Unable to connect to IP-camera

Question

I have a Sinocam IP-camera which was connected to a Huawei b593 4g router, until a supposed computer engineer fiddled with the cameras settings and rendered it unusable. The camera ships with a static ip address of 192.168.1.100, but does not respond to pings on that address any more.

The camera is connected to the router with an ethernet cable, I have tried several cables to exclude cable problems.

After sending an email to the (chinese) producer of the camera asking them for help, I got a reply that said (quote):

Please change your PC with fix IP address and add 192.168.5.xxx, 192.168.1.xxx

I think they mean that I should put a static ip address on my computer and then I should be able to connect to the camera. I have tried but it does not work.

I have tried nmap -sP 192.168.1.0/24 and nmap -A -T4 192.168.1.* but the camera does not seem to be listed.

How can I troubleshoot this?

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There is no reset button on the camera. The email from the producer tries to explain how to reset it by using telnet.

I tried the camera on a different router, but everything still behaves the same. The camera does not show up on any of the routers 'connected devices' page.

I tried to connect to the camera by setting a static ip on my laptop and connecting them directly with an ethernet cable, but I got no response from the cameras static ip address or from nmap.

I tried again to connect to the camera, but it did not work. What I tried:

1. set my ip to static 192.168.1.14
2. reboot
3. connect camera directly to computer with ethernet cable
4. execute nmap -sP 192.168.1.0-255 -> only my computers address showed up
5. execute telnet 192.168.1.100 -> 'could not connect'

I tried once more to connect the camera directly to my laptop, but it did not work. Here's what I did:

1. Purchased a twisted network cable and connected my laptop and camera with it
2. Set my laptops static ip to 192.168.1.13, I also tried 192.168.5.13
3. Performed nmap, ping and telnet commands in cmd to no avail.

I'm at a loss here. Maybe the camera is just broken.

Solution 1

I experienced a similar problem when wi-fi IP address was set to be the same as the wired IP address. I resolved it by turning the wi-fi radio on the router off and by connecting both computer and the camera by ethernet wires. I was able to access camera's setup page that way and change the wi-fi IP address.

Solution 2

If there is any button on the device the manual has to provide reset procedure. It is just how it is done, it is a standard.

Comments

[eyoung100]

What is your PC's ip Address, ie, what address does your router give your PC?

[Kinnectus]

Can you reset the device? A little button at the back?

[hansn]

There is no reset button on the device. @E. Carter my PC's ip address is 192.168.1.4

[David Schwartz]

Do you know what settings were changed? If not, you may have to connect the camera directly to a PC running something like tcpdump to try to infer its settings based on what it sends out.

[hansn]

@david no I do not know what settings were changed. I have tried connecting it directly with my pc, but I was unable to communicate with the camera. I will try again later today.

[Remi Letourneau]

Regarding Update 4: last step, you tried to telnet your own PC... have you tried putting a 192.168.5.x IP on your PC, then nmap for that subnet (192.168.5.0/24) with the camera connected to see if the "computer engineer" has only changed the camera subnet? Another thing: if you connect the PC directly to the camera, be sure to have a cross-over cable. Straight cable will probably not work unless your ethernet port support AUTO-MDIX (which even if it does, is often barely working)

[hansn]

@remi wops that was a typo in the update. I set my computers address to 192.168.1.14 (see edit) . I did not try with 192.168.5.x, I will try that later, as well as buying a twisted cable.

[hansn]

As mentioned before there is not a reset button on the camera. There is no manual available either.

[hansn]

I don't have it, but I will see if I can find it somewhere.

[hansn]

It's SinoCam h . 264

[Dave M]

This does not answer the question.