Blue Iris

8 Lorex cams, 4 diff models, all wired.
I've been keeping details of trying to figure it out in IPcamtalk, I'll try to summarize here.
Brand new PC build, i7-11700, gigabyte aorus z590 mb, 16g ram, 1 ssd with boot and blue iris, and keeps new footage, 2 6tb WD purp for archiving.
POE switch connected to cameras, then plugged into router. Router is a ASUS GT-AX11000.

3x lorex LNE8964AB cams, 2x lorex LNE8963B cams, 2x lorex LNE4422B, 1 lorex LNZ44p4b PTZ cam.
Netgear 16port poe+ switch (GS316PP-183w total)

All were working great on the lorex nvr. Last week I built this PC, and moved the cameras over to BI. This PC -only- runs BI that' sit for software, minus cooling fan software. CPU usage is at 3-8% after doing all the common BI tweaks.
Blue iris works great by itself, recording correctly, etc.
So, 5 of these lorex cams are 8mp, 3 are 4 mp. The 8mps are dropping every 2 hours, within minutes of 2 hours on the dot. They come right back, within 1-3 minutes. I get the lost connection error, sit and wait, they pop back.
I've toggled those settings in RTP on and off, switched cams on the POE port, namely 2 that drop with 2 that don't, altered many settings up and down, etc.
Ethernet running 46-52Mbps on a 1g connection.
Nothing stops these cams from dropping. I'm stuck, and don't know what else to do. I currently have plans to move the POE switch to a 2nd NIC in the PC, but short of that, are there any other fixes to try?
I followed everything that pertained to me in this thread : https://blueiris.pro/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=2995
and still no luck.
Any other ideas?

That's a head scratcher... Have you looked at the camera logs in the firmware to see if there's a clue? Maybe a pattern will emerge from the offending cameras...

Yea, definitely is puzzling. I've switched ports on the POE from restarting cameras and ones that don't, no change. Only pattern I can find are the fact that only the 8mp (and newer cams of the group) are the ones restarting, and it's always 2 hours dead on, with 2-3 minutes of reboot/restart time.
The 8mp cameras are restarting every 2 hours from some point, as the times are different, but always 2 hours from their last restart.

I tried in vain to get a 2nd nic system up and running, spent a few hours last night on it, didn't work for me. There's something I was doing wrong. I was able to get one camera working, but without being able to log into each camera after switching nics, bleah.
Odd thing was, I saw maybe half the cameras at some point, which was how I was able to quickly log into the one cam and manually assign an ip to get it to work. I just undid everything back to cams-poe switch-router. But that problem is for another thread I'm sure.

This rebooting thing is odd. Only once did I see anything in the router logs about 1 camera rejoining the network a couple days ago, but nothing else. No errors shown. I thought I read somewhere else here that it was a bug of some type. Hopefully that's all that is wrong. I changed the file sizes and time to copy to stored to 1 hour, and even 3 hours, that didn't change anything.

Here's a thought - take one of the 8MP cameras, do a factory reset. Log into the camera with a browser using the default address and set the video streaming to be as generic as possible. No Smart Codec, no H.264+ or P, or any enhanced features - generic. Below is an example. Then change the IP address of the camera to whatever, but make it static. Use a port scanner to verify the IP addresses on your LAN - Advanced Port Scanner - free and fast port scanner Then follow the guidance detailed in Camera Connector - IP Config Dialog to query generic ONVIF capabilities and use those settings.

The point is to see if one 8MP camera misbehaves when its settings are basic. Also, take a screenshot of the Camera tab in BI's status window before resetting, and then after you configure it in BI with the generic settings. That window reveals a lot.

I can't remember if you have already described this, but my present thoughts are on your router and its DHCP lease time. It doesn't make much sense yet regarding specific cameras, but lets go back to basics:

1. Are all your cameras assigned a static IP address ?
2. Is this done in the camera, or in the router with a static reservation ?
3. What is the range of the DHCP window in your router ?
4. Do any cameras IP addresses overlap with the DHCP window ?

Basically I'm wondering if your router is doing a timed reset of DHCP lease settings, and if there is an IP clash.

As for the second NIC, you are not alone in having issues getting it working, but I have now made it work the same way on three BI5 builds on three different pc's, so I am confident it works as simply as I describe it. I named the original NIC to "Motherboard", and the second NIC to "CCTV" to prevent any confusion. The BI5 computer has a static IP address of 192.168.2.3 on my main LAN.

5. Give second CCTV NIC a different static LAN IP address. I chose 10.0.0.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and no gateway.
6. Go to the webserver of an existing camera (mine have static IP addresses set in the camera), and change the IP address from the present address (such as 192.168.2.50) to 10.0.0.2 - it disappears from BI5 as it reboots as it is now on the wrong NIC.
7. Connect camera to new LAN and make sure it powers up (POE switch/psu etc).
8. Go to BI5 settings for that camera, and change the IP address to 10.0.0.2 . Nothing else. Save settings.
9. Camera re-appears in BI5.

It really was that simple. Then I went to the next camera and set it to 10.0.0.3. No router, just a POE switch on the CCTV NIC.

Just realised that could need two ethernet POE switches - that must have been the day I removed the wall wart psu's and went fully POE, as I only have one POE switch

I'm wondering if some of the people that failed with this were using static reservations in the router - and of course there is no router on the second NIC (Unless you decide to add one for wifi etc).

Basically I'm wondering if your router is doing a timed reset of DHCP lease settings, and if there is an IP clash.

That's a great suggestion! The only thing though, is that it's only the 8MP cameras... and he said:

The 8mps are dropping every 2 hours, within minutes of 2 hours on the dot.

That makes me think that the cameras are re-booting or losing signal - it's regular. I'd want to eliminate the camera as a variable - just one 8MP. First, look at the camera logs and see if anything stands out - is it auto rebooting... then factory reset one camera and set it up like it was new. I would:

1. Factory reset one 8MP - push the button
2. Connect the camera directly to router (bypass switches and AP's and such)
3. Scan IP address on the LAN to find the camera
4. IP in browser -> Log into the camera (defaults) -> Change UN/PW -> set current IP static
5. Change streaming settings as recommended by BI -> Log out
5. Add the camera to BI using the procedure I outlined earlier using Find/Inspect

The only way that can go south, is if the camera is not (or no longer) ONVIF compliant. If you can log into the camera, so can BI and it will query the ONVIF compliant capabilities. That eliminates any custom manufacturer enhancements and only uses settings that we know work. Then monitor while it's connected to the router. If it still does it, it's not the POE switch or other hardware. I'd focus on the camera and router logs.

Hey, I'm not saying I'm right, I'm just saying how I see it...

Hi all,

The reason I'm considering the router is that the OP stated in the first post that all cameras worked OK on the NVR, and I assume the NVR took care of camera addresses until they were plugged directly into the LAN. It is possible that the 8MP cameras have static IP addresses that are in the DHCP window which could cause this.

Now we need the OP to tell us what he finds ! Do these checks, and let us know what you find

No doubt TimG... I wasn't disagreeing with your assessment, just offering another perspective. I had a shit ton of trouble with dropped signals and other such voodoo over the summer last year, and I was advised by a network guru type to start looking at the camera logs to track the source. It sounds like a scheduled reboot, so yeah, it's either at the camera or the router. My assumption was that a DHCP lease time kicking off an IP every two hours isn't common, but it's easy to check at the router - if it's 7,200 seconds, then... mystery solved.

Until the OP comes back, it's just you and me looking for a lost pup: