Camera disappeared from my network!

[freddyq]

Hi all, I had a Dahua T5442TM-AS cam initialised, setup and working on my network with a new IP address assigned to it as per the usual setup instructions.

I haven't yet got a PC or storage sorted out for it yet so I was just using tinyCam to view the feed. However, the tinyCam connection recently stopped working and I can't access it via the IP address either.

I suspect this has something to do with the fact that I've been messing about with my switch recently and in doing so had pulled the camera cable out and plugged it into a different poe port on the switch. It's pretty much since then I've lost the camera.

The IP address I originally assigned to the cam has been assigned to something else on my network and I've scanned through the list of clients connected to my router and attempted to visit the IP address of any that aren't obvious from the name but I've got nothing.

How can I find the camera again?

Worth mentioning I've also tried searching in the Dahua ConfigTool utility but whether I search my main home subnet or the one that the camera is setup with by default, it finds nothing.

Any help would be appreciated!

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[SouthernYankee]

WHat is the IP address you through you used ?
What type of switch are you using smart of dumb ?
Your DHCP router should have a block of address that are not assigned, these are the ones you use as static address for your cameras.
Try ping 192.168.1.208 which is the default address.
Try using a plug in power supply or a Different POE port

 

[crw030]

You might have to reset that camera, you might be dealing with an IP conflict. Whatever hardware MAC address is of the camera you should reserve the specific IP assigned, if you have the hardware MAC for the camera you can even reserve it in the switch now, and reboot the device on that IP and the router will hand out a different one. Then reporter the cam and it might flip back to the prior IP address and also after any power cycle retain the same address for an extended time.

 

[freddyq]

WHat is the IP address you through you used ?
What type of switch are you using smart of dumb ?
Your DHCP router should have a block of address that are not assigned, these are the ones you use as static address for your cameras.
Try ping 192.168.1.208 which is the default address.
Try using a plug in power supply or a Different POE port

The IP address I gave the camera was 192.168.0.60. This isn't within the block of reserved addresses which my DHCP router cannot assign and I don't know why I did that actually. I must have misunderstood the IP addressing guidance although I understand more about it now.

It's an unmanaged Netgear PoE switch.

I'll try accessing that default IP although if memory serves me it was 192.168.1.108.

I'll also try another PoE port on the switch.

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[freddyq]

You might have to reset that camera, you might be dealing with an IP conflict. Whatever hardware MAC address is of the camera you should reserve the specific IP assigned, if you have the hardware MAC for the camera you can even reserve it in the switch now, and reboot the device on that IP and the router will hand out a different one. Then reporter the cam and it might flip back to the prior IP address and also after any power cycle retain the same address for an extended time.

How do I find out the hardware MAC address of the camera? Is this approach of MAC address IP reservation an alternative to assigning cameras an IP address outside the DHCP range of the router?

When you say "reserve it in the switch" do you mean by logging onto the administration console of the switch? I've never actually done that because I didn't have the need to but if that's what you mean I'm sure I can find out how to get into it.

The rest all makes sense so I can give that a go. Just curious about the MAC address reservation vs outside DHCP IP assignment...

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[crw030]

1. MAC Address - often printed on the box the camera came in. Otherwise, available in the web interface (assuming we get you back into that). (A. Connect with scan tool, B. Assign IP. C. Capture MAC address, D. Reserve IP for MAC on router).

2. “Reserve in switch” - sorry I mean whichever device hands out your DHCP address, usually your router. Usually in the DHCP config, there will be a place you can configure static DHCP assignments based on MAC address. Usually you might see recommendations to put the camera “outside the DHCP range”, but at least when I say it I mean something like: in the 192.168.1.X subnet, configure DHCP to assign only 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.200 thus leaving all kinds of room below 192.168.1.100 for manual assignments of things you don’t want moving around. I also prescribe to the dual-nic Blue Iris config which puts the cameras on a separate network BEHIND the Blue Iris computer (maybe a future option for you).

3. To reach the camera since you are on a different subnet, the easiest way imho is to wire the camera to the PC directly and set a manual IP configuration (temporary) of the network card to put the PC in the same 192.168.0.X subnet and try scanning again.

 

[freddyq]

1. MAC Address - often printed on the box the camera came in. Otherwise, available in the web interface (assuming we get you back into that). (A. Connect with scan tool, B. Assign IP. C. Capture MAC address, D. Reserve IP for MAC on router).

