IP2M-841W Wireless Cameras Glitched out of WiFi

[topsy]

I have two IP2M-841W wireless cameras both connected to the same WiFi network. According to my router, they both disconnected from the WiFi network at 8:07 am this morning and never reconnected. Other devices on the same network were unaffected.

After plugging them in via ethernet I'm no longer able to connect to the WiFi network... Not only that they now have different MAC addresses!?!

I don't want to factory reset them yet since I'd have to set them up again, but willing to as a last resort.

What happened, and how can I re-enable WiFi? If I factory reset, will this just happen again?

[Revo2Maxx]

Hello and Welcome to the Forum

My guess is that you are using a Mesh Router system or some type of router system that the cameras are not happy with.. 841s work on 2.4 network and for some people setting up router to support only 2.4 had helped some people..

I would look in the router to see if there is an option for spoofing the Mac addresses. Normally a Mac address don't change once it has been hard coded into the device it was setup for. Only way it can change is by some software or hardware that is masking it or spoofing.

Removing the device from the network and connecting to a normal router or a switch and rebooting the device the mac address for the camera should be what it has built into it from Amcrest. If older 841 like a couple of mine from 2015 they would have a Dahua Mac address. After mid to late 2015 all devices from Amcrest will have hard coded Amcrest mac address..

[check6]

After plugging them in via ethernet I'm no longer able to connect to the WiFi network... Not only that they now have different MAC addresses!?!

The WI-FI adapter and Ethernet adapter each have their own, unique MAC address. Try using IP Config Tool to locate your cameras and bring them back online.

[Revo2Maxx]

If the router or Ap has changed the Mac address the IP tool won't find the cameras with bad Mac Address normally. The camera needs to be rebooted after being removed from what ever is Spoofing the Mac address. Once that happens the camera should have the built in Mac address again and can be connected using a different router or Vlan on a Switch. Connecting to the cameras Ip address might be able to change from DHCP to static IP and this can make the Mac address report as correct as well?

[check6]

If the router or Ap has changed the Mac address the IP tool won't find the cameras with bad Mac Address normally. The camera needs to be rebooted after being removed from what ever is Spoofing the Mac address.

It seemed to me that @topsy plugged in Ethernet, noticed the different MAC address, and assumed something is wrong, when that's the expected behavior. Seems premature to assume spoofing.

[Revo2Maxx]

Something to note, I didn't think about it until check6 mentioned his last post, Something that i forgot to think about..

Camera has 2 IP address and has 2 Mac addresses as well. Sorry forgot about this.. As you can see from my 2015 841W, I connected it to Wired connection Reset the camera, Then connected to the WebUi and setup Wifi, after setting up wifi I removed the Ethernet cable and did a search again finding my 841W, This camera is from 2015 so it has a Dahua Mac Adress but is an Amcrest 841W..

So yes I am wrong about spoofing. This can happen when wifi and wifi is connected over AP or a Mesh system and some other routers that support shared Mac addresses

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Screenshot (2223).png (3.71 KiB) Viewed 11512 times

[topsy]

If the router or Ap has changed the Mac address the IP tool won't find the cameras with bad Mac Address normally. The camera needs to be rebooted after being removed from what ever is Spoofing the Mac address.

It seemed to me that @topsy plugged in Ethernet, noticed the different MAC address, and assumed something is wrong, when that's the expected behavior. Seems premature to assume spoofing.

The MAC addresses actually changed on their own before I plugged the ethernet in.

What ended up happening is switching one to ethernet which I was able to get a different static IP and it worked, the other didn't have an IP address after the glitch. I plugged it into ethernet too with no luck. Weirdly enough the next day it was working again...

Not sure what happened and why they both glitched out at the same time, and fixed themselves later. Very strange and a little worrying.

[Revo2Maxx]

Then back to what I was thinking. I would look at your Router and if you use multi router setup or an AP I would double check that they are not setup to change Mac addresses.. It can make things not work so well when it comes to Ip cameras..

[check6]

The MAC addresses actually changed on their own before I plugged the ethernet in.

Go to Setup / Network / TCP/IP in the WebUI. Toggle "Ethernet Card" between "Wire" and "Wireless" to see the MAC address for each adapter. Compare those to what you see the next time it happens.