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How to Connect a Security Camera DVR to a Wireless Router

This video explains how to connect a security camera DVR to a wireless router.

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How to connect a security camera DVR to a wireless router or access point. This is the problem that we're solving in this video. Let's say I have a security camera DVR. Basically, if you're not familiar with that, it’s a DVR that the cameras get hardwired back to the recorder using coax cable. Most of the CCTV DVRs on the market only have a wired LAN port. There's no built-in WiFi built into almost all of these devices on the market. They are meant to be hardwired.

I am putting my DVR at a location where I don't have a hardwired LAN connection, so what do I do? I can use a wireless bridge to solve this problem. Here's how I do it. Starting in the upper right, I have two security cameras wired to my surveillance DVR. This can be any number of cameras. I just happen to use two. The black lines represent the RG59 coax cable that is used to wire my security cameras to the DVR. The DVR is hardwired to my wireless bridge using a Cat5e cable. I am using an AP-3500 for my Wi-Fi bridge, which is a multipurpose wireless device. I have mine configured as a wireless bridge for this application.

The wireless bridge is configured to connect to my wireless access point. I am using a Linksys Cisco router for my access point and router in this case. It is the type that is typically used in residential and small business networks. My Linksys router is connected to the internet. This can be any type of internet connection, such as DSL, cable, or a direct fiber connection. Now, as long as port forwarding is configured properly on my router, I can access my security cameras from remotely over the internet.

Now that I explained how to set up your DVR with a wireless access point, let's go over the downside to that. Video streaming uses a lot of bandwidth and relies on reliability. You can't have a network connection going up and down and speed varying. These are things that tend to happen with wireless. It's just the nature of it. There's interference from other wireless devices. Wireless is never as reliable as a hardwired network connection. That's why these DVRs come with only a wired connection because that's really how they're meant to be set up. I would say that using this method and implementing a wireless bridge for a security camera DVR is a last resort option. If you absolutely cannot run wire for an internet connection to your DVR, then use this. If you can run a wire, I highly recommend that you do so. If you'd like to learn more about how to do this and see the equipment that I used in my testing, please visit www.cctvcamerapros.com/wirelessDVR. Thank you for watching.


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CCTV DVR Connected to Wireless Router


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Author and Publisher

This video was produced by , co-founder and managing partner of CCTV Camera Pros. Questions about this video can be directed to mike@cctvcamerapros.net.