Birdcam changes MAC address each time after restart
This is not related to SecuritySpy, but I thought to ask the question here since there may be people with the same experience (and hopefully a solution).
I recently bought a bird nest cam (Nestera) for my girlfriends birthday, and I have succesfully managed to configure it in SecuritySpy.
It works nicely, except for the fact that every time the power goes out (unfortunatly we have had a few issues lately), the camera reboots and has a new MAC address... The MAC address seems random.
This makes it that I cannot force it to use a fixed IP in my router. The camera software is a simple ios app with no advanced configuration features, so no luck there either...
If anyone knows of a trick to keep the camera on the same IP address that would be cool... or maybe there is another way to keep the camera correctly configured in SecuritySpy.. maybe some sort of script ?
Comments
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Not sure I will be of any help, as I can't think of no obvious solution to your problem; I've not come across changing Mac addresses in a network device previously.
Do you still have the box? Typically the packaging shows the serial number, Mac address etc?
It does sound like it might be faulty....
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MAC addresses are not supposed to change - they are meant to uniquely identify each physical network interface, and are typically burned into read-only memory or firmware at the point of manufacturer. I have also never seen this happen - this sounds like poor design on the part of this manufacturer. Unfortunately, if the MAC address is not fixed, and there is no option in the camera's own settings to assign it to a fixed IP, there is no way that you can ensure that this device gets the same IP address each time it connects to the network.
The other thing to check is if this camera supports either of the two standard ways of auto-addressing, which is ONVIF or Bonjour, as this would be a good workaround. Check the "Discovered Devices" list in SecuritySpy (you'll find this button under Settings > Cameras > Device) and see if it shows up here - if so, select it from this list and you'll see that the Address box populates with an address that will remain consistent even when the underlying IP changes.
Failing this, your next step would be to ask Nestera how on earth you are meant to address this camera. As @Robbie suggests, it may be faulty and they may be able to send you a replacement that doesn't have this problem. If you have to return it, take a look at this other Bird Box Camera instead, as it supports ONVIF and has been confirmed to work well with SecuritySpy.
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Good suggestions above. Alternative is to power the camera with a small UPS that will see it through brief outages.
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A UPS would help improve reliability, though you should't have to do this! And, if the camera reboots for any other reason (which will probably happen from time to time), it will go offline. If the manufacturer can't offer a solution, my advice would be to return it and find an alternative camera.
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Thank you all for the helpful advice...
Turns out, this camera indeed supports ONVIF, I have now selected the ONVIF address in the settings window in SecuritySpy.
I think the manufacturer tries to tie it's cameras to an online account and the app is the only supported way to access the camera. I think they try to upsell cloud storage this way.
The changing MAC address had me scratching my head as well.
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Great to hear it supports ONVIF - this should fix the problem, since SecuritySpy's ONVIF address will continue to work even when the underlying IP changes. A plus point to the manufacturer for offering ONVIF, rather than forcing you into their own apps and subscriptions (like many other manufacturers do).
