Re: Orbi AC3000 and Amcrest wireless camera

tydmeter · ‎2017-04-24

I have a couple of Amcrest outdoor wireless cameras that didn't work well because of the wifi range of my Verizon router. I purchased ther Orbi system because I thought it would solve the dropout problem I was having. After installing the Orbi, the cameras no longer worked. Amcrest tech told me that their cameras will not work with the Orbi syystem making it pretty useless for me. Is there a workaround for my problem or should I just return it?

Thanks for your help....

DarrenM · ‎2017-04-25

Hello tydmeter

Are the cameras dropping all the time if so have you tired to disable beamforming and mumimo in the router settings? Or do the cameras not connect to the network at all?

DarrenM

tydmeter · ‎2017-04-25

HI and thanks for responding. Currently, the cameras won't connect wirelessly because every time I plug in a camera to configure it the IP addess changes. This never happened with the Verizon wireless and it doesn't happen with the camera connected to the router directly. For example, when I configure a camera while connected directly to the router and then switch it's configuration to wireless the ip address changes. Amcrest techs are telling me that it's the Orbi. I tried configuring a camera while plugged into the router and then turned on the Verizon wireless and switched the camera to wireless and the ip address stayed the same. I was then able to use the camera wirelessly. When connected to Orbi, the ip address seems to change every time the camera is powered down and reconnected wirelessly.

DarrenM · ‎2017-04-25

Hello tydmeter

You can reserve the IP address for every camera so that does not happen under Advanced-Setup-Lan setup in there you can reserve the IP address based on mac address of the device.

DarrenM

tydmeter · ‎2017-04-25

Hello DarrenM,

Can you be a bit more specific? I went into Advanced Settings and see only VLAN/Bridge settings. Not sure where to go from there. I'm not particularly adept at this and on top of that I'm 80 and slowing down. Where do I put in the mac addresses? Really appreciate your help...

tydmeter

DarrenM · ‎2017-04-25

check out page 72

http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/RBK50/Orbi_UM_EN.pdf?cid=wmt_netgear_organic

DarrenM

tydmeter · ‎2017-04-26

Hi DarrenM, First I want to say thanks for the help. I checked the manual and did what I believe to be correct but it doesn't seem to work. I created an address reservation for the mac address of the camera. It also asked for the IP address which on this form starts with a "10.". I filled everything in including the "10" IP address. The camera comes up wirelessly as it should. However when I unplug the camera the ip address of the camera which starts with a "168" changes each time I unplug it. I checked to see if the Reserve table was still there and it is. I doesn't save the camera IP address that starts with 168. Each time I unplug the camera it assigns a new "168" ip address. This did not happen with the Verizon wireless. Is there anything else I can do? Thanks,

tydmeter

Guytech · ‎2017-04-26

I have Amcrest cameras that work without issues on the Orbi system. Must just be a setting. I suggest you try to use the Amcrest IP config tool. You can reserve IP adresses for the cameras, but it was not necessary for me.

tydmeter · ‎2017-04-28

Hello Guytech and thanks for responding. I'm not having any luck with the Amcrest cameras. I used the Amcrest config tool to set up the cameras and I had a decent Amcrest tech on the phone with me for an hour. In the end, he gave up and told me that the Orbi won't work with the cameras because it changes the IP address (the 192 address) every time the camera is powered off. The camera worked until I unplugged it to reinstall it and the the IP address changed and it stopped working. I tried reserving an IP address but it doesn't seem to work. Perhaps I've done it wrong although the reserve table is there. Not sure what to do next. Pretty frustating....

