Browser for IP-Cams which need ActiveX and are not supported by new Browser generations anymore

[tigerwillow1]

Maybe try reading the help file included with IPConfig tool.

As a multi-year user of Config Tool, I did not know this help file (i.e. the Config Tool manual) existed. (There are some obsolete versions of the manual on the Internet, including at dahuawiki). It's not very obvious how to get to it, needing to first pull down the "about" down arrow. Dahua is inconsistent with this. In SmartPss you have to pull down the User Name icon to get to the manual. Anyhow, with this ranting finished, the password instruction is on page 15 of the manual:
"After setting the new password is completed, reset the password in Search setting interface."
But in the manual this instruction is out-of-order, appearing before the setting of the camera's password. It should appear after "Step 9: Click Finish to finish initialization." And in the "Modifying IP" section, there's not a peep about resetting Config Tool's password.

So the presence of the manual is a bit secret, the online versions are obsolete, the password instruction is out of sequence, and the video on dahuawiki incorrectly says to modify the computer's IP configuration. What chance does a new user have to make it work?

Added on edit: Andy posted a pdf and videos to change a new camera's IP address with Config Tool a few years ago here: Dahua ConfigTool using Instruction , AND looney2ns posted a copy of the manual later in the thread. (plus see post #9 for an additional video). The manual looney posted is a little older than the one I just found, but not obsolete. What I do is the same as Andy's instruction, except I don't set an email recovery address, and turn off easy4ip and auto-updates, all personal preferences.

 

[mikelstudy]

Hello, everyone!

Since I've been looking for what feels like an eternity for a solution to configure old IP cameras via a browser under Windows10 , I would like to share my solution.

Nox Vidmate VLC​

If a camera has to install an ActiveX plug-in, this fails with all modern browsers because - for security reasons - they no longer support ActiveX. With Firefox and Opera as well as an old Internet Explorer version, access was still possible in some cases, but fonts were often not displayed correctly or not at all, no live-stream access or whatever.

My solution for Windows 10 is: Safari (yes, the Apple Browser)

I was able to download Safari V5.1.7 from 2012 by chip.de and it still works great on Windows 10.

Live view and configuration run without any problems.

Of course, I would like to warn you against going online with such an old browser! The browser probably has more holes than my 30-year-old army socks! So please only use for internal network access!!!

Wanted to share this here, because I've had help on a number of occasions, but I couldn't find a solution to this topic in the entire forum.

Keep it running!

The simple solution is to shut off Windows updates. Windows updates break way more than they ever fix.

 

[00Buck]

I have a spare old router that is set up on 192.168.1.1 and just use it to set up cameras when I need to.
Just connect pc, POE injector and camera to the router and then set up your camera ip address.

 

[antus]

I've just been through this with an old xmeye cam. I tried all the other solutions that are working for others in the first 5 or so posts, all with no luck. I went to archive.org and tried a lot of older windows live versions in virtual machines, no joy there either. Either the cam software wouldn't work, the VMs just crashed, couldn't install a compatible browser, or they were not in english. In the end I found it did work on on a large old shared windows 7 machine I have, with firefox version 51. It used the NPAPI version of the plugin.

But I still wanted to create a dedicated lightweight VM purely just for these cams. In the end I found I could create a very small windows 7 VM with this version of Tiny 7: Windows Tiny7 Rev01 Unattended Activated CD (x86) : eXPerience : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
It has IE 8 in it, and that almost worked with the xmeye NewActive.exe the camera downloads from the net out of the box. The OCX however isn't signed so in IE8 you need to go to Tools->Internet Options and scroll down to ActiveX controls and plugins->Download unsigned ActiveX controls (not secure) and set it to Enable (not secure) or Prompt. At this point we know this VM is security swiss cheese, so I'd recommend Enable, and use this VM only for camera settings and nothing else.

Now you can click through the "run activex", "install activex", "your browser has insecure settings" dialogs etc etc and at least you can configure your cam.

The VM zips down to about 650mb, and you can keep this around for this generation of hardware. I am using vmware workstation, once you have the VM you should be able to use vmware player, and other free VMs like virtual box should be good too.