mfuzzy

any underground should be sch40 pvc or for under drives and walks sch80 pvc. the other alternative is rigid,,,,,way too expensive

you should be able to make a straight through cable or purchase a pre-made up to 50 ft with no issues. a vga extender may have had a different pin out than what you need since vga doesn't use all the pins. try searching the pin out for the db15 to bnc

although i haven't used geovision, i do use video insight. a very user friendly interface for the end user. as far as mapping cams to ports, not sure what you mean. they do have a facility map feature where you can load a pic of your facility (in about any format) and drag and drop cams to their locations. this creates your links for you so you can leave the map open. when set to motion recording, the cam icon on the map flashes red and you can quickly click on it to bring up a full screen of that cam. the map feature alone is a great seller (not to mention the easy search features), the end users love to see the system "customized" to their own building rather than just a view all page. hope that shed some light on the VI system.

also, make sure that ch 3 is not a used channel from cable co. if it is used, you will get cross mod and won't see anything but blurry static pics. just use a 2 way splitter backwards to mix the two signals. cable into one output of the split and camera feed into the other output. then your input of the splitter becomes the feed to the rest of your system. you don't have to move the dvr, just run a cable if that is easier

yeah,, "b-lined" means straight line with no reguards to anything in the way. and when you are wrapped around something and don't find out till the end of the pull, "button-hooked". the worst, out one ceiling tile and back up the next, wrapped around the grid. i assume, never happened to me, unless you were watchin

if you are able to control the ptz with the software, then the converter isn't the issue. if it was, you would get no control. which dvr/software are you using? does it support presets?

is this 24vac and 12vdc? that is what i get from the link you posted. if the ir is 12vdc, then make sure your power supply will handle both the cam and the ir and parellel the two devices on the 18-2 you ran. whichever the ir is, get a power supply that supplies enough current, propably 40 to 50 va will be enough. the 18-2 will run either 12vdc or 24vac or 24vdc for that matter. your stranded 18 gauge wire should be rated to 600v. it is the amps that will overlaod the wire.

they pay for themselves after a few uses after you consider the time saved and... stuctured cabling......real good on paper but,,,anybody here says they never "b-lined" a cable or did some hokey thing they weren't particular proud of in an older building or at the end of a day,,,,,,you are lying

been installing analog, ip and hybrids on dell poweredges for the last year and haven't had any issues other than 1 bad card cheap pc's = poor system performance

extendable gopher pole,,,the greatest,,,25' plus your arm and you can go over all things to keep cable off the ceiling and away from flourescents. be smart though, go to the other end and fish it then go attach wires and PULL. i have pulled 8-10 cables at a time this way with no problems.

since you are behind router and say you can sometimes, check the port forwarding and dhcp settings. if you want to always find the dvr, you need to have a static address. i've seen those netgear lose their settings. 404 error is page not found, sounds like it is dynamic address or routing issue. dvr should have private ip, some remote software have issues with NAT or when using public ip that does not match dvr's private ip. the login failure could be due to browser settings. i like firefox but find that ie works better with most dvr web servers. ge dvmre?

pelco's coaxitron is rs422. you need a 232 to 422 converter if you are going to use the bolide converter. out of the pc serial port to the bolide(couple dips, one to select pelco D and the other for baud. i'm using 9600) and set the software to the protocol and the port on the bolide and viola,, absolute control. been swapping out older systems with pelco cm6700 (have a few if anybody is in need) and using VI servers with the bolide boxes. VI has a real nice control interface and i haven't had a problem with bolide (make sure you have or order a 12vdc 500ma ps and the 422 converter as i have got a few bolides with no ps and they don't supply the 422). you can also keep your pelco keybaord in place as the bolide has a keyboard port.

you know your cam is good and the power is good. use your premade siamese cable(thin stranded i'm assuming) for a pull string and put in an rg59 and min 18 awg power (regular camera siamese cable). cheap premades often times have shorts in the video cable.

if you need extra distance and can afford to sacrifice width, computar makes various lens extenders that work quite nice.

i have seen this in older phillips cameras when back focal is set too far away from lens and cam is exposed to direct sunlight during some part of the day. have you tried directly off the cam into a monitor. this will tell you if the cam or the length of run is causing it. also, one braid touching the stinger (short) will cause color issues.

i used these when they were still silent witness, not bad for price. if you need different lenses, i have a few different ones