Discussion:
Swann CCTV won't communicate
(too old to reply)
Java Jive
2023-12-11 11:28:47 UTC
Permalink
Adding uk.tech.digital-tv to the ngs posted and appending OP for that
ng's benefit ...

Public Health Warning: I know little about CCTV boxes specifically, and
you haven't told us the specific model number anyway, the following are
general comments about bespoke Linux boxes which may, or may not, be
useful ...
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 09:23:42 +0000
snip [JJ: but OP appended below]
I don't even know if it uses Windows or Linux, but the 'app' that
is supposed to let you interrogate it to find its MAC address is
Windows only. I already know the MAC address, and the rest of the
procedure that the 'app' is supposed to enable again assumes that
you have access to the menu, which I don't.
1) As others have suggested, this is almost certainly a bespoke Linux
or BSD OS, or possibly a derivative OS such as Android, I would guess
that the chances of it being anything else are pretty small.
In the absence of any response to my post, I can at least add the
information that it responds to a Cntrl/Alt/Del keyboard sequence,
implying that it might use a Windows OS rather than Linux. All it
does is Restart, though, so it is not of much help.
2) Linux also responds to <Ctrl-Alt-Delete>, though what happens in
response to it may vary.
Again, any help much appreciated.
Port scan with nmap it can sometimes tell you what the OS is.
Also as windows costs money and Linux does not its more likely to be
busybox but that's only a guess
+1
PORT STATE SERVICE
85/tcp open mit-ml-dev
554/tcp open rtsp
9000/tcp open cslistener
a reference to ClearOS for the mit-ml-dev.
rtsp seems to be part of the streaming process.
cslistener sounds like a similar process.
Any more help again welcome. But this is a good start, thanks.
As you might gather, I am in, for me, uncharted waters here.
3) You make no mention of having a manual for it, do you have one? If
not have you tried to find one online?

4) Failing 3, or additionally to it, have you tried looking for a
useful YouTube video, or hardware specific social media group? You may
find that people at uk.tech.digital-tv may be able to help, as some of
them install pro CCTV systems, so I've added that ng to this reply.

5) Have you tried a factory defaults reset?

6) Can you log into it using a serial or ethernet connection using such
as putty and protocols such as telnet or ssh?

7) The curse of these small systems is often the PSU, and errant
behaviour such as you describe can be a symptom that it failing. Is it
yer bog-standard common-or-garden wall-wart, or POE? If the former, do
you have a similarly specced one for something else that you could try?
Or, if you have the kit, or know someone who has that you could borrow
to test it, does using POE improve matters?

8) Another example of capacitor rot? If you can open up the PSU, check
the caps for signs of bulging, etc, and if any are found, replace them.
I have tried again several times to interrupt the boot, to no avail.
And again, every attempt to engage the Menu box just shuts the box.
9) As you suggest, you can often interrupt the boot - common
keystrokes are: any, <Return>, <Esc> - but this usually involves some
sort of direct serial connection using a suitable interface such as a
TUMPA suitably connected to known points on the PCB, and the connections
may require soldering. The information required to be able to do this
might be found in a YouTube video, hardware specific social media group,
or similar.

