VLan for remote cameras

MikeKulls

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.

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.