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I've tried to post this on superuser.com but they don't accept questions from Tor network now for more than a week so I hope I can find help here since we could say it's network administration question. :)

I wanna set up home CCTV system- few IP cameras, switch, router and laptop.

Note: I know my share about networking and computers, I got previously cameras working on another router but it has internet access so I want to separate it.

Objective:

I got cameras (Hikvision) on their positions. Each is connected to switch and from switch (Hikvision) one connection to old router (TP-Link) and router to laptop (everything's cat5 cable, no WiFi). Also, setup does not have internet connection.

Problem:

I'm not sure if this is missing information about networking on my part or router problem. Thing is, when I plug old router (one to take care of cameras only) into laptop I can't find gateway (it's just blank area after writing ipconfig command (Windows laptop)) and laptop's IP address is weird number- 169.254.105.121(Although according their web internal IP format should be 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1. Also subnet is 255.255.0.0 instead of 255.255.255.0. Another thing, I was not able to find router's web server - I've tried IP's from their web and IP's according to laptop's IP and few others without result. I did reset router few times, no luck.

I've found while writing about not needing gateway when there is no internet but isn't it needed for router to route traffic between devices even on LAN? Does that mean I just change cameras IP to match laptop's IP (this router's format)? Still, what about router's web server? I think I'm gonna need it to set cameras IPs as static instead of dynamic.

Question:

How could I accomplish objective considering where I am stuck at?

johnymcdoe
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169.254.105.121 is an autoconfigured Link-local address. It's assigned by OS when it can't acquire valid IP from DHCP server. Generally this means that you don't have a DHCP-server running on your network which will assign some private network IP in valid range (like 192.168.x.x you've mentioned).

As you didn't noted exact model of your "router" and you are telling that it's still stays the same after reset, I assume you might be having an access point (AP) instead of router. These are generally working as a bridge between a wireless and a wired network. And usually they don't even have a DHCP-server functions at all.

In that case you have to manually assign an IPv4 address for all devices in your network. Every IP should be unique per device and preferably belong to the same subnet if you want them to be able to communicate to each other without the gateway (router).

That's it, you can assign 192.168.1.x addresses to your cameras and laptop manually. Network mask sets your network size, but unless you are planning to have more than 254 devices 255.255.255.0 will be fine. Make sure the .x number are unique per device or you will get an IP conflict.

NStorm
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