=====

For the benefit of uk.tech.digital-tv, this was Davey's OP which was
I have a two or three year old Swann CCTV system, that lay in its box
for over a year before I started to use it. All seemed well.
There was a period where it was regularly shutdown by powering it off,
which I know is not good. But it still comes back up when re-booted, to
exactly the same display as when it was last shut down, which can now
only be done by powering off.
The problem is, that I cannot get into the Setup menu, which also
allows an orderly shutdown. In theory, you move the cursor to the bottom
left of the screen, a few icons pop up, and you click on the left-most
icon, which brings up the box for entering ID and PW, etc. But it
might take 5 or 6 attempts to get the box to be displayed, and when it
is displayed, the first attempt to enter any character instantly shuts
the box down, and I'm back to square 1.
I have tried plugging in a keyboard and interrupting the boot, but I
have not found the magic combination of keystroke(s) that will interrupt
the boot process.
I have tried Swann Technical support, which is useless even when I can
finally get to discuss this with a human being, which is harder than
extracting blood out of the proverbial stone. It drives you round in
circles, never remembering anything of what was discussed two minutes
ago. Not a good advert. for AI, more the opposite.
Finally, Swann's chat-bot. responded today with the comment: "Your
device is now too old, technical support is no longer available". I
won't be buying any more of it from them, then.
All I want to do is to, first, be able to interrupt the boot procedure,
and second, go from there to at least see what I can see. I don't even
know if it uses Windows or Linux, but the 'app' that is supposed to let
you interrogate it to find its MAC address is Windows only. I already
know the MAC address, and the rest of the procedure that the 'app' is
supposed to enable again assumes that you have access to the menu,
which I don't.
Any help gratefully received.
--
Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk
Davey
2023-12-11 12:35:08 UTC
Permalink
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 11:28:47 +0000
Post by Java Jive
Adding uk.tech.digital-tv to the ngs posted and appending OP for that
ng's benefit ...
Public Health Warning: I know little about CCTV boxes specifically,
and you haven't told us the specific model number anyway, the
following are general comments about bespoke Linux boxes which may,
or may not, be useful ...
Big snip
Post by Java Jive
Any help gratefully received.
Thanks for a very comprehensive reply. I will supply as much
information as I can, but not now, I have a busy afternoon ahead.
But thank you.
--
Davey.
Davey
2023-12-11 13:54:05 UTC
Permalink
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 11:28:47 +0000
Post by Java Jive
5) Have you tried a factory defaults reset?
All descriptions of doing a factory reset assume access to the Setup
Menu, which is precisely what I cannot get at.
Post by Java Jive
6) Can you log into it using a serial or ethernet connection using
such as putty and protocols such as telnet or ssh?
I have tried ssh and telnet, and both get a "No permission" response.
At least it is responding...
--
Davey.
Davey
2023-12-11 16:00:45 UTC
Permalink
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 11:28:47 +0000
Post by Java Jive
3) You make no mention of having a manual for it, do you have one?
If not have you tried to find one online?
See note earlier, but briefly, the online manual is no help for getting
into the OS, it talks about operating the system once it's up and
running.
Post by Java Jive
4) Failing 3, or additionally to it, have you tried looking for a
useful YouTube video, or hardware specific social media group? You
may find that people at uk.tech.digital-tv may be able to help, as
some of them install pro CCTV systems, so I've added that ng to this
reply.
Yes, They all assume that I can access the menu, which I can't. Maybe
the other ng may come up with an answer.
Post by Java Jive
5) Have you tried a factory defaults reset?
That requires access to the the menu, which I don't have.
Post by Java Jive
6) Can you log into it using a serial or ethernet connection using
such as putty and protocols such as telnet or ssh?
See earlier response re: ssh and telnet. Briefly, "No entry allowed". I
thought, maybe erroneously, that putty was for Windows, as well as
windows.
Post by Java Jive
7) The curse of these small systems is often the PSU, and errant
behaviour such as you describe can be a symptom that it failing. Is
it yer bog-standard common-or-garden wall-wart, or POE? If the
former, do you have a similarly specced one for something else that
you could try? Or, if you have the kit, or know someone who has that
you could borrow to test it, does using POE improve matters?
The PSU is use-wise pretty new. This strange behaviour is predictable,
the only thing that is not exactly the same is the number of mouse
button presses required to bring up the menu, it may be one, it may be
five, or anything in between. But every single time that I manage to do
that, the first character entered into the menu box dismisses the menu.
Post by Java Jive
8) Another example of capacitor rot? If you can open up the PSU,
check the caps for signs of bulging, etc, and if any are found,
replace them.
It is a wall-wart. I don't think it's the PSU, it is something in the
software. But I am prepared to admit it if I am proved wrong.
Post by Java Jive
I have tried again several times to interrupt the boot, to no avail.
And again, every attempt to engage the Menu box just shuts the box.
9) As you suggest, you can often interrupt the boot - common
keystrokes are: any, <Return>, <Esc> - but this usually involves
some sort of direct serial connection using a suitable interface such
as a TUMPA suitably connected to known points on the PCB, and the
connections may require soldering. The information required to be
able to do this might be found in a YouTube video, hardware specific
social media group, or similar.
I had never heard of a TUMPA until now, and am unlikely to go to those
lengths, even if I could find the information.
Finally, I was discussing this with a colleague today. I have decided to
continue to try to fix it, but non-destructively, ie no prising open of
wall-wart PSUs. It is currently doing the basic job it was purchased
for, to allow me to monitor the patio at the rear of the house, but I
cannot record anything, so it is live vision only. But it is mainly to
observe visiting wildlife or neighbouring cats. I will look at buying a
better system at some stage for general around-the-house monitoring and
recording, when my current system (Dell from 2000, and Zoneminder!)
finally expires. In the absence of any knowledge that gets me into the
Swann software/OS, I will keep trying to interrupt the boot.
Interrupting by keyboard has always worked for me on desktops and
laptops, it should work on this thing.
--
Davey.
Martin Gregorie
2023-12-11 16:58:22 UTC
Permalink
Post by Davey
See earlier response re: ssh and telnet. Briefly, "No entry allowed". I
thought, maybe erroneously, that putty was for Windows, as well as
windows.
So what, if any, ports are open? nmap should show you that.
--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org
Davey
2023-12-11 18:47:30 UTC
Permalink
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 16:58:22 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
See earlier response re: ssh and telnet. Briefly, "No entry
allowed". I thought, maybe erroneously, that putty was for Windows,
as well as windows.
So what, if any, ports are open? nmap should show you that.
The only other information provided by nmap is:

