On 7/17/23 13:47, joe a wrote:

You could use "ethereal" or "tcdump" to log the connection of one camera to the laptop when you boot that camera.

I've not read each and every post, but I suspect the cameras will turn out to be set to obtain address via DHCP, the LAPTOP is enabled to provide DHCP (as server) and the PC is not.

Daniel said he configured the cameras for static IP. IIRC. I've got mine
(same brand) for DHCP from my Zyxel router.

But there's also a setting there for DNS. It can be "Auto" or "Static".
Mine is auto, how about yours, Daniel?

Also have you tried running nmap against the cameras? Maybe try
it from each of your computers.

Here's one of mine:

Starting Nmap 7.92 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2023-07-17 15:45 PDT
Nmap scan report for 192.168..x.y
Host is up (0.00093s latency).
Not shown: 996 closed tcp ports (reset)
PORT     STATE    SERVICE
53/tcp   filtered domain
80/tcp   open     http
443/tcp open     https
9000/tcp open     cslistener
No exact OS matches for host (If you know what OS is running on it, see https://nmap.org/submit/ ).

As your cameras and computer are on an isolated network, they can not get infected by malware, so you could disable the automatic boot.

Not a sure bet. MALWARE can hitch a ride on removable media. "AIR GAP" is not a panacea.

That's true. You can add a SD card in these cameras for local storage. so they can operate
independent of cloud services. Malware could conceivably hitch a ride on the SD card I guess.

The camera's run embedded Linux. If you're interested, here's an analysis of hacking into
a Reolink camera. Great sport!

https://www.thirtythreeforty.net/posts/2020/05/hacking-reolink-cameras-for-fun-and-profit

Regards,
Lew