Router help

[mikefamig]

Blue Iris wins. Based on the number of positive recommendations here and the fact that I'm very impressed with it so far. I did download and demo it years ago and it still looks pretty much the same up front. It's much faster acccess to the cams than I was getting addressing each directly and the GUI is easy to use. So far I'm very impressed.
 
I haven't forgotten there was one vote for Xprotect and I plan to download it and compare it to BI.
 
Mike.

 

[mikefamig]

I'm not sure if what you are seeing with the camera responding to the static address as well as the DHCP assigned address is really a camera bug.
 
On a local subnet (e.g. 192.168.254.x), packets are transmitted using MAC addresses, not IP addresses. 
 
When the router first receives a packet for an IP address on its subnet that it doesn't recognize, it sends out an ARP request, asking who owns the IP address that the packet is destined for.  The device that owns the address responds with it's MAC address. The router makes an association between the IP address and the MAC address, and stores that information in its ARP cache.  After that, any time it receives a packet for that IP address, it just sends it out to the corresponding MAC address.
 
When you change the address of the camera from static to DHCP, it's possible that the router ends up with a stale entry in the ARP cache for the old address, and it then has both IP addresses there, maping them to the same MAC address. 

 
 
I may have discovered why the camera was responding to both static and DHCP address even though the static address didn't show u pin the device list in the router andwhen I switched from one to another.
 
I had accidentally set both IP addresses to the same DNS name. the router keeps a DNS table and both static and DHCP addresses were associated with the same name.
 
Mike.

 

[NetworkGuy]

If you access the camera from Ethernet, the DHCP address might be from the wireless card of the camera responding too, meaning that you may be seeing both a wired entry as well as a wireless entry. Or at least that's what I thought could be happening.

 

[mikefamig]

This camera has been the worst IP device that I have ever worked with. 
 
Today I decided to experiment with the wifi to see how good it's range is. First of all I can't get it to stream data well at any range when connected with the ethernet cable disconnected.
 
Then there is the fact that it seems impossible to turn off the wifi radio in the camera or at least it is impossible to convince the router that it is turned off. There is a check box labeled "enable" for the wifi. I un-check it and the router still advertises the wifi IP address as active and I can still connect to it. I'm pretty sure that I'm actually communicating with the camera through the ethernet cable but it works using both the wifi and the wired address.
 
Both wired and wireless IP addresses are now assigned by DHCP. I have manually associated the MAC for the wifi NIC with the wireless IP address and the MAC for the wired NIC with the wired IP. I am doing all of my tests inside the LAN. 
 
I've come to the conclusion that the firmware in the camera is not communicating well with the firmware in the router. I was hoping that the Hikvision would be an upgrade from the cheapo Foscam but so far it is disappointing. The image is much higher resolution but the firmware is costing me too much time. I can use the cam but I'd really like to find a camera that turns wifi on and off when I tell it to and can be set to a static IP and have the router recognize it.
 
Mike.

 

[mikefamig]

Can anyone tell me if I caused a problem by manually associating the camera's wifi and wired NIC's to thier respective IP addresses? Should I delete those entries from the DHCP associations in the router?
 
Mike.

 

[pete_c]

Yup.
 
Yup.

 

[mikefamig]

Yup.
 
Yup.

and Yup again.
 
Last night I changed the camera to a static IP address on the wired NIC and disable wifi.
Then I deleted the manual dhcp assignments in the router for the wired and wireless IP addresses.
Then I cleared the dhcp assignments list in the router.
then scan for devices and the router found the camera correctly at the static address that I had set it to.
 
I'm learning the hard way, trial and error.
 
Mike.

 

[pete_c]

All routers are similar in function except that they have different GUI's.
 
The Frontier box you are using is a combination.
 
This is the same sort of style of box you get today from any ISP with any type of connection to the internet (cable, fiber, DSL).
 
1 - modem - which is a router with a configuration you cannot see coming from the ISP *
=====================================================================
2 - router - which is user defined and you can configure it.
3 - switch - user defined and typically unmanaged.
4 - wireless access point - these days with two radios
 
* Historically you cannot change or see the configuration on the WAN side of the ISP modem.  That said though the software running on the modem is all open source and basic linux and typical router stuff except specific to the ISP.
This side has your speed tiers and does some basic filtering but nothing else.
 
