IP2M-841B makes about 2000 connections/hour to amcrestcloud and amcrestview

[e1ioan]

I have a IP2M-841B camera connected to my network that makes about 2000 connections requests to amcrestcloud and amcrestview domains. This is a camera that doesn't have cloud storage enabled, it's just default settings.

When is this going to be fixed? I found many other threads about the same problem. I'll take it off my network and probably sell it with the warning that "it calls home" or, just chuck it in the garbage.

Here are some examples. Note, this is one minute:

Code: Select all

2020-06-18 12:04:59	A	amcrestview.com	        192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:58	A	config.amcrestcloud.com	192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:53	A	config.amcrestcloud.com	192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:49	A	amcrestview.com	        192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:48	A	config.amcrestcloud.com	192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:46	A	config.amcrestcloud.com	192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:43	A	config.amcrestcloud.com	192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:40	A	config.amcrestcloud.com	192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:39	A	amcrestview.com	        192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:35	A	config.amcrestcloud.com	192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:30	A	config.amcrestcloud.com	192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:29	A	amcrestview.com	        192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:25	A	config.amcrestcloud.com	192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:24	A	p2p.amcrestview.com	192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:20	A	config.amcrestcloud.com	192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:19	A	amcrestview.com	        192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:15	A	config.amcrestcloud.com	192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:10	A	config.amcrestcloud.com	192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:09	A	amcrestview.com	        192.168.2.10

2020-06-18 12:04:05	A	config.amcrestcloud.com	192.168.2.10

[jack7]

See if this works for you. It could have changed by now.
https://support.amcrest.com/hc/en-us/ar ... ctionality

[Revo2Maxx]

@e1ioan Hello and Welcome to the forum...


you might want to check to see if you setup to have the Free Cloud when you started with your Amcrest Camera... If you log into your Cloud account you can turn it off disable it and delete the account.. Also so you know any cameras changes you have made in the WebUI if you don't make them changes in the Cloud the Cloud will change them back to where it wants.. You can see if it is doing this in your Logs in the WebUI.. You will see changes made by your *Admin* or the camera *System* if you see changes with NO name that is the changes being made by the cloud.. Most times it is related to Encoding...

[e1ioan]

See if this works for you. It could have changed by now.
https://support.amcrest.com/hc/en-us/ar ... ctionality

It makes no difference. The P2P was disabled and the camera was calling home. It doesn't seem that there is a difference between enable or disable. Also, it doesn't stop after 2 hours, like the article states, it goes forever.

BTW, I'm using the latest firmware.

[e1ioan]

@e1ioan Hello and Welcome to the forum...


you might want to check to see if you setup to have the Free Cloud when you started with your Amcrest Camera... If you log into your Cloud account you can turn it off disable it and delete the account.. Also so you know any cameras changes you have made in the WebUI if you don't make them changes in the Cloud the Cloud will change them back to where it wants.. You can see if it is doing this in your Logs in the WebUI.. You will see changes made by your *Admin* or the camera *System* if you see changes with NO name that is the changes being made by the cloud.. Most times it is related to Encoding...

I have no cloud account, never enabled it, never created it.

Edit: I only see logs created by System and Admin.

[Revo2Maxx]

Well then my next question and only idea?!!???!?!?!?

Is this a new to you camera?
Did you put the Latest FW on it or did you get it with the NEW FW loaded?
Did you buy this camera NEW or Used? On the Box there is a Silver or White Sticker on the box What is the date Code that is stamped on the Sticker.. It is a White Sticker like the one I am looking at right now it will say Amcrest with logo before it, then have
Product
Model
Weight
and So on... On the bottom of that Sticker it will have a date like this one I am looking at says Date 2015-11
Then it will say Made in China

It is on the Blue part of the Box not the C date on the back they are all 2015 for the Sleeve...

So here is some more! If you bought the camera new and installed the FW yourself did you preform the Factory Reset at the back of the Camera? This button is the LED while it seems like just an LED it is also a Button.. To preform a Factory Reset of the camera Press and Hold the LED down until the Light goes off or Comes on if you have the LED turned off in the WebUI setup... Once reset don't forget that the Password and user name will be admin again...

