tomdlgns

I have a few bosch cameras at various sites (running on exacq servers) and I can tell you this, the bosch cameras are slowly being phased out from our installs/setup. I am not a fan of the current bosch cameras and I had such a bad experience with the cameras that I don't want to use them anymore. First, it was a grounding issue (according to the bosch rep). This is important to note because we designed the box with the camera electronics to only have a power outlet and PoE switch, each camera was going to plug into the PoE switch (I did not want injectors). Of course because of the grounding issues (known to bosch) I had to add some injectors. Then it was a firmware issue (they had trouble connecting to exacq, sometimes they would connect and other times they would randomly drop offline). The weirdest issue was one site had 6 bosch cameras. I was told their firmware issue was fixed. We staged all of the equipment in our office, everything connected to exacq...no problems. We take the equipment to the site, start installing each camera one at a time...exacq kept showing 'connecting' and i was not pleased to see that. at the end of the day, the minute we plugged in the LAST camera, they all connected within seconds. I have no idea what caused that. If your camera is on the compatibility list for exacq, it should work. Assuming you have active support, exacq should escalate the issue. I will say this, be 100% certain that all your connections are good. We had a duplex issue that presented itself about 1 year after everything was working great, it was process of elimination that got us to the camera that was causing issues and it was a machine made cable. Maybe some moisture got into the connector? Possibly a bad pin and the cables were moved/bumped that caused the issue.... not sure, we replaced the patch cable and everything came back online (many cameras were flopping connected/connecting, etc...it was very annoying).

If I may ask which software did you use instead?, I'm in desperate need of something good for hikvision cams, and can't find anything decent for good price. i went with a professional VMS application (avigilon), was not a free/cheap solution, but it does what i need it to do and works great.

"- Set a different Server Port for each camera to allow easy access via smart phone." i suppose it a user wants to directly connect to 1 camera then your advice is accurate and makes sense, but again, i assume people want to connect to the server and then view the cameras from there. thanks. I think he is right, because I dont think you can connect your mobile app or remote client to the ivms server directly, unless you use the PCNVR version, in order for you to view cameras remotely you will need to port fwd each camera individually. I disagree with him in regards to change internal camera port, I think you can leave it to default and just assign dif ports in your router for each camera and link it to local cam ip. Please note that in order to play recorded files on your mobile phone you will have to add the storage server port separately and when reviewing on your phone you will select the storage server not the individual camera. ok, if that is how the program functions (connecting to each camera) then i am really glad i ditched this software. yes, you are right, you can use different ports, externally, and map them to the same camera port, internally. for example, your firewall/router rules can say (assuming your firewall/router supports this) (external) port 8180, ip 192.168.1.100 ----> port 5000 (internal) (external) port 8181, ip 192.168.1.101 ----> port 5000 (internal) (external) port 8182, ip 192.168.1.102 ----> port 5000 (internal) (external) port 8183, ip 192.168.1.103 ----> port 5000 (internal) (external) port 8184, ip 192.168.1.104 ----> port 5000 (internal) with that being said, i am no longer port forwarding unless i absolutely must for whatever reason. best way to connect to your camera system is to setup a VPN connection. it is more secure and you don't have to mess with firewall/router rules for the cameras, NVR/camera server, etc... i realize that this isn't an option for all. if your only option is to port forward, make sure to use a strong password.

thanks for taking the time to write that up. i am not longer using hikvision, but i still read it. i have a question with this step "- Set a different Server Port for each camera to allow easy access via smart phone." i disagree with this. i don't think you should have to mess with the camera ports. isn't the entire purpose/point of the server to setup a VPN or port forward the server ports so you connect to the server, which you can then access 1 camera or all the cameras....? i suppose it a user wants to directly connect to 1 camera then your advice is accurate and makes sense, but again, i assume people want to connect to the server and then view the cameras from there. thanks.

avigilon (from a couple recommendations from this forum). there are a couple things that i wish avigilon would improve, but it is a very good system. i had a lot of geovision analog system in the past, i am phasing them out one or two at a time every year.

just thought of something....how are you navigating to the synology/NAS folder from within geovision? i have never tried selecting something other than a local hard disk, does that menu (from within gv) see network shares? how about creating an iscsi between the gv pc and the synology...make it a D, E, F drive....whatever you can use, then tell gv to save to that (should see it as a local drive) and see where that takes you.

Curious if you ever got this to work or not. I'm considering purchasing a Synology NAS as well for my GV-NVR system. thanks i am still curious to see if this works, but i ended up replacing the geovision system with another IP VMS. geovision has too many limitations (in my opinion) and i was sick of dealing with them.

yeah, i was able to find the two gateway accounts, those were visible when i first accessed the gatewat (after install). thanks for pointing out the group tab, didn't even think to click on it...makes sense now.

It's 2 step login process First log in is to access mobile App second to access server meaning YOU create new users on Server Get it ? i created the user on the server, but that user can't login to the mobile app. i don't have any issues logging into the mobile app with the administrator account, for obvious reasons. also, i can't seem to restrict a user to specific camera(s), they are all checked and grayed out when i am editing the permissions/settings.

