strange Foscam camera issues with R6300 and R6900

[Rick Smith]

TL;DR: foscam cameras work great on other routers outside the wifi network, but do not work reliably with two Netgear routers now. On the latest Netgear R6900 router, cameras work well on Cricket (AT&T) network, but do not work well on Verizon LTE network. Same setup with ASUS / Linksys worked great for years, why?


Story:

We have several Foscam cameras that were set up and worked great on my old Linksys WRT54GL (running Tomato) for years.



Then we switched to Cox Gigablast (fiber optic network), and Cox gave us a brand new Netgear R6300 AC router in January of 2016. I set up the static IP addresses of the cameras (outside the DHCP address range), set up port forwarding for each, just like how they worked on my Linksys WRT54GL.



The cameras would come great inside my network, on my Galaxy Note 4, iPhone 6, and other android / iOS devices. As soon as I switched off wifi, and tried to use Sprint LTE or Verizon LTE, the cameras would be very difficult to access. They may come up initially for a few seconds, and then the data stream would just disconnect and I woudln't be able to connect to the cameras again.



Thinking that Cox network was the issue, I debugged with Cox and didn't get a resolution. I then tried putting my old WRT54GL on the Cox gigablast and the cameras instantly came on outside my network, voila!!



So I shelved the Netgear R6300 (running the latest firmware at the time), and switched to an ASUS RT-N66U router, and it worked awesome from January til 2 weeks ago, when the ASUS router lost all wifi connection and refused to connect to wifi clients despite multiple resets. So I had to come up with a new game plan.



I went to CostCo and purchased the Netgear R6900 (AC1900) router for $159, and set up the static IP addresses of the cameras, and the port forwarding as previously. I put the Netgear R6900 on the network, and everything worked great inside the wifi network.



Once I turned off wifi, and switched to Cricket 4G or LTE (I switched from Sprint to Cricket), the cameras would come up, a bit slower than the ASUS N router, but they would come up reliably and the data stream would work. I then tried with my Verizon LTE iPhone 6, and the same problem occurred - the camera stream would come up for a few seconds, then the data stream would die out and I would be unable to connect to the cameras.



So a VERY ODD problem!! The problem is I can't reliably access my Foscam cameras outside my network, very sporadic initial access on my Verizon iPhone 6 on LTE (and this exact set up worked perfecly with the ASUS router before it died), and it works reliably with the Cricket / AT&T network.



I'm thinking the problem has to be with the Netgear routers:

• Same Foscam cameras
• same Cox giglablast network
• same client devices (Android / iPhones, all same apps)
• The ONLY difference is now I'm using a Netgear router, as opposed to the Linksys WRT54GL or the ASUS Rt-N66u

FWIW I'm using the latest firmware with the Netgear R6900 - V1.0.0.4_1.0.10.



I'm kind of at a dead end trying to figure out what the issue is with Netgear.


Any thoughts from the advanced tech heads here?

 

[Wally173]

The foscam cameras disconnecting when not on home network is because of a known issue with Netgear's firmware. It is because it is