If you bought this new or not so long ago and the camera came with the New FW already installed DID you Preform a Factory Reset?

I have p2p enabled on all my cameras and DVR/NVR's and mine don't phone home to many times a day...

[e1ioan]

I bought this camera new several years ago. I always do a factory default and a firmware update to the latest version when I get a new device. This device also has the latest firmware, I installed it when it came out few months ago, but no factory reset then (the camera is in a hard to access location), or, if I remember right I did a factory default from the web interface.
I do not have the box anymore.

I'll try a factory default from the button on the back later today and report back.

From yesterday when I made this post until today, the camera tried to connect amcrestcloud and amcrestview domains for over 30000 times.



That seems to be a bug in the software and it should not need a factory default to fix it, it should be fixed in the software. How many people have the same camera and the same problem but don't know because they don't think to check on the network traffic? I wasn't aware of this problem either until I decided that the amount of ads some of the websites have, pretty much make them unreadable, so I installed an adblock on my whole network (pihole). Only then I saw that thousands of requests are originating from the Amcrest camera.

As the developer for the IP Camera Viewer software on Roku, I have more than 20 test cameras of several brands on my network and some at other locations. Some of them are "no brand" Chinese cameras, and none of them phone home, except the amcrest one.

Anyway, I will try the factory reset from the button on the back and if that doesn't fix the problem, I would just get rid of it.

By the way, thanks for the help @Revo2Maxx, I'll report back the results after I have time to reset the camera.

[Revo2Maxx]

I have some no name OEM Dahua IP cameras as well I wonder if yours are as old as mine if not I wonder if you did a Port Scan if they would show an open Telnet Port.. One of the reasons I stopped using them some from as far back as 2011 was because there was Open telnet with no Docs to why they were open Plus there was other ports that are open that I don't have open on any other camera.. Also seeing they are no brand OEM there is no FW that I can flash so any issues they were built with can't be flashed out with a new FW... So now for some of them I use the housings for IR blaster housings and the ones I turned back on not to long ago I have blocked all Router traffic but still have access over my Local Network... Only thing is I found a site that said cameras could use local traffic from other open ported cameras to still gain access so I am going to remove from my Internet network range and add them to a different Segment all together and watch for IR Talk if that happens then I will pull them again because I don't know how deep the old ones can go...

So I am going to guess... Your showing 30000 plus requests I am going to guess that this is because when a request is sent and blocked it will then keep trying to send out... Sorry i didn't read back but is your P2P on or off on your cameras? If you run something that might block port traffic it will try and keep trying to make sure that when you want to connect over P2P that the server knows your camera is here and active yet if the port or server is blocked it will try other servers it has this way your able to always have a good connection to the camera from outside your network without having to port forward any ports.. If you turn off P2P it isn't going to be something that will happen right away on traffic.. It will happen that you won't be able to connect but the traffic can happen for another 2 hours after being turned off

[e1ioan]

I blocked the traffic to the two domains AFTER I saw that most requests on my network, more than 90%, come from the Amcrest camera. Only yesterday after noticing the traffic originated from Amcrest, I blocked the access to the two domains.

P2P was always disabled.

You'll have to agree that this is a bug in the software. When p2p, cloud storage are disabled, the camera should NEVER try to connect to anywhere. Maybe if there is "auto update firmware", or NTP feature enabled, it should check for new firmware once a day, get the time, but other than that, the device should be quiet.

[Revo2Maxx]

I agree that is odd.. I do know that when i did a Backup of the camera the camera is wrote to test for Firmware to the cloud but it is for sure odd that it is going so many times in a day.. I would contact Amcrest Support over Email or maybe call them and find out.. I know there was some others back in 2017 or so that had the same issue...

Geez I would be afraid if all of mine was doing that.. I have 5 841's here on my network and one at my cabin.. I have a 721 I took online that is an POE because it didn't get an update before it was discontinued and I am not sure about how secure it is or isn't I am sure it is fine but now only use it for backup if I need to take one of my 841's out of service I will put that in its place until I can put the 841 back online.. I am sure the 721 is ok I just like to keep thing updated. I do have a 841 for testing on Older FW from 2017 in my fleet of Cameras..