Host is up (0.0022s latency).
Not shown: 997 closed ports
--
Davey.
Martin Gregorie
2023-12-11 20:50:30 UTC
Permalink
Post by Davey
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 16:58:22 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
See earlier response re: ssh and telnet. Briefly, "No entry allowed".
I thought, maybe erroneously, that putty was for Windows,
as well as windows.
So what, if any, ports are open? nmap should show you that.
Host is up (0.0022s latency).
Not shown: 997 closed ports
What scan options did you use? "man nmap" shows all (and gives reasonably
readable descriptions of them.

I suppose you DID run nmap from another box on your LAN since its designed
to look on a port on another computer? I usually use "nmap -P0 xxx" where
xxx is the computer's local name on my LAN.
--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org
Davey
2023-12-11 23:55:07 UTC
Permalink
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 20:50:30 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 16:58:22 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
See earlier response re: ssh and telnet. Briefly, "No entry
allowed". I thought, maybe erroneously, that putty was for
Windows, as well as windows.
So what, if any, ports are open? nmap should show you that.
Host is up (0.0022s latency).
Not shown: 997 closed ports
What scan options did you use? "man nmap" shows all (and gives
reasonably readable descriptions of them.
I suppose you DID run nmap from another box on your LAN since its
designed to look on a port on another computer? I usually use "nmap
-P0 xxx" where xxx is the computer's local name on my LAN.
I ran nmap from my laptop, on the same network. Here is the full
transcript.
~$ nmap -P0 Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611

Starting Nmap 7.60 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2023-12-11 23:49 GMT
Nmap scan report for Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611 (192.168.1.195)
Host is up (0.00064s latency).
rDNS record for 192.168.1.195: Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611.fritz.box
Not shown: 997 closed ports
PORT STATE SERVICE
85/tcp open mit-ml-dev
554/tcp open rtsp
9000/tcp open cslistener

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.08 seconds
--
Davey.
Martin Gregorie
2023-12-12 01:01:08 UTC
Permalink
Post by Davey
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 20:50:30 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 16:58:22 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
See earlier response re: ssh and telnet. Briefly, "No entry
allowed". I thought, maybe erroneously, that putty was for
Windows, as well as windows.
So what, if any, ports are open? nmap should show you that.
Host is up (0.0022s latency).
Not shown: 997 closed ports
What scan options did you use? "man nmap" shows all (and gives
reasonably readable descriptions of them.
I suppose you DID run nmap from another box on your LAN since its
designed to look on a port on another computer? I usually use "nmap -P0
xxx" where xxx is the computer's local name on my LAN.
I ran nmap from my laptop, on the same network. Here is the full
transcript.
~$ nmap -P0 Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611
Starting Nmap 7.60 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2023-12-11 23:49 GMT Nmap
scan report for Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611 (192.168.1.195) Host is up
(0.00064s latency).
rDNS record for 192.168.1.195: Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611.fritz.box Not
shown: 997 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.08 seconds
An interseting set of ports:

85/tcp open mit-ml-dev - seems to be is a high-level block-based
visual programming language, developed/owned
by MIT
554/tcp open rtsp a Real Time Streaming Protocol, so to
be expected
9000/tcp open cslistener Seems to be something specific to Ubuntu
Linux

Is there any system you know of on your LAN that's running Ubuntu?

