Re: D7800 not reporting a wifi connected device

MACH100 · ‎2023-05-24

I have recently bought a video camera from a company called Zopkins, which is designed to be fitted inside a bird nesting box to enable a live video feed of the interior to be streamed to my home network.

I have eventually managed to set the camera up and it appears to be working - but there is one MAJOR anomaly which I cannot explain:

The camera HAS been allocated an IP address by the router (192.168.1.8) which is visible on the device tab of the App that comes with the camera, and if I type this directly in to a web browser, I am able to log into the camera and see the video feed. HOWEVER, for some reason that I cannot understand, the camera is NOT appearing as a wifi connected device even though various other pieces of equipemn are clearly listed! This led to quite a lot of difficulty with the setting up, as I did not think the camera was connecting as per instructions.

Can anyone offer any explaination as to how/why the camera IS connecting to the wifi but at the same time consistently fails to be listed as a connected device?

There are security issues here, as in the absence of being able to 'see' the camera as a connected device in the Netgear configuration pages, it is not possible to specifically give it permission to access the network using its Mac address.

michaelkenward · ‎2023-05-24

@MACH100 wrote:

HOWEVER, for some reason that I cannot understand, the camera is NOT appearing as a wifi connected device even though various other pieces of equipemn are clearly listed!

Where are you looking? Netgear's reporting of "connected devices" is a cause of constant complaints. It is unreliable and inaccurate.

What firmware version do you have on the D7800? That can affect things.

There are a couple of things you could try. One is to forget about that "connected devices" list to see what is on the network.

There are various ways of checking the network. I like using the Netgear genie for Windows. (There is also one for Macs.)

genie | Product | Support | NETGEAR

Be warned that this comes packed in a RAR file that needs to be decompressed.

The good bit is that it comes with a network map that, with luck, will show a clickable link to the attached device.

Another option, if the camera allows it, is to fix its IP address in the camera's controls. Then it will always be here when you aim a browser at that address.

MACH100 · ‎2023-05-24

The router is running V1.0.1.68 (The latest/last version).

Many thanks for your suggestion regarding Genie. The camera DOES appear on its network map, so I will experiment to see if I can apply a more 'user friendly' label to it. I am really annoyed with Netgear about this as it drives a bus through trying to manage network security if its own software can only see some of the network sometimes!

Incidentally, since you seem to be an expert, I am rather disappointed with the power of the D7800 router. I bought it as being suitable for a very large house, yet it still struggles to give a reliable signal throughout our modest 4 bed home, so in retrospect I don't think it was worth spending a lot of money on as it does not seem to give any better coverage than the bundled router. Does this surprise you, or is there perhaps something I should be doing to improve the signal?

The router is located on the top of a bookcase as close to the centre of the house as practical given the connections.

Regards.

michaelkenward · ‎2023-05-25

@MACH100 wrote:

Incidentally, since you seem to be an expert, I am rather disappointed with the power of the D7800 router. I bought it as being suitable for a very large house, yet it still struggles to give a reliable signal throughout our modest 4 bed home, so in retrospect I don't think it was worth spending a lot of money on as it does not seem to give any better coverage than the bundled router. Does this surprise you, or is there perhaps something I should be doing to improve the signal?

Not really an expert. I have just been around for a bit and have used various devices over the years.

The D7800 – a DSL modem/router rather than a simple router – is now eight years old. In its day, the R7800, its standalone router equivalent, was the "flagship router" on the grounds of its processing power and features. It still has plenty of fans. Netgear used it as the "engine" for newer gaming routers

Wifi is a tricky thing to get right. Put it in a house that has reinforced concrete floors and the signal quickly fades.Other materials can also soak up the signal.

Then there are the wifi clients. These have proliferated in recent years. The "wifi 5" of these AC routers doesn't have the same capacity of newer wifi technologies. They were also designed before things like the cameras that you now want to add to the network. It isn't possible for router designers to come up with "forward compatible" models that can anticipate all of the new functions that people expect of them nearly a decade later.

You do not say what your "bundled router" was – probably another DSL modem /router – but it it has the same wifi technology, it isn't likely to deliver seriously better performance.

The demand for ever more powerful wifi is why Netgear can maintain te tread mill of ever flashier routers, like the Orbi series and MK Mesh devices. These are designed deliver "seamless" wifi around the house. At a price.