2 Hikvisions recording to laptop w/ NAS4FREE and ext HDD

[bucket772 0]

I started a thread before about NVR issues with my Hikvisions. Thanks to all the folks that helped with the port forwarding issues.

 

My basic setup is 2 cameras. I didn't wanna shell out the buck for a dedicated NVR. When and if I need the recorded footage, one camera at a time viewing from the web interface will be good enough. Also if I added cameras of a different brand, I didn't wanna be stuck with mismatched gear. So.......

 

I have the two cameras into a POE switch running into my gateway.

I was going to use an old Mac g4 (10.4. as the NFS server. I think I need to be on 10.5. Also I never really was able to figure out the NFS share and how to get it to mount properly. (project for another day)

 

So I ended up loading NAS4FREE on a old Celeron chipped laptop. I am having issues getting the CD to mount and install to the HDD so I am running it off the CD. Some problems that I ran into, and would like to post so others don't waste their next weekend, are these:

 

When setting up the network on the NAS4FREE machine, I had to manually tell it which NIC adapters to use. I selected the wired port first then the wireless as the optional. IDK why both but it seems to like it. Then going in and manually selecting the IP address. It defaults to 192.168.1.250, 255.255.255.0 and blank gateway and DNS addresses. I changed the IP, left the subnet alone, entered the default gateway and DNS addresses. BINGO, It now was assigned an IP. Without following those steps, I could not get the machine an assigned IP. Also I couldn't get it working via DHCP.

 

Second issue was the storage. I have a 2TB Seagate external I bought for this project. Once I got the NAS machine up I formated to UFS and created a NFS mount point for the new drive. I was able to see it in the web interface of the camera. I would report the drive and its capacity but no available space. Tried to format via the camera and it said complete but it didn't actually do anything. Using the client software I tried the same thing and it reported an error. So I tried FAT, FAT32, NTFS and EXT formats for the drive thinking that it didn't like the UFS format. None of those methods would even report the drive. So back to UFS. Tried formatting through client, web (OSX, Win7 and Win XP) still nothing. Read and Re-read buellwinkles writeup on it and noticed on the screenshot that the file path was something like /volumes/public. The NAS4FREE was telling me the mount point was /mnt/NVRStorage. Turns out that I needed to add another directory to that. So I changed to /mnt/NVRStorage/cameras. BINGO!! It now was able to format.

 

Currently I have one camera recording to the NAS drive via an OLD laptop. I am able to view recordings from the web interface, client app and both the iPad and iPhone apps.

 

I really wish my knowledge of NAS4FREE / BSD/ Linux was better and I could have saved my weekend.

 

I think however that I need to create 2 sub directories. One for each camera. When I try to format the same share with the other camera, it becomes unavailable on the first camera. Not a deal breaker. Just glad I am able to get it done.

 

Sorry for the long winded post, but hopefully I will be of some use for someone else that doesn't want to buy a dedicated NVR and has an old machine sitting around collecting dust.

 

I tried running the client on the laptop but it was just to resource heavy and it was running WAY to hot.

 

Not sure whats going to happen when I run out of space, if it will automatically write over after a certain point or if I will have to manually erase it.

 

Thanks again for all the help from everyone that has given advice

[PM5K 0]

This may come in handy for me. Running the Hikvision software on an old 3.2 GHZ P4 and it's bogging down. Was considering just running the PC as a NAS and make all configs on the camera instead.

[CBX 0]

If you have problems with 2 server directories, try 2 server partitions. That's what fixed it for me.