# Problem with ip camera connecting over access point



## twilyth (Sep 30, 2016)

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.


----------



## Sasqui (Sep 30, 2016)

What are the models of the router and the 2 APs?


----------



## eidairaman1 (Sep 30, 2016)

Goes dark? You mean the screen on the camera?


----------



## FR@NK (Sep 30, 2016)

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.


----------



## twilyth (Sep 30, 2016)

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.


----------



## twilyth (Sep 30, 2016)

Sasqui said:


> What are the models of the router and the 2 APs?


router is TPlink TL-R860
both ap's are Trendnet TEW650AP


eidairaman1 said:


> Goes dark? You mean the screen on the camera?


Meaning that they don't show up on the router's dhcp client list


----------



## Kursah (Oct 1, 2016)

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.


----------



## twilyth (Oct 1, 2016)

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.


----------



## twilyth (Oct 1, 2016)

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.


----------



## dorsetknob (Oct 1, 2016)

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"


----------



## twilyth (Oct 1, 2016)

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.


----------



## dorsetknob (Oct 1, 2016)

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


----------



## twilyth (Oct 1, 2016)

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?


----------



## dorsetknob (Oct 1, 2016)

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)


----------



## Kursah (Oct 1, 2016)

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 )
> ...



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?


----------



## dorsetknob (Oct 1, 2016)

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 )


----------



## twilyth (Oct 1, 2016)

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


----------



## twilyth (Oct 1, 2016)

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 )


It works fine when there's a cable connection not sure why the firewall would discriminate for a wireless connection.


----------



## dorsetknob (Oct 1, 2016)

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


----------



## twilyth (Oct 1, 2016)

Oh, here are the network settings for the camera


----------



## dorsetknob (Oct 1, 2016)

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


----------



## twilyth (Oct 1, 2016)

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.


----------



## dorsetknob (Oct 1, 2016)

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


----------



## twilyth (Oct 1, 2016)

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.


----------



## dorsetknob (Oct 1, 2016)

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


----------



## dorsetknob (Oct 1, 2016)

SSID: the SSID of all found wireless access points will be shown here. Some
wireless access point may hide their SSID; in this case, you have to identify
them by their MAC address

in this Case you must use the AP mac address and not the IP Camera Mac address and also the AP wireless channel and the cam must use same channel


----------



## twilyth (Oct 1, 2016)

right I used the AP's mac.  The channel number is only used for adhoc setups though not for infrastructure.  If you look carefully, channel is grayed out.  It's not really obvious, but trust me, you can't change it when you select "infra"


----------



## FR@NK (Oct 1, 2016)

I had just as much trouble getting my wireless IP cameras working :/

If you havent given up yet, first start with the basics and just have one access point connected will all security disabled and see if you can get the camera connected.
If it connects then see if you can have your router reserve an IP address for the camera so the DCHP will always assign it the same IP address. If you cant then setup a static IP address for the camera. Next reboot everything on your network and see if the camera reconnects and is working. Then re enable wifi security and configure the camera and confirm that the camera reconnects and works after rebooting everything on the network. If it works then add your 2nd access point to the mix and verify the camera is works.


----------



## remixedcat (Oct 1, 2016)

is that channel really crowded? 

Also do you use VLANs???


----------



## twilyth (Oct 1, 2016)

FR@NK said:


> I had just as much trouble getting my wireless IP cameras working :/
> 
> If you havent given up yet, first start with the basics and just have one access point connected will all security disabled and see if you can get the camera connected.
> If it connects then see if you can have your router reserve an IP address for the camera so the DCHP will always assign it the same IP address. If you cant then setup a static IP address for the camera. Next reboot everything on your network and see if the camera reconnects and is working. Then re enable wifi security and configure the camera and confirm that the camera reconnects and works after rebooting everything on the network. If it works then add your 2nd access point to the mix and verify the camera is works.


That was a great idea.  It works fine with no security and it worked at first when I added security but now no.  So I just have to figure what the issue with the security protocols is.  Thanks.


remixedcat said:


> is that channel really crowded?
> 
> Also do you use VLANs???



I looked up vlan - 





> A virtual LAN (*VLAN*) is any broadcast domain that is partitioned and isolated in a computer network at the data link layer (OSI layer 2). LAN is an abbreviation for local area network. To subdivide a network into virtual LANs, one configures network equipment.


If that's English, then no, I don't think I use one of them thar thingamajigs.


----------



## twilyth (Oct 1, 2016)

well, I got it to work and it is now transmitting off of one of the APs.  But I'm not completely sure how I did it.  There was the sacrifice of some chicken mcnuggets involved and a dagger in a chalice of wine.  Maybe that had something to do with it.

Seriously though, I think that either the ssid is case sensitive or it requires me to select the radio dot of one of the AP's even though I'm entering the SSID or . . . who TF knows.

But it works and I can access it from the internet as well so all is well, for now.  Thanks every one.


----------



## Kursah (Oct 1, 2016)

SSIDs are absolutely case sensitive. Glad you sorted your issue out!


----------



## Sasqui (Oct 3, 2016)

twilyth said:


> router is TPlink TL-R860
> both ap's are Trendnet TEW650AP



I looked up the Trendnet and it's got a bridge/AP mode setting.  So, I'm guessing that when in AP mode, you've got NAT (Network Address Translation) working. The TPlink also likely has NAT.  

You can't have NAT(TPLink) -> NAT(Trendnet) and access the camera from outside your LAN.

To test if this is the case, put your TPlink in bridge mode and try it out.

...I ran into a similar problem with my NAS


----------



## twilyth (Oct 3, 2016)

With port forwarding it seems to work fine.


----------

