OK, this thread has prompted me to
waste spend quite some time playing with some IP cameras and different software.
At this point I am quite amazed that when I bought the cameras and recorder all separately they all pretty much connected and worked together without issue because now I see the many problems that can come up.
My wife's family are, again, asking me about buying and installing a system and told me they were recommended
this system. I haven't looked at it closely yet but with that price and knowing you get something which will work right out of the box it may be good for non-tech people. Of course, it uses wifi...
So, I have been
wasting spending time with my cameras and computer.
OnVif Device Manager immediately locates and identifies all devices on the network. Three cameras work and display video well and in a fourth camera the video does not display. The recorder is located and identified but does not work.
iSpy gives the same results. Three cameras work but the fourth one does not. Of course, I am using the parameters provided by onvif Device Manager so this is not surprising.
The general format used is
rtsp://192.168.1.333:554/user=admin_password=neZ3wSSM_channel=1_stream=0.sdp?real_stream
But the fourth camera works fine when accessed with the browser, and with the recorder, so it must be just a matter or finding the correct command or string. I thought of using a network recording tool, like
WireShark or similar, to record and inspect the traffic between browser and camera to see what commands and strings the camera requires. I got as far as recording a file with all the traffic but analyzing it is more than I am willing to do right now.
I also tried
CMS and, after some tinkering, it did manage to display the fourth camera. I had to enter IP and port manually but it finally did connect.
To anyone who just wants a system that works I would recommend buying a complete system. Even then you should be aware of security vulnerabilities. The simplest way to deal with that is to have it on a separate LAN with no internet access.
Another issue to take into account is the necessary bandwidth. I would expect to have problems with four cameras using wifi. Also, if you will be using a computer as a recorder it better be quite powerful. An old laptop you have lying around is not going to cut it.
That's my report for today.