Problems setting up IP nestcams

[adrian5750]

Hi Folks
First-time posting - having problems setting up some nestbox cameras - these little devices

Green Wifi Bird Box Camera Audio 1920P 1080P IR CUT Night Vision RTSP FTP Mini I | eBay UK

Support upload alarm pictures and videos to the FTP server. Using the camhi or camhipro app you can watch nesting birds on your smartphone or tablet in HD. RED Report-2.4G Wifi WST21N060115-2ER. Support both WiFi connection and wired cable connection.

www.ebay.co.uk

I've been in & around computers for years (but not in IP cameras) - but setting these things up so they work and stay working seems very difficult (for me!)

I have four or five of these little cameras, and trying to monitor them through the (recommended) HiCamPro software on a PC.
It's a bit like that plate-juggling circus trick - I can get up to three of them working at one time, but, after a while, they fail.

I've tried

• connecting them via wi-fi to my main broadband router
• connecting them to a wi-fi range extender which then connects to the router

In both cases, on a good day, I can get three cameras working - but then, after a while, they drop offline (as shown in the the status bar of the HiCamPro software)
Left alone, they may eventually come back online, or they may require a power-off / power-on, or, in extreme cases, a full 'reset-button' restart to get them up and running again.

I realise this is a very broad question - but would appreciate any pointers to getting them up and running, and staying up!
Is it likely to be the hIP2P client (CamHiPro) software, and, if so, is there something more reliable to run on a pc?

Many thanks in advance
Adrian

 

[bigredfish]

Likely that you're saturating your wifi connection and or router bandwidth.

Try just streaming 2, how long do they stay up?
Then add 1 and again..

I notice a degradation on my home network with just 1 4MP wifi camera streaming after 30 min to 1 hr.

 

[TonyR]

First off, it's very possible that the issue is that your wireless router or range extender can only handle 1 or 2 cameras at a time and 4 or 5 places too much bandwidth demand on your Wi-Fi, especially if there's distance limintation or strength issue.

But first off, let's try this: the eBay specs down at the bottom vaguely state that it's ONVIF compliant, so let's explore that VERY desirable possibility. For this test, use the camera's wired (Ethernet) connection. Let's see if it has an embedded webGUI. If you kow the camera's IP address, username and password, connect a PC to the Ethernet cable that has it's IP in the same subnet as the camera, In other words, if the camera's IP is 192.168.1.10 (an example) then assign your PC a static IP of 192.168.1.30, subnet mask 255.255.255.0, no gateway IP or DNS1 or DNS2 needed. Open a browser and enter the camera's IP and get back to me.

If the camera does not respond or you do not know its IP address get back to me anyway.

 

[adrian5750]

Likely that you're saturating your wifi connection and or router bandwidth.

Try just streaming 2, how long do they stay up?
Then add 1 and again..

I notice a degradation on my home network with just 1 4MP wifi camera streaming after 30 min to 1 hr.

Ah, thanks - hadn't thought of that!
I've got two cams connected at the moment - one is streaming and the other one's dropped out of sight, and cycling the power doesn't make it come back.
I'll probably have to go through the 'hard reset' thing with that one again..

Perhaps I'll just leave the one that's running, and see if that stays up, as a first test.... I'll report back.....

Thanks
Adrian

 

[adrian5750]

First off, it's very possible that the issue is that your wireless router or range extender can only handle 1 or 2 cameras at a time and 4 or 5 places too much bandwidth demand on your Wi-Fi, especially if there's distance limintation or strength issue.

But first off, let's try this: the eBay specs down at the bottom vaguely state that it's ONVIF compliant, so let's explore that VERY desirable possibility. For this test, use the camera's wired (Ethernet) connection. Let's see if it has an embedded webGUI. If you kow the camera's IP address, username and password, connect a PC to the Ethernet cable that has it's IP in the same subnet as the camera, In other words, if the camera's IP is 192.168.1.10 (an example) then assign your PC a static IP of 192.168.1.30, subnet mask 255.255.255.0, no gateway IP or DNS1 or DNS2 needed. Open a browser and enter the camera's IP and get back to me.

If the camera does not respond or you do not know its IP address get back to me anyway.

Hi Tony
Thanks - I'll give that a go.. in a while.
Just at the moment I have one camera running, it's one that's installed in a nestbox, so is connecting through the wifi range extender... I'll leave that one alone for a bit and see it if keeps working..

I have a spare drop cable from my local (wired) lan that's adjacent to one fo the cameras that's currently in the office - so I guess that would be OK to try this test..?
I wouldn't really want to be doing the final installation via wired cables though, if I didn't have to.... but maybe you're suggesting this as a test scenario?

Thanks for your help - I've been going round in circles here!
Adrian

 

[TonyR]

so I guess that would be OK to try this test..?
I wouldn't really want to be doing the final installation via wired cables though, if I didn't have to.... but maybe you're suggesting this as a test scenario?

Yes, as a test. Besides, if you really want to get away from the HiCamPro PC software we need to learn it's configurability via an embedded webGUI, discover its RTSP stream URL (if any), see if it's reallly ONVIF-compliant and more.

BTW, I dug deeper and think its default IP is 192.168.1.88 and login username/password is admin/admin.

 

[adrian5750]

Update on this saga.. Tried quite a few different things - but eventually decided that the problems with the cams (and other wi-fi-connected devices around the house) were likely caused by conflicts netween the three plug-in range extenders.

Had a mesh-based system installed yesterday - reconfigured the three cams to talk to the mesh routers, and (so far) all looks good.

Thanks to the group for the advice - if you hear nothing more then you can assume that it's all fixed.
Sometimes it's the 'obvious' things! <grin>

Thanks folks
Adrian