Quick Guide: Configuring IP Cameras on a GeoVision DVR
Filed under: Cables, CCTV Articles, CCTV Camera, GeoVision, Guides, IP Cameras, Networking
Over the past couple years, IP cameras have propelled their way to the top of the chain within the surveillance industry. But unlike analog cameras, they can be a bit more complicated to set up and configure.
In order to get your IP camera up and running, the basic necessities are:
• POE switch (or POE injector if you’re unable to get acquire a switch)
• cat5 cable
• PC-based DVR
• IP camera (obviously)
Everything will basically go into your POE switch. The switch is connected to your local router, and the camera and the DVR go directly into your POE switch, which connects every piece of equipment to a certain IP range produced by your router.
Once the physical part has been set up and you are showing green lights on your camera, DVR, router, and POE switch, then you are ready to configure your camera for live view. The first thing you want to look at is the IP address of your DVR, which is automatically given to the machine from the router (if your DVR is set up as DHCP, which in most cases it is out of the box). On your DVR, mouse down to the start icon and click. You can search for your command prompt in the search box just above the icon, in which you will type in cmd. This will bring up a small black rectangular box. In this box, type ipconfig and press enter. This will generate your computers IP address, subnet mask, and gateway address, which the IP address of your router. The gateway address will be the same for every device hooked up to your router. To better understand the concept, we will use this as an example:
IP address 192.168.1.5
Subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Gateway IP address 192.168.1.0
Once you have this information, you can close out of the command prompt.
On your DVR, open up your Geovision surveillance software. Under the configure icon=> camera install=> IP camera install, you will find the basic IP device install screen. On the left side of the screen, you will see a series of tabs. The tab that reads “IP device utility” is the tab that you’ll want to click on. Another screen will pop up with all of the cameras that are connected to your network. Next to the “Navigation” tab, there is a “General Settings” tab – click it. You will then see a similar format to what you were just on. Here, you will double-click the camera model number in order to change the IP address for the camera. Another screen will pop up allowing you to change the IP address, subnet mask, and gateway IP address of the camera. For most IP cameras, the default IP address will be 192.168.0.10. Change the IP address to an address similar to your DVR, but not the same. Using the example above, here is how it should look in the cameras configuration.
IP address: 192.168.1.10
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway IP address: 192.168.1.0
The IP address of the camera is similar to the IP address of the DVR; the only thing that we change is the last set of digits. The reason we do this is because if the IP addresses were the same, they would conflict with each other and you would not be able to connect the camera, but we still want the IP address in the same IP range as the router. The gateway mask will be the exact same as the DVR. 255.255.255.0 This allows a router to obtain up to 254 hosts on the network. The gateway IP address is the exact same IP address as the router. This will never change, in all cases. Once you have entered the correct gateway IP address, you are done with the camera configuration. All you need to do is fill in the password for the camera and hit “OK.” The default password would be admin. Once you click “OK,” you will be directed back to the screen you were at before. You will need to repeat these steps again for each camera you have connected to your DVR. Keep in mind that everything will be similar, except the last set of numbers on the camera’s IP address.
Once all of the IP addresses of the cameras have been changed, closing out of the IP device utility page and will take you back to the basic IP device install page. On the left side of the screen, there is a tab called “Scan Camera.” Click that tab and this will pull up another screen that shows up blank, and on the right next to the bar along the top, there is a tab called “Scan.” Click that, and the bar will appear as it is loading something. In about 15 seconds, the cameras that are connected to the DVR will show up. Click each camera one at a time. As you do that, another screen will appear and along the top it will say “Query,” click this, and then “Apply.” After this, your camera will appear in the screen prior. Once you have done this for all of the connected cameras, click “OK,” and all of your cameras will show up in the IP camera install screen. Right-click each camera and tab over to “Display Position.” There you can put the camera wherever you want. Once you have displayed every camera, you are done with the installation of your IP cameras.
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