Tydmeter

Guytech · ‎2017-04-28

Sorry about your frustration! Like I said, L don't have any issues whatsoever. You can also try to reserve the camera IP address in the camera software as well as on the Orbi. You will see that there is an option under network in the camera where you can untick DHCP and choose an IP address for your camera. You can then reserve the same IP address on the Orbi. That should resolve your issue. Hope you get it figured out!

tydmeter · ‎2017-04-30

Thanks so much for your helpful response. After fooling with this thing for almost a day, I realized that there appears to be 3 networks on my system (I think). One is the original Verizon router -wireless - modem, and the other is one created by the Orbi system. I don't know what the third one is.They don't really communicate. I plugged one of my computers into one of the ports on Orbi (took it from the Verizon router) and changed the ip addresses on the cameras. I also reserved the addresses and then I was able to get both of them working. There was no problem when I was using the original Verizon wireless that came with the router but when I added Orbi wireless, that's when my computer could no longer see the cameras. I'm not sure why this happened and I'm not sure that the explanation is correct. Here is what I have now. The two cameras appear to be working and I can view both on the Ipads here in the house and the original computer that is plugged into Orbi. On the second computer, I can only view one of the cameras and on my android phone I can view only one of the cameras. Not perfect and very confusing to me. At any rate, they're working and viewable here in the house. It's a start. I don't understand why there are three networks and this is clearly confusing things. I think gear made to be used by the average consumer should not be so difficult to use.

Thanks,

tydmeter

Tangmu · ‎2017-08-05

I know this thread is a bit old, but I have the same issue. I had 5 Amcrest cameras up and working on a Fios router, then changed to the Orbi, and two of the cameras keep falling off the network. The rest work fine.

The cameras that are working with the Orbi are IP2M-841.

The cameras that are *NOT* working with the Orbi are IP3M-943

Today I took both the IP3M cameras and factory reset, then upated the firmware. Then I re-installed them like new cameras, using a wired ethernet connection to the Orbi router, and then entering the WiFi info via the Android app.

I gave them fixed IP addresses on the Orbi for good measure.

They are working at the moment, but if I log into the IP3M-943 camera web page via the IP address, under WiFi I see my SSID listed 3 times, with different signal strengths.

If I log into the IP2M-841 web page, I see only one SSID. So it's handled ok on those cameras, but not in the IP3M-943 cameras.

Seems like a problem with Amcrest, and only on some camera models.

Sorry, no solution for you, but maybe this info will help.

OrbiWan · ‎2017-10-01

I have 8 Amcrest ip2m-841 running with an NVR4108. Previous router was fine but the range wasn't great. I have the 3 Orbi system with satellites in each room with cameras with the router base no more than 25ft from one satellite. Cameras transmission speeds listed in the NVR keeps fluctuating from my set bitrate of 4000kbps to 300kbps-0 and eventually disconnects. I've placed the satellites right next to the cameras and still the same. Is it possible there is a problem with the Orbi sending 2.4 & 5Ghz signals at the same time when my cameras are only 2.4ghz? My 2.4Ghz laptop gets ~40Mbps down where as my Note8 can do the full 180Mbps down from my provider. This system is going back soon without any solution. I've seen this problem in the forums since the system came out. Why does a 500$ system function like this?

st_shaw · ‎2017-10-01

@OrbiWan wrote:
I have 8 Amcrest ip2m-841 running with an NVR4108. Previous router was fine but the range wasn't great. I have the 3 Orbi system with satellites in each room with cameras with the router base no more than 25ft from one satellite. Cameras transmission speeds listed in the NVR keeps fluctuating from my set bitrate of 4000kbps to 300kbps-0 and eventually disconnects. I've placed the satellites right next to the cameras and still the same. Is it possible there is a problem with the Orbi sending 2.4 & 5Ghz signals at the same time when my cameras are only 2.4ghz? My 2.4Ghz laptop gets ~40Mbps down where as my Note8 can do the full 180Mbps down from my provider. This system is going back soon without any solution. I've seen this problem in the forums since the system came out. Why does a 500$ system function like this?

I don't think anything is wrong with your Orbi. I believe the problem is your camera WiFi specs.

According to the Amcrest spec sheet, your cameras are 802.11g. The link speed of 802.11g is only 54 Mbps. The maximum throughput you will get (with just one client) is abut 60% of that, or ~30 Mbps. Throughput will be substantially less with 8 clients.

