Posts made by Chopstix

I am not aware of a Reolink branded extender although I also call my kids by the wrong names sometimes. I am wondering if the firmware is simply future proofed for an extender that is in development.

@boomish_893913578897601 I too noticed that ALL my iOS clients stopped getting notifications sometime in the past week. The solution was to delete the clients and reinstall. In my case, I have all my cameras connected to a Home Hub Pro so the app reinstall was easy... just connect to the HHP and back in business. If you don't have a HH/NVR, you'll have to add each camera back to the app. As for cellular, when the notifications stopped it stopped on both Wi-Fi and cellular but after the reinstall, it started working on both again. If you can access the camera via the app while on cellular then there should not be anything preventing notifications over cellular. At least not that I am aware of.

Yes, understand now what you mean by it not being a native iPad app... apps camera preview screen does indeed stay on portrait. We have multiple cameras and my wife uses the grid view feature which always follows the orientation of the her tablet so it has never been an issue for her. If you only have the doorbell, make sure in the app settings to check the box "Auto Live View". It will launch the last used camera (in your case, the doorbell) automatically in whatever orientation your tablet is in. Hang in there!

@joseph_1979 I returned both a Duo 3 and Duo 3V for this exact reason. I ended up using Duo 2's for front and rear overwatch.

Is the bar wider than the distance between two of the 3 camera mounting holes? if not, orient the camera mount so that one hole is either at 12 or 6 o'clock. Use a screw to fasten the mount directly to the bar through that hole.

The other two holes will now be on each side of the bar. Use a flexible pipe strap (or flat stock) across the back of the pipe to secure the other two holes.

We use the iOS client from the App Store. My wife has it on her iPad Pro without issue. Yes, the app is default to portrait mode as is the iPad's default orientation. You must rotate to landscape for full screen. We have never had an issue with video quality (we set ours to HIGH) even over cellular.

Change is often times difficult with software especially if you have developed a routine. We came from Vivint so we find the Reolink app refreshing even with its quirks. I encourage you to give it a chance. Cheers.

The tracking works well. I am surprised that the lights/sound of the camera did not startle it. It must be used to the area.

Unfortunately, when I go to view the devices/cameras, I can find no setting on the mobile app to select a preferred band.

@user_829609175638167_829609175638167 Odd. My cameras allow me to switch networks as well as set a preferred band. If you factory reset the camera, can you then choose the 2.4G network during initial setup?

You said you swapped ports. Does the issue follow the same cameras? Have you factory reset your DVR as well?

Is the Amcrest connected via an external PoE switch? You can not use 3rd party cameras on the built-in switch unless the RLN36 supports the feature of disabling the internal private network 172.16.25.x and bridging the internal switch to the external LAN.

Not sure if the Duo Wi-Fi has this option (mine are PoE) but my other WiFi cameras have a "Wi-Fi Band Preference" setting to switch between 2.5/5. It's under Settings-->Wi-Fi in the Reolink mobile app. Again, not sure if the Duo Wi-Fi has that option.

@reolink-oskar a tazer. Only partially joking. I do not know how it is in other countries, but in the US, theft of delivery packages from one's porch is a common problem.

@joseph_1979 It's been 15+ years since I've dealt with the programming side of unicast/broadcast/multicast, but if memory serves, with direct broadcast you must specify the destination subnet. So in my example, a host on 172.20.1.x broadcasting to 172.20.1.255 will go no further than the local subnet even if broadcast forwarding in enabled on the switch. In order to reach the cameras on 172.18.250.x, the client must broadcast to 172.18.250.255 -OR- to 172.255.255.255.

Ultimately as long as the client finds the cameras in other subnets without UID, it doesn't really matter what the broadcast address is. The actual address is more for my own curiosity. I'll dust off Wireshark after the holidays and have a peek.

Thanks for the chat!
Cheers,
Joe

@joseph_1979 I did speak with Oskar a couple of weeks ago, but please do speak with him as well. I have been a network and system engineer since the days of Windows 3.1 and LANtastic... Windows server technologies and Cisco products in particular. Also a few years of SQL database and web development sprinkled in. I would be glad to help out where I can with more than 1 post every 24 hrs.



Interesting that Reolink chose to utilize direct broadcast... How does the app know what direct address to broadcast to? What I mean is, assume the cameras are on 192.168.10.x and the Reolink client is on 192.168.20.x and let's also assume there is no Internet access so UID is not in play here. How does the client know to net-direct broadcast to 192.168.10.255? Even with the possibility that it is based on the client IP address, a broadcast to 192.168.255.255 or even 192.255.255.255 would only work if the both the cameras and client are on the same class private network.



That is actually what I need to test... I have some sandbox cameras on 172.18.250.x and the Reolink client on 172.20.1.x with Internet access and UID. I need to disable Internet and enable direct broadcast forwarding on the switch and see if the client can connect to the cameras. I suspect that it will based on what we have been discussing, only now curious on what address it will use... 172.255.255.255 perhaps? It has been well over a decade since I have used Wireshark but I may need to dust off the cobwebs and fire it up.

