GMaster1

Classic case of vendor wars.. (everyone blaming everyone) Sometimes it is good to blame others, but only if you have proof. I only know a decent amount about IP camera installation because of this, sadly. Installers without at least some IT background will put things on the wrong subnets, assign gateways and IPs to every random digit, mess up QoS/VLANs, request ports/services that aren't PCI compliant, et cetera... A parallel backbone (ugh..) that they are describing is, with 75% certainty, not necessary. They are describing an instance where you would have to run a separate physical network alongside the current network. You are only running 8 x 1MP cameras. If you were going to install 20 or so on a 10/100 network, I would perhaps consider something physically partitioned perhaps. If they have VLANs set up, have the IT company configure a VLAN for your network if it's an issue. There are many ways to do this and they should theoretically know is best for that company. I used to experience this emotional fury after showing up on-site to do repairs. I'd fix a company's exchange server database and 10 minutes later would get a call complaining about printers or something random. They'd assume it was something I did if I existed that day. Glad I'm out of that industry haha.

Your ISP has SMTP servers you can use. They authenticate by either your account username/password, or by IP verification (to make sure you are a customer). This is how many commercial office fax/scan/copiers are configured. You can also create your own SMTP server using a PC in your home. There are a ton of free SMTP programs that will just sit idle and run in the background of your computer.

There's an android app that does this. Torque. It will not display distance in front of vehicle, but can use the GPS on the phone/tablet to display speed as an overlay. Have fun! dsd4oq7q9AY

The thought definitely crossed my mind a few times as well, but I never found a home made system/strategy that worked consistently and care-free enough. I used to be an emergency datacenter specialist which basically translates to a stressed out Geek Squad agent with a license to drive...aggressively. After my first two months, I was given a turbo sedan fitted with some WICKED gear and upgraded suspension/brakes/engine to handle 4+ hours of abuse every day. My company thought of everything except dash cams, so I thought of requesting another PC to the car that would handle 2 channels--170 degree front and rear views. There are a number of little PCs that work well for this. http://www.directindustry.com/prod/lanner-electronics-inc/fanless-embedded-computers-57512-641746.html BTW - Even if you're not using them for mobile/car use, they make great medium size business firewalls. Netgate sells some awesome equipment. I also found little devices like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0U00AG0785&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleMKP&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleMKP-_-pla-_-Home+Automation-_-9SIA0U00AG0785 However in the end I just mounted two dash cams. Funny enough, one of the accidents I got into did not record successfully. SD card was having I/O errors (they get hot in those enclosures). Also a speeding ticket in October was not reimbursed due to the GPS logger having com errors, but that's more of an HR/handbook problem at that point haha. But as I mentioned earlier -- I seem to have issues with dash cams and SD cards. Wonder what experiences people have with microSD cards and if they are more reliable..

I think I figured it out. As mentioned, it has something to do with the gain. This camera model's gain defaults are too high for the compression it attempts. I had to put mine down to 20 in order for it to get rid of that cloudy appearance at night. Here's an example showing how even 25 is too much. (Not sure why the image registered as green for the duration of these example shots, but I was too lazy to do this over again in MSPaint. Also worthy to note these are not 100% samples. I zoomed in and screen shot them so you could see a better example of the detail since this cam is so far away from objects.) http://i.imgur.com/P6ysszm.png And the full screenshots: Default (50): http://i.imgur.com/WcGN0mk.jpg 20: http://i.imgur.com/ScZwdyi.jpg Hope this helps!

Yep -- sorry I didn't specify haha.

I haven't had any issues with stability on any of mine. I was also puzzled as to why it was left checked on by default. Just one of the things on my checklist while installing a new camera.

For this example, I am assuming your 192.168 subnet is the one you want to use as your primary LAN. NIC1: 192.168.0.1 (All devices other than IP cameras) Server/computer: 192.168.0.2 Any other devices: 192.168.0.3 and so on. NIC2: 10.0.0.1 (IP Camera network) IPCam1: 10.0.0.2 IPCam2: 10.0.0.3 IPCam3: 10.0.0.4 IPCam4: 10.0.0.5 Your server/computer will know where to route after that.

If you're looking at only one camera, I'd get an H.264 compatible IP camera and have it stream to the main restaurant. You mentioned you don't want a DVR--that's perfectly fine. However, you will need some type of network access in order to access the cams remotely.

All good points and thank you both for the input. I was thinking about making a shout out earlier to the telnet login issue, but thought "ehh it's overkill" haha. Thank you for the verification that it is a read-only setup. Was just about to google around for that answer. As reference, I'm on this firmware for the cam I'm testing: Software Version 2.103.0000.0.R, build : 2012-07-24 WEB Version 3.0.0.0 If I go back to an earlier version than this, don't I run into image issues?

I get the idea of firmware bugs/flaws. My underlying point I guess is that I would rather have a limit in features compared to not enough attention spent on developing secure layers (for this product/market). Other markets you can get away with spending more time/resources on fancy buttons and features to assist in selling something (Like a web enabled TV that needs firmware.. Not too concerned about security vulnerabilities there). I agree the distribution of firmware is insanely peculiar with Dahua. So--what to do next? Is there a way I can delete or rename directories via Telnet to make this ONVIF and snapshot thing go away?

Oh--hello OP, I'm inattentive haha. The device mgr app auto-discovered and did not require logging in. I did not enter my (custom) admin password in. Was able to play around with a lot of features, but thankfully when I created a new admin user, it did not apply to the cam despite saying that it did in the app. The :554 RTSP stream did not function due to that being PW protected I'm assuming. Just installed the app on an off-site server and tested inbound... more sad news. You can change network settings, video adjustments, etc. I'm fairly pissed off now actually. Why does every manufacturer leave some type of hole/vulnerability?? Some things are yada yada--like end-users not changing default passwords and whatnot.. But what about people who genuinely know what they are doing with this stuff? Why should they have to fix these hidden flaws every time they install a new cam?? Some of them are blatantly obvious issues too, but the mere fact that you have to act like a hacker to FIX security flaws on a device that literally has "security" in its name is a joke. Dahua, you're on my poop list now..

Just tried that app... Scary results. (OP - Sorry to hijack this thread with a different discussion haha)

See--and I thought that too until I tested mine from the outside. Only ports that are forwarded to it are the web port, 37777, and 554. It must be using the web port, as I can get the result by going "http://[WAN_IPP]/onvif/media_service/snapshot" (No 9988)

See--and I was trying to think of others and went "Oh--Canon!! Wait..."

There any way to FTP/Telnet into the cam to remove that snapshot link feature? Kind of scary!

SD6982A or something like it would be my guess. 6rTXKoQ62SI

It starts power to the cam after 30 seconds or the video feed? Mine I remember it usually takes about 20-30 seconds to start cookin after 12v power is applied.

I think most dash cams have the ability to do recycled recording. The ones I have worked with consume the entire SD card with video files as soon as you initially plug it in. From there, data is written with very little buffer to those files. PC software then decodes those set files into segmented clips that you can then extract. I would think if you were making a dash cam prototype, a defaulted recycled recording option would be your first priority when considering storage hah I pulled this out of my own dash cam. 640x480 Lorex V2 4GB SD running continuous as soon as engine turns on. Thing is pretty old now and I believe the SD card faults up in cold weather now. bvTwqhsB32Q