Netgear Nighthhawk and Blink Camera local storage issue

[rjohns75]

I was having trouble getting the Blink Camera local storage feature to work on my Nighthawk network. All of the Blink features worked except for the ability to locally store recorded video clips to the USB installed on the Blink Sync module. Live video worked with no issues. 

I played with a number of settings on the Nighthawk but nothing worked. I decided to create a guest network and connected the Blink Cameras to it.  Local storage of video clips  immediately started to work but I don't understand why it wouldn't work on my primary wifi SSID.  My primary SSID as these settings enabled:

• Enable AX
• Enable OFDMA in 2.4 GHz
• WPA2-Personal [AES]

My Guest network for the same channel has this enabled:

• Enable Guest Network
• Enable SSID Broadcast
• WPA2-Personal [AES]

Any idea why the Blink Cameras work on the guest network and not the primary network?

Robert

[michaelkenward]

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@rjohns75 wrote:

I was having trouble getting the Blink Camera local storage feature to work on my Nighthawk network. All of the Blink features worked except for the ability to locally store recorded video clips to the USB installed on the Blink Sync module. Live video worked with no issues. 

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Where does your unnamed Netgear router come into the picture?

I am not familiar with Blink, but on my Arlo system the USB storage is on the hubs that are effectively WiFi access points for the cameras. It is the hub that manages the flow of images and dumps them on the USB.

The router is not involved in this traffic. It is there simply to provide an Internet link to the hub.

Did you try this?

Search - NETGEAR Communities – Blink camera

[rjohns75]

Nighthawk RAX45   

Let me start by saying I'm only posting this to help others that may have this problem in the future. I just don't understand why it worked.

Yes I read all of those posts but they are not related.  I searched for at least a month and no one had the same issue. I spent atleast 6 hours on the phone with Blink tech support and they couldn't find a solution. Just by chance I decided to create a guest network because another user described how  selecting "allow guests to see each other and access my local network" solved his problem with his guest network and  Blink cameras.  I initially dismissed this approach because I was using my main network and not a guest network for my cameras. Even when I did  create the guest network (which got everything working correctly), I didn't need to select the option described above.

Regarding the Blink setup, it is similar to how you described Arlo. The Blink Sync Module accepts a USB drive . The camera is wirelessly connected to the Sync Module and the wifi network. As I previously mentioned, everything worked, including live view but it wouldn't store the clips to the USB on the Sync Module. 

I'm simply trying to understand if there is a difference between the primary and guest networks that resulted in all of the camera functions working on the guest network and not the primary network.

Robert

[plemans]

Are you using any parental controls, armor, qos? 

[michaelkenward]

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@rjohns75 wrote:

I'm simply trying to understand if there is a difference between the primary and guest networks that resulted in all of the camera functions working on the guest network and not the primary network.

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Guest networks don't operate in the same way as the rest. But you found that out already.

They don't work to the same "rules".

The question is, how do they differ?

Did your search for guidance include this?

Search - NETGEAR Communities – guest network isolation

[rjohns75]

I'm not using parental controls or amor. QOS is turned on but all devices have the highest priority.

[rjohns75]

I just read through some of those and those user seem to have the opposite problem (that want to isolate guest devices from each other and the primary network). I'm going to assume the following theory without the ability to confirm it.

• To many devices on my primary network prevented the camera and sync module from sending certain data (eventhough the network bandwidth was not congested)
• Putting the camera and sync module on a guest network that is only used by those devices meant that the only communications on this network would be between the devices that need to communicate with each other.

Not sure if this is correct but hope it helps someone in the future.

Robert

[Verity7]

Hi All,
Just wanted to share my experience... it turns out my secondary router being set as wireless access point was preventing Blink sync mod from connecting. Kept getting error about network password, blah,blah,blah... I knew that was false.

Since my Blink was not connected to that router, I hadn't really thought if that configuration as being the culprit. After being unsuccessful with just about every suggestion here, I started backtracking steps. Once I reverted to standard router setting (not an access point), I was able to reconnect Blink sync mod.

I hope it helps someone!
Regards,
Verity7

[michaelkenward]

Nice detective work Sherlock.

A couple of questions:

• was the AP mode device running with a different SSID/password from the main router?
• when (if) you put the thing back to AP, did the Blink stay connected?

[john1235813]

I was able to resolve the issue by changing the device model and type under attached devices. Find the mac address associated with your sync module > edit > update the device type to something other than camera (I used IOT generic), change the device model (I used Blink Sync Module). Local storage started working after I did this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hope this helps

[FURRYe38]

Got a screen capture of this to post? 

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@john1235813 wrote:

I was able to resolve the issue by changing the device model and type under attached devices. Find the mac address associated with your sync module > edit > update the device type to something other than camera (I used IOT generic), change the device model (I used Blink Sync Module). Local storage started working after I did this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hope this helps

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[john1235813]

I only thought to update this when I noticed the sync module device type was set to camera after I started troubleshooting. Hope this works for others.