new to this website but been using BI for 8 yrs and i have it working 2 months ago. all the sudden doesnt work now and i cant get into BI. i paid for BI5 updates and now when i open BI i get a DEMO screen with no way to access settings. the menu bar is gone.

this is on my dads computer and he uses his cell phone to connect to the internet via usb cable. when i look at the computers IP address it is 192.168.1.42.4 and my cameras are on 192.168.1.204 to 208. but this should not matter since i was running BI without internet. even with the cell phone disconnected BI still doesnt work and keeps loading as a demo without menu bar.

so two problems;
*cant connect to cameras without internet.
*BI program opens in demo only, not menu bar

My advice is to get the upgrade squared away and working first - you paid for it, and there are good instructions on connecting your cameras. That said, they sure don't make the upgrade steps intuitive - anyone could do it that way... I stumbled across an upgrade guide that helped me when I upgraded last summer. Upgrade Guide. If that doesn't help, let us know or write BI support directly.

Once the upgrade is running, it'll be easier to figure out the camera connection.

ok, i purchased a new copy of BI5.

But I dont think its a BI problem. if I run angryIP scanner i do not see any connected IP devices....no cameras, no printer, no wireless router. But, if i run Hikvision camera finder it finds the cameras. i cannot ping them either on LAN or with internet connection. I did have BI programmed to run on LAN without internet before it broke.
So i believe that I am not seeing my IP devices because of something blocking it....windows programming???? could it be something in IPV4 settings?

Step #1) Forget BI for a moment, can you access each of your cameras configuration screens (in the camera itself) via the web. Something like http://<ip of cam1> and http://<ip of cam2> etc.

You would have to do this anyway to make sure you can log into the cameras and to make sure that you can set their compression and frame rates appropriately.

Once you have each of your cameras ip addresses (or preferably their hostnames) then you can start with getting BI to ingest their video feeds.

On the network design, using a mobile phone as a network access point via USB is certainly not an ideal situation at all.

Which device is doling out the IP addresses? Is the cell phone acting as a complete DHCP server and handling all of the internet interfaces? Seems unlikely.

Do you have some type of local network with a router setup to dole out ip addresses and connect devices but isn't actually connected to the internet? Maybe, that would give you a working BI system that is just not able to accept connection requests from users on the internet. If this is true and you connect to that one BI system through a mobile phone and usb cable then I am afraid this is a dual nic type of situation that I am not an expert on.

if I run angryIP scanner i do not see any connected IP devices....no cameras, no printer, no wreless router. But, if i run Hikvision camera finder it inds the cameras.

That means that angryIP scanner is scanning a different LAN address than camera finder. They have to be on the same network. You have to change your LAN, or change the camera. I'd change the camera. If you need help doing that, let us know.