@joseph_1979 that would explain then (from previous conversation) that the client and cameras need to to be on the same subnet if UID is turned off or if there is no Internet access. It also explains why in my sandbox, the cameras are accessible from different VLANs when UID is turned on. With that, I should be able to conclude that turning UID off will necessitate enabling VLAN broadcast traffic. I'll test it to confirm, but I believe based on your information, that will be the case. Thanks!

Sounds like you are not using a Reolink Home Hub Pro. This issue goes away with the HHP as the HHP's WiFi is a private network and the HHP does it's own NAT for access to it. The HHP also has dual Ethernet ports... a LAN port which is on the same private network as the WiFi and a WAN port for connectivity to YOUR network. With this, the LAN port can be connected to it's own switch or to a Layer-2 switch with defined VLANS. With this setup, no additional routing is necessary and you can block access to the Internet to require a VPN connection to your network for remote access.

When not using a HHP, camera isolation does work as I have sandboxed it for client's evaluation (this is actually how I found out about Reolink). I used their Layer-3 switch to handle the VLAN routing, not their firewall. The two test cameras which are wired in on their own VLAN can be access from the mobile client either via their company WiFi or remotely.

So this brings up something I have not tested... turning of UID to prevent remote access without having to VPN in. Because the cameras are on on a different subnet than the mobile client, I do not know if turning off UID will prevent the client from finding the cameras. I don't believe it should as the client should have the IP addresses of the cameras. If it does not, I would think the enabling broadcast forwarding to the subnet would fix that.

Anyhow, FWIW, camera isolation does work and there are a couple different approaches.

@user_892959385403573_892959385403573 On the PC client when it opens to multi-view, it will only display the feed if the camera preview is set to Low or Mid (camera dependent). For a camera that does not display, resetting the preview to either Low or Mid will resolve the issue. It did for me.

Also, switch to the max grid size to ensure all your camera are next to each other. At some point, I somehow got one of my six camera down on channel 14 and thought the PC client lost it it until I switched to max grid size. If that happens, you can drag it back to where it belongs,

@gogators93_419026618958065 You can connect Reolink cameras to the DVR via the LAN port, so yes, as long as you have a compatible WiFi camera, the LAN side (your mesh network) wiill register whatever compatible cameras are connected to it. I don't have any battery cameras so I can not help you with which ones have the best battery time. Not sure if it would void your warranty, but you might want to consider a model with removable batteries so you can swap the batteries in lieu of charging the camera directly.

There a few different camera deployment methods depending on the area of observation and what your needs are. The 4-corner method is very common but assumes a structure with 4 relatively flat sides (you can Google it). That method doesn't work well for my home so I went with a different approach (I don't recall the name of it) but I am setup like this...

I have a Duo 2 over looking the front of my home. I have it placed about 10 feet up in the middle and it gets me full overwatch of the front yard. As others have said, at the reaching edges of the FOV you will loose clarity as you zoom in however that is not my objective with this. I am not interested in grabbing license plate numbers or facial details from here. I simply want a complete picture of the home's frontage. For detail, I support this with a doorbell cam and an RLC-1240A on my porch pillar.

Rear of the home is setup similar. Duo 2 Floodlight high up on the eve of the 2nd floor for overwatch and an RLC-843A on the eve of my patio door. I have IR disabled on both and installed a 90-degree 20-watt IR illuminator that turns by backyard in to daylight without IR glare/reflection.

My garage door faces out from one of the sides so an RLC-1240A about 12-feet directly over the driveway gives me overwatch on that side. The 1240 FOV is just wide enough to slightly overlap the Duo 2's.

The 4th side I have a neighbor so to avoid capturing his property, I have an RLC-843A at one corner, twisted slightly to capture in a skewed corridor orientation.

I do have some blind spots which I plan to fill over time as I assess the best camera options for those areas. As for now, I have managed to accomplish my initial surveillance objectives:

1) 4-side overwatch
2) Detail at points of entry

Here is what I have learned about the cameras I use...

1) The doorbell fisheye is horrible, but it captures what I need.
2) Since the Duo uses image stitching, ambient lighting fluctuations and IR reflection (front yard) can cause the two sides to expose differently.
3) The RLC-843A has a narrower FOV but exceptional low-light performance (I have no need for the IR lights in a suburb setting).
4) The RLC-1240A has an ideal FOV (opinion) but needs IR assistance.
5) The internal small flood lights are much brighter in the 843 vs the 1240 (due to zoom on the 843) so you have to make a compromise based on your needs--this was the toughest for me.
6) When the small floods lights turn on, you loose depth of field. Only the flooded area will be visible. They are great for getting someone's attention, but if triggered from the edge of the FOV, you will likely loose the subject when the light comes on.

It is because the doorbell camera lacks robust WDR/HDR settings. I too came from Vivint and found this disappointing shock. Not too much you can about it at the moment other than adjust what's there. I managed to get mine a little bit brighter at the sacrifice of washing out the sky.