Three Dahua Bricks... Is There a Trick to UNBrick?

MrSurly

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Thanks, a good reference to have. I'm familiar with command line usage for pings, directory list, ipconfig... but not familiar with the 'arp' command.
 

MrSurly

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I thought it might be useful with your issue - to ID the mac addresses of the cameras with the IP's the DHCP was handing out to them, since in one case I think you indicated you were finding conflicting IP's associated with a single camera.

Primer: What is the ARP command? How to Use it & Tutorial!
Yes, one of them (noname PTZ) is detected by Dahua's Configtool as .22.26 but picked up by BI as 22.78. When weird behavior happens, it happens to me first.
 

ccssid

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one more for the "arp -a" command. on your pc set one of your nics to 10.10.10.1 (for instance) . bypass the poe and use a poe injector (if you have one). plug camera into nic. type "arp -a" into the command prompt window. )in the search bar simply type "cmd" and window will come up. you will see a listing for devices under the 10.10.10.1 nic. odds are one of those devices will be your camera. you now have the ip address of your camera. Not being familiar with Dahua (this works with amcrest and hikvision) type the ip into the address bar at top of your explorer (firefox, chrome etc) you might just access your camera. one other method will be to plug into a lan port of you router and access your router to see which devices are attached and one of those my be your camera with even a different ip. Both of the above mention methods will not necessarily get you a default ip but you will indeed get a new assigned through dhcp
 

MrSurly

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BOOM!! Mystery solved!
Not resolved but at least I now know why my cameras acted like they shared a virus.
All of your helpful ideas and actions eventually led me to the proof.
The PSU in my V7 24PoE switch is dying.
doing the arp cmd showed the ips of some non-op cams including those on the bench. Next step, I carried the bench cams to the comp room, plugged one straight into my cams NIC, added a 12v power cord, Boom! I can see it on its web gui.
Tried the other bench cam, same same.
Back to the server closet, I can see that the PoE lights on the ports are mostly on and the traffic lights are flickering rapidly (normal) on some cams and only slowly on others and a few have no lights. I hooked the bench cams back to the switch, added ps cable and they are good.
I went outside and there is one cam (of those non-op) that had an accessible power cable. Hooked it up with the ps and an extension cord and BAM! it's back online.
So..... I am now in the market for another switch OR a PSU for this one. Anyone have any info on a V7 24poe?
"V7 MODEL: MPEGS24-1N 24PORT MANAGED POE SWITCH"
I bought it from the 'Bay so there's no warranty but I don't know if the V7 line is second tier, fourth tier...maybe just junk? I paid a bunch less than the one currently listed.
 
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MrSurly

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There is a lingering "but what about...' ONE of the 'bench' cams was the first to fail and it actually was running on the other (8port) switch in the shop....hmmmmm. The other two cams on that switch and the PTZ that replaced this cam are working fine. The PTZ is externally powered.

Looks like I'm in the market for a 24 port PoE --with gigabit uplink would be handy--. Recommendations appreciated. From other threads the IPCP-24P2G-AF2 was talked about, but no one has one. The UNV model at Nelly's is over a grand...
Do I need to learn about Cisco? Do the cisco managed switches work fine UNmanaged, just PnP?
 

ccssid

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There is a lingering "but what about...' ONE of the 'bench' cams was the first to fail and it actually was running on the other (8port) switch in the shop....hmmmmm. The other two cams on that switch and the PTZ that replaced this cam are working fine. The PTZ is externally powered.

Looks like I'm in the market for a 24 port PoE --with gigabit uplink would be handy--. Recommendations appreciated. From other threads the IPCP-24P2G-AF2 was talked about, but no one has one. The UNV model at Nelly's is over a grand...
Do I need to learn about Cisco? Do the cisco managed switches work fine UNmanaged, just PnP?
 

MrSurly

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Thats a good set of specs. That unit looks almost identical to the V7 I have. I'll check into warranty info on it.


A co-worker tells me of the Zyxel switches he has, five year warranty that they do honor; he's impressed with their support so I'm including Zyxel in my search
 

MrSurly

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I'm looking REALLY hard at this one right now... high power, gigabit everywhere, i already have TPlink access points and an Omada controller (just a widget that could be useful)

Take a quick look and tell me what I'm overlooking? there is a low-power version (SG2428P)
 
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TVille

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My network is strung all over our four buildings, no home runs, so I have six different switches in six different locations. Some GB, some 100s. But, it avoids the single point of failure, except at the modem and router. The network piece I hear of failing most often on here is a POE switch. I would consider at least two smaller switches.
 

