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Problem with ip camera connecting over access point

twilyth

twilyth

Joined
Oct 6, 2014
Messages
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System Name octo1
Processor dual Xeon 2687W ES
Motherboard Supermicro
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Video Card(s) 2 HD7950
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Case Rosewill Thor
I might not be using the right terminology so let me explain the set up.

I have a hard wired 8 port router with no wireless functionality. Why? Because at the time I couldn't find a wireless router with 8 ports. So to solve the wireless issue I got 2 access point boxes. They plug into a port on the router and then I configure them to be WPA2-PSK and create a password.

Oh and the boxs are configed to be 802.11 b/g/n so there shouldn't be any protocol issues. One is on channel 6 the other on channel 11. I have several (4) devices that currently connect to these boxes with no issues. Two android devices, a laptop and an old am/fm internet radio.

The IP camera works fine when I connect it directly to the router. I even have it port forwarded so that I can access it over the wan. But when I disconnect the cable, it goes dark. I can't even see it in the device list of the router which is odd since I can see the other wireless devices.

Now bear in mind that this is an old IP camera that I had sitting in a box for years. It's probably at least 5 years old. I just never got around to setting it up. And granted, it was probably never designed for access points although in the setup section it says it can handle both infrastructure connections and adhoc.

So I guess my question is what is the difference between a normal wireless router and an access point that could be causing this issue and what can I do to correct it?

Let me know if you need more info and thanks for any assistance.
 
What are the models of the router and the 2 APs?
 
Goes dark? You mean the screen on the camera?
 
The camera will have two different mac address, one for the hardline ethernet port and another address for the wireless. This means a router will assign a different IP address to each interface.

If you are connected to the camera over ethernet and then switch to wireless, you will need to connected to the different IP address that is assigned to the wireless.
 
I'll get back with the model numbers but if you're thinking of looking up the manuals, they're pretty useless.

@FR@NK - yes, that was one of the things I read online and I think in one of the manuals somewhere. And in fact I had assigned a static IP to the camera when it was hook up via cable. The problem with the AP's though is that the router doesn't register things attached to them right away. For example, even when my cell phone is using the AP to access the internet after the router has been rebooted, it won't register it for quite a while.

I'm on a different rig right now but I left the camera plugged to power but unplugged from ethernet so I'm going to go log into the router and see if it's registered yet. And no, it's not appearing and only one AP is listed so far. :(

I think I'm just going to break down and get an 8 port wireless router. They're available now so I don't really have an excuse. I just hate generating even more electronic waste than I already do. Recycling efforts around here leave a lot to be desired and I found a place I can pay to recycle stuff, which I don't really mind doing but for all I know it could be a scam and the crap ends up in a landfill anyway.
 
Some AP's will show you what clients are connected to them in their management or web GUI interface.

Why not just get a switch if you need more network ports? Then it doesn't matter how many ports your router has... you can get an 8 or 16-port Layer-2 switch for pretty cheap. Run one wire from a LAN port on the router to a port on the switch, and then connect other devices to the switch and be done with it. :)

Those AP's are questionable, but should get the job done regardless...I'd ditch them and get an Ubiquity AC Lite or Pro but that's besides the point here. Those AP's you bought should still do what you need by providing wireless network, if you have your them setup correctly (not hard to do). But if you have other devices connect just fine and its just the camera, there's no saying that wasting more money on another wireless router will fix anything here.

What's the model of the IP Camera?

You make a comment in your OP that your camera wasn't designed for access points...but all a wireless router is is a router with a 4-8 port switch (your LAN ports) and a wireless access point built in. So I really doubt buying another wireless router will fix the issue here...but it could...I just really doubt it. The comment doesn't make a lot of sense to me...so maybe we can help you reconfigure your network or verify if you're misconfiguring something. Access Points are just an extension of your network, and add wireless functionality, and when setup in basic mode should simply forward traffic to and from. Not all that different from what the wireless aspect of a home-grade router does or even a SonicWall TZxxxW does.

If you download and run IP Scanner 2.4 are you able to find it by IP/MAC address on your network scan? If you're setting it static for LAN and WiFi are you using the same IP address for both? If so have you tried a different IP address? As stated earlier, each interface will have separate MAC addresses.

Can you set the wireless IP to DHCP and scan again if you don't see it set static, then access it through the webGUI and set static again if needed? Or is your router capable of setting static DHCP leases by MAC address? That might be another good and simple option.
 
I had a reason for not using a switch. I had a problem many years ago with devices being recognized hanging off of the switch. It was probably something I did wrong but whatever. Another reason is that my wiring all radiates out from the location of the modem, naturally. So in theory I could have a normal router and then an 8 port switch but if I'm going to the wireless router route, I may as well get the 8 port version. I have switches at the other locations in the house including a couple of cascaded switches.

The problem with the current setup is that the AP's don't report their devices to the router or if they do the router doesn't recognize them until some unspecified event occurs and I have no idea what that event is. For example, I rebooted the router hours ago and my cell phone has been accessing the lan during that time but it's still not registered on the dhcp client list. That would never happen with a wireless router.

Oh, and the AP software is useless. All it does is set up the AP it does nothing for scanning the connections. Going to go dl the program you linked now.
 
OK ran the scan and a few more things popped up like my weather station and printer but mostly the same devices as reported by the dhcp client list - no ip camera but the laptop which would be on the same AP is there so that's a good/bad sign.
 
TRY
Tie /assign fixed IP by Mac address in Router config
Assign one IP to wired (Mac Address )
Assign next IP to wireless (By Mac Address )

eg
IP 192.168.0.109 MAC 14:74:11:F3:02:1D "Wired Cam"
IP 192.168.0.110 MAC F0:08:F1:7E:6C:BF "wireless cam"
 
Last edited:
but doesn't the router first have to assign an ip? That's sort of my problem at the moment. When the router assigned an ip to the cable when it was wired, making it static was no problem. But if it's going to assign another ip when wireless, then it was necessary for me to go back to dhcp assignment, right? That's where I am now. But the router isn't assigning it an address. Now why that is is the big question. Is it because the camera isn't communicating with the router? Did I not configure it properly? IDK

I set it up as infrastructure, wpa2-psk, AES and gave it the correct id and pw. So if it's not connecting I don't know what else to do.
 
You should be able to reserve ip address's by assigning them by mac somewhere in your router Address pool
They then get the same ip address each time
 
Right, but if it's not assigning an address by dhcp, trying to force by setting a static address via mac isn't going to work, is it? Why would it? Either the router and camera are communicating via the AP or they aren't, right?
 
Your not forcing an IP
your Reserving one in the Address Pool
Its so you know what IP address to point your Browser at
to "find the camera" if Camera is not connecting to WAP/Router then it Cannot Get an IP either Static or Dynamicly

Edit
You Do have Enough IP Addressess available in your Router to cover all your devices both wired and wireless
ie
Address pool 192.0.100 to 192.168.0.120 = 20 Devices total connected ( max)
 
Last edited:
dorsetknob said:
TRY
Tie /assign fixed IP by Mac address in Router config
Assign one IP to wired (Mac Address )
Assign next IP to wireless (By Mac Address )

eg
IP 192.168.0.109 MAC 14:74:11:F3:02:1D "Wired Cam"
IP 192.168.0.110 MAC F0:08:F1:7E:6C:BF "wireless cam"
Click to expand...

Do this. If your router is the DHCP server then a connecting device must send the request to it...WiFi or cable.

As I asked.before...what is the model of your IP camera?

It might be the issue here...does it support firmware upgrades?

Even if your APs suck all they're doing is forwarding packets between devices and routers.

MAC addresses are on layer 2, IP addresses are on layer 3 so the router might see the device but might have an issue assigning DHCP but a static IP by MAC might be a good solution. Its at least worth trying.

You could also run Wireshark and see what happens with the communication between your router and camera. Could be several issues at play here. Frankly a wire is always best for a camera anyways...maybe its worth the hassle to do a run where you wanna mount the camera?
 
Have you tried going off line and turning off your firewall TO TEST
its possible your being blocked by your firewall ( stranger things have happened )
 
OK, I tried to bind the mac address to the ip address of 192.168.1.115 and it say that the mac address is invalid. I copied and pasted it from ipscan so I don't know what the problem is.

The model of the camera is an edimax IC-7000PT(n)V2
 
dorsetknob said:
Have you tried going off line and turning off your firewall TO TEST
its possible your being blocked by your firewall ( stranger things have happened )
Click to expand...
It works fine when there's a cable connection not sure why the firewall would discriminate for a wireless connection.
 
I have ( 4 ) IP cams all have Static address's reserved by Mac
in my DHCP Clients List it only shows 1 cam at the moment ( only viewing 1 ip cam in Firefox )
if i open the other 3 cams in individual firefox tabs to view cams then refresh DHCP Clients List all cams show
 
Oh, here are the network settings for the camera

T3ipfW1.jpg
 
have you got upnp enabled ?
Supports UPnP, Windows XP (and above) will discover this IP camera in network neighbor
automatically
Do yo get the wireless lan light lighting up is it slow flashing fast flashing Steady light
 
no but I just enabled and rebooted the camera. the wlan light came on like before but ipscan is still showing 192.168.1.115 as a dead link and no other links for edimax.

I think we may be beating a dead horse here.
 
in pic above you seem to have put your mac Address where the wireless SSID Should BE
Double check your Router SSID and ensure Cam has SAME SSID
 
manual says I can use either the ssid of the access point or the mac address. I tried the ssid when that didn't work I used the mac address. The router is wired-only router so the ssid will be of the AP.
 
Router / AP SSID and Camera SSID must be the Same
Use the Router/AP SSID or other Wireless Devices will have to be changed to match same SSID
 
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