ASH21 ports closed until ethernet plugged in - bug?

[Revo2Maxx]

Well I wanted things to work for my Camera Wireless so I Reset the camera and set up over Wifi Only.. Before I found that as of this month sometime after un plugging from Eth0 the camera on Wifi no longer had open ports.. So rather then mess around and easy thing to do for me is just Reset the camera and setup to the info I had already set in my NVR and as soon as it was online it was on my 16ch in my NVR again.. SO I will just keep it in Wifi mode and I am sorry I am going to guess this is by design.. While it might be a bad design in setting up the camera it ask what type of setup your going to do a Wifi or wired I am guessing this has something to do with ports and maybe why things worked different for me before when I first got the Ash21 if I remember right I setup over wifi and I didn't have port issues after making a connection to the port however I have reset it many times and made many changes and wonder if maybe that was why at first mine worked as I thought it should cable connected or not??

OH well don't know I just know if I want connected over Wifi I will just Reset and setup over wifi if it gets messed up again... I have worse things I am dealing with to worry about this working or not after I have it connected on Eth0

[dbfamily]

Wondering if this is still an active bug or has it been resolved with a firmware or hardware change? I'm on my 2nd ASH21 with the same issue. First one returned figuring it was defective, but now reading this forum indicates I'm not the only one with this issue.

Network port scans clearly show one IP address and no open ports until e-net cable plugged in. Then 2 IP addresses and MAC addresses show up and ports open on both addresses. Unplugging the E-net disables the ports on WiFi connection and 2nd IP drops off network (as expected).

It would be nice to hear something official from Amcrest support. Is it a bug? is their a work around? Is it being investigated or worked on? I'll probably try contact support once I have the issue documented with network traces and screen captures.

FYI: With the ports working it's a great little camera. All the 3rd part apps find it and work as expected.

[zen1300]

I, too, have experienced this bug. After investing in a Blue Iris setup, three ASH21 cameras that have this problem. I confirmed that plugging one into an ethernet port opens the ports. They revert to closed when only on WiFi.

I find it frustrating that there has not been a fix for this issue.

[Revo2Maxx]

Sorry no one wants to take advice about how to setup the Camera.. So here I will show more then I want to show of my system..

First picture is an ARP on the left of my Mac address and on the RIGHT is IP config please NOTE I OWN ONLY 1 ASH21....

Second Picture I took a Picture of one of my Router Tables, This shows the ASH 21 setup on the router and because I normally only have the IP setup on and running WIFI, the Wired is BLOCKED.... I didn't not change that Only thing I did was remove other things from the Table and cover my Wifi SSID because no one needs that INFO...

Now please LOOK. Setting up the Camera right with the camera being setup with Wifi only will make your camera have 2 IP address if this camera is setup right.. IF you don't setup the camera right and connect the camera to the Cable to make the setup and then add the IP by doing this causes the camera to keep the IP address info of the Wired setup as the WIRELESS setup... SO if your trying to connect this camera to 3rd party software or hardware and want to use WIFI then setup it OVER WIFI to start if you don't it will as everyone is saying loose all port info when it is removed from Wired because in a since you are no longer connected to the Camera in the way it was setup to connect...

I REPEAT I only have 1 ASH21.. There is NO funny business.. This is what my ASH 21 will do if I take a Cable and connect to the camera after the camera was setup VIA WIFI and had been working on WIFI only... After remvoing wired My ash21 will still stay connected with the WIFI as I have it setup.. IT has 2 Mac addresses and 2 ip addresses.... Because inside the camera has 2 ETH connections an ETH0 and ETH1

SO why does mine still work. Because when I am removing the cable from the camera after ALREADY having it setup to RUN ON WIFI it has it's own IP and its own PORTS... Remove the cable no damage to the cameras WIFI PORTS and things keep working...

IS THIS INFO UNDERSTOOD>......

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[Revo2Maxx]

So I forgot to finish my thought... If you look in my ARP list on the left you will find that in the list is an 841, This camera was setup on a WIFI setup first and then I later ran cable to the camera.. This camera is only being found in IP Config Tool with the current running IP over the Wired connection however if you look in the list I had it setup for 2 different IP on a Static Setup.. So even one of my 841's from 2015 that was setup on a WIFI, Then setup for WIRED while connected has kept the 188 and 189 on the same Mac ADDRESS however if I setup this camera on WIRED only it will have a different Mac Address... Now because this is the Wired ADDRESS that is the Mac for the Wired Connection what is missing is the Wireless connection Mac address as you would see if I had it enabled in Wifi with SSID and login.. Right now it is only wired. You can see looking at this Video.. https://youtu.be/30CN5Ct-hC0 this will show that on the 841 that is showing in the ARP list above with same MAC address in the VIDEO you can clearly see in the Wireless setting area that the camera has a different Mac address just not in the ARP because it isn't active however I can connect to the camera over Both IP addresses as I am doing in the Video..

