stonesmiith

I haven't been able to work on this in a while, but I got back to it last night. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who helped in this thread and apologize for my own ignorance. As we all know, the scenario I presented didn't seem to make much sense and definitely pointed at a connectivity problem. Last night, I took a close look at the RJ45 connector that comes out of the camera -- without my contacts on. It had some very subtle damage where I had pushed it through a too small hole when first mounting it. I decided to risk cutting off the manufacturer's RJ45 and putting another one on. That fixed everything! The camera now works perfectly and the picture is crystal clear. I'll post a capture shot later. Thanks, again.

When I hooked up the short cable this time, I had to reboot the POE switch before I could ping it at all. After that, I did the ping with the -l 5000. I got a reply every time. Here is the pattern: time=1866ms time=421ms time=1ms time=299ms time=1ms time=280ms time=1ms time=1011ms time=1ms time=1230ms time=1ms time=978ms time=1ms

I hooked up local power and ran the 100' cable to my Linksys wireless router. The behavior was exactly the same as when I used the Dlink POE switch. The data light blinks intermittently and will not go solid. I did a ping -t and let it run for a bit. I got 9 "destination host unreachable", 3 "request timed out", 1 "reply", 8 more "request timed out", then 2 more "destination host unreachable". If it matters, my equipment is cable modem connected to Linksys wireless router, then a patch cable from the Linksys to the Dlink POE switch. I'm starting to wonder if I have a defective camera. Even when I use the short cable, I thought at 1080p and 30fps, it would be just like watching TV. But, even the best of the four feeds seems a bit grainy and movement has a slight delay.

I'm really confused now. When I do a ping test with the 100' cable, I don't get a timeout, but I get "destination unreachable" four times. When I use the 7' cable I get the normal reply < 1ms and TTL=64. I finally got my hands on a basic cable tester and both cables test fine. Even the original cable that is still running through the attic tests fine.

Here is the screen, first with the 7' cable and then with the 100' cable.

Well, I got another 100' cable from B&H Photo and it doesn't work either. It shows the exact same ghost of a screen as the one from Lowes. I can switch back to the 7' cable and everything is fine. Keep in mind, I'm talking 100 feet, not 100 meters. The camera has a built-in cable with a male RJ45, so I have to use a coupling to connect the camera to the cable. The coupling seems to be cheap plastic. I've tried two of the couplings. Could that be the point of failure?

Thanks for your help, everyone. I'll borrow a cable tester and check my route through the attic.

I ordered a Vivotek ip8362 camera, a PC, a D-Link DGS-1008P POE switch and a 100' cat5e cable for a system at home. I checked out the system before mounting the camera and it seemed to work fine. I had a hard time running the cable in and out of my attic and I pulled on it really hard a few times. After I finished running it, I got a power light, but I didn't get a data light on the switch. I brought the camera back inside and checked the system with a 7' cable I had and it worked fine. I went to Lowe's and bought a 100' cat5e cable. It seemed thinner, but I got it anyway. When I hooked it up, it would take a long time to connect and when it did, it would only show a faint ghost of a screen with no video. Even the 7' cable that works only shows a 100 mb connection. Should I just order a cat6 cable?