Raising Your IP Camera Comfort Level
Each IP camera will have an address for Internet/network communications. Whenever possible, the IP camera’s IP address should not be dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) as the camera addresses may change from the DHCP address pool. They should be static IP addresses.
Such addresses can be provided through free services like DynDNS.com. What is also nice about this service is you can attach a device name to the address and make it more user-friendly. Vendors often find use for this service. A word of warning about the DynDNS service: It may get blocked if your camera traffic abuses the services. The Web site gives recommendation on how to avoid this interruption.
When Rebooting Is the Only Answer
Even with the best technical intentions, IP cameras can periodically freeze and cease to operate. The only way to reset the cameras is often to reset, or reboot, the power to the cameras. This can be a real problem with cameras that are up high or in a remote location as it will take a service call and special equipment to reboot the power.
Vendors such as Videolarm (see sidebar) and Videogenix provide reset modules that can automatically reboot IP cameras that have locked up, thereby saving time and money having to manually reset a hard-to-reach remote IP camera. Interestingly this technology was developed for cameras in space or on Mars; a very expensive service call indeed!
A reported anomaly that can cause a remote IP camera to lock up is a single-event upset (SEU). Per engineering experts, this event has been defined as a change of state caused by ions or electro-magnetic radiation striking a CPU, semiconductor memory or transistors. While this happens more in space it can supposedly happen to earthbound electronics as well.
This also sounds like the perfect techie excuse for IP camera failure: “Sir, your service call was the fault of a SEU caused by a radiation storm.”
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