Foscam f18910w unreliable?
I'm trying to set up a new system with 2 cameras and bought some f18910w cameras. Once I get them to connect, they work fine, but a simple software restart means I need to spend another hour trying to get them to reconnect to SecuritySpy. As a fairly nerdy person, I'm pretty sure they're setup correctly. Admittedly, I could be missing one click box that makes everything right in the world.
That said, one of the other fine forum members stated, "I'd rather use a dead cow for my system than a Foscam." I'm taking this to heart.
Recommendations? I'm using these a crime-fighting, security cameras. The cameras will live outside, but under a porch. I need day and night vision. While wifi capability is super, super, nice, it's not an absolute requirement. I have power near by the location.
Thanks for the thoughts!
Lynn
That said, one of the other fine forum members stated, "I'd rather use a dead cow for my system than a Foscam." I'm taking this to heart.
Recommendations? I'm using these a crime-fighting, security cameras. The cameras will live outside, but under a porch. I need day and night vision. While wifi capability is super, super, nice, it's not an absolute requirement. I have power near by the location.
Thanks for the thoughts!
Lynn
Comments
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Hi Lynn,
As MJPEG-only Foscam cameras, these should work fine in SecuritySpy; it's the H.264 ones that are problematic. However we'll need some more information about the errors to diagnose this:
- When you say "a simple software restart", what exactly are you referring to?
- Are the cameras connected by wired ethernet or WiFi? The problem could be wireless reception, so try connecting them to your network by wired ethernet to see if this eliminates the problem.
- Have you set the cameras up with a static IP address on your local network, as we recommend? If not, every time you restart a camera it may obtain a different IP address and therefore stop working in SecuritySpy.
- Finally, check SecuritySpy's Log file (you'll find it at ~/Documents/SecuritySpy/Log.txt) to see what errors are occurring. -
Thanks for the thoughts.
Quitting SecuritySpy and starting it up again. The cameras are working at 'Quit' but can't be found when the software is relaunched. Eventually they seem to reconnect. Of the two cameras, one reconnected within about 15 minutes, the other took about 3.5 hours.
Both cameras are set up with a static IP address and on Wifi. Power is with plug, not POE. I will run ethernet cables soon.
The cameras don't have any built-in signal strength indicator, but the web interface directly to the cameras works when they're offline with SecuritySpy. Initially I set them up wired, and still had difficulty making the initial connection.
Below is the text of the log file. I'm giving you the last few days, but the issues discussed above happened last night from about 7pm CST to 10:15pm CST.:
08-23-2014 1240-46: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera" 3.4.1,70900,800 The operation timed out
08-23-2014 1244-24: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,70985,401 Authentication error - check the username and password.
08-23-2014 1244-49: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,89900,54 Connection reset by peer (ECONNRESET)
08-23-2014 1244-54: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,89900,8800 The server closed the connection
08-23-2014 1254-54: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,89900,54 Connection reset by peer (ECONNRESET)
08-23-2014 1255-46: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,70900,800 The operation timed out
08-24-2014 1345-52: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera" 3.4.1,89900,54 Connection reset by peer (ECONNRESET)
08-24-2014 1345-52: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,89900,54 Connection reset by peer (ECONNRESET)
08-24-2014 1347-13: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,89900,8800 The server closed the connection
08-24-2014 1357-31: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera" 3.4.1,89900,54 Connection reset by peer (ECONNRESET)
08-24-2014 1358-56: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera" 3.4.1,89900,8800 The server closed the connection
08-24-2014 1403-39: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera" 3.4.1,89900,54 Connection reset by peer (ECONNRESET)
08-24-2014 1405-34: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera" 3.4.1,89900,54 Connection reset by peer (ECONNRESET)
08-24-2014 1406-15: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera" 3.4.1,89900,8800 The server closed the connection
08-24-2014 1407-23: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera" 3.4.1,89900,61 Connection refused (ECONNREFUSED)
08-24-2014 1407-53: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera" 3.4.1,8440,54 Connection reset by peer (ECONNRESET)
08-24-2014 1408-25: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera" 3.4.1,70219,32 Broken pipe (EPIPE)
08-24-2014 1722-00: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,70900,800 The operation timed out
08-24-2014 1722-06: There was an error while setting up the camera "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,33,65 No route to host (EHOSTUNREACH)
08-24-2014 1722-17: There was an error while setting up the camera "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,33,64 Host is down (EHOSTDOWN)
08-25-2014 0914-52: Error sending PTZ command for camera "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,4410,8800 The server closed the connection
08-25-2014 1857-19: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera" 3.4.1,89900,54 Connection reset by peer (ECONNRESET)
08-25-2014 1857-19: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,89900,54 Connection reset by peer (ECONNRESET)
08-25-2014 1859-07: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,89900,61 Connection refused (ECONNREFUSED)
08-25-2014 1903-19: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera" 3.4.1,89900,8800 The server closed the connection
08-25-2014 1905-23: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,89900,8800 The server closed the connection
08-25-2014 1907-29: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera" 3.4.1,89900,54 Connection reset by peer (ECONNRESET)
08-25-2014 1907-31: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,89900,54 Connection reset by peer (ECONNRESET)
08-26-2014 0658-34: Error communicating with the network device "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,70900,800 The operation timed out
08-26-2014 1021-19: Error sending PTZ command for camera "Network camera 1" 3.4.1,4410,8800 The server closed the connection
Thanks again,
Lynn -
Lynn,
I'm still using two Foscam 8910 cameras right now. I did have a Foscam HD pan and tilt on the porch as you described but was forced to use WiFi. Even the addition of a good quality access port and bypassing the wifi in the Foscam it was never reliable using H.264. Replaced it with the HikVision mini dome and am very impressed. The built in microphone on this mini dome is amazing and I'm surprised at how well it picks up audio. I haven't figured out how to get the audio into SS yet, but using HK's software to view the camera and listen to live audio is impressive. It is cabled to a wifi access point as no way to get cat5 to the porch. The two 8910's I have running still are both in garages... One is wifi and the other I have cabled directly to the ethernet switch. So far the wired version seems fine, but its been less than a week since I hooked it up. The WiFi camera is hit and miss... and its started having night vision problems. It's been there for a year or more... but the quality of the camera is deteriorated greatly when in IR mode. I love dead cows. They are very tasty if put on a grill, but they make lousy surveillance videos. :-) Check your firmware is up to date on the 8910's... that will help a lot with the connection issues, but in the end getting any Foscam off of their internal wifi radios seems to be a good idea. These Foscams are not going to be used for long. I'm really seeing the difference in paying up for better quality cameras and HikVision have been impressive. I've got one site with 3 Dahua HD bullets and one site now with 4 HikVision cameras. The 8910's are just a stop gap. I started to put in the H.264 as a wired camera at the one garage but I just can't face those issues again. So I'm saving up my tech pennies to replace them in the near future. -
Hi Lynn, as doodah says I think the next thing to try is to update the firmware on your Foscam cameras to the latest version, as this is likely to help with the issues. According to the log, the camera is rejecting SecuritySpy's connection attempts. Even though it may respond to browser requests to view the camera's main web page, it appears to be rejecting SecuritySpy's requests for the video stream.
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Thanks for the info. My firmware is already updated. I'll take a peek at the HikVision cameras.
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Just ordered the HikVision mini dome. Looking forward to trying it out!
