Wi-Fi Expert Needed: Wireless Security Cameras

[GulfCoastToad]

Tonight I got sick and tired of my streaming movies buffering over the internet, so I started running some diagnostics and unplugging things. I was blown away when I cut the power to my two Foscam 8910W cameras. They have been absolutely murdering my Wi-Fi.

Using the apps Airport Utility and Speed Test, I took readings several times all over my house. I quickly found that I'm getting 5 and 2 Mb/s on my iPad and iPhone, respectively, with the Foscams running. Unplugging them immediately takes me to 16 Mb/s with the iPad and iPhone each.

What is most likely to be causing this problem?

 

[Fausty82]

Tonight I got sick and tired of my streaming movies buffering over the internet, so I started running some diagnostics and unplugging things. I was blown away when I cut the power to my two Foscam 8910W cameras. They have been absolutely murdering my Wi-Fi.

Using the apps Airport Utility and Speed Test, I took readings several times all over my house. I quickly found that I'm getting 5 and 2 Mb/s on my iPad and iPhone, respectively, with the Foscams running. Unplugging them immediately takes me to 16 Mb/s with the iPad and iPhone each.

What is most likely to be causing this problem?

If the security cams are constantly feeding video back to the mothership via wifi, that could be the issue. I’d suggest begging, borrowing or finding another wifi router to test running the security cams on a separate wifi network and see if that helps - since (I would imagine) that the security cams are feeding a local hard disk and not needing to go out through the interwebs, they should not affect your bandwith outside of the home... and putting the cams on a separate wifi net should help.

 

[GulfCoastToad]

I can create a guest network with my AirPort Extreme; is that synonymous with adding another router? The cams do indeed send their footage across the net, on demand, to my and my wife's phones and iPads. No video is stored locally, although small photos are saved to my iMac's HD when motion is detected. These photos are approx 60k each, so not exactly back breaking.

 

[kch50428]

I can create a guest network with my AirPort Extreme; is that synonymous with adding another router?

No. A second wifi hotspot is needed to dedicate to the cameras to use.

 

[GulfCoastToad]

How does one run two routers with only one connection port on the cable modem? Surely a splitter would decrease bandwidth significantly.

 

[kch50428]

You use an ethernet switch. That would connect to your cable modem, then each wifi hotspot would plug into the switch - your bandwidth in and out of the house is unchanged. You're just giving the cameras their own wifi hotspot to connect to, which frees up available wifi bandwidth on your AirPort for your other devices to use. The cameras will still be able to do what they've done before, on wifi space that's not competing with your other devices.

 

[3cit]

Before we build a second bridge to cRoss the same river lets find out what kind of bridge we currently have!

What kind of wireless router are you running now?
What is your promised bandwidth from
Your ISP?
what are the settings on the security cameras?

What you need to do here is manage your network. Many routers allow you to allocate bandwidth should you do choose, but the default is to "evenly spread" the bandwidth between connected devices.
So, for example, you get 30mbps and you have two wifi cameras, and iPad, and a computer. 30 divided by 3 is 7.5 mbps per device... You turn off the computer, and the router re-allocates bandwidth to 10 mbps. You get home with your wifi phone and turn your computer back on and you are up to 5 devices at 6 Mbps each... Not ideal, especially considering you don't need your cameras to be streaking video all the time. So you need to tell your router what to Do with those two connections.

Your "always on, always connected" cameras are in essence wasting bandwidth, they rarely use it.

 

[GulfCoastToad]

Lots of good info here. Thanks, guys.

Modem: AirPort Extreme 5th Gen (newest)
Cable: TimeWarner Turbo; 20 Mb/s down and 2 Mb/s up advertised speeds

Not sure what specific camera setting you're wanting. I can retrieve those when I get home.

 

[mjs416]

Putting the cameras on a seperate router will only yield better results if the streaming doesnt need to leave your home network. I use Nexia at my house and most devices I can control goes out into the internet and back into my house.

Another thing to consider is the resolution your cameras are streaming. The higher the resolution your camera streams the more bandwidth you use.

 

[John Yester]

My setup.


First Router
192.168.1.1
DHCP to use the range 192.168.1.3-192.168.1.254
A wireless channel like 11
Second Router
192.168.1.2
DHCP is disabled
Identical wireless security setup as First Router
Except the wireless Channel. Try channel 6 if the first is 11.
Plug hard-wire into the LAN port, not the WAN port.

 

[3cit]

Well I imagine the cameras act as a system, so that really one connection... You can keep your router set up as it is as a dhcp server and still assign a static route for the cameras after that is accomplished I believe you can establish specific bandwidth to that particular connection... Say 2mbps, as that is the best up speed you can get... That will preserve the other 18 Mbps for your other wifi and connected devices

 

[GulfCoastToad]

Before we build a second bridge to cRoss the same river lets find out what kind of bridge we currently have!

What kind of wireless router are you running now?
What is your promised bandwidth from
Your ISP?
what are the settings on the security cameras?

What you need to do here is manage your network. Many routers allow you to allocate bandwidth should you do choose, but the default is to "evenly spread" the bandwidth between connected devices.
So, for example, you get 30mbps and you have two wifi cameras, and iPad, and a computer. 30 divided by 3 is 7.5 mbps per device... You turn off the computer, and the router re-allocates bandwidth to 10 mbps. You get home with your wifi phone and turn your computer back on and you are up to 5 devices at 6 Mbps each... Not ideal, especially considering you don't need your cameras to be streaking video all the time. So you need to tell your router what to Do with those two connections.

Your "always on, always connected" cameras are in essence wasting bandwidth, they rarely use it.

I have an AirPort Extreme. How do I manage bandwidth?

 

[GulfCoastToad]

You use an ethernet switch. That would connect to your cable modem, then each wifi hotspot would plug into the switch - your bandwidth in and out of the house is unchanged. You're just giving the cameras their own wifi hotspot to connect to, which frees up available wifi bandwidth on your AirPort for your other devices to use. The cameras will still be able to do what they've done before, on wifi space that's not competing with your other devices.

I have this lying around, but it still works fine as far as I know. Will it get the job done as a second router?