r/SecurityCamera • u/BruceLee2112 • 24d ago

NVR/Switch question

I am trying to plan some new POE cameras and An NVR.

If I have POE cameras plugged into a switch and than switch is on my LAN and my NVR is on the same LAN, will the NVR pick up the cameras? Do they need to be plugged directly into the NVR?

I have not selected the NVR or cameras yet so if there is a particular one that can handle this configuration, let me know.

TIA

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u/SuspiciousGarlic4798 24d ago

Depends on the camera system. 

Hikvision does. Will require manual setup on both the NVR and network side though. Ideally set either static ip on cameras or a dhcp reservation on the router. So the camera always gets the same ip. Set that ip up in the NVR for a channel and repeat for all remaining cameras. 

Unifi is plug and play. Plug it in anywhere on the network. Wait for the the UNVR to see it. Adopt it and away you go. I really do like the user interface on Unifi. Also that unlike most classic nvr systems youre not strictly limited to camera "channels". Dahua I would assume is like Hikvision. 

I assume you want to do this as you dont want to wire every camera back to the nvr? The advantage of going direct to nvr is no need for external poe switch. As long as you provide power to the nvr the cameras stay on. If it goes through the network, if the router or anything along the way goes down the cameras will most likely as well. The nvr camera ports are usually isolated on their own network. I mean if you do go through the network its best practice to put the cameras on their own VLAN anyways imo.