Networking question

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    So I have a question about UniFi switching that I can't really put into words. I kind of want to emulate a patch panel with my switch. So here's the problem. I have Switch 1 which is at our house. There is a fiber link underground which gets converted to Ethernet and that plugs into Switch 2.

    Let's say I buy some PoE cameras. Normally, you could just run an Ethernet cable back to the server room and connect it to the switch or the patch panel and then the switch. This would work for one house, but what if I want to get cameras out where Switch 2 is? The distance between the fiber cable and where the cameras would be is around 300ft. This is too long for any Ethernet cable and it would be kind of stupid to run one that long anyway.

    So my question is this. Is there any way to essentially route my network like this:
    I plug a security camera into Switch 2 port 2. That gets passed back to Switch 1 port 7 where the DVR is. I can then plug in a cable from Switch 1 port 7 to the DVR and then DVR thinks it's getting the connection right from the camera.

    These are the options I have for configuring the switches

    If I switch it to mirroring (which is what I think I need) it asks for a mirroring port. But I would want that from Switch 2, not a different port on Switch 1. Am I just out of luck?

    Thanks

  • Go to Best Answer

    Some quick googling suggests the mirror ports sounds like a good idea, but that it only mirrors it over the single switch rather than across multiple switches.

    https://community.ui.com/questions/Port…8b-7ed06d29fcdb

    https://community.ui.com/questions/US-8…dc-ed5f999799c0

    https://community.ui.com/questions/Port…f0-d6136e9c2afc

    I'm guessing by this thread your dvr doesn't support the ability to tell it what ips your cameras are on? Because ideally you'd run the dvr and cameras in a separate vlan and just have the dvr look for the devices then on the network.

    I'm not sure I have a better suggestion off the top of my head, I've seen similar things to this done before but I think what you're trying to do might be subtly different if the dvr needs a "direct" connection to the cameras.

    Only other thing I'd try potentially is running each of the cameras on its own vlan which is then broken out on the switch going to the dvr, but I'm not convinced that'd work either.

    Wild1145

    Network Owner at TotalFreedom

    Managing Director at ATLAS Media Group Ltd.

    Founder & Owner at MastodonApp.UK

    • Best Answer

    I think you misunderstand what port mirroring does. It does not create a direct connection between two ports: rather, it copies all traffic for all destinations. Imagine that you somehow managed to configure switch 1 port 7 to mirror switch 2 port 2. Then the camera on switch 2 port 2 would still be a normal participant of the network, so you would be able to access its feed using something like a desktop. When you access the feed, the camera sends traffic to the desktop. The mirror means that this traffic will be copied to switch 1 port 7. In this configuration, the DVR cannot communicate via switch 1 port 7 at all, it's just a one-way traffic dump.

    If your DVR really doesn't support finding cameras in a network with multiple devices, my suggestion would be to use a Raspberry Pi. Add some extra ethernet ports to it, configure your cameras as regular IP cameras, and then have the Raspberry Pi grab all the feeds and forward each one on a dedicated port that is connected directly to the DVR.

    To both above ^

    I was thinking that but I'm not sure what system allows for that. I've only had experience with Arlo and Digital Watchdog. Arlo is wireless which I don't want. Digital Watchdog (at least the box I'm familiar with) only connects to the DVR. I'm not sure what system can find other camera on the LAN. I'm pretty sure UniFi Protect does but from what I've read it's unreliable and lacking of features. I'll have to find a system that has that feature then, thanks

  • wild1145 November 2, 2022 at 6:39 PM

    Selected a post as the best answer.