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Does everything in your ecosystem conform to what is in the Amazon Ad below? I think they go on to say that some older SDN controllers won't work with newer EAP's etc.

*【SDN Compatibility】Make sure your devices/controllers are equipped with SDN firmware. (Or upgradable). SDN controllers work only with SDN Access Points, Switches & Gateways. Non-SDN controllers work only with non-SDN APs. Details found on TP-Link website.


I also like the idea of diversity, and redundancy (mentioned above) . Things may go well without, but the day that large switch craps the bed, everything goes down, versus 1/2 or 1/3 etc of the network devices.
 

MrSurly

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Good points on redundancy, a few small vs one large. I'm giving that some investigation to compare cost, power budgets etc.

Good call on the SDN compatibilty as I hadn't thought of the outdating possibility. It turns out that my Omada controller and both APs are "SDN Integrated" and fully compatible though they are two years old.
Worthwhile to note that since I originally set up the APs I haven't really used the SDN or cloud feature as it's just poofery for AP use. It lets me monitor how many devices are using how much bandwidth and I can block one if i wanted.
That's NOT useful in my application, it's just a bell$whistle thing. However, in the case of the switch, it MIGHT be useful for setting up Vlans or other management, I don't know. It's sales pitch is Cloud based monitoring and management, which seems of not much value in a static network (after set up and tweaking)... mostly bell&whistle value. But I already have it, so it's a slight factor in product selection.

I really like the future-proofing of the Gb ports and the high power budget, but as stated, the one-basket scenario has a downside as my V7 illustrated.



BTW: The Zyxels are either NA or outrageous.
 
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NightLife

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Good points on redundancy, a few small vs one large. I'm giving that some investigation to compare cost, power budgets etc.

Good call on the SDN compatibilty as I hadn't thought of the outdating possibility. It turns out that my Omada controller and both APs are "SDN Integrated" and fully compatible though they are two years old.
Worthwhile to note that since I originally set up the APs I haven't really used the SDN or cloud feature as it's just poofery for AP use. It lets me monitor how many devices are using how much bandwidth and I can block one if i wanted.
That's NOT useful in my application, it's just a bell$whistle thing. However, in the case of the switch, it MIGHT be useful for setting up Vlans or other management, I don't know. It's sales pitch is Cloud based monitoring and management, which seems not much value in a static network (after set up and tweaking)... mostly bell&whistle value. But I already have it, so it's a slight factor in product selection.

I really like the future-proofing of the Gb ports and the high power budget, but as stated, the one-basket scenario has a downside as my V7 illustrated.



BTW: The Zyxels are either NA or outrageous.

As far as VLAN's and such, check if tp-link has any emulators online on their site. I seem to recall that when I bought my AX router from them they had virtual router I could mess with to check out all the settings. Either that, or look for youtube videos of guys doing what you are planning. See what criticisms they may have, if any. VLAN's, and gateways, routers, AP's, and switches all have a particular language and require a decent amount of study before a comfort level appears. One things in my own experience became clear - time is essential to study and plan everything out well in advance of diving in. Give yourself that time. Study, plan, sketch out ideas, go to bed, wake, rinse and repeat. Just when you think you're good to go you'll come across a video in which the presenter throws a curve ball you hadn't thought of..But once you absorb the language, and logic your approach will come into focus. The place you find yourself in right now 'may' be a good juncture in which to stand well back, to look around at what your have in place, and where you're like to be in 5 yrs down the road (network wise) and you may want to pivot for one reason or another. Don't allow old(er) tech to steer you in a particular direction unless that's really what you want and where you see your network heading.

Agree that a lot of controllers will be set and forget it stage items. The Ubiquiti U6-LR AP point I just bought has a controller to set everything up on that AP, including the VLANs etc, but beyond that unless I plan to keep the controller running 24/7, I doubt I'll be checking in on it much. If I had a computer churning away in the background on my network I might, but I really don't. The desktop tends to time out and is allowed to shut down, and beyond that it's tablets and laptops which also are set to shut down.
 

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It just keeps getting weirder; it was down to seven cams working this morning (one remains externally powered) and when I got back tonight,,

… ALL FOURTEEN cams are working. Without my having dicked with any settings.
 