It's also help to read help manual and watch YouTube training video http://4a54f0271b66873b1ef4-ddc094ae70b29d259d46aa8a44a90623.r7.cf2.rackcdn.com/assets/Uploads/en_US/PDFACCGateway06172015.pdf i got some answers to my questions from that PDF... - http authentication...when checked this disables the force of https/ssl. still not clear on the mobile/web users. this section explains the two built-in users but nothing about creating new users.

yeah, after a second look it was there, the files did not auto arrange, the 3 exported file were not by the player shortcut, at quick glance the player icon blended in with the client, gateway and control icons...thanks.

question number 6 is now answered as well as the bookmark/export, thanks. edit- i exported some video and forced it to limit the video to 700 to act as if i was going to copy to CDs and i checked the box to include the player. when export was complete, i saw 3 .ave files, where is the player? trying the export, again, this time in avi format to see if windows media player has any issues with the file. as i was typing this it appears that a 20 minute clip will take 3 hours to export (avi, full res). i stopped the export. i will try a lower resolution. thanks.

Bookmarks are simply to mark a incident for future review or to prevent the video from being deleted. is creating a bookmark the same thing as creating a start/stop point? do i need to create a bookmark before i see an option to export?

ssmith10pn, thank you for answering the questions. thewireguys sent me a PM and answered every question i had and gave me some additional information, i appreciate the help from everyone. after experimenting with the software, i think it is fair to say that i didn't give avigilon a fair chance, i am not sure why i dismissed them so quick, it might have had something to do with bringing the cameras (hikvision) into the system, but once i got over that hurdle, things looked much better. as i have stated in this thread a few times, i have been using exacq for a while and i guess i was just expecting everything to work the same as exacq, regardless, once you get the hang of things, it isn't that bad. i do have some more questions, feel free to answer them, if you'd like to and have some time (you too twg...thanks again) i have the server/client/gateway installed on the main server/site PC, everything is working great. at the remote site, i tested the HTML5 web client and the local fat client, both work great, but i don't see a need to use anything other than the HTML5 web client....i will still test both, but i am very happy with the web client. i have downloaded the player software, but i have not installed it yet (one of my questions, which is why i didn't install it, yet). 1. what is http authentication in the gateway program/setup? by default it is not enabled and i still had to authenticate. answered http authentication forces http to used instead of https. 2. is it possible to disable https? i have ports open for https and http, but when i use http it redirects to https (chrome and ff). i don't have a certificate for the https so the end user will always see the warning message. it isn't a big deal, i can live with that, but i am curious. also, right now i am connecting directly over the internet with a ddns name, once i have finalized this site, there will be a VPN tunnel between home and office http should work fine with the VPN tunnel. this is not a huge issue, but something i did notice. if i leave the https port blank and click apply, it populates with the last value. answered yes, to disable https simply enable http authentication (check the http authentication box). 3. when logging into the web client, it seems that i have to login two times. it seems that the first login is to the web client and the second login is for the site i want to connect to. i suppose this makes sense if you have 1 gateway box and 5 sites under that gateway and each site has a different login, but i only have one so it seems redundant. 4. using the mobile app, it was very east to connect to my site (i was not on the LAN when setting up the mobile app)...just make sure the proper ports are open. the app is very user friendly, the only question i have is swiping left/right to go to the next camera. it seems the only way to get to another camera is to double tap to get to the view and double tap on the next camera you want to view. with most mobile apps i have used, you can swipe to cycle through cameras. not a huge issue, there might be an update that offers that, i just want to make sure i am not missing something. 5. when searching for video, can you mark your start/stop points and then quickly export the video clip? are those the bookmarks? i did not mess with the bookmark feature, yet. answered you can create bookmarks, bookmarks are not overwritten (protect them) you can export boookmarks. 6. is it possible to type a specific date/time and go right to that? i don't have enough hard drive space to store footage for more than a couple days (installed on a test box, right now) but the computer this will end up getting installed on will have plenty of storage. if i want to go back, let's say 3 weeks, the only way i see to do that is to click the back arrow which takes me back 1 day at a time. it isn't many clicks to get me there, but i am curious if there is a way to enter a specific date/time. answered you can click on the date/time box and more options appear. 7. users for the mobile software. when logged into the gateway, it appears that there are only two accounts, administrator and operator. i created a user in the client software, but i wasn't able to login to to the mobile software with the user i added in the client. i have no problem logging into the mobile software with the administrator/operator, but how do you provide mobile login access to a user that should only have access to one/limited cameras? i also don't want this user to be able to look at playback/stop recording/make any other changes, simply viewing. answered create the user on the server, i used the client software, on the mobile app, i logged in as operator on the first screen and when i connected to the server i logged in as the user, this works fine. the next thing i want to find out is how powerful is the operator account? it seems that i will have to give that password out to anyone that needs the mobile app. thanks

thewireguys, can you give me a quote for 16 licenses? or at least tell me the cost and i can find a local dealer if the price is right. i have not had a chance to re-test the software, but i plan on doing that this weekend. a few questions i have that will probably help me out, big time, with my test - is there server and client software, meaning, the site with the cameras runs dedicated software to capture video footage and at the remote site (owners home, etc...) they would run client software to login and view remotely? i am spoiled with exacq....server runs as a service and all you need is the client. - when running the remote client, assuming there is one, can it be setup to pull a lower res image from the main site? i want 1080p/best recording on the on-site server, but the remote user just needs to see the image, 1080p isn't needed (or wanted due to bandwidth limitations) when viewing remotely). - what happens when i want to A- upgrade the software in 2-3 years (assuming there are improvements) and B- i want to add more cameras, how does licensing work, at that point? free upgrades? pay to upgrade? if i want 2 more IP cameras (adding 2, not swapping 2 out) do i simply pay for 2 additional licenses? - does avigilon support iscsi recording? i might purchase a synology NAS, setup an iscsi connector, and point it to the w7 machine that will be running avigilon and have it show up as a D or E drive, will avigilon see that drive and record to it? thanks in advance. edit- i would have to use the standard version of the software, the core is missing some features i am looking for.