There are countless reasons a camera may not be discovered. In this article, we'll try to cover the common situations, how to troubleshoot them, and resolve them.
Discovery Issues
Camera in a Different Network
Overview
There may be a camera network that the Spot Appliance isn't connected to or a camera that is in a different building, network, location, or across the internet.
Verifying and Resolving
If you know the IP address of the camera and find the IP addresses of the Spot Appliance, you can compare them to see if they are in the same network.
The best way to resolve the cameras and appliance being in different networks, if possible, is to plug the appliance into the camera network or add a VLAN to the appliance. The appliance can then discover the cameras and pull the streams directly from the camera network (rather than putting all that load on a router or firewall).
The other way is as long as the cameras are routable from the appliance, they can be manually added by clicking the Add a device button on the Cameras configuration page > Enter the necessary information (IP address, credentials, RTSP path) > Click Authenticate.
Note: Connecting the appliance to the camera network is the preferred and best way to resolve this.
Switch Port Isolation
Overview
Port isolation is a function some switches have which prevents devices from communicating with each other. Some switches have port isolation turned on by default. If the Spot appliance and the cameras are connected to the same switch, and the appliance can't ping the cameras or see them, this may be the case.
Verifying and Resolving
The easiest way to verify is by checking the switch's configuration or looking it up on the internet to see if the switch has port isolation turned on by default. Managed switches should have an option to disable it, unmanaged switches will need some other action. If it isn't possible to check if the switch has port isolation turned on due to it being an unmanaged switch, physically looking at the ports on the switch may indicate if it has it or not. Specifically, if there are designated uplink ports on the switch, port isolation may be on by default. Moving the appliance to an uplink port or to an upstream device connected through the uplink port will allow the appliance to communicate with the cameras.
Camera Authentication/Activation Issues
RTSP Disabled
Overview
Some camera brands have RTSP disabled by default.
Verifying and Resolving
The only way to verify if this is an issue and resolve it is to access the camera's configuration page and check. ACTi is one brand that does is known to do this.
Camera Down/Disconnected
Physical Network Change
Overview
Could be a network cable that comes unplugged, a switch that gets turned off, or a new switch gets added.
Verifying and Resolving
As this is a physical change, it may be the only way to verify is to physically trace cables and see if everything is connected and turned on. Assuming the appliance is still connected to the Dashboard and is showing as online, start at the camera by verifying it's turned on and connected to the switch. Next, verify the network connections going from there to the Appliance (could be through multiple switches or through the same switch). This may be time-consuming depending on the complexity and size of the network.
If a new switch is introduced and that caused the disconnects, it could be Switch port isolation or a VLAN issue.
Logistical Network Change
Overview
If a switch port had a VLAN configuration changed.
Verifying and Resolving
Check the switch ports for any recent changes. If there are some cameras online and some offline, compare the switch port configs between the online and offline camera connections to see if anything is different.
Network Cable/Port Failing
Overview
Occasionally, a network cable will go bad, which can cause the camera to go completely offline, or to intermittently go on and off. This is fairly straightforward to troubleshoot.
Verifying and Resolving
To verify this is the case, there are a few ways that may be preferred depending on the network setup:
- Take the problem camera and swap it with a known working camera to see if it comes online. If the problem camera comes online with the new connection, and the known working camera has issues when connected to the problem camera's original connection, the switch port and cable are the suspects. If the issue follows the problem camera, the camera may have gone bad.
- Take the affected camera to the switch and connect it with a known working cable. If possible, try to use the same switch port the camera was originally connected to. This allows for the port and cable to be tested separately for further verification of it being a cable or port issue.
- If the camera comes online and works without issue, the cable is the main suspect, and swapping it out would be the fix.
- If the camera is still offline or intermittently offline with the new cable, try connecting the camera to a different known working switch port. If it comes online ok, this points to a port issue.
Failing Camera Hardware
Overview
As cameras get older, just as with any hardware, they start to fail and have issues.
Verifying and Resolving
Verifying can be difficult but there are some indicators that can help. If both port and cable have been verified as being good, as listed in the previous section, yet the camera still has issues, this is one indicator that it is an issue with the camera. To resolve a failing camera, the camera just needs to be replaced.
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