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MrSurly

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Despite the appearance of my switch evidently becoming aware that its replacement is being arranged and now making a yeoman's effort to prove its mettle :haha: , I'm glad I did the testing.
I was able to establish that the switch was NOT providing power to the cams and that this was the direct cause of the cams going offline. The switch must be replaced.
Even though the switch has recovered temporarily, obviously it can't be relied on.

RE: the TP-Link switch I posted about above, I looked at six port to ten port switches to see what it would take to go redundant and do it all at once. If doing apples<>apples (same brand and feature sets) the cost nearly doubles. I found the unit above for $370 vs $410 so I bit. I'll see how it works out. I know it's not perfect; redundant would be better. No doubt, there's a case to be made for just getting multiples of the cheaper no-name units (NICGIGA? BVTech?) for less money and just keep spares.
I do have an 8-port in another building and I expect to add another out there later.
 
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i just read through this entire post. I was thinking an unstable or glitchy power situation. And reading further that seems to have been discovered. I was thinking maybe Surly's electricity to his house was even to blame/glitchy.
My Mom had a house in Naperville that seems to have had more faulty electronics than Anything i'd ever seen. ( The Fermi Lab Particle accelerator was just down the Highway LOL) maybe there were unhappy electrons....Anyhow....
I used to go crazy chasing network issues, and it was partially failed/or failed switch router combo's or Modem switch combos almost all the time.
So I'm glad you found the problem...
I started out buying an enterprise switch, and realize for home use fanless is nice of you arent running too many cams. Like somebody above said, maybe a couple fanless POE switches. unmanaged is fine for home surveillance, unless you wanna get fancy pants with Vlans.
 

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i just read through this entire post. I was thinking an unstable or glitchy power situation. And reading further that seems to have been discovered. I was thinking maybe Surly's electricity to his house was even to blame/glitchy.
My Mom had a house in Naperville that seems to have had more faulty electronics than Anything i'd ever seen. ( The Fermi Lab Particle accelerator was just down the Highway LOL) maybe there were unhappy electrons....Anyhow....
I used to go crazy chasing network issues, and it was partially failed/or failed switch router combo's or Modem switch combos almost all the time.
So I'm glad you found the problem...
I started out buying an enterprise switch, and realize for home use fanless is nice of you arent running too many cams. Like somebody above said, maybe a couple fanless POE switches. unmanaged is fine for home surveillance, unless you wanna get fancy pants with Vlans.
Good points; For the record, I should add that the V7 switch, the 8-port switch in the shop as well as the computer room (CamPC/modem/router) each have dedicated UPSes/ surge protectors. This gives a little bit of run time during an outage and most importantly isolates everything from most supply voltage issues.
The V7 has two case fans and is a bit noisy. I have it in a closet of the dining room and as long as the closet is closed, the fan noise is nearly imperceptible. When the door is open, though, it gets annoying... I sure wouldn't want to work beside it all day(!)
I expect the TP-link that I ordered is just as loud.
Because I plan to add a couple of PTZs, a 'higher power' switch seemed a logical idea. Of course fanless (I assume) is not a typical feature of high-wattage switches.
 

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Of course fanless (I assume) is not a typical feature of high-wattage switches.

What do you consider high wattage? I have an incredibly modest fanless VLAN capable switch for IPC's which I picked up back when I started this journey, and it's only a 4 port but has a 120W budget. You can cycle a port's power without losing PoE to that device downstream, test for shorts, and loops etc. At the time all I cared about was decent wattages, an intuitive web UI, and that it was basic, and advanced VLAN capable including 802.1Q (basic/advanced) so it could continue to serve as my network grew. I guess, in your case, it would also matter where the switch is physically (in which building), and whether something like this would play in your ecosystem.

 

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What do you consider high wattage? I have an incredibly modest fanless VLAN capable switch for IPC's which I picked up back when I started this journey, and it's only a 4 port but has a 120W budget. You can cycle a port's power without losing PoE to that device downstream, test for shorts, and loops etc. At the time all I cared about was decent wattages, an intuitive web UI, and that it was basic, and advanced VLAN capable including 802.1Q (basic/advanced) so it could continue to serve as my network grew. I guess, in your case, it would also matter where the switch is physically (in which building), and whether something like this would play in your ecosystem.

That's an impressive little switch, right there. Added to my list for future expansion in the shop which has a 4poe/4non switch right now.
My comment re: fanless vs power was prompted by searching 16~24 port switches, it looked like all the poe versions and especially the high wattage units were all fan. 200~400W of throughput will necessarily expel a good percentage of that energy as heat locally.
 
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