Trouble connecting POE camera, possible IP issue?

[gonegreynow]

Morning all,
I recently took the plunge and bought my first security camera. It’s a Reolink POE.
The hardware installation went OK.
The camera is powered through my Netgear switch.
Initially, all went well. I haven’t yet purchased an NVR and currently review the footage (stored on SD card in the camera) by connecting an old laptop to the same switch. This worksi when connected to my main home network.
In advance of getting a second camera, I plan to isolate the security system from my main home network (and I don’t plan to access the footage when I’m not at home).
My initial though was to use the guest network on my router. But that doesn’t work because the laptop won’t talk to the camera.
So I thought I’d connect the switch to an old router (I have a TP link and a Plusnet router), and then connect all cameras and my laptop to the switch.
Logical, or so I thought, but I simply can’t get it to work.
The ‘old’ router seems to be allocating IP addresses to the laptop and camera OK, but the laptop can’t see the camera footage and I get constant “time out” messages when trying to connect to the Reolink.
I am at the limit of my knowledge. I suspect something simple but I cannot see what it is. I haven’t given the camera a static IP.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Thanks
PS if I connect the switch back to the main home router, everything is fine. I am stumped.

 

[R.C.Anderson]

It sounds like your old router has a DHCP server active (as your laptop is getting an IP when connected). How are you determining the IP address to try to connect to the camera with when connected to this router? Routers are different, but somewhere you should be able to see the DHCP allocations provided, does this show an IP address provided for the camera & is this the one you're using to connect (it will most likely be different to what you had when connecting to your main network)?

Have you rebooted the camera when connected to the new network? If it still thinks it's connected to the main network, it probably won't try to pick up a new IP address when you connect it to the new network.

 

[gonegreynow]

It sounds like your old router has a DHCP server active (as your laptop is getting an IP when connected). How are you determining the IP address to try to connect to the camera with when connected to this router? Routers are different, but somewhere you should be able to see the DHCP allocations provided, does this show an IP address provided for the camera & is this the one you're using to connect (it will most likely be different to what you had when connecting to your main network)?

Have you rebooted the camera when connected to the new network? If it still thinks it's connected to the main network, it probably won't try to pick up a new IP address when you connect it to the new network.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.
I have been on and off the three routers multiple times now. Both old routers have been factory reset more than once.
Every time i change routers, I power down the switch (connected by ethernet to both the camera (poe) and the laptop), so this has the effect of powering down the camera. The laptop is re-booted, too.
When I then log on to the one of the old routers as admin, I can see IP addresses allocated to both camera and laptop.
If I then “ping” the camera IP address from the laptop, I get a response.
But if I then try to log on to the camera in a browser or try to connect using the Reolink windows app (from the laptop), it’s either ‘can’t connect’ or time-out.
This has got to be something relatively simple, but I just can’t see it.
And if I were to plug the switch back into my main home network, I can log onto the camera and see live footage, within seconds of the switch re-booting.

 

[Steveocee]

Is your old laptop connected to your main WiFi? It’s a wild stab but sounds like you are connected to 2 networks with same IP range.

 

[Quartz]

So I thought I’d connect the switch to an old router (I have a TP link and a Plusnet router), and then connect all cameras and my laptop to the switch.

I concur with @R.C.Anderson that DHCP may be an issue. But I would turn it to your advantage by getting the old router to issue one of the other private IP address ranges. Your main router probably gives out IP addresses in the 192.168.x.x range so get the old router to use 172.16.x.x or 10.x.x.x address ranges. The external IP address of the old router will still be 192.168.something, and you should give that a DHCP reservation in your new router.

 

[Steveocee]

@gonegreynow you've said this is beginning to get beyond you. Where abouts in the world are you?

This is likely easily fixable by someone with the knowledge. Maybe a remote vid session could sort or possibly a clued up bod in person but are you near anyone?

 

[gonegreynow]

Is your old laptop connected to your main WiFi? It’s a wild stab but sounds like you are connected to 2 networks with same IP

Is your old laptop connected to your main WiFi? It’s a wild stab but sounds like you are connected to 2 networks with same IP range.