Knowing nothing about video streaming applications, that's about as much
as I can suggest. If the above doesn't give your pointers I can only
suggest:

- contacting the source of your gadget and asking for a manual if you
don't have one

- pointing Wireshark, if you have it installed, to see what. if anything
is sent and/or received by your streaming gadget when it's starting up.

- are there any relevant log file entries that you can access on your
streaming device?

- since I see you're using a Fritz-box, you might want to look at its
manual (available by download) to see if it can offer any diagnostic
help.

When trouble shooting a relatively unfamiliar device or application, I
tend to look at logs with less, gedit or vi, since both have good search
abilities, and then fire up Wireshark if I suspect it might be a comms
problem. .
--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org
Davey
2023-12-12 08:13:44 UTC
Permalink
On Tue, 12 Dec 2023 01:01:08 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
85/tcp open mit-ml-dev - seems to be is a high-level block-based
visual programming language,
developed/owned by MIT
554/tcp open rtsp a Real Time Streaming Protocol, so to
be expected
9000/tcp open cslistener Seems to be something specific to Ubuntu
Linux
Is there any system you know of on your LAN that's running Ubuntu?
My laptop. My CCTV box, the Dell. Also, two Humax DVRs, which I think
use Linux of some variety.
Post by Martin Gregorie
Knowing nothing about video streaming applications, that's about as
much as I can suggest. If the above doesn't give your pointers I can
- contacting the source of your gadget and asking for a manual if you
don't have one
I always get pointed to the same one, which icnludes a load of
different models, and is of no use at all.
Post by Martin Gregorie
- pointing Wireshark, if you have it installed, to see what. if
anything is sent and/or received by your streaming gadget when it's
starting up.
I have never managed to get Wireshark to give me anything I understand,
which I am sure is my problem, but does not help. What it describes, I
don't see when I fire it up.
Post by Martin Gregorie
- are there any relevant log file entries that you can access on your
streaming device?
- since I see you're using a Fritz-box, you might want to look at its
manual (available by download) to see if it can offer any diagnostic
help.
I might try that, thanks.
--
Davey.
Davey
2023-12-12 10:33:17 UTC
Permalink
On Tue, 12 Dec 2023 01:01:08 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 20:50:30 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 16:58:22 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
See earlier response re: ssh and telnet. Briefly, "No entry
allowed". I thought, maybe erroneously, that putty was for
Windows, as well as windows.
So what, if any, ports are open? nmap should show you that.
Host is up (0.0022s latency).
Not shown: 997 closed ports
What scan options did you use? "man nmap" shows all (and gives
reasonably readable descriptions of them.
I suppose you DID run nmap from another box on your LAN since its
designed to look on a port on another computer? I usually use
"nmap -P0 xxx" where xxx is the computer's local name on my LAN.
I ran nmap from my laptop, on the same network. Here is the full
transcript.
~$ nmap -P0 Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611
Starting Nmap 7.60 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2023-12-11 23:49 GMT Nmap
scan report for Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611 (192.168.1.195) Host is up
(0.00064s latency).
rDNS record for 192.168.1.195: Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611.fritz.box
Not shown: 997 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.08 seconds
85/tcp open mit-ml-dev - seems to be is a high-level block-based
visual programming language,
developed/owned by MIT
554/tcp open rtsp a Real Time Streaming Protocol, so to
be expected
9000/tcp open cslistener Seems to be something specific to Ubuntu
Linux
Is there any system you know of on your LAN that's running Ubuntu?
Knowing nothing about video streaming applications, that's about as
much as I can suggest. If the above doesn't give your pointers I can
- contacting the source of your gadget and asking for a manual if you
don't have one
- pointing Wireshark, if you have it installed, to see what. if
anything is sent and/or received by your streaming gadget when it's
starting up.
- are there any relevant log file entries that you can access on your
streaming device?
- since I see you're using a Fritz-box, you might want to look at its
manual (available by download) to see if it can offer any diagnostic
help.
When trouble shooting a relatively unfamiliar device or application,
I tend to look at logs with less, gedit or vi, since both have good
search abilities, and then fire up Wireshark if I suspect it might be
a comms problem. .
I got Wireshark working, simply a matter of using the command 'sudo
wireshark' instead of using the icon. Easy when you know, not when you
don't.
I performed a re-boot on the Swann. and the only packet recorded was a
simple enquiry:

"SwannCom_ae:36:11/Broadcast/ARP/68/Who has 192.168.1.254? Tell
192.1681.195"

192.168.1.254 is the Fritz!Box, ~~195 is the Swann.
That's all from the CCTV box.

There is a shit-load of stuff going on! But very little Swann.
--
Davey.
SH
2023-12-12 11:02:26 UTC
Permalink
Post by Davey
On Tue, 12 Dec 2023 01:01:08 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 20:50:30 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 16:58:22 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
See earlier response re: ssh and telnet. Briefly, "No entry
allowed". I thought, maybe erroneously, that putty was for
Windows, as well as windows.
So what, if any, ports are open? nmap should show you that.
Host is up (0.0022s latency).
Not shown: 997 closed ports
What scan options did you use? "man nmap" shows all (and gives
reasonably readable descriptions of them.
I suppose you DID run nmap from another box on your LAN since its
designed to look on a port on another computer? I usually use
"nmap -P0 xxx" where xxx is the computer's local name on my LAN.
I ran nmap from my laptop, on the same network. Here is the full
transcript.
~$ nmap -P0 Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611
Starting Nmap 7.60 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2023-12-11 23:49 GMT Nmap
scan report for Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611 (192.168.1.195) Host is up
(0.00064s latency).
rDNS record for 192.168.1.195: Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611.fritz.box
Not shown: 997 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.08 seconds
85/tcp open mit-ml-dev - seems to be is a high-level block-based
visual programming language,
developed/owned by MIT
554/tcp open rtsp a Real Time Streaming Protocol, so to
be expected
9000/tcp open cslistener Seems to be something specific to Ubuntu
Linux
Is there any system you know of on your LAN that's running Ubuntu?
Knowing nothing about video streaming applications, that's about as
much as I can suggest. If the above doesn't give your pointers I can
- contacting the source of your gadget and asking for a manual if you
don't have one
- pointing Wireshark, if you have it installed, to see what. if
anything is sent and/or received by your streaming gadget when it's
starting up.
- are there any relevant log file entries that you can access on your
streaming device?
- since I see you're using a Fritz-box, you might want to look at its
manual (available by download) to see if it can offer any diagnostic
help.
When trouble shooting a relatively unfamiliar device or application,
I tend to look at logs with less, gedit or vi, since both have good
search abilities, and then fire up Wireshark if I suspect it might be
a comms problem. .
I got Wireshark working, simply a matter of using the command 'sudo
wireshark' instead of using the icon. Easy when you know, not when you
don't.
I performed a re-boot on the Swann. and the only packet recorded was a
"SwannCom_ae:36:11/Broadcast/ARP/68/Who has 192.168.1.254? Tell
192.1681.195"
192.168.1.254 is the Fritz!Box, ~~195 is the Swann.
That's all from the CCTV box.
There is a shit-load of stuff going on! But very little Swann.
For what it is worth, I've been involved in CCTV stuff for a long time,
and if I can be honest with you, Swann is a complete POS that was
heavily sold by Maplin before their eventual demise.

The eaiest thing to is to bin the Swann and start again with a decent
qaulity DVR like Samsung, Distributed Micros, Hikvision or Dahua.

They are much cheaper now than when you originally bought the Swann
(Highly probable!)

