I have four Foscams and two Amcrest cams I've been setting up. I prefer doing everything manually through port-forwarding (simply never liked DDNS), and never had a problem with it... til the Amcrests and this new 5268ac router. I've had no problem getting the Foscams up both local and remote. I've managed to get the Amcrests running both wired and wireless on the local net. However, for whatever reason this router is failing to list the active Amcrest wireless MAC on its internal device table, even though it's obviously allowing it's access, and I can view the cam live, as long as I'm also on the local network.
Unfortunately, without the wireless MAC being listed, I can't set up port forwarding, so remote access is out of the question.
Any thoughts?
Pace 5268ac router and Amcrest IP2M-841 Cam
Re: Pace 5268ac router and Amcrest IP2M-841 Cam
Hello bkp,
If the cams wireless MAC is not showing and you cannot add the cam to port forwarding, try enabling DHCP on the camera by logging in to the cam interface ? Set up > Network > TCP IP. Save and restart the camera and try again. Once you add it to port forwarding, you can put the cam IP back on static. If that does not work, try rebooting the router next. Usually this fixes the issue. Its also worth noting that with the Amcrest camera, you will have to set up port forwarding for its TCP, http and UDP ports.
If the cams wireless MAC is not showing and you cannot add the cam to port forwarding, try enabling DHCP on the camera by logging in to the cam interface ? Set up > Network > TCP IP. Save and restart the camera and try again. Once you add it to port forwarding, you can put the cam IP back on static. If that does not work, try rebooting the router next. Usually this fixes the issue. Its also worth noting that with the Amcrest camera, you will have to set up port forwarding for its TCP, http and UDP ports.
Re: Pace 5268ac router and Amcrest IP2M-841 Cam
Thanks, Melvin. As it happens, I figured it out... problem was both on the Amcrest and the router side. The Amcrest only presents the cameras Serial No., in the device list, which makes absolutely no sense, since you have both a wired MAC, and a wireless MAC. None of my other cams or devices do this. I was able to set up the ports based on the cams static IP (in a somewhat kludgy, but do-able way).
This router also only allows a single user-defined port assignment. So, once you assign port 554 to RTSP, to a single cam... you need to create a new RTSP port (and new RTSP name, such as RTSP1), etc.
Have to say, I'm not at all pleased with the Amcrest config process, compared to Foscam. I think it's unwieldy, and the options are very proprietary. I have two other cam brands which allow *all* their functions (Zoom, PTZ, etc.) with public domain apps, like tinyCam, but not the Amcrest. I'm sure I'll figure that out as well... but, just having to spend the time to do something that should be intuitive means this cam trails the pack...
Thanks again for your suggestions.
This router also only allows a single user-defined port assignment. So, once you assign port 554 to RTSP, to a single cam... you need to create a new RTSP port (and new RTSP name, such as RTSP1), etc.
Have to say, I'm not at all pleased with the Amcrest config process, compared to Foscam. I think it's unwieldy, and the options are very proprietary. I have two other cam brands which allow *all* their functions (Zoom, PTZ, etc.) with public domain apps, like tinyCam, but not the Amcrest. I'm sure I'll figure that out as well... but, just having to spend the time to do something that should be intuitive means this cam trails the pack...
Thanks again for your suggestions.
Re: Pace 5268ac router and Amcrest IP2M-841 Cam
I'd just add in a few parts that seem to be a little cloudy..
DDNS just maps your external IP to a host name so you don't have to remember an IP and it auto updates if it changes. It should be used in conjunction with port forwarding to make it easy(er) to add your cams externally. It sounds like the port forwarding issue was resolved, but I believe generally routers want an internal IP if the item is statically assigned and a MAC if it's DHCP.
I think the MAC addresses are visible under the network->tcpip area of the webapp for the camera. Select the interface you are using (wired/wireless) and it will be under that. As for the needing a new port for each device, this is because of how access works on networks. Port forwarding is telling the router to accept an incoming request and "forward" it to somewhere local; normally it would just reject these. Since your router has only one access point (itself), there is only one thing it can map a single external port to because otherwise it wouldn't know where to forward the request to if you could define multiple places to go to. You could easily say that port 555 inbound to your router then forwards the request onward to 554 on your second camera, and not have to change the port on the cam itself.
Lastly, these cams are all supported in tinycam and with pan tilt. He added it a little after they came out, I have it as well. If you do run into a cam not being on the list, almost all IP cams support ONVIF so you should be able to just use the rtsp url directly in the app to enable viewing.
DDNS just maps your external IP to a host name so you don't have to remember an IP and it auto updates if it changes. It should be used in conjunction with port forwarding to make it easy(er) to add your cams externally. It sounds like the port forwarding issue was resolved, but I believe generally routers want an internal IP if the item is statically assigned and a MAC if it's DHCP.
I think the MAC addresses are visible under the network->tcpip area of the webapp for the camera. Select the interface you are using (wired/wireless) and it will be under that. As for the needing a new port for each device, this is because of how access works on networks. Port forwarding is telling the router to accept an incoming request and "forward" it to somewhere local; normally it would just reject these. Since your router has only one access point (itself), there is only one thing it can map a single external port to because otherwise it wouldn't know where to forward the request to if you could define multiple places to go to. You could easily say that port 555 inbound to your router then forwards the request onward to 554 on your second camera, and not have to change the port on the cam itself.
Lastly, these cams are all supported in tinycam and with pan tilt. He added it a little after they came out, I have it as well. If you do run into a cam not being on the list, almost all IP cams support ONVIF so you should be able to just use the rtsp url directly in the app to enable viewing.