You lease this box from your Frontier ISP. 
 
Historically with Comcast always purchased my modem and never leased anything they had to offer relating to a combination (here a la carte my firewall (PFSense), managed switches and WAP's).  Before Comcast it was AT&T DSL.
 
Used a DSL modem with first internet access in the 1990's.
 
Historically with Verizon FIOS used their combo for my TV's (IP connected) and then bridged one network port to a firewall and never utilized the built in AP - (always disabled).   Before FIOS it was Verizon DSL.

 

[mikefamig]

I may need to learn to bridge one of my ports to a decent router of my own. I never heard of bridging just one port though, don't you have to turn off everything on the ISP's router with the exception of the WAN connection?
 
Mike.

 

[pete_c]

I have been reading about your combo box and have seen threads relating to bridging the modem.  You can also just put one port / one IP in a DMZ rather than bridging it if you cannot bridge it.
 
That and also read that relating to Frontier you cannot purchase a substitute modem a la carte that will work with Frontier which is mickey mouse meaning that you cannot purchase your modem and have to lease their stuff; they do not give you an option for this.
 
It was the same for Verizon FIOS though. 
 
What I did for the Verizon combo FIOS box is:
 
1 - used their network for TV's / DVR stuff only.
2 - telephone - Verizon did do well with this part of FIOS - they wired the new telephone stuff to the old copper and the old copper went to a patch panel inside of the media closet which went out to the old copper telephone wall plates.
3 - disabled WAP and disconnected Antennas - put it all inside of a media can.
3 - bridged one network port to my own firewall and AP
 
I dropped Frontier and went back to Comcast when they took over for Verizon after a two week outage and taking it to the State AG office and filing an official complaint and getting it fixed by Frontier.
 
The above historically had Comcast, DTV and or Verizon for television there and was able to switch over to Comcast for internet.  Personally hope that Frontier goes away.  (wishing this).

 

[JonW]

mikefamig - If your Frontier service is FIOS, then you can actually ask them to change your internet service to the ethernet jack in your ONT (optical network terminal).  The ethernet jack on the ONT then allows you to use a router of your choice (I use a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter with them).  If you need to still have their cable boxes connecting to internet or streaming content, then you can just plug a LAN port of their router into your switch or router and it will bridge it for you.  You can still use their router for WiFi, ethernet switch and coax to cable boxes - you just don't use their WAN port when you have your own router.  

 

[mikefamig]

mikefamig - If your Frontier service is FIOS, then you can actually ask them to change your internet service to the ethernet jack in your ONT (optical network terminal).  The ethernet jack on the ONT then allows you to use a router of your choice (I use a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter with them).  If you need to still have their cable boxes connecting to internet or streaming content, then you can just plug a LAN port of their router into your switch or router and it will bridge it for you.  You can still use their router for WiFi, ethernet switch and coax to cable boxes - you just don't use their WAN port when you have your own router.  

No not Fios. It is the old AT&T U-Verse IPTV. I think that it is a form of DSL.

 

[JonW]

No not Fios. It is the old AT&T U-Verse IPTV. I think that it is a form of DSL.

Bummer, but you can still run their unit in bridge mode and use your own router behind it.

 

[mikefamig]

Bummer, but you can still run their unit in bridge mode and use your own router behind it.

Yeah I expect that I will do that eventually.

 

[mikefamig]

After successfully setting the camera to a static IP address and having the router see it and report it correctly in it's device list I decided to turn on the wifi radio in the camera. The wifi NIC is set to DHCP and the router successfully connected to it and displayed it in it's device list as wireless as expected. The interesting thing and unexpected to me is that the router lists the wifi NIC  at the static address that I gave to the wired NIC and the wired NIC is no longer in the list.
 
I'm guessing that the camera automatically turned off the wired NIC when I enabled the wifi NIC. What surprises me is that the router moved the static IP assigned to the wired NIC over to the wireless NIC.
 
Is this normal ?


EDIT

I should have mentioned that in addition to the wifi NIC being listed in the router with the wired IP address it also is listed as static. The wifi NIC in the camera is set to DHCP.