S.
Davey
2023-12-12 12:01:16 UTC
Permalink
On Tue, 12 Dec 2023 11:02:26 +0000
Post by SH
Post by Davey
On Tue, 12 Dec 2023 01:01:08 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 20:50:30 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 16:58:22 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
See earlier response re: ssh and telnet. Briefly, "No entry
allowed". I thought, maybe erroneously, that putty was for
Windows, as well as windows.
So what, if any, ports are open? nmap should show you that.
Host is up (0.0022s latency).
Not shown: 997 closed ports
What scan options did you use? "man nmap" shows all (and gives
reasonably readable descriptions of them.
I suppose you DID run nmap from another box on your LAN since its
designed to look on a port on another computer? I usually use
"nmap -P0 xxx" where xxx is the computer's local name on my LAN.
I ran nmap from my laptop, on the same network. Here is the full
transcript.
~$ nmap -P0 Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611
Starting Nmap 7.60 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2023-12-11 23:49 GMT
Nmap scan report for Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611 (192.168.1.195)
Host is up (0.00064s latency).
rDNS record for 192.168.1.195: Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611.fritz.box
Not shown: 997 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.08 seconds
85/tcp open mit-ml-dev - seems to be is a high-level
block-based visual programming language,
developed/owned by MIT
554/tcp open rtsp a Real Time Streaming Protocol, so to
be expected
9000/tcp open cslistener Seems to be something specific to
Ubuntu Linux
Is there any system you know of on your LAN that's running Ubuntu?
Knowing nothing about video streaming applications, that's about as
much as I can suggest. If the above doesn't give your pointers I
- contacting the source of your gadget and asking for a manual if
you don't have one
- pointing Wireshark, if you have it installed, to see what. if
anything is sent and/or received by your streaming gadget when it's
starting up.
- are there any relevant log file entries that you can access on
your streaming device?
- since I see you're using a Fritz-box, you might want to look at
its manual (available by download) to see if it can offer any
diagnostic help.
When trouble shooting a relatively unfamiliar device or
application, I tend to look at logs with less, gedit or vi, since
both have good search abilities, and then fire up Wireshark if I
suspect it might be a comms problem. .
I got Wireshark working, simply a matter of using the command 'sudo
wireshark' instead of using the icon. Easy when you know, not when
you don't.
I performed a re-boot on the Swann. and the only packet recorded
"SwannCom_ae:36:11/Broadcast/ARP/68/Who has 192.168.1.254? Tell
192.1681.195"
192.168.1.254 is the Fritz!Box, ~~195 is the Swann.
That's all from the CCTV box.
There is a shit-load of stuff going on! But very little Swann.
For what it is worth, I've been involved in CCTV stuff for a long
time, and if I can be honest with you, Swann is a complete POS that
was heavily sold by Maplin before their eventual demise.
The eaiest thing to is to bin the Swann and start again with a decent
qaulity DVR like Samsung, Distributed Micros, Hikvision or Dahua.
They are much cheaper now than when you originally bought the Swann
(Highly probable!)
S.
I was coming to a similar conclusion, see another post in this thread.
The Swann is doing one job, and it will continue to do that.
Thanks for the recommendations, also. I have personally always had luck
with Samsung products, even though others sometimes complain, they have
done me well. I always wondered if Hikvision might suffer from the
reputed stealth abilities of Huawei surveillance equipment... D.M. and
Dahua I know nothing about, but I will find out.

