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I've set up a camera system with all the cameras hardwired to a router. When I plug the router into the clients regular network, the dhcp from the two routers cross over and create problems. The client network is 192.168.1xxx. The camera network is 192.168.0.xxx. What am I doing incorrectly?

Jeffrey Bowles
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    Impossible say from the information you've provided. It depends on your DHCP servers and their configuration, and the router configuration. – Andrew Schulman Mar 12 '18 at 19:10
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    So many questions, the first of which is, why are you plugging the cameras into a separate router? – joeqwerty Mar 12 '18 at 19:11
  • To keep the bandwidth off the main network. – Jeffrey Bowles Mar 12 '18 at 19:21
  • Return the router, buy a switch, or better yet return both routers, build a pfsense and vlan off the cameras, they don't need internet access. – Jacob Evans Mar 12 '18 at 19:22
  • At a minimum, turn off DHCP on one of the "routers" and use it as a switch. – Spooler Mar 12 '18 at 19:23
  • Each network has a dhcp server. one is 0.xxx the other is 1.xxx. I assigned mac addresses to the cameras and reserved them on the 0.xxx router but they still get address from the other router sometimes and devices on the other network get address from the camera network. – Jeffrey Bowles Mar 12 '18 at 19:24
  • they do need internet access – Jeffrey Bowles Mar 12 '18 at 19:25
  • there are several switches on my network. The NVR doesn't do DHCP so a router needs to provide addresses. – Jeffrey Bowles Mar 12 '18 at 19:26
  • If I turn off dhcp will the address to mac reservations still work? They are TL-R600VPN routers – Jeffrey Bowles Mar 12 '18 at 19:27
  • You've plugged the camera router into the main network, so you haven't isolated the traffic. – joeqwerty Mar 12 '18 at 19:28
  • It's working at 5 locations but the two larger locations are where the issues are. – Jeffrey Bowles Mar 12 '18 at 19:28
  • DHCP traffic doesn't cross routers unless the routers are configured to do so. So either the routers are configured to forward DHCP traffic or you've connected the camera router incorrectly to the main network. – joeqwerty Mar 12 '18 at 19:30
  • That's what I thought and their IT guy agrees. I went from the wan link on the router to a port on the internet router. – Jeffrey Bowles Mar 12 '18 at 19:32
  • Is the camera router configured to forward DHCP traffic? Is the main network router configured to forward DHCP traffic? Is it possible that the camera router is configure as a bridge in bridge mode? Is it possible that the main network router interface you plugged into is configured as a bridge in bridge mode? By default, DHCP traffic shouldn't be crossing the routers. – joeqwerty Mar 12 '18 at 19:33

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You have two separate networks. You likely have two DHCP servers (one per router) and it's not being attached to the network correctly.

If you're goal is to segregate the cameras from the regular network, use a switch which is cable of doing VLAN's and separate them that way. This allows the cameras network connectivity, and then you can use the firewall to block traffic as needed to the new VLAN. This also helps to avoid duplicating DHCP configurations.

Currently, you need to make sure that the WAN port on the second router is plugged into a LAN port on the primary router. This should block the DHCP values from being broadcast to the primary network, while still offering DHCP addresses to the cameras. You can then use the second router to provide static IP's to the cameras. You won't be able to access systems behind the second router (when connected to the primary network) without also configuring appropriate NAT/Firewall rules.

Andrew
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    I'd bet that he plugged the one of the "switch" ports on the router (instead of the WAN port) into the office LAN which is why DHCP is being answered by both devices and causing issues. – ivanivan Mar 12 '18 at 20:10
  • I agree. It definitely sounds like a mis-wire which is causing DHCP to broadcast between the two networks. It's also possible there's some kind of loop in the connection as well. – Andrew Mar 12 '18 at 20:16