2. “Reserve in switch” - sorry I mean whichever device hands out your DHCP address, usually your router. Usually in the DHCP config, there will be a place you can configure static DHCP assignments based on MAC address. Usually you might see recommendations to put the camera “outside the DHCP range”, but at least when I say it I mean something like: in the 192.168.1.X subnet, configure DHCP to assign only 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.200 thus leaving all kinds of room below 192.168.1.100 for manual assignments of things you don’t want moving around. I also prescribe to the dual-nic Blue Iris config which puts the cameras on a separate network BEHIND the Blue Iris computer (maybe a future option for you).

3. To reach the camera since you are on a different subnet, the easiest way imho is to wire the camera to the PC directly and set a manual IP configuration (temporary) of the network card to put the PC in the same 192.168.0.X subnet and try scanning again.

1. Ah ok thanks I will look for the MAC on the box which I think I still have.

2. Right ok so in your example if I started the DHCP range from 100, I then reserve say 192.168.1.99 for the MAC address of the camera? But the fact that 99 isn't in the DHCP range of the router means that once I configure the camera to have the IP 192.168.1.99 that address will always be assigned to that camera isn't it? Why do I need to reserve the IP for the camera's MAC address? Just trying to understand the concepts because they sounded like two different but perfectly valid ways of achieving similar things and I'm sure they each have their pros and cons. But what you're saying is almost combining the too?

3. Sorry no so I'm not on a different subnet to the camera. I have a project in future to look at my networking setup, IP addresses etc. but for now I haven't done anything to fancy with it so my network subnet is 192.168.0.X and during setup of the camera I had successfully changed the camera IP address from the default to one on my subnet (60). I just don't know what's happened to the camera since I unplugged and plugged the cable in recently. I am starting to think for that reason that the IP address conflict theory may be correct...

BTW, definitely interested in that Blue Iris config you mention. That's exactly the type of thing for my networking/IP addressing project so will add that to the list. Thanks

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[crw030]

The DHCP reservation will ensure anytime that hardware joins the network, if it happens to ask the router for an IP it will get the reserved one. Reserving all your static addresses will prevent other devices on your network randomly getting that Sam eIP and causing an IP conflict.

Regular computers and stuff (tablets, phones, AV equipment etc) on your network probably wont care if they get a different IP every time they get turned on, but something like a security camera you want to always be in the same place where our video software can locate it.

 

[freddyq]

The DHCP reservation will ensure anytime that hardware joins the network, if it happens to ask the router for an IP it will get the reserved one. Reserving all your static addresses will prevent other devices on your network randomly getting that Sam eIP and causing an IP conflict.

Regular computers and stuff (tablets, phones, AV equipment etc) on your network probably wont care if they get a different IP every time they get turned on, but something like a security camera you want to always be in the same place where our video software can locate it.

You were absolutely right, it was an IP address conflict

I identified the device which had taken the same IP address and then assigned it a fixed separate IP address (it's a Nest Protect so I prefer it to have a fixed IP anyway). I then rebooted it and then unplugged and replugged the camera to get it to reboot and grab it's old IP address. That did the trick and I now have access back to the cam.

In the process of sorting all this out I've kind of started my networking/IP addressing project early lol - I ended up setting up a bunch of MAC address-based IP address reservation rules for devices like APs, Nest Protects as well as the camera. When I get some of my other cameras online and another AP I'll do the same for them.

The one issue I can see with this is that if/when I change my ISP router, which is where all these MAC reservation rules are setup, I'll lose the rules and have to set them up again on the new router. What's the best way to avoid this?

 

[crw030]

I have both an ASUS router that probably behave similar to your current config, and a pfSense router.

I’d probably just printout the working config from the old router page (if it shows the IP and MAC details) and then transfer them to any new equipment. Or capture the details into some type of Network Google Sheet document so you have it forever.

For the pfSense I’d just backup my config and COPY it to the new machine because I’d just be going from one pfSense to another machine.

 

[freddyq]

I have both an ASUS router that probably behave similar to your current config, and a pfSense router.

I’d probably just printout the working config from the old router page (if it shows the IP and MAC details) and then transfer them to any new equipment. Or capture the details into some type of Network Google Sheet document so you have it forever.

For the pfSense I’d just backup my config and COPY it to the new machine because I’d just be going from one pfSense to another machine.

Yea so I've started a spreadsheet to capture the MAC addresses of all my devices and then which ones I've reserved IP addresses for and which ones are left to the DHCP. Apart from knowing which ones are reserved, it also helps because not all devices have a name or even one you can easily tell what it is and now that I'm starting to look more into tweaking and managing my network I need to be able to see what MAC address is what device. I've just setup my first Unifi AP recently and their management software is so good in managing the network and devices. I'm sold on it and will add another one if not two more APs and move my entire home network onto Unifi so I can see which devices are connected to which AP and all the other good stuff.

 

[crw030]

Let me be the first to welcome to both the Ubiquity and Camera addiction camps! Currently an active member of both.