buellwinkle

With Dropcam, you are not accessing your camera directly. The camera sends video to the cloud and then you access the video in the cloud. So a) they charge you to record, like $100/cam/yr, b) with multiple cameras it bogs down your internet connection. So imagine my costs, for my 6 cameras I use, $600/yr, and my internet connection would be toast, so I may have to spend more to get a faster uplink speed. So it may make sense to some with 1 or 2 cameras, but not a complete home security solution. As for port forwarding, yes, the router industry as a whole needs to make that process more simple and more consistent so doing it on a dlink, netgear, Linksys router is the same.

The most obvious is to use a different cable and PoE switch/injector or put a different camera on that cable to see if it's a problem with the cable or switch. Next you can do a full reset on the camera and start over as sometimes things get corrupt. If it still does it, call the people you bought it from and arrange sending it to the distributor to troubleshoot and repair. Many distributors stock spare logic boards so they can make the repairs.

Depends on the app, with IP Cam Viewer it uses the http and video port (normally 80 and 6002). Some use RTSP port which is 7070 on ACTi. You'll have to experiment to see what is being used.

Not yet, I had to travel today. Will work on it more tomorrow.

If you are using NVR3, just leave all your cameras at their stock port numbers, why change them. Then port forward ports 80, 6001, 6002 for the IP for the PC you are running the NVR3 server process on.

For me it had a nice interface and found all my cameras, but only 2 out of 8 worked, the biggest problem was it had trouble with cameras not using port 80 and older ACTi cameras that were on port 80. Also, with the 2 cameras it did work with, it used up 50% CPU which to me is high and concerned that with 6 cameras it would be 150% CPU.

If you are just buying the cameras only, then it's your choice how you want to record. I wrote an article on how to have the cameras write to NFS and then playback from the camera, so no NVR needed, especially if you just have 2 cameras to start. Also, you can get BlueIris, runs on Windows, works well with these cameras and its cheap, about $50USD and you can find it a little cheaper on eBay.

I did but, it tells you it's mjpeg but no option to change it. I removed all the cameras from it so I can use them with another NVR solution until they can make the E32 work. I did like that CPU use was very low with 5 cameras working on it. Took the Dahua and Hikvision without a problem via ONVIF. SUCESS - I found out the device pack that came with the install was very old, like 4 generations old. I installed the latest device pack and cameras are working. Now unto the next fun, figuring out how to get the web server piece working. I clicked on the icon it put on my desktop but doesn't work.

Sounds like you overloaded your network, 14 megapixel cameras is a lot without good networking layout. Did you try and swap in an different camera plugged into the same cable or swap with a known working camera to isolate if the problem is the camera or the network.

I changed my h.264 to mjpeg on the camera and that worked for a while and then lost the connection. Doesn't seem to like h.264 or give you anyplace to change it.

What do you mean by adding it manually? I go into their management app, click on 1. Add Hardware Devices, then Manual, enter in IP address, user, password and click the auto discover button and it finds it, but does not connect. If I select ACTi or ONVIF, I click the next button and says no cameras verified and won't let me continue. Is there a different way?

There's the ACTi box cameras, the E22 is their 5MP, the E24 is their 3MP and their low lights 1080P camera is the E23. This is if you want a box camera like the Sanyo. From Axis, the P13 series is pretty nice. The P1355 is their 1080P and their P1357 is their higher resolution model. Both of these take CS lenses, day/night, good companies with good support.

That specific model, the E32 shows as fully supported on their website. I emailed support, see what they say. One thing that bugged me about Milestone is you can't just pick a protocol to try, for example, even though it's an ACTi and it auto-detects as an ACTi, I should be able to pick ONVIF. It gives you a drop down to select it but unless you go through auto-detect, it won't verify.

If it uses the Raptor firmware, the one that's going around for the mini bullet should work as they don't distinguish by camera model, only by platform.

I did enter it manually, detected it as an ACTi camera, but doesn't connect. This camera uses all standard port numbers, nothing special. The Hikvision it took so only one camera it struggles with.

It doesn't let you put in the IP, it just shows you what it auto-discovered. If I enter the camera manually I can put the port in, but doesn't find it. I tried changing the port on the Q-See to 80 but it doesn't let me, it changes it back to 85, weird. So I installed Milestone and I have the opposite problem. Found only the Dahua cameras and they work great. Did not find the Hikvision or any ACTi. I added the ACTi in manually and takes the old ones, but not the new one, the E32 that HD Witness found. The E32 is on their support list. It even displayed the image from the camera briefly, changed my frame rate from 15 to 5 but says connection failed. Time for Milestone support. Not sure if I should install the device packs and if so which one as there's two.

I think the problem with Dahua is my port numbers. One is a Q-See so port 85 and the other I set a different port for remote access. It actually recognizes both Dahua cameras (IPC-HFW3200C and the Q-See version of the IPC-HFW2100). It even displays the video from one (the Q-See), but says UNAUTHORIZED and I figured it was the port conflict but I can't find a place to put the port numbers. With the ACTI E32 & Hik bullet, both set at 3MP the CPU is consistently over 50%, before and after starting the app it showed 1% busy and nothing else is running. It's an older quad core, about the performance equivalent of the first i7 and Windows 7 64 bit if that makes a difference.

Good find. Doesn't even show up on Hikvision's website. At least you know it has the potential of being 3MP, alarm I/o and sd card slot.

There's an additional control port, 6001 I believe.

I've searched and searched and I can find nothing. Was easier last time mostly because I was at their booth at ISC West to see for myself. It may be dumbed down version of what you noted that doesn't include the extra frills like motorized zoom/focus.

That site that forwards shipping to other countries sounds awesome. They even have an Oregon address so no sales tax.

I tested their Android app, and in the review I show my driveway cam which is an ACTi E32 in h.264 mode. It could be the version I'm using is newer, it could be other brands of cameras have issues. Have you tried the software the HD Witness software?

The app I use on Android is IP Cam Viewer and it requires the Video Port (6002) and the HTTP port (80). I usually make them consecutive so I can easily put them in router as a range.

Why is it hard to get 15 fps with Mobotix (unless they are older M12/D12)? We allow Mobotix to record to NAS and then use their MXControlCenter to view the cameras and recordings.

Maxicon, don't know about that, the cameras do not look anything alike.