As nothing so far has enabled me to get into the brain of the Swann, I
think I might just say: Close this thread down.
But I thank everybody who has contributed.
--
Davey.
SH
2023-12-12 12:46:57 UTC
Permalink
Post by Davey
On Tue, 12 Dec 2023 11:02:26 +0000
Post by SH
Post by Davey
On Tue, 12 Dec 2023 01:01:08 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 20:50:30 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 16:58:22 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
See earlier response re: ssh and telnet. Briefly, "No entry
allowed". I thought, maybe erroneously, that putty was for
Windows, as well as windows.
So what, if any, ports are open? nmap should show you that.
Host is up (0.0022s latency).
Not shown: 997 closed ports
What scan options did you use? "man nmap" shows all (and gives
reasonably readable descriptions of them.
I suppose you DID run nmap from another box on your LAN since its
designed to look on a port on another computer? I usually use
"nmap -P0 xxx" where xxx is the computer's local name on my LAN.
I ran nmap from my laptop, on the same network. Here is the full
transcript.
~$ nmap -P0 Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611
Starting Nmap 7.60 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2023-12-11 23:49 GMT
Nmap scan report for Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611 (192.168.1.195)
Host is up (0.00064s latency).
rDNS record for 192.168.1.195: Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611.fritz.box
Not shown: 997 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.08 seconds
85/tcp open mit-ml-dev - seems to be is a high-level
block-based visual programming language,
developed/owned by MIT
554/tcp open rtsp a Real Time Streaming Protocol, so to
be expected
9000/tcp open cslistener Seems to be something specific to
Ubuntu Linux
Is there any system you know of on your LAN that's running Ubuntu?
Knowing nothing about video streaming applications, that's about as
much as I can suggest. If the above doesn't give your pointers I
- contacting the source of your gadget and asking for a manual if
you don't have one
- pointing Wireshark, if you have it installed, to see what. if
anything is sent and/or received by your streaming gadget when it's
starting up.
- are there any relevant log file entries that you can access on
your streaming device?
- since I see you're using a Fritz-box, you might want to look at
its manual (available by download) to see if it can offer any
diagnostic help.
When trouble shooting a relatively unfamiliar device or
application, I tend to look at logs with less, gedit or vi, since
both have good search abilities, and then fire up Wireshark if I
suspect it might be a comms problem. .
I got Wireshark working, simply a matter of using the command 'sudo
wireshark' instead of using the icon. Easy when you know, not when
you don't.
I performed a re-boot on the Swann. and the only packet recorded
"SwannCom_ae:36:11/Broadcast/ARP/68/Who has 192.168.1.254? Tell
192.1681.195"
192.168.1.254 is the Fritz!Box, ~~195 is the Swann.
That's all from the CCTV box.
There is a shit-load of stuff going on! But very little Swann.
For what it is worth, I've been involved in CCTV stuff for a long
time, and if I can be honest with you, Swann is a complete POS that
was heavily sold by Maplin before their eventual demise.
The eaiest thing to is to bin the Swann and start again with a decent
qaulity DVR like Samsung, Distributed Micros, Hikvision or Dahua.
They are much cheaper now than when you originally bought the Swann
(Highly probable!)
S.
I was coming to a similar conclusion, see another post in this thread.
The Swann is doing one job, and it will continue to do that.
Thanks for the recommendations, also. I have personally always had luck
with Samsung products, even though others sometimes complain, they have
done me well. I always wondered if Hikvision might suffer from the
reputed stealth abilities of Huawei surveillance equipment... D.M. and
Dahua I know nothing about, but I will find out.
As nothing so far has enabled me to get into the brain of the Swann, I
think I might just say: Close this thread down.
But I thank everybody who has contributed.
What I do is I set up a wireguard VPN server at home (easily done on a
Rasberry Pi.)

Then install the wireguard app on the iphones, ipads and android devices.

You then do a portforwarding rule in the router to forward to a port on
the wireguard server.

DO NOT FORWARD any ports to the DVR.

Then install the CCTV viewer app on the mobile devices.

Connect over VPN and then access the DVR.