So if you do the math, trying to record 8 cameras to an NVR at 4 Mbps each is 32 Mbps, which exceeds the available throughput. The cameras slow down and disconnect, as expected, because you have exceeded the available throughput on your 2.4 GHz WiFi channel.

The best solution is to wire your cameras. If you cannot do that, then you need to lower the bitrate way down until things work. You could buy newer cameras with 5 GHz radios and achieve better throughput, but the best solution will always be to wire the cameras.

OrbiWan · ‎2017-10-01

The bitrates should be fine as I had a working system with my previous ASUS RT-AC88U Wireless-AC3100 Dual Band Gigabit Router, I just had an issue with range from the farthest IP cameras.
Wired connection to satellites still fail, this was after I tried lowering all cameras to the lowest bitrate of 1200Kbps. I checked the wifi statuses of the cameras and I can see 3 of my wifi ID's of the same name, and everytime I connect to the one with the strongest signal, upon refreshing, it connects to the lowest possible, most likely it's connecting to the router, even though in the status page it says it's connected to the correct satellite that's right next to it. I also borrowed a friends 5Ghz version of the camera, the IP3M-941, was good for less than a hour and has now lost its connection and doesn't reconnect by itself. I guess I can try to run everything from the router, but then you see it defeats the purpose of this "mesh" system and I would have useless satellites.

I am also running latest firmware V2.0.0.74, MIMO, beamforming, daisy chain, tried them all on/off.

st_shaw · ‎2017-10-01

Sounds like a mess. Could be an an issue with the camera brand. But, if you have problems wired to the satellite, then your Orbi is having issues with the backhaul. You need to fix that issue first.

I have a different brand of IP camera--Trivision. I never had any problems using them with Orbi. The Trivision never showed multiple SSIDs either. After running the cameras wireless for a long time I finally ran cables to them and now run them wired with PoE.

Thein01 · ‎2017-10-07

Maybe this is same answer as above but I have an IP3M-941 amcrest camera that I've been unable to connect to my new orbi router. I'm thinking that it's because the orbi is using the 5ghz band instead of the 2.4 ghz which is not compatible with this camera. I saw an article on Reddit that may have been a way to force it but was a little concerned with trying that. Any help would be appreciated.

OrbiWan · ‎2017-10-07

If your new to the IP cam scene, you have to hard wire the camera into your router and use the Amcrest IP config software to see the IP of the camera, then you can log into that camera using IE and in the settings select the wireless network for that camera.

Thein01 · ‎2017-10-08

Orbiwan - Thanks much for your help!!!! Pointing me back to the IPCONFIG software at least put me on the right track - not exactly sure the exact steps I took to get there but it's all up and working again!!!!!!!! Now I just need to remember how to setup the PCNVR stuff again but that shouldn't be that big of a trick. Probably need to go about learning how to fix the IP address again - imagine that will cause problems in the future. Thanks again!!

Boomer_1 · ‎2018-03-15

I have 8 of these Amcrest cameras working with my Orbi. You will want to set them up with a static IP address for a number of reasons, including reliability as well as the ability to port forward for remote access.

Boomer_1 · ‎2018-03-15

Not sure which Amcrest camera you have but I suspect they are probably pretty similar. I setup the static IP on the camera. It is a bit confusing the first timeand you have to save things in the corect order. Not sure if you are using them as wired or wireless, but it does not matter. On your camera go to the Network configuration The first field is either wired or wireless. Select which one you are using. Next line down select static.

Then put in your Ip address, your local gateway/router and your local dns, which can normally just be your router/gateway. Go down to the bottom and save this first. You will then need to go up to the top and verify that it still shows wired or wireless (whichever you are using). Be sure to click on "Save as Default" to the right of this or it will revert back to wired. To verify this, get out of the screen and then come back in to make sure it saved your settings. You should also setup your wifi here.

Boomer_1 · ‎2018-03-15

Amcrest IP3m-941 cameras support both 2.4ghz as well as 5ghz. Mine always connect at 5ghz.