Trouble with wifi ip cameras stuttering. New wired NVR?

[jancoetzer96]

Hi everyone
I'm new to the forum. I have searched everywhere and still can't find a solution.
I ordered an 8 camera Wifi cctv system a while ago (it's a chinese one). The only branding I could find on it says it's a Sinye Tech Wifi CCTV camera system. On the cameras itself it only says Model 1009. So the 8 cameras connect directly to the NVR via wifi, and the NVR connects to my main network for remote viewing.
The problem I have is that the image stutters constantly because it has to pass through a couple of walls to get to the NVR, which is not ideal. I have also swapped out the small antennas on the cameras for bigger ones, but that made no difference. Someting that also happens, is that every once in a while, some of the cameras will suddenly go offline, stay like that for a while, then go back online again. Which is not ideal from a security standpoint.
All the cameras have an ethernet port as well, but when I plug the cameras directly into my router, it doesn't show up on my network at all. I have also tried multiple scanning tools and software to try and find it, but alas.
I figure that the only way to solve of my problem is to get a new, wired NVR, but I don't know if that is even an option because of it not showing up on my network.
The cameras are (apparently) ONVIF, but if I can't see it on my network, then I have my doubts.
I don't know a whole lot about CCTV systems, so I'm hoping that this community will be able to help me...
I have attached a couple of pictures which might be of some help.
Thanks for reading my essay
Jan

 

[catcamstar]

Hi @jancoetzer96, welcome to IPCT!

No experience at all with this gear, but couple of suggestions:

• remove the image with the QR code, these codes contains Serial Numbers and possible P2P connectivity strings.
• did you "bench test" your gear before hanging it out around the house? It will be a large tasks to complete, but then you can eliminate whether (or not) it is effectively your "many walls" which is causing this behaviour. So put the NVR and the cams in one room (or move the NVR close to each cam) and see if that solves the issue. But then you are not sure if the combined transmissions of the 8 camera's is "okayish". So bring them all together is the best test option.
• as a general hint&tip, IPCT does not suggest wifi cams as the best solution. Wired is the way forward, except with "bad cabling" (CCA over long distances for example). Hence again my suggestion: before pulling wires, testbench first to see if your NVR and 8 cams are up for the job. First try with a 1 meter cable, if that does not work, your cam might be DOA. And you are punishing yourself as we speak climbing ladders and taking down materials, for nothing. Testbench!

So in a nuttshell: wired SHOULD work, and preceeds wifi in all cases.

Good luck!
CC

 

[jancoetzer96]

Hi @jancoetzer96, welcome to IPCT!

No experience at all with this gear, but couple of suggestions:

• remove the image with the QR code, these codes contains Serial Numbers and possible P2P connectivity strings.
• did you "bench test" your gear before hanging it out around the house? It will be a large tasks to complete, but then you can eliminate whether (or not) it is effectively your "many walls" which is causing this behaviour. So put the NVR and the cams in one room (or move the NVR close to each cam) and see if that solves the issue. But then you are not sure if the combined transmissions of the 8 camera's is "okayish". So bring them all together is the best test option.
• as a general hint&tip, IPCT does not suggest wifi cams as the best solution. Wired is the way forward, except with "bad cabling" (CCA over long distances for example). Hence again my suggestion: before pulling wires, testbench first to see if your NVR and 8 cams are up for the job. First try with a 1 meter cable, if that does not work, your cam might be DOA. And you are punishing yourself as we speak climbing ladders and taking down materials, for nothing. Testbench!

So in a nuttshell: wired SHOULD work, and preceeds wifi in all cases.

Good luck!
CC

Thanks for the advice, I eddited it to block out the QR codes and serial numebrs.

I did test everything before I put it up around the house. Inside the house, all 8 cameras works acceptably, apart from it disconnecting and reconnecting periodically, but there was little to no delay or stuttering. At the moment, there is constant stuttering and some of the cameras have a delay of up to a minute.
I removed one of the cameras so that I can do some troubleshooting, but without success. The reason why I went with wifi cameras is because I'm renting at the moment and didn't want to go through the hassle of getting premission to drill lots of holes and run cables. In hindsight, that is probably what I should have done.
The NVR that came with the setup doesn't have any ethernet jacks on the back. It only has two antennas to pick up the wifi cameras. The cameras itself has a port to connect ethernet though. When I plug the cameras directly into my router, there is a little light that flashes indicating some form of data transfer and my router can pick up that something is plugged in, but there is no IP address for the camera which I can see. I'm hoping that I can still reuse the cameras, albeit with a different NVR, just so that I didn't waste my money completely.
But if I can't see the camera through my router, I don't know if it will even work with a different NVR.
There was no setup beforehand. It was all set up out of the box, so I just plugged the power into the cameras and it connected to the NVR automatically.
I would much rather go wired, but I'm struggling to figure out how to get it to work...

 

[SouthernYankee]

1)Have you looked at the WiFi network with a WiFi analyzer ?
2)Are you getting interference from other WiFi in the area ?
3)Are your home wifi and camera wifi on different SID and channel ?
4)Have you considered use a wifi repeater to improve your signal ?

5)On your cameras what is the resolution and frame rate ?
6)Have you calculated your data rate and network capacity ?
7) Did you test all cameras together when you desk check the system before the install ?

 

[jancoetzer96]

1)Have you looked at the WiFi network with a WiFi analyzer ?
2)Are you getting interference from other WiFi in the area ?
3)Are your home wifi and camera wifi on different SID and channel ?
4)Have you considered use a wifi repeater to improve your signal ?

5)On your cameras what is the resolution and frame rate ?
6)Have you calculated your data rate and network capacity ?
7) Did you test all cameras together when you desk check the system before the install ?

1,2,3,4) I have used a wifi analyzer app to check and see if everything works. The problem is: The NVR creates its own private wifi network to which the cameras connect. That network is hidden and I have tried multiple times to connect to it, but without success. A Wifi repeater would be ideal, but there seems to be no way to set up a repeater, because of the way the NVR's own wifi network is set up. So only the NVR is connected to my main network via ethernet, and all the cameras are connected directly to the NVR's own private wifi network.
5) The resolution is 4MP. The framerate is not visible in the software, but my guess is that it's about 15-20fps when everything works perfectly.
6) The datarate and network capacity should not have any effect on the NVR, because of the fact that it creates its own private wifi network for the cameras to connect to.
7) I did test all the cameras beforehand, and it all worked fine. Only when I set them up around the house it starts to stutter, delay and disconnect.

If I can figure out how to use the cameras with a wired NVR, that would be first place. But whenever I try to connect one of the cameras directly via ethernet to my router, I can't pick it up on my network.

Argh! I guess I should have spent more money and have gotten a proper system haha

 

[SouthernYankee]

If you can not change to configuration of the wifi camera network in the NVR, there is not a lot that can be done.

You should be able to access the cameras configuration directly using a web browser, by using a URL that pass thru the NVR.

The data rate will impact the NVR on wifi, as it can get overloaded it, it also has to process retries on the stream, or drop the data. When there is interference for other wifis.

Did you test all cameras running at the same time ?

What is the make and model number of the NVR? What is the make and model numbers of the cameras ?

 

[looney2ns]

What is the make and model number of the NVR? What is the make and model numbers of the cameras ?

Info in first post.

You are most likely seeing the reasons why we don't recommend WiFi camera systems, the bandwidth gets overwhelmed. Especially with 4mp cams.

 

[mat200]

Try to see if your normal WiFi affects the NVRs WiFi by turning off your WiFi. ( sometimes the frequency bands get overloaded ). If so, then try to change the channels on your wifi router.

 

[sebastiantombs]

The fact that the NVR creates its own private network has nothing to do with bandwidth utilization, IE saturating the available frequencies with radio traffic. They all share the same frequency allocations so your NVR is, effectively, a second transceiver on the same band. Think CB channel 19 with a band opening and everyone yammering at once.

 

[looney2ns]

The fact that the NVR creates its own private network has nothing to do with bandwidth utilization, IE saturating the available frequencies with radio traffic. They all share the same frequency allocations so your NVR is, effectively, a second transceiver on the same band. Think CB channel 19 with a band opening and everyone yammering at once.

Ha, ha, the youngsters here will have no clue what your last line refers to. 10-4 good buddy, Smokey's ahead. I'm eastbound and down.