[RiffRaffMama]

(Need help setting up a NVR security camera system using a laptop as the router is what the heading is meant to read. I don't know where the end bit ran off to.)

I need help setting up my security camera system and I am hoping someone here can help me because it's a bit of an alternative setup.

 

What I have is a location that requires security cameras with remote viewing capability. The location has electricity, but no broadband or dial up internet. Currently the only internet access available there is mobile internet. There is a basic stopgap security camera set up there at the moment, using two old mobile phones and a security camera app. The app makes each phone act as a motion sensor security camera with cloud storage and push notifications. The app has too many limitations on recording time, etc and the phones are too limited in image quality for this to be an ongoing solution. One phone has a sim with mobile data, providing it internet access, the other phone wifi hotspots off the first phone, providing it with internet access too. This sim/hotspot arrangement will be the only possible internet access for the new system as well.

 

The equipment I have to set up the new system is as follows :

 

1x generic NVR box (sold under a whole bunch of brands, most commonly "Smar", "Besder", "Dahua") - [see pics] featuring:

• 4x Power Over Ethernet ports
• 1x VGA interface
• 1x HDMI port
• 1x RJ45 port
• 2x USB 2.0
• 48V DC Power input
• 1x 485T +/-  alarm interface (won't be used)
• 1x Internal 3TB WD Purple HDD (https://www.westernd.../wd-purple-hdd)
• 1x USB mouse

2x Smar POE IP Onvif Camera

3x Cat 5e patch cables

1x Mobile phone and USB cable serving as mobile internet modem

 

HP Pavilion dm1 notebook (https://support.hp.c...ment/c03017314) serving as a router/monitor, running Windows 10 Home with a RAM upgrade to 4GB.

 

I do not have an external router. I cannot get broadband/dialup/any other internet connection. Please don't suggest solutions involving either of these things.

 

I purchased this equipment months ago and through extensive research I thought I had figured out how to make this setup work. I set the system up hooked up to my tv through our home broadband router and everything worked fine. I then packed it away, intending to give the notepad/mobile phone setup a run and never got around to it. I have now forgotten the details of my plan (and irritatingly, the login details for the system, but that can be reset by reconnecting to the TV if necessary) and am sitting here surrounded by hundreds of dollars worth of plastic paperweights, trying to build system connections and settings in my head in order to make this work. I know that there is a perfect combination of cables, IP addresses and knowledge that will make this happen. Can anybody be the All-knowing Grand Co-ordinator of Componentry and step forth with the magical recipe for me? (Sorry, I'm not sure why things went all King Arthur/Knights of the Round Table there at the end)

 

Profoundest TIA.

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Edited by RiffRaffMama, 11 April 2020 - 11:20 AM.

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Seems like you would connect your two cameras to your SMAR box using the Cat 5E cables.  Should only be one RJ45 jack on the cameras and you would plug the other end into a POE port on the SMAR box.  (I'm guessing when you first set it up you used ports 1 & 2)   Then take your 3rd Cat 5e and connect it from the SMAR box's single RJ45 to the RJ45 on your laptop.  Plug in the power adapter.  The mouse goes in one of the USB ports but without an external monitor (like your TV) I'm not sure there is much use for it.  Possibly the other USB port could be connected to the laptop.  Expect it would be detected as a sort of webcam.   Do you have a link to the manual for the SMAR box?

 

The laptop would need to connect via WiFi to the cellphone.  Then you need to set up the laptop to bridge or share the connection.  Instructions here (with Answer check mark) seem like they should work:

 

https://superuser.co...an-on-win-10-pc

 

The Topology picture  is about right.  Substitute the SMAR box for the switch and the Cameras for the little PCs.

 

I would put TeamViewer on the laptop to enable remote admin of the laptop.

https://www.teamview...wnload/windows/

[RKinner]

Seems like you would connect your two cameras to your SMAR box using the Cat 5E cables.  Should only be one RJ45 jack on the cameras and you would plug the other end into a POE port on the SMAR box.  (I'm guessing when you first set it up you used ports 1 & 2)   Then take your 3rd Cat 5e and connect it from the SMAR box's single RJ45 to the RJ45 on your laptop.  Plug in the power adapter.  The mouse goes in one of the USB ports but without an external monitor (like your TV) I'm not sure there is much use for it.  Possibly the other USB port could be connected to the laptop.  Expect it would be detected as a sort of webcam.   Do you have a link to the manual for the SMAR box?

 

The laptop would need to connect via WiFi to the cellphone.  Then you need to set up the laptop to bridge or share the connection.  Instructions here (with Answer check mark) seem like they should work:

 

https://superuser.co...an-on-win-10-pc

 

The Topology picture  is about right.  Substitute the SMAR box for the switch and the Cameras for the little PCs.

 

I would put TeamViewer on the laptop to enable remote admin of the laptop.

https://www.teamview...wnload/windows/

[RiffRaffMama]

Are you the only person who works here, RKinner?    lol. Thanks for jumping in to the murky depths of my electronic life again!

 

It seems so straightforward when you look at that topology image. I'll have a go at the bridging business later on and let you know how that works out for me.

 

I believe the additional USB port on the box is for a flash drive for you to save off particular clips (eg: that two-minutes of footage showing your husband sneaking into the kitchen at 2am to eat cake, etc) and to update the firmware from a file you've downloaded and saved to the flash drive.

 

This is the closest thing to a user manual that exists for this device, regardless of the name it's sold under: https://cdn.shopify....O_GuideBook.pdf

 

I've never used TeamViewer - does it differ much from Google's Remote Desktop? I've used that plenty of times.

 

Thanks again.

[RKinner]

Usually we have a lot more people here.  Expect many of them usually get on a work and they are at home now.  (IT jobs are like those of firemen.  You sit around a lot waiting for the alarm.  To kill time you polish the brass (work on forums))

Also the forum hasn't been all that active lately since the forum software does not support https and many browsers and email clients are warning that the site is not secure because it's only http.

 

Pretty sorry excuse for a manual but at least it is not in Chinese.

 

TeamViewer is my favorite remote software but if you have something you like and are familiar with that's fine.

[RiffRaffMama]

Hi again, I've made an attempt at setting this up a couple of times now and I don't know if I just didn't have my brain switched on or something, but it's only just occurred to me that the reason this isn't working for me is that there is no visual interface between the smar box and the laptop. I envisioned the laptop working not only as the router, but as the monitor with the UI that allows me to interact with the cameras. HDMI only does outward traffic on a laptop, doesn't it? When I connected all of this up to my TV, the HDMI input on the TV is obviously an inward flow of traffic, so it was able to show me the UI and the cameras, but when I do the same to the laptop, it of course can't receive the camera output through the HDMI. How do I mitigate this issue? Would a double male ended USB cable work? There are no RGB ports on either device.

[RKinner]

The HDMI connector on a laptop is an output only type.  Meant to drive an external screen. 

 

If connecting the laptop via USB doesn't work then you have to start looking at video capture devices.  I've used the ones with RC jacks to USB adapter but you need something that would take a VGA or HDMI output and convert it to a USB.  Or maybe you could  just get a cheap used flatscreen monitor and point the laptop's camera at it.

[JamesWicks]

Do you have to use a laptop to monitor the security cameras? I think there is a more modern solution with mobile apps.