Thank you.
Until reading your question, I would have said that I was 100% sure that I’d disabled the wifi on the laptop and only connected by ethernet cable.
Now, I’m starting to wonder if this isn’t the case.
I’m going to have another look - either this evening or in the morning.

 

[gonegreynow]

I concur with @R.C.Anderson that DHCP may be an issue. But I would turn it to your advantage by getting the old router to issue one of the other private IP address ranges. Your main router probably gives out IP addresses in the 192.168.x.x range so get the old router to use 172.16.x.x or 10.x.x.x address ranges. The external IP address of the old router will still be 192.168.something, and you should give that a DHCP reservation in your new router.

Thanks.
I will try this.
In case I’ve confused things, when I use the ‘old’ routers, they’re not connected in any way to the main router.
I was effectively trying to set up a discrete network (no internet connection) comprising an old router, the Netgear switch, the laptop and one or more cameras.

 

[gonegreynow]

@gonegreynow you've said this is beginning to get beyond you. Where abouts in the world are you?

This is likely easily fixable by someone with the knowledge. Maybe a remote vid session could sort or possibly a clued up bod in person but are you near anyone?

Thanks. I’m in Gloucestershire.
I have a sneaky feeling that this is going to resolve itself and I’ve probably done something really silly.

 

[Steveocee]

Thanks. I’m in Gloucestershire.
I have a sneaky feeling that this is going to resolve itself and I’ve probably done something really silly.

OK - Bit too far to nip over and help then.

If you are connecting the camera to the switch to the old router and this router is not internet enabled, that might be your issue. Are you direct IP connecting or going via the app? The app reliies on Reolink servers acting as a connection broker - no internet - no broker.

However, if you want to isolate the cameras (good practise) then running them behind another router isn't an awful idea, the other router needs ot be a different IP range to the main network
BUT
Camera's connected to a router which uses your LAN for it's internet is not isolated, the old router can NAT traffic straight onto your LAN so whilst it feels the right thing to do, you're no safer so you might as well leave the cams on your main network.

I think the real answer would be to swap your main router so you can properly VLAN and do the job properly and bring more capabilities into your network.

 

[gonegreynow]

OK - Bit too far to nip over and help then.

If you are connecting the camera to the switch to the old router and this router is not internet enabled, that might be your issue. Are you direct IP connecting or going via the app? The app reliies on Reolink servers acting as a connection broker - no internet - no broker.

However, if you want to isolate the cameras (good practise) then running them behind another router isn't an awful idea, the other router needs ot be a different IP range to the main network
BUT
Camera's connected to a router which uses your LAN for it's internet is not isolated, the old router can NAT traffic straight onto your LAN so whilst it feels the right thing to do, you're no safer so you might as well leave the cams on your main network.

I think the real answer would be to swap your main router so you can properly VLAN and do the job properly and bring more capabilities into your network.

Thanks for such a helpful and detailed reply. Answering your points in order;

I’m usually using (trying to use) the Reolink windows app which resides on the laptop. Sadly, I had no idea that the app relies on Reolink servers. I’m normally quite good at reading things but I must have missed this somewhere along the way. This explains things, I think. Although the camera does continue to record to the micro SD card, irrespective of whether there is an internet connection.

I have tried connecting to the camera using a browser and it’s IP address, but no joy. I can, however, ping the IP from the laptop without a live internet connection.

Yes, I do want to isolate my cameras from the home network. Initially - several months ago - I started out with the idea of a VLAN (not really knowing what I was doing, but learning along the way) and purchased a managed switch. Only later did I realise that my router (a Fritzbox) doesn’t support VLANs. So I gave up on that and for several months I have been plugging and unplugging the switch into the main router, making sure that the cameras were never “live” on the network at the same time as my main PC (where all of my data is kept). No NAS drives or similar to worry about. This was my ‘feeble’ attempt at isolating things in a very long winded way!

Thanks, I realise that if I connect the laptop/cameras to an old router and then that router to the main router which runs my LAN, then it could see my home network.

What about if I connected the old router, via ethernet cable, onto the guest network on my main router (I can do this by specifying that LAN port 4 is guest only). Might that work?

Finally, do you have any knowledge of the Reolink NVR? I’ve been thinking about buying one but there is only a point in doing that if I can overcome this IP issue or unless the NVR sorts things.

Thanks again. Much appreciated.