. When I configured the NVR, I put it on my subnet and enabled P2P. But when i connect cams to the NVR ports it doesn't even let me initialize them myself. They automatically initialize to 10.1.1.xx, drop into the camera list, and begin working. I'm able to remote into the NVR and I can see the web portal for the cameras by clicking on them in the camera list of the NVR (see photo), View attachment 191720 but they're not accessible outside of the NVR. Is private protocol what's happening here? All the videos by Andy talk about putting the cameras on the same subnet as your home network, and you just mentioned doing it as well, but my NVR doesn't seem to like that. I tried going into the cameras and changing their IPs to be on my subnet and they show up in the top list, but once I initialize them they go red, and don't work. If you can give me some clarity on when I'm supposed to let the cameras do private protocol, versus when I'm supposed to give them IPs on my subnet, and what settings do that, I would really appreciate it.

Looks like you've already got the reply for this, so I am just summarizing it here for others ..

NVR - cameras directly connected to the PoE ports here need to be assigned IP addresses either DHCP by the NVR or manually on the cameras to match the NVRs IPs

Cameras on the LAN side ( in this case back of the house on a PoE swtich ) will have LAN ip addresses ( often 192.168.x.x depending on your home setup ). I personally like to manually assign these, but you can also assign in DHCP .. ideally reserve the IPs for the MAC addresses to they remain the same on startups .. then in the Dahua NVR you would go to the manually add camera selection.