Security Camera Testing

Attendance Gabriel

Date/Time 20221122/1720-2100

Spaces Occupied: Control Room, Dome

Goals: 

1. Figure out ip cameras and connecting them to the physics building network

   1. Figure out if the cameras are directly accessible.

   2. Find out if the cameras use the same identifier in their IPv6 addresses.

   3. Find out if we need static ip addresses.

Log:

1. Tried to connect the cameras to the DC via ethernet for testing but the ethernet ports don't seem to support PoE(Power over Ethernet)

2. Connected a camera to the DC using a 12v adapter for power.

3. Sniffed network packets with wireshark, camera transmits ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) requests both over the university local network and while connected directly to an ethernet port on the DC.

4. The cameras try to communicate with gateway 192.168.1.1 . This is not the gateway of the university, so I had to set the ip address of the computer to the gateway it was looking for. From wireshark it is obvious when the connection is successful. 

5. I can now connect to the camera's predetermined ip from a web browser. The username and password are written on a sticker on each camera box, we will change these later though.

6. Changed the network settings of the camera by going into "Settings → Network → TCP/IP"

7. Set Default gateway to the network's gateway (130.85.72.129), set subnet mask to 255.255.255.128 .

8. Instead of automatic DHCP address allocation I used a static IP but it was taken by some other device. This resulted in the camera's NIC to change its IP to something available. (Remember to not use a static IP if there hasn't been provided by the network admins).

9. After setting the default gateway and IP allocation from direct connection with the computer, the camera can now be removed and connected to the ethernet jacks of the building. Bear in mind that some of the network jacks don't support PoE. The one in the control room has two ports; the upper one supports PoE, the lower one doesn't seem to. A non PoE port might be indicated by a computer icon next to the port.

10. The IP address can be found by sniffing ARP packets from devices using wireshark. This will NOT be needed if they get static IP's assigned

11. Connection works through the same way. We can either use a browser or IP camera software. 

Other Notes

When looking for camera connection packets on wireshark, put filter ARP.

The live feed seems to have ~1sec latency, but otherwise video looks good.

The subnet mask of the university network is 255.255.255.128 .

The cameras use a unique identifier in their IPv6 Addresses.

Todos

• Configure all cameras

• Connect all the cameras to BlueIris or alternative