VLan for remote cameras

[reolink_333507142684871]

I have 3 reolink cameras connected direct to a reolink NVR and 5 cameras connected to another switch that connect back to the NVR across the LAN. The cameras connected direct to the NVR have always worked better, picture comes up quicker, work better in the app etc. One camera on the remote switch would always take 5 goes of pushing the play button to appear. After running it like that for over a year I had the idea to trunk the 5 cameras back to the NVR via a VLan. This way the NVR thinks the camera are plugged into one of the camera ports. Now everything runs brilliantly, all cameras appear as part of the NVR, they all come up first go, config/management of the cameras is better etc. My question, does reolink have some sort of existing functionality to replicate this? Eg some way to set a VLan on the camera and then some way to set a camera VLan on the LAN port of the NVR? The advantage of being able to do it in the reolink side is you wouldn't need managed switches and in my case I could have 1 less device in the network.

For anyone asking why I don't run the remote switch back to a camera port, it's because the remote switch has non reolink devices on it and I only have 1 underground cable running to the remote switch.

[Lafunamor]

@reolink_333507142684871 chances are that there is a lot of issues when using this feature. VLAN support on consumer network equipment is very inconsistent. some just ignore it, some devices strip the info... I'd like to see the feature available to us, but I assume for support this would be a tricky one.

[joseph_1979]

@reolink_333507142684871 Nope. Cameras and NVR should be on the same subnet.

[reolink_333507142684871]

@joseph_1979 the idea wasn't to put the cameras and NVR on a different subnet, the idea is to make the NVR think the cameras are attached to a camera port and not coming in the LAN port.

[reolink_333507142684871]

@lafunamor I've found everything today supports VLans. I bought a USB powered $5 switch for one application and it passed VLans.

[KimchiGUN]

This shouldn't be happening at all. Regardless of the VLAN. There is a lag in your network some where. Its good network practice to have your cams segregated on their own vlan. Makes me wonder if IGMP Snooping may solve this or hinder this? Sometimes it puts a slight lag on the traffic sometimes it doesnt. May want to turn down RTSP to STP (if you think spanning tree is only for loops, then go back to school )... Something is making it lag.

I have Cams and NVR reaching across a SD WAN or even a S2S VPN and it runs like a top. No lag. Again, segregated NVR and CAMs on their own vlan is better practice.

[reolink_333507142684871]

@kimchigun the network is fine besides the cameras that were on the LAN side of the NVR. Once I moved them to the camera ports they ran fine over the same cables, same switches etc. Are your remote cameras connecting to the NVR via the LAN port of the NVR or camera port?

[KimchiGUN]

@reolink_333507142684871

All my cams are connected remotely across the LAN and S2S VPN. I do not have any cams connected directly to the NVR.

Across the LAN port on the NVR.

[reolink_333507142684871]

@kimchigun I'm not sure what the mechanism reolink uses for discovering cameras that are on the LAN side. Possibly the NVR needs to talk to the cloud to get the camera local IP, or possibly it sends out broadcasts who knows. You'd think it would do that once and then know the cameras IP but seems not. You should try doing it the way I've done it, it works so much better having the cams on the camera side of the NVR. Even just from a config point of view in the app.

[Westgate]

I recently discovered a new downstream switch (Netgear GS308P) was not getting along with any of the 3 reolink cameras. This caused a lot of what you're describing from a UE stand point. One thing to check to investigate if there may be a switch incompatibility is full time recording. If you playback where you expect full time recording and you notice a very consistent pattern of small dead spots (black / blank / no recorded footage), then you may have a switch that just doesn't play well. I did so much testing on this and actually can't really say it was an incompatibility with the cameras (as it could have also not been playing well with the NVR). Just try to sub out the switch and see what happens. Might save you some time and guess work.

[reolink_333507142684871]

@westgate it's possible, I have the NVR connected to a Netgear switch GS728 from memory and then that goes off to a tp link TL-SG1210P that has the cameras connected. I actually added another device, a mikrotik RB791 in the middle to add the VLan tag. Since then it's been 100% rock solid with all the same switches and cables, so not sure what the issue was. I think it just works better with cams on the camera side of the NVR.