Wireless CCTV, as it is known, is becoming widely used in homes, holiday homes and businesses. It is CCTV over the internet, the digital replacement for those old analogue CCTV cameras, and enables you to see your property, live, from anywhere. I always advise home users to buy a fully-configured system that just plugs in, to keep things simple, but some people prefer to go their own way, and one of the common problems that the DIY beginner hits is that moment when he tries to log in over the internet to see the treasured home, and sees nothing! This article is the first of two in a series that explains some of the common causes of this problem and how to overcome them.
Now, we're going to start with the simple stuff and then work our way to the more technical. Firstly, you or someone near the camera should check the power. I have lost count of the number of times that customers have phoned to tell us that the camera is "broken" or "fried" or "dead". We always ask "Exactly what lights do you see at the back of the camera?" only to be told "Ah, yes, erm, it appears to be working now"! So check the obvious thing first. Still not working? The next thing to check is power at the router; again you should see at least some lights. If all is well, take a more detailed look at the lights on the router. Is the broadband light lit? (You may need to check the manual to see which light this is.)
The next checks are done through the web browser on your laptop or PC - and this is where things get more technical. If you are far away from the property where the camera is located, these checks may be your only option. The first thing to do is to see if you can log into the administration pages of the router over the internet, in other words, see if you can reach the network in the property where the camera is. (If your router has not been set to allow remote administration, you will be stuck, and should set this up next time you are at home!) You will need to know the internet or WAN IP address of your broadband connection, or the domain name if you use a dynamic domain name service such as dyndns.
Don't confuse the internet or WAN IP address with the internal or LAN one - here we are NOT looking for an address like 192.168.1.1. Remember that the address of your router, depending on the model and configuration, may end in a port number such as 8080. If you don't know the address of your camera and you're away from the property, you are stuck. Assuming you have the address, you will also need the admin user name and password for the router. If can log into the router's administration pages, this means that the broadband line is working and the home network is too. If you can't get this far, there could be a problem with the broadband line or the router, but you can only tell which by checking the lights on the router, which is obviously not possible if nobody is near it. You could always try to call the helpline of the broadband supplier if you are desperate and unable to get back to the property for a while, but getting them to test the line is not a trivial task and it may cost money if they find out there was no fault.
Assuming you have connected to the router, next you need to check that the wireless CCTV camera is talking to the network. Router models vary, but look for the wireless section, and somewhere you should find a list of "clients" currently connected to the network. If there is a refresh button on this page, hit it. The camera's name should be in the list. If it is not, then the camera is not talking to the network. In this scenario, the camera will need to be physically switched off and on again, and possibly also the router too. If you are away from the property and there is nobody else there, again you are stuck.
The next article in this series will help you if your camera is connected to the router but you still cannot see its picture.
access point vs router
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