Can't setup new Hikvision DS-2CD2087G2-LU cameras - Hikvision told me they are region specific and they can't help me

[brasskey]

I'm new to this site just to post this. I bought two DS-2CD2087G2-LU cameras from Andy at Empire Technology and received them this week. He shipped quick and the transaction was great. For the camera connection issues, I’m just going off what Hikvision USA told me here and I assume they're wrong as Andy said many of you all use his cameras so that's why I'm posting here. I'm hoping someone has some ideas. I've been playing with these for a few days and can't get them connected to my network. I was on the phone with Hikvision technical support three separate times this week and they also remoted into my computer and couldn’t figure it out. They ultimately said the cameras are region specific (support guy said he could tell by the serial numbers that mine weren’t from the USA) and he couldn’t help me as these would only work in the country they originated from.

In my current setup, I have about 12 IP cameras (mix of brands) and I wanted to add these two Hikvision bullets I purchased from Andy. I don’t currently have any Hikvision cameras in my setup, so this is my first experience with them. All of my other cameras were easy to setup and work fine. A few are wireless, but most are POE. I use SecuritySpy software on an iMac. My network path is as follows:

Motorola Cable Modem —> Eero Pro —> Netgear JGS524 Switch —> Netgear GS308PP POE Switch

My problem is that the Hikvision iVMS-4200 software and the SADP Tool both see the camera (screenshots attached), but when I go to add it in iVMS or via the Hik-Connect app, I get an error that says “Connecting to device failed. The device is offline or the network timed out”.

Hikvision had me connect my computer to the same POE switch that the Hikvision camera is connected to as they thought that the switch was causing the problem, but that didn’t work. I also attached the camera directly to the router (bypassing the switch), but that didn’t help either. My Eero sees the camera (screenshot) with an IPv6 address, but not an actual IP address. If I go to the default 192.168.1.64 IP address for the camera, the page times out and it doesn’t work. SecuritySpy also sees it (screenshot attached), but that's not working as the default IP isn't working. Does anyone have any suggestions to help me?

 

[wittaj]

You are lucky Hikvision even took your call! And yes many of us here buy from Andy with no problems using the cameras. He sells international cameras.

Most of us here know that the Dahua and Hikvisions of the world do not cater to the "consumer" market - their target audience is professional installers, so we are considered "prosumer" and we are fortunate to get our hands on these types of cameras and NVRs instead of consumer grade junk and not having to go thru professional installers to get quality gear. Now the downside is we get them at a discount and without manuals and support and thus are on our own to figure it out. And we are just fine with that! That is what Google search and this forum is for!

We are fortunate a forum like this exists to help with that. We do not exist in their world and that is their business model and they made the business decision to not compete with the Rings and Nests and Reolinks of the world and as such to do offer these cameras at box stores for consumers to purchase directly. Dahua and Hik cater to the professional installers...and would tell you to contact the vendor you got them from if you have questions or need support...

Contrast that with consumer grade units. You can call a Night Owl or Arlo or Reolink or Lorex or Amcrest or DLink or Google Nest or Ring and speak to a representative (now whether they can help you or not is another story) and for most novice callers they provide good customer service, but they will not tell you to talk to Best Buy where you purchased it...and several of these cost the same or more as Dahua or Hikvision...

Personally I will take better quality cameras and no support and forums like this than crap cameras with customer support that I end up knowing more than the call center person I am calling...

So with that said, what most of us do is instead of using the tools you are trying to use, we take a computer and disconnect it from the router and manually set the internet IP address of the computer to the same range as the camera, so in this case, change the IP address to a static address of say 192.168.1.100 - next plug the camera and computer into the same POE switch. Then go to Internet Explorer (many of these cameras prefer that browser) and type in 192.168.1.64 and then set up the camera and change the IP address to an IP address of your network.

Then change the computer back to DHCP or the previously set static address and plug it back into the system.

 

[fenderman]

First, dont bother with ivms. Its not needed.
Second, what is the ip address of your router?
Download the hikvision SADP tool which will see the camera across subnets and let you activate the camera and manually change in the ip address to match your subnet or enable dhcp.

 

[brasskey]

Thank you @wittaj and @fenderman for the quick replies. My Eero router seems to use IP addresses of 192.168.4.xxx and 192.168.7.xxx. So, I manually changed the IP address of the camera to 192.168.7.100 (from 192.168.1.64 default) using SADP. I can now go to that IP address in the browser and get the Hikvision admin page. So, thanks again for the quick help. I really appreciate it. I just need figure out why SecuritySpy isn't connecting with it. Is there a sub-forum of SecuritySpy users here?

 

[brasskey]

Thank you @wittaj and @fenderman for the quick replies. My Eero router seems to use IP addresses of 192.168.4.xxx and 192.168.7.xxx. So, I manually changed the IP address to the camera to 192.168.7.100 (from 192.168.1.64 default). I can now go to that IP address in the browser and get the Hikvision admin page. So, thanks again for the quick help. I really appreciate it. I just need figure out why SecuritySpy isn't connecting with it. Is there a sub-forum of SecuritySpy users here?

Never mind, figured it out. I had a general ONVIF setting for the camera profile in SecuritySpy and when I changed it to a Hikvision profile, it worked! Can't thank you all enough for the quick help. Will definitely be spending more time here. Thanks so much!

 

[mat200]

Never mind, figured it out. I had a general ONVIF setting for the camera profile in SecuritySpy and when I changed it to a Hikvision profile, it worked! Can't thank you all enough for the quick help. Will definitely be spending more time here. Thanks so much!

Good job @brasskey

I would like to welcome you to post a new thread as a quick How-to on how you did this here to make it easier for others to get their cameras up and going.

 

[brasskey]

I have another question on these cameras. I went into the System Settings portion of the Hikvision camera and changed the Device Name as shown in the screenshot. But, the live view still shows "Camera 01" as the name. I tried rebooting the camera, but that didn't help. Any thoughts?

 

[brasskey]

I have another question on these cameras. I went into the System Settings portion of the Hikvision camera and changed the Device Name as shown in the screenshot. But, the live view still shows "Camera 01" as the name. I tried rebooting the camera, but that didn't help. Any thoughts?

Never mind, found it in OSD settings. What is the Device Name for, then?

 

[alastairstevenson]

What is the Device Name for, then?

A meaningful name better identifies the camera to select it when an NVR is playing live or recorded video or images from it.

 

[leetudor]

Good job @brasskey

I would like to welcome you to post a new thread as a quick How-to on how you did this here to make it easier for others to get their cameras up and going.

Was this ever done? I have an eero system and I have the same problem getting my camera to connect. I am not using a switch or PoE, just plugged into the eero.

Lee