This is the same kind of Mess up that is happening in the ASH21... There are 2 Mac addresses as the list above shows in the IP config list

[talormanda]

So you're saying to reset the device and set it up with Wi-Fi first, then connect an ethernet cable after the fact and use as normal....and then wired & wireless should have ports that remain open even after rebooting the device? Am I understanding that correctly?

[Revo2Maxx]

As of today I have lost that Function and not sure why.. However since I posted that last part with the Video I did some testing and reset the camera around 4 times and until today when I reset it again for testing out that it sure enough still would work. the crazy thing is I have now lost all function after plugging a cable in and then even just removing the cable, I don't even have to reboot it before the camera fails..

So while I was testing yesterday I did 4 resets all with same results (It worked after 4 resets and reboots), Moved on to messing with a few other cameras for testing, 841, 941, 1051, and a 841V3 all of them gave me same results and found some interesting things out about how things work with them cameras as well.. So today after your post I thought ok lets go one last time and do another test this time I did more then I had with the camera and is only thing I can think has caused this issue I am not sure.. SO Up to the time of your question the camera was working in ASP or my Version of it SmartPSS on my Wifi. Did a Reboot with the App and it was online no issue, So I did a Reset then this time added it back to PSS with both IP active (Not something I have done in the past) both of the connections worked. I then removed the cable and the camera still worked in Wifi, I then reboot the camera and after a few minutes it didn't come back online in Wifi (HUH not an issue I have ever had before today).. I waited 5 min before seeing the app says it can take 3 to 5 min to reboot.. I connected cable and it was online the Wifi, I then removed the cable and went to view the camera and it was offline.. No reboot just offline.. So I did another Reset, this time I tested in Wifi, Then connected cable and didn't add the IP for the cable IP I just left the Wifi one. However once I unplugged it and rebooted the camera it didn't come back online.. Now when I plug in the cable It will come online once I unplug it, it goes offline right away no need to reboot.. Only way to get it to work again right on Wifi is Reset camera again and so far after 3 more tries today if plugging camera in cable after a reboot it will not work again only if cable is in..

Now out of all my testing what I do know for sure even today seeing I have tested this out again... When you setup the camera first in cable mode and then have the camera setup with a Wifi the camera will not work at all with the cable out and the IP for Wifi might be found for an item it just won't let anything connect to it however the Wifi will make the app either way... SO What I know if you want it to work in WIFI connect in WIFI and don't connect to Wired and it will work.. (This wasn't the case for me before today)

All I know is only thing I did different today was connected the camera on PSS in both IPs while it was connected wired only thing I can think has made this camera fail because as I said before it has worked had it in PSS for months and reboots weekly no loss of connection and I have before all the resets and testing this last few days had my cable connected before with no loss of connection..

Also something different as others have pointed out they have 1 ip 1 mac where even now with mine failing I still get 2 IP's and 2 macs so I don't know what or why..

[talormanda]

That all sounds like a hogwash of issues. Nothing seems consistent at all. If there was any sort of pattern to it, it would make more sense in my head. I'm leading this to just buggy firmware that needs to be rewritten.

[talormanda]

Here is my latest reply on my year-long support email with amcrest whom is dragging their feet:

"There was a change in the R&D team so there is a new group looking into the issue. From what I have been told they are prioritizing this issue however I believe there will be a V2 of the Ash21 that will have this issue corrected. That being said it will have more features than the previous build but I have not been given all the details. The current ASH21 will need a firmware update unless the issue actually ends up being hardware-related as I suspect may be the case. Again, I know you have been following the case for quite some time now and I appreciate your patience with us in getting this issue resolved."

[Sunsparc]

I bought one of these for my mom when she keeps my children so that if one is napping in the bedroom, she can turn on TinyCamPro in background mode so that she can listen and open the camera to check.

I initially set up the camera in WiFi mode, it has not been plugged into ethernet at all. Port scanning the IP address shows no open ports.

I'm going to try to reset the camera, since it is already on latest firmware. This is a serious design flaw that needs to be fixed by Amcrest. Restricting to only their app isn't a pro consumer move.