Hard to reach camera, problem

nealk

One of my old Foscam R2s went offline. Restarts haven't helped, still not connecting. It's in a really hard to reach place, have to climb a ladder and then lean over some aquariums (if that goes bad the ER folks will have a good story to tell for years...)

If I do a factory reset, can I just then look for it with an IP search tool and find it on wifi without having to plug it in to ethernet? I really want to avoid taking it down. Or anything else to try first that I may not have thought of? Thx...

rapyt

A factory reset will probably make things worse unless you can plug Ethernet in. If at all possible, I’d first confirm in your router whether the camera is alive on Wi-Fi and try a short-press reset before doing a hard reset.

nealk

Thanks, it's not communicating with the router. What do you mean by "short press recet?" Would that do something other than unplugging/replugging?

rapyt

A short-press reset means briefly pressing the reset button (about 1–2 seconds). It simply reboots the device without wiping its configuration. It’s different from just unplugging/replugging the power, since the reset button forces the device to restart its software stack, which sometimes brings it back online without needing a full factory reset.

nealk

K thanks for clarification. The button is on the camera body as I recall, so dangerous to reach..... I tried umplugging over night but didn't help. This camera could already not be controlled in SS6 (I had to launch SS3 to position it when it was still working) so I think probably time for a new camera.

Ben

According to the R2 user manual, the camera has a WPS button. If your router also has this feature, it can in theory used to connect it to your WiFi network without having to take down the camera and connect it to Ethernet. The procedure would be:

1. Press and hold the WPS button on the camera for 3 seconds until its network light begins to flash quickly. Within 60 seconds, press the WPS button on your router (there should be some kind of feedback here to indicate it's activated).
2. If successful, the camera's network light should then flash slowly, meaning it's connected to your network.
3. If unsuccessful, try a factory reset (hold the camera's reset button for 30 seconds) until it reboots, and then try the WPS procedure again.

Good luck!