Adding cameras to NVR via single cable

[SergeyAU]

Hi all
It was probably discussed many times
I currently have 4 cameras connected to
dahua-nvr-5216-16p-4ks2
I want to add 3 more cameras but the conduits for the cables that I have installed, cannot fit any more network cables.
So I am thinking that I can just add 4 cameras on external poe switch.
Chatgpt tells me that inbuilt poe enabled ports cannot be used for the uplink, so my switch with the new cameras would have to be connected to the main network and then added to nvr via network discovery
This is not ideal as I don't have a witch near nvr and don't want all this traffic via the main switch/router.
Is that correct (cannot be added directly to nvr poe ports)?
If it is, what is a suggested way? 2 new poe switches? One with cameras plugged in and one that main switch cable to nvr becomes uplink to main network and nvr + new cameras switch plugged in to?
Any suggestions on the hardware?

 

[Revo2Maxx]

Your NVR should have the Option for Bridge Mode. Loads of people wouldn't use it but in your case. I would.. Few things to keep in mind..

First you will need to setup all your cameras for your Local Lan IP range, This means that all your cameras will be open to your LAN..
Next you will want to make sure that you have UPnP turned off on all your cameras. When connected to the POE NVR it normally isn't an issue. Most cameras come with it enabled for some odd dumb reason..
Then you will or should to make it easy setup your cameras to work on DHCP. This is so you don't have to go in and make a bunch of changes let the Router do that for you.. Then once it is done you can go back in the cameras and change back to Static..
Then once you have all that setup you will want to tell your NVR that you want it to work in Bridge Mode. Now your NVR will be just a normal Network switch on your LAN and could even connect some other none camera related POE devices to it if you were in a pinch..

Once you have all that and the already connected cameras setup on your LAN and they all changed back to static setting could even keep the Ip that it was giving by the DHCP server, You will want to change back to Static just remember that step...

All that done you can now add your new POE+ Switch, This will take 1 camera off the current lines of ethernet and then that camera cable will connect and be used as an uplink to the NVRs location. Meaning your new POE+ switch will have your new cameras connected to it and the one camera you had to take off your current Ethernet path.. This means you need a POE+ switch that supports at least 5 connections even if that is 4 POE and 1 uplink as there are some switch out there like that. I have 1 that has 2 uplink ports and 8 POE+ ports. A good few other POE+ and POE switches on my network. But I also have a load of cameras as well.

Now in the Real World. If you had the money or something to work on over time. It is best to have your NVR connected to a Switch that isn't your Router.. Then you connect your Router to your Switch and then all your devices that are connected on your Ethernet Lan side would connect to the Switch.. I have a few 24 port switches that are 12 ports for POE+ and 12 that are not powered.. Then I have some smaller ones as well.. So I have 1 ethernet cable that goes to my router to my switch. All computers and other devices connect to my Switches. When the Router goes offline on reboot I don't loose any connection to my Ethernet connected devices. So my Devices will still be able to talk with each other on my LAN even without the Router in working operation..

Anyway if in the future you were to get a new POE+ Switch to put on your LAN for all your other device also your NVR then you could change your NVR back to normal POE format. There will be nothing you would have to do besides the reboot it would normally do for all the connected cameras to get your NVRs POE IP setup back.. It is only when you go from your POE NVR to your normal LAN setup would you need to make that change form Static to DHCP. This way your cameras can get a new IP setup without having to make a bunch of changes in the camera.. Being able to just change 1 option from Static to DHCP and once changed back if the fastest and easy way to change a bunch of cameras IP info..

 

[Revo2Maxx]

So here is one of my switches mounted on 2 POE NVR, far right are the 2 uplink ports 1 going to bottom NVR and second going to my giga lan 24port switch. In my case you can see 8 poe connected devices in orange with green for data, right 2 green is for data on the uplink ports. I have another poe+ switch without uplink also 8 ports only down side with that is 1 port has to be uplink so really only 7 poe able device. Yet it is a gigabyte poe+ switch just no uplink. Where this one only 10/100 and for most cameras you won't use much over 100 and extended mode only 10 anyway.

 

[Flintstone61]

YEs you can do what your thinking. As long as you have 110VAC power to run a remote Poe Switch, and can pull cable for new cams back to that, you can repurpose one of the cables in the conduit as the "home run" back to a dumb switch sitting next to NVR. plug NVR into dumb switch and use remote discovery. Add your your " knocked offline" camera from the sacrificed "home run" cable to the new remote POE switch with a new cable run...if possible.
I am doing a version of this. But I have the luxury of all the machines being nearby each other.

 

[bigredfish]

Hi all
It was probably discussed many times
I currently have 4 cameras connected to
dahua-nvr-5216-16p-4ks2
I want to add 3 more cameras but the conduits for the cables that I have installed, cannot fit any more network cables.
So I am thinking that I can just add 4 cameras on external poe switch.
Chatgpt tells me that inbuilt poe enabled ports cannot be used for the uplink, so my switch with the new cameras would have to be connected to the main network and then added to nvr via network discovery
This is not ideal as I don't have a witch near nvr and don't want all this traffic via the main switch/router.
Is that correct (cannot be added directly to nvr poe ports)?
If it is, what is a suggested way? 2 new poe switches? One with cameras plugged in and one that main switch cable to nvr becomes uplink to main network and nvr + new cameras switch plugged in to?
Any suggestions on the hardware?

Yes

 

[SergeyAU]

Thank you all. @Revo2Maxx especially for a big write up