Some IPC cameras able to detect new firmware but others cannot (InSight S445ZI) [Firmware bug found]

Some IPC cameras able to detect new firmware but others cannot (InSight S445ZI) [Firmware bug found]

Some IPC cameras able to detect new firmware but others cannot (InSight S445ZI) [Firmware bug found]
Some IPC cameras able to detect new firmware but others cannot (InSight S445ZI) [Firmware bug found]
3 weeks ago - last edited 3 weeks ago
Model: VIGI C250  
Hardware Version:
Firmware Version: 1.0.6 Build 241008 Rel.54658n

I have 8 InSight S445ZI cameras connected to a VIGI NVR1008H-8MP NVR. For some reason 3 of them can successfully detect when a new firmware is available through System settings>system management>upgrade firmware. Yet others cannot. The error is: "Request timed out. Please try again.". Error persists through reboots. All my cameras have basically identical settings (except for IP of course). Yet 5 of them can successfully detect new firmware but 3 of them cannot. I do not know why.

 

Help?

 

Note: I had to lie about the camera model in the "model" field at post creation as otherwise the forum would not let me create my post due to the fact that the forum does not know about the InSight S445ZI model.

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#1
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1 Accepted Solution
Re:Why are some of my cameras able to detect new firmware but others cannot?-Solution
3 weeks ago - last edited 3 weeks ago

After doing some further testing, I have located the source of the bug. It is a bug in the firmware of the IPC's (cameras) that is being caused by possibly a bug in the NVR's firmware.

 

Easy to replicate:

  1. Attach IPC's to NVR's PoE ports.
  2. Enable the "Network Isolation" feature on the NVR.
  3. Re-add the IPC's to the NVR.
  4. Disable the  "Network Isolation" feature on the NVR.
  5. Re-add the IPC's to the NVR.
  6. IPC's are now permanently unable to check for firmware updates.

 

The source of the issue is the "POE Access to Internet" toggle on the NVR that becomes configurable after enabling the "Network Isolation" feature. For whatever reason, even after disabling the "Network Isolation" feature on the NVR, the "POE Access to Internet" toggle still impacts the IPC's. I.e. if the setting was switched to off for "POE Access to Internet", that setting is retained even after switching off "Network Isolation". So the IPC's are retaining this setting somehow and are thus unable to connect to the internet at all.

 

Only factory resetting the IPC's solves the problem. Firmware on the IPC's need to be updated to remove the restriction of "POE Access to Internet" from continuing to impact the IPC's after the "Network Isolation" feature is disabled.

 

Hopefully this information helps someone in the future when they also encounter this bug.

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#4
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3 Reply
Re:Why are some of my cameras able to detect new firmware but others cannot?
3 weeks ago

Hi @Gooberry 

Thanks for posting in our business forum.

Gooberry wrote

I have 8 InSight S445ZI cameras. For some reason 3 of them can successfully detect when a new firmware is available through System settings>system management>upgrade firmware. Yet others cannot. The error is: "Request timed out. Please try again.". Error persists through reboots. All my cameras have basically identical settings (except for IP of course). Yet 5 of them can successfully detect new firmware but 3 of them cannot. I do not know why.

 

Help?

 

Note: I had to lie about the camera model in the "model" field at post creation as otherwise the forum would not let me create my post due to the fact that the forum does not know about the InSight S445ZI model.

It's C445.

The forum does not recognize the Insight series yet. These are renamed from the C445.

 

About the problem, are they on the same hardware number? I assume you might have different hardware. The firmware only pushes to the correct hardware even though they are the same model.

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#2
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Re:Why are some of my cameras able to detect new firmware but others cannot?
3 weeks ago - last edited 3 weeks ago

I'm not sure what you mean by "hardware number". There is no hardware number shown in the information page of the device. All I can tell you is that they are the same model on the same firmware and were bought at the same time and were previously able to detect new firmware but now cannot. The only difference I can think of between them is that the 3 affected cameras were put in "network isolation" mode from the NVR when I was testing it. But then I switched off network isolation and re-added them to the NVR. 

 

So perhaps there is a bug from the NVR's firmware (VIGI NVR1008H-8MP) that is infecting the cameras firmware that is then causing this problem?

 

Edit: In the end I suspected the only thing that was going to fix this issue was a factory reset. So that's what I did. Sure enough, that fixed it. My settings BEFORE the reset were identical the settings I input AFTER the reset. So clearly there was nothing wrong with my settings. This must be a bug in the firmware somewhere. Probably due to the NVR software's "network isolation" feature that corrupted my cameras firmware.

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#3
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Re:Why are some of my cameras able to detect new firmware but others cannot?-Solution
3 weeks ago - last edited 3 weeks ago

After doing some further testing, I have located the source of the bug. It is a bug in the firmware of the IPC's (cameras) that is being caused by possibly a bug in the NVR's firmware.

 

Easy to replicate:

  1. Attach IPC's to NVR's PoE ports.
  2. Enable the "Network Isolation" feature on the NVR.
  3. Re-add the IPC's to the NVR.
  4. Disable the  "Network Isolation" feature on the NVR.
  5. Re-add the IPC's to the NVR.
  6. IPC's are now permanently unable to check for firmware updates.

 

The source of the issue is the "POE Access to Internet" toggle on the NVR that becomes configurable after enabling the "Network Isolation" feature. For whatever reason, even after disabling the "Network Isolation" feature on the NVR, the "POE Access to Internet" toggle still impacts the IPC's. I.e. if the setting was switched to off for "POE Access to Internet", that setting is retained even after switching off "Network Isolation". So the IPC's are retaining this setting somehow and are thus unable to connect to the internet at all.

 

Only factory resetting the IPC's solves the problem. Firmware on the IPC's need to be updated to remove the restriction of "POE Access to Internet" from continuing to impact the IPC's after the "Network Isolation" feature is disabled.

 

Hopefully this information helps someone in the future when they also encounter this bug.

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#4
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