Today I will show you how to add 3 different Hikvision security cameras all with different setups to an Hikvision NVR through the PoE ports on the back of the unit.

Hikvision 16 Channel NVR DS-7616NI-I2/16P 16POE 12MP Resolution NVR Support Two Way Audio and Alarm in/Out #1
Hikvision 16 Channel NVR DS-7616NI-I2/16P 16POE 12MP Resolution NVR Support Two Way Audio and Alarm in/Out #2
Hikvision 16 Channel NVR DS-7616NI-I2/16P 16POE 12MP Resolution NVR Support Two Way Audio and Alarm in/Out
(as of December 17, 2024 02:17 GMT -06:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

Let’s get right to the point. We are going to add these cameras to my Network Video Recorder so I can view their live feed and record and playback their footage. Also, I’ll be using SADP on my PC in these examples. It’s a handy tool to manage the IP address of your cameras.

The 3 cameras I'll be using today:

  1. I have a Hikvision Mini PTZ camera which is in the brand new state of inactive.
  2. I have a factory reset Hikvsion (ds-2cd3132-i) dome which does not have the newer setup of ability of activation. I wonder if the NVR will know the default password and how I can change the password since this ability cannot be done through the NVR’s user interface.
  3. Another Hikvsion (ds-2cd3132-i) dome of the same model, but I have been using it for a while and it has a static IP address set to 192.168.0.150 and ports configured. This will be interesting to see what happens since the NVR works on its own subnet of 192.168.254.X.

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At this point, I have already installed a hard drive in the NVR and activated the device. Let’s get the Mini PTZ plugged into the back of the NVR.

  1. Mini PTZ – Looking in SADP, this camera is in a new state where it’s inactive.
  2. Plug in the camera in a PoE port on the back on the NVR (Port 8).
  3. Navigate to the Maintenance icon, select Camera. You will see all connected cameras on your network and the dome is plugged into port 8.
  4. Click on the Camera icon and the newly added camera is displaying on D8.
  5. When you mouse over the image, you can see the NVR has already activated the camera and added it to the NVR’s subnet with a .9 IP address. You can move this camera to another PoE port and it will be assigned a new IP address, as long as it’s configured to be Plug and Play.
  6. Clicking on the play button opens a little window to see the live feed.
  7. Back on the Maintenance page, under Record, we see the camera is already recording footage.
  8. Hikvision automatically activated the camera and assigned it the camera activation password you gave it when you set up the NVR.

2. Let’s try the same process for an older Hikvision camera which does not have the activation feature. This camera has been reset to factory settings as if it were brand new.

  1. Plug in the camera to the NVR (port 2).
  2. Click on the Camera icon to watch it connect on D2.
  3. As it’s detecting the camera you can see the IP address it wants to assign it.
  4. Great, that was also super easy as the video feed appears. Let’s look at the connection details.
  5. Note that the camera’s password did not get set to the password I configured for all newly activated cameras. It’s using the default 12345 password.  If you want to change the password, you need to do it next and it’s not an easy process.  If you do it prior to this step, the NVR will not assign the camera an IP address and add it automatically because it does not recognize the camera as factory reset.
  6. To change the password, plug the camera into your home network using a PoE switch or a regular switch or router with a power adapter to power the camera.
  7. Open SADP on your PC and find the camera.
  8. Change the IP address to match your local subnet. Mine is 192.168.0…… let’s do 195. Enter the default password and submit.
  9. Using Internet Explorer, log into the camera with this IP address.
  10. Go to the Security section and click the admin user and update the password.
  11. Back in SADP, change the IP address back to what the NVR set it to and save your settings using the new password.
  12. Plug the camera back into the NVR and you’ll see a message saying the credentials are wrong. This is Hikvision’s go-to error message, so this doesn’t always mean there is a password issue, but in this case it’s valid.
  13. Now update the password by clicking on the edit icon and selecting Manual to gain access to the fields. Then enter your password and click ok.
  14. The camera is now communicating with the NVR with the new password.

3. Next let’s add this standard dome (port – 3), which has been used for a couple years and in SADP and has a static IP address and configured ports from when I had it hooked up to my recording software on my PC called Blue Iris.

  1. Plug in the camera into port 3 on the NVR.
  2. Starting on the Maintenance page, the camera does not show up.
  3. Nothing on the Maintenance & nothing on the Camera page either.
  4. On the PoE setting page, you can see the camera is connected, so how do we add it without reset the camera back to factory settings?
  5. Let’s go to the Camera icon on top of the page and you can see the NVR has detected the camera.
  6. If I enter the IP address, port and password I used in Blue Iris I am unable to connect to this camera. The NVR is looking for a camera which is either inactive, factory reset or has an IP address of 192.168.254.something, depending on the port it’s plugged into.   This NVR does not have a DHCP Service running on it and cannot randomly assign IP addresses to cameras from a pool of addresses.  Turning on DHCP on the camera level will not allow the NVR to fix this.  From the point of view of the PoE ports, the gateway is 192.168.254.1.  When a camera is plugged directly into the PoE ports, each port wants to assign an IP address starting with .2.  So, port 1 is 192.168.254.2, port 2 is .3 and so on.
  7. We need to manually update the IP address of this camera. We could plug the camera into a switch or router like in the previous example, but there is another way.  Plug a network cable into one of the PoE ports and the other into your router or switch on your network.  You can now access devices on your NVR from your network.  From a PC, run SADP to manage IP addresses.  Update the IP address to be 192.168.254.4, assuming you are going to plug this camera into port 3.  Update the gateway to be 192.168.254.1.
  8. Keep track of each camera’s IP address in a spreadsheet or by writing them on the back of your cameras. I will make life easier a year or 2 down the road when you’re updating things.
  9. Back on the NVR, go to the Cameras page and find the port where you plugged in your camera.
  10. Click the edit icon.
  11. Set the Adding Method to Manual.
  12. Enter in the port and password I created a couple months ago for this camera.
  13. The footage is now getting recorded on the NVR.
Hikvision 16 Channel NVR DS-7616NI-I2/16P 16POE 12MP Resolution NVR Support Two Way Audio and Alarm in/Out #1
Hikvision 16 Channel NVR DS-7616NI-I2/16P 16POE 12MP Resolution NVR Support Two Way Audio and Alarm in/Out #2
Hikvision 16 Channel NVR DS-7616NI-I2/16P 16POE 12MP Resolution NVR Support Two Way Audio and Alarm in/Out
(as of December 17, 2024 02:17 GMT -06:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

That covers adding these 3 cameras all in different states to my NVR by using the PoE ports on the back of the NVR. Adding cameras can be a little confusing but hopefully this video helped cleared that up. In my next video I will be adding these camera to the NVR, but it will be done remotely though my LAN. These cameras will be plugged into a switch in another location and I will record their footage over my network without the POE ports on the back of the unit (just the LAN port). Again, check out my blog to see where I picked up this hardware and don’t forget to like this video and subscribe for more.

DS-7616NI-I2-16P

DS-2CD2342WD-I

DS-2CD2442FWD-IW

Hikvision PTZ IP Camera DS-2DE3304W-DE 3MP