Having a wireless IP camera is great. It allows you to place it practically
anywhere in your home where there is a spare power supply. This is ideal for
home security when you want to keep the camera as discreet, and unseen as
possible.
But, if you're having trouble setting up your camera to work wirelessly then
it can sometimes be a thorn in your side. Not to worry though, we are at hand to
make the whole process much easier and you'll find that using the following
guide means you can have your camera set up in a matter of minutes.
This guide will be suitable for the following cameras:
- Panasonic
BL-C20
- Panasonic BL-C30 (now discontinued)
- Panasonic
BL-C131
Initial Configuration
For the purposes of this guide we will assume that you have already
configured your camera and that it is accessible locally on your network using a
wired connection (Ethernet cable).
Wireless Differences
First let's talk briefly about the extra settings we need to consider when
moving from a wired ethernet connection to a wireless connection.
SSID: Short for Sevice
Set IDentifier, the SSID is a unique name
which identifies your wireless network (WLAN) from another. Devices which attach
to your wireless network must use the SSID otherwise they wonn't be able to
communicate over the network at all. Important note: SSIDs are case sensitive.
The SSID can be found in your wireless router. Your wireless router / access
point will have an SSID set by default but this can be changed to anything you
wish.
Encryption: Most commonly used is WEP, short for
Wireless Equivalency
Protocol, this is used to secure your WLAN by encrypting
the data over radio waves while it's being sent from one device to another. In
order to achieve successful communication, a password, known as the "key" has
to set up in the wireless router and the camera. Note that this feature is not
enabled as standard in your wireless router but it should be one of the first
things you do to keep your network secure, otherwise you may find everyone in
your street using your internet connection and your home network may no longer
be secure (we will discuss this in another article). If encryption is not set in
your router as standard, we advise you set this up first, to keep your wireless
network secure.
MAC Address Filtering: One final thing to note is that on
some wireless networks there may be additional security in place which restricts
which network devices can connect to the network. This is achieved by
restricting devices based on their MAC Address. This feature is not enabled as
standard on any routers so you only need to worry about this if you know you
have set this up previously. However, if you can use this extra layer of
security, we advise you to do so.
Example
Let's look at an example configuration to see how it's done. We'll base our
settings on the following:
- We are using a Panasonic BL-C20
- Our SSID will be mynetwork
- We have set up WEP encryption, our Key is set to open authentication, 64bit
strength with KEY1:AF67B9283C
If you are using an existing wireless router then all of this information can
be gathered from the relevant wireless settings page. If you are using a new
router then you will have to set these settings up in your router first to
ensure your wireless network is secure.
Step 1 - Configuring your wireless IP address
The Panasonic BL-C20 has only one page to input the IP address and uses the
same address for both wired and wireless connectivity.
Step 2 - Enter your wireless settings
Log in to your camera and enter the setup pages.
From the menu on the left choose wireless You will be presented with the
following page:
This page initially shows the camera's factory default wireless settings as
above.
We need to enter our details into the camera:
SSID: We change the SSID to match the SSID which is configured in our router.
In this example this would be mynetwork.
Communication Mode: Here you can choose to have the camera respond on 802.11b
or g exclusively. It's better to leave on the default setting 802.11b/g so that
it can communicate on either.
Cipher: Using the drop-down box select your method of wireless encryption.
Once you select your encryption protocol some further options will become
available.
Remember to select an encryption strength in the drop-down box under the
input box where you enter the key. It is important that the strength of the key
matches exactly what is in your router or you won't be able to connect to your
camera wirelessly.
In this example we are using WEP encryption, 64bit strength, with a key:
AF67B9283C in the Key 1 position.
So with all our data input into the form as below, we are now ready to save
the settings.
Click the 'save' button to save your wireless settings.
Step 3 - Connecting Wirelessly
You are almost ready to connect to unplug the cable from your camera and
connect to it using your wireless network but there is just one final thing to
remember with Panasonic IP cameras.
There is a small selector switch all Panasonic wireless cameras
which tells the camera it is connected using either an ethernet cable or using
its wireless antenna. On a BL-C20 this is on the side of the camera as shown on
the right.
On a BL-C30/131 you can find the switch on the bottom of the camera, close to
where you plug in the power and ethernet cable.
Finish
So, to connect to your camera wirelessly first disconnect the power and the
Ethernet cable. While the camera is still off flick the switch to wireless mode
and power up the camera. After the camera boots up you should be able to access
it wirelessly.
If you have any questions please leave a comment.
