Vitamin D Video Reference Guide

My camera keeps dropping the connection to the network

If you are able to successfully connect your camera, but occasionally see "Connecting" or "Could not connect," then your camera may be losing its connection to your network intermittently. When this happens, Vitamin D Video automatically tries to reconnect to the camera, but there will be gaps in the video.

Note that you may be able to view your camera’s video stream in a browser, but you likely can’t see the loss of a few frames due to network connection problems.

There are several possible reasons why your camera would be dropping off the network:

The camera firmware is old and needs to be updated.
The camera hardware itself does not keep a good network connection (some camera models, such as Axis and Panasonic, have better network connectivity in general).
The Wi-Fi signal at the camera is too weak for the camera to hold a good connection (note that cameras in general need a stronger signal than laptops or PCs do, so your signal might look “good” in the same location on a computer, but still be too weak to keep a camera streaming consistently).

Here are some suggestions on how to track down the problem:

1. First make sure that you have the latest firmware in your camera; if not download and install the latest version, and try again.

2. If you’re still seeing problems, if possible, try wiring your camera into your network temporarily using an Ethernet network cable, and see if the problem disappears. If the problem still exists your camera hardware likely has a problem in its network interface. If wiring the camera does solve the problem, then this points to a weak Wi-Fi signal.

3. If you have a weak Wi-Fi signal, a few steps to try:

Place your router at a higher location, such as on a shelf.
Try moving the camera closer to your router (or vice-versa). If possible, try to minimize the number of walls between the router and the camera (Wi-Fi signals have a hard time getting through walls).
Electrical interference from a device like a cordless phone or microwave oven can cause the signal to drop. If you suspect this is the problem, you can try to move your camera away from these devices. If the problem stops when you moved the camera away from a cordless phone or similar device, you might consider replacing that device with another one that uses a different frequency.
Change the channel of your router. Like TV sets, wireless signals are sent on channels. Many products ship with a default channel set to 6. If your neighbors are all on the same channel, you can try using your router software to change the channel to 1 or 11 (farthest away from 6).
Putting in a repeater or router with a stronger signal.