Security cameras as of 2023 are mainly IP cameras or PoE cameras which are digital cameras that can be used a variety of ways. Mainly, PoE security cameras can be used independently as standalone or as part of complete security camera system featuring an NVR recorder. The digital nature of the cameras makes them the preferred choice for professional security camera installers and Prosumers as they allow for tweaks to be made to image settings, and allow for configuration of advanced functions such as FTP, smart camera event detection, and other miscellaneous settings for compatibility with older hardware.
The purpose of this guide is to show you how to gain access to a Premium series security camera from Avalonix using a Windows PC and PoE injector. Briefly, below is a list of what you will need to follow the video and instructional steps below:
- Premium Series PoE camera from CCTV Camera World
- PoE Injector to power the camera
- Two network cables that are known to be in good working order
- Windows PC with hardwired network port or WiFi connectivity
There are two ways to connect to the camera, either directly in to your PC's hardwired network port or over a computer network.
Method 1 - Connect security camera directly to PC
First, you'll want to connect the PoE injector to the camera and your PC. Pay attention to the two different kinds of ports on a PoE injector. One is a PoE+Data port and the other is Data only port. The PoE+Data port gets connected to the camera, and the Data port is connected to the PC.
Once the physical connection is setup as outlined in the video, you can connect to the camera by setting the network port of your PC to an appropriate IP address that is compatible with the IP address of the camera. This process involves a certain amount of understand of how IP addresses work. We try to explain it in the videos below so you can follow along.
If you already know the IP address of the Premium series camera that you purchased from CCTV Camera World, then you'll want to follow the video below. If we set the IP address on the camera, there will be a label on the top of the camera box stating its IP address. In the tutorial below, the IP address of our camera is 10.1.1.85. We show how to set the PC's wired network port to a compatible IP address so the PC can talk to the camera.
Method 2 - Connect security camera to PC over the network
If you don't have a PC with a hardwired network port, and just have a Windows Laptop, you can use the PoE injector to connect to the camera and to an available ethernet port on your network. Once the security camera is connected to the network, use the Config Tool for the Premium series cameras to find the camera on the network. You can download the Config Tool here and learn more about it here.
In the video below we show how to use the Config Tool to change that camera's IP address so we can access it over our local area network (LAN). Once we gain access to the camera web interface, we show where to change image settings, camera's compatibility mode, and IP address.
