Need some help, internal POE card for PTZ cameras

[SubieRubyRoo]

Got a decently built (5800X CPU, 6750XT GPU, 64GB 4000MHz RAM, 2GB 990Pro) computer for the live stream at church. The 3 PTZ Optics cameras are quite a load on the network but nothing for the computer. vMIX processing time is never above 3ms. I want to get the 3 cameras and PTZ joystick directly to the computer, so I bought a 4-port LR-Link POE card with the Intel I210 controller.

How do I need to set up the card so I can just go straight in, so the cameras & stick are networked only to the livestream PC? Just use the joystick to set the camera IPs, then the joystick IP to a created network? How do I do the subnet mask and gateway when it’s all internal?

I’m familiar with normal networking but it’s been 15 years since I did any Cisco stuff, and this was never covered. Never done an internal network with no WAN access. TIA!

 

[tburke]

For this, you'd have to set an individual IP and subnet mask for every port on the NIC. Since you are not connecting to another pre-existing network, you can make up whatever IP addresses you want (as long as they're compliant with RFC1918 and not in use on your network). No gateway IP configuration would be needed.

Something like -
Camear 1 - computer: 192.168.10.1 / camera: 192.168.10.2 / subnet mask: 255.255.255.252
Camera 2 - computer: 192.168.10.5 / camera: 192.168.10.6 / subnet mask: 255.255.255.252
Camera 3 - computer: 192.168.10.9 / camera: 192.168.10.10 / subnet mask: 255.255.255.252

Another option, and my recommendation, would be to get a switch for the cameras, and plug one port on the computer's NIC into it, setting up one common subnet for everything if you didn't want to configure it in the fashion above. For example:

Computer: 192.168.10.1
Camera 1: 192.168.10.2
Camera 2: 192.168.10.3
Camera 3: 192.168.10.4
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.248

 

[mk378]

That is a lot of card to connect a few cameras. A more typical setup, as @tburke said, would be one regular (non POE) Ethernet card and a POE switch.

With a 4 port card you would create a kernel software bridge between the ports so they are all in the same network. How to do that depends on the OS on the PC.

 

[redhat]

If I’m understanding this correctly, a Windows box? I’d figure with a 4 port NIC installed, every time a port is populated with a device (cameras or joystick) you’ll need to assign an IP for the PC.

So I’d pick a subnet not in use, assign xxx.xxx.xxx.1 thru 4 as static IPs on the individual ports within Network Adapter settings then continue the same scheme of 5 thru 8 on the devices.

I’d figure you could probably also do some network teaming and join all those ports as one and assign one IP to the team, then carry on with static IPs per each device.

It’s been mentioned already, don’t worry about gateway, since it’s an internal only, as long as they’re all looking at the same size subnet and on the same subnet, they’ll talk… in theory.

 

[OVERKILL]

If this is Windows, you should just be able to select all the adapter instances in Network and Sharing centre and bridge them, then assign a single IP to the interface, eg, 192.168.50.1/255.255.255.0 and give each of the cameras a static IP in the same subnet like 192.168.50.10, 11, 12.

 

[Merek]

You can get a 5 port Netgar poe switch for $59.99 directly from them, you'll have to find out the specs if it's poe or poe+, poe++ they use either 15.4w, 30w or even up to 60w. I have the GS305p which isn't used anymore but kept around for a backup.

 

[xspeedy]

Yeah, as others have mentioned just get a PoE switch and put the cameras and the PC on the same subnet - just grab any RFC1918 network (192.168.0.0/24) works and all devices in there should be able to see each other. The gateway is just for how a device would leave the subnet if you had routing in place between different subnets. The client would know it is trying to talk to something on another subnet and direct that traffic to the gateway to forward it to the right place.

Oh, and there are different types of PoE out there. I think PTZ cameras usually need more juice, so normal old PoE may not be enough. You may need PoE+ or UPoE for these. You’ll have to look at the spec for the camera.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

That is a lot of card to connect a few cameras. A more typical setup, as @tburke said, would be one regular (non POE) Ethernet card and a POE switch.

With a 4 port card you would create a kernel software bridge between the ports so they are all in the same network. How to do that depends on the OS on the PC.

Currently these are all run into an Asus wireless router with 4 ports but there are POE injectors in each cable run. Wanting to simplify. Thx!

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

If this is Windows, you should just be able to select all the adapter instances in Network and Sharing centre and bridge them, then assign a single IP to the interface, eg, 192.168.50.1/255.255.255.0 and give each of the cameras a static IP in the same subnet like 192.168.50.10, 11, 12.

Never done this. Could you PM me a more detailed way of what you’re suggesting (or give me a website with this example)? Seems easiest & simplest recommendation so far, and seems to maintain taking all 4 Ethernet lines directly to the POE card. Thx.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

Yeah, as others have mentioned just get a PoE switch and put the cameras and the PC on the same subnet - just grab any RFC1918 network (192.168.0.0/24) works and all devices in there should be able to see each other. The gateway is just for how a device would leave the subnet if you had routing in place between different subnets. The client would know it is trying to talk to something on another subnet and direct that traffic to the gateway to forward it to the right place.

Oh, and there are different types of PoE out there. I think PTZ cameras usually need more juice, so normal old PoE may not be enough. You may need PoE+ or UPoE for these. You’ll have to look at the spec for the camera.

The card is rated for 30W per port; the cameras are 12v/1A and the joystick has its own power brick. Card actually has PCIe power plus a 4-pin large Molex for power.

 

[Merek]

My old setup I had was with a Ubiquiti router which could be powered via poe but the older devices were called passive poe which is 24v, currently poe is typically 48v. I was able to configure one of the ports for poe-in but had to use a converter that reduced the voltage down but also served as the uplink to the network. I keep an AP in the basement so I can at least keep a 2.4ghz network for the older devices. I have a nicer Netgear AP upstairs but for some reason I have trouble getting that one to work so it just runs the 5ghz. I also have a couple of Netgear switches that are powered via poe, the poe switch in the basement is connected to a UPS so my network stays online if the power goes out.

My current poe switch is a Trendnet that has 5x 1gb ports + 2x 2.5gbe with poe available on all ports.

 

[OVERKILL]

Never done this. Could you PM me a more detailed way of what you’re suggesting (or give me a website with this example)? Seems easiest & simplest recommendation so far, and seems to maintain taking all 4 Ethernet lines directly to the POE card. Thx.

Sure, DM incoming.