however, you will need to get a static IP address for your homebroadband
unless you set up NOIP or DynDNS.
SH
2023-12-12 12:49:15 UTC
Permalink
Post by Davey
On Tue, 12 Dec 2023 11:02:26 +0000
Post by SH
Post by Davey
On Tue, 12 Dec 2023 01:01:08 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 20:50:30 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 16:58:22 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Martin Gregorie
Post by Davey
See earlier response re: ssh and telnet. Briefly, "No entry
allowed". I thought, maybe erroneously, that putty was for
Windows, as well as windows.
So what, if any, ports are open? nmap should show you that.
Host is up (0.0022s latency).
Not shown: 997 closed ports
What scan options did you use? "man nmap" shows all (and gives
reasonably readable descriptions of them.
I suppose you DID run nmap from another box on your LAN since its
designed to look on a port on another computer? I usually use
"nmap -P0 xxx" where xxx is the computer's local name on my LAN.
I ran nmap from my laptop, on the same network. Here is the full
transcript.
~$ nmap -P0 Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611
Starting Nmap 7.60 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2023-12-11 23:49 GMT
Nmap scan report for Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611 (192.168.1.195)
Host is up (0.00064s latency).
rDNS record for 192.168.1.195: Swann-bc51-feff-feae-3611.fritz.box
Not shown: 997 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.08 seconds
85/tcp open mit-ml-dev - seems to be is a high-level
block-based visual programming language,
developed/owned by MIT
554/tcp open rtsp a Real Time Streaming Protocol, so to
be expected
9000/tcp open cslistener Seems to be something specific to
Ubuntu Linux
Is there any system you know of on your LAN that's running Ubuntu?
Knowing nothing about video streaming applications, that's about as
much as I can suggest. If the above doesn't give your pointers I
- contacting the source of your gadget and asking for a manual if
you don't have one
- pointing Wireshark, if you have it installed, to see what. if
anything is sent and/or received by your streaming gadget when it's
starting up.
- are there any relevant log file entries that you can access on
your streaming device?
- since I see you're using a Fritz-box, you might want to look at
its manual (available by download) to see if it can offer any
diagnostic help.
When trouble shooting a relatively unfamiliar device or
application, I tend to look at logs with less, gedit or vi, since
both have good search abilities, and then fire up Wireshark if I
suspect it might be a comms problem. .
I got Wireshark working, simply a matter of using the command 'sudo
wireshark' instead of using the icon. Easy when you know, not when
you don't.
I performed a re-boot on the Swann. and the only packet recorded
"SwannCom_ae:36:11/Broadcast/ARP/68/Who has 192.168.1.254? Tell
192.1681.195"
192.168.1.254 is the Fritz!Box, ~~195 is the Swann.
That's all from the CCTV box.
There is a shit-load of stuff going on! But very little Swann.
For what it is worth, I've been involved in CCTV stuff for a long
time, and if I can be honest with you, Swann is a complete POS that
was heavily sold by Maplin before their eventual demise.
The eaiest thing to is to bin the Swann and start again with a decent
qaulity DVR like Samsung, Distributed Micros, Hikvision or Dahua.
They are much cheaper now than when you originally bought the Swann
(Highly probable!)
S.
I was coming to a similar conclusion, see another post in this thread.
The Swann is doing one job, and it will continue to do that.
Thanks for the recommendations, also. I have personally always had luck
with Samsung products, even though others sometimes complain, they have
done me well. I always wondered if Hikvision might suffer from the
reputed stealth abilities of Huawei surveillance equipment... D.M. and
Dahua I know nothing about, but I will find out.
As nothing so far has enabled me to get into the brain of the Swann, I
think I might just say: Close this thread down.
But I thank everybody who has contributed.
P.S. if you're still using CVBS cams rather than A-HD or CVI or TVI,
there are some Samsung SRD 860 DC on ebay from time to time.....
Theo
2023-12-12 13:17:27 UTC
Permalink
Post by Martin Gregorie
85/tcp open mit-ml-dev - seems to be is a high-level block-based
visual programming language, developed/owned
by MIT
554/tcp open rtsp a Real Time Streaming Protocol, so to
be expected
9000/tcp open cslistener Seems to be something specific to Ubuntu
Linux
Be aware that that interpretion of ports is just from a standard list
(/etc/services) and doesn't necessarily correspond to how the ports are used
by a particular device. While RTSP makes sense, I think the other
descriptions are red herrings. From various googling, it appears port 85 is
the webserver for the DVR and port 9000 is the 'control' port, for what
purposes unspecified.

I'm guessing Davey has already tried the web interface on http://dvr:85/
?

Also to note, while I spotted a potential link with Dedicated Micros
upthread, it's possible this is a red herring too: while it seems DM went
bust in 2016 and were reincarnated it seems their hardware is a bit more
enterprise-y (hundreds of cameras, etc) than this unit, which looks to be
more of a small business kind of thing.

Taking the lid off and taking some clear photos of the board would help for
any clues to identify the real manufacturer, since it seems Swann just
rebrand others' hardware. Even if we don't know, the CCTV forum might.

Theo

Loading...