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Can no longer connect cameras...

Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2021 2:36 pm
by studuck
Hi

Newbie here - with not much technical knowledge.

I have inherited a BI system from a sister store. I have managed to set up two cameras on BI successfully however at this stage the PC was not connected to the 'outside world'. I plugged the PC in to my router and initially it wouldn't connect so I clicked on the Windows troubleshooter and it told me there was a DHCP issue and so I clicked 'repair'. hey presto, I now have internet access! Only problem is my cameras won't work :(

I am not sure where to go with this? I am using Foscam cameras I downloaded their IP Camera tool and that picked up both camera but under the IP address column it says 'err 2'. I can't find out what this means

Has changing the DHCP setting affected the cameras? I don't know how to roll this back and even if I could it appears as though it's now set correctly to access the internet so not sure I ant to change (ultimately I want to be able to access the cameras remotely).

Thanks in advance

Stuart

Re: Can no longer connect cameras...

Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2021 4:17 am
by terk
Sounds like your subnet changed when you plugged into a different router so the cameras are no longer on the same subnet. You would need to look at the video tab settings for each camera to find out what IP they where configured for then setup a machine (other than your BI server) with a static IP in the same subnet but a different last octet so you can get to the web interface of each camera to change their static mappings to IPs in the new subnet but outside of the DHCP range so DHCP doesn't try to assign those same addresses.

Re: Can no longer connect cameras...

Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2021 6:09 pm
by TimG
I agree.

To hopefully clarify:

1. Your original router would have a fixed IP address [For example it could be 192.168.2.1].
2. Your IP cameras are likely to be set to a static IP address in the same range [i.e 192.168.2.20 but each one will be different].
3. You will be able to check this address in BI5 settings for each camera.
4. Your BI5 pc would probably also have had a static IP address in the same range [i.e 192.168.2.2] to make it easy to view it in UI3 on different pc's.

Now:

5. Your new router may have had a different IP range [i.e 192.168.0.1]. This would prevent the BI5 pc with a fixed IP address in the old range being able to see the internet until you swapped it to DHCP - at which time BI5 loses the cameras.

At this stage it would be easiest to change your new router to the same IP range that the old one was in. In my example above the old router is likely to be at 192.168.2.1 or 192.168.2.254. The other option, as terk has stated, is to change each camera individually to the new IP range. Depends on how many cameras you have, and how much you like delving into router/camera settings.
Whichever method you use, you need to look in the router for the DHCP window or range to make sure that any DHCP address the new router gives out (to mobile phones, other pc's etc) will not be the same as one of your cameras. This is as simple as:

6. If you know the cameras are 192.168.2.20 to 192.168.2.50 then you make the DHCP window somewhere else like 192.168.2.100 to 192.168.2.150
7. It would be worth giving the BI5 pc a static address again in the new range, so it can be viewed with UI3 without the IP address changing.

Please let us know if this helps. Ask anything if it's not clear.

Re: Can no longer connect cameras...

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2021 10:10 am
by studuck
Hi all

Further to my previous post I have now solved the issue - more by luck than good judgement. Pressing the reset button on each camera and using the Foscam search tool to determine new IP addresses allowed me to set the camers up again - turned out to be a really easy fix in teh end!

Thanks for your suggestions

Stu

Re: Can no longer connect cameras...

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2021 5:29 am
by TimG
Hmm, that could mean each camera now has a DHCP address within the defined range of the new router. You will find out after rebooting BI5 or the router or a camera. BI5 needs static camera IP addresses - or address reservation in the router so that the address doesn't change. :?