Alert Security Systems

[CameraDude]

Hi, after updating to recent commander software camera cannot be found. Upon update functioned a few hours. After which it was nolonger detected. Reboot router, pc and camera several times, gave detection for 15 minutes then lost again. Now I have done the reboot procedure several times and still no detection local or online. I have up until this point not experienced this with earlier releases but now it cannot be found at all.  Rollback to 3.1.100 did not help. Please advise.

[F4U_Corsair · Accepted solution]

Have you reset you homeplug network by unplugging the network bridge adapter and the camera(s)?  All the adapters have to be unplugged to be sure the powerline network resets. 

If that doesn't work I would look at whether you have an IP address conflict.  After the update and reboot of the camera the router may have given the camera a duplicate ip address or the camera is requesting it's old ip address and the router has redistributed it or otherwise reserved it.  If a router reboot hasn't cleared it then you could paperclip the camera and it will reset it and force a new ip address request.  If this does turn out to be the problem it could be worth reserving an ip address in your router.

[CameraDude]

Initially found camera hence reported problem as solved, however once again the camera can no longer be detected. Seems that stability and connection is worse than pre-update. The powerline test for this camera showed about 10 bars when it connected earlier today as it did pre-update. Once again I cannot connect at all after several attempts of power cycling all connected equipment(camera, router, powerline plug, pc, reset camera). The powerline test for this camera is the same as pre-update, seems to me the only conclusion is that the recent upgrade has rendered the connectivity to the camera more unstable than pre-update. I have had the camera running for a year without any such issues. Please advise.

[BadIPCam]

I have same exact problem. It worked for few hours after upgrade and it is gone now. The camera gives amber LED light and cannot be discovered on IP network anymore. How do I flash it with old FW?

[CameraDude]

As you say, seems the only way for us to fix this untill a new update is to flash with old firmware and or install old software. I tried the old software, but without any improvement, so definetely the firmware. Please advise on how to backroll to previous firmware.

[F4U_Corsair]

I don't think a FW downgrade is going to help.  These sound like IP conflicts or issues getting an IP address from the router DHCP server.  You can test this by unplugging the computer from router (turn off wifi if you're on a laptop and use the physical network port) and plug the homeplug bridge to the PC (not the router) then reboot the camera and PC.  This creates a network with just the PC and cameras.  If the PC sees the cameras like this then it's something with the way the router handled the device after the update.  

Routers vary so it's hard advise from here, but hopefully others can offer additional guidance.  From what I know this could resolve by simply unplugging the router for a few minutes so it resets it's router table, but that's highly router dependant.  Or, it could resolve after manual checking and reseting of your router table.  Check for a router FW update too as oftern DHCP bugs cause these problems and updates to the router contain a fix. .

[UselessS]

So running the older Alert Commander s/w, when you select "Update Cameras", OK the prompt, and see a list of cameras...the dropdown for the "New Version" column doesn't list anything besides 3.1.221 ?  I've not had a need to go back, but trying to understand exactly what you see in this case.

[BadIPCam]

What you see when the camera is not detected is generally grayed out historical fields if any. The camera stays known as long as you don't remove it, but there's nothing you can do to it or with it.

Frankly, I don't think it is the router since the two other cameras are recognized after the update and keep getting discovered over and over again using 'Find Camera' in settings. No ip address conflicts. I have wireshark on the laptop and I don't even see any activity from that camera. In any case, reloading router, PC, cameras, unplugging/replugging all didn't work. Probably heading for Warranty call at this point.

[CameraDude]

So you have 3 cameras and all are updated but only one is having connectivity issues? I have been trying to sort this for a while now. Still no luck. Last try will be to set activate the dhcp on the airport extreme rather than the adsl/router dhcp enabled.  If this does not solve it I will also make the warranty call as the update has renderred the camera completely useless at this point. This coming from a customer who has been satisfied with the product up untill this point.

Please provide procedure to downgrade firmware. Im willing to give that a go before returning the product.

[BadIPCam]

Let me summarize;

- Have 2 outdoor, and one indoor cameras

- All were working, recording, and emailing fine

- Received upgrade notification

- Went ahead with upgrade and all eventually upgraded successfully.

- All 3 cameras continued to work as before after upgrade for 2 to 3 hours

- Then one outdoor camera went away for the past 4 days since the upgrade and there's nothing I'm able to do to bring it back

- You just see the 3rd camera in the commander dialogues grayed out, and the router knows about it from history, but it is no longer active on IP network

- Camera physically is on and when reset it cycles through pink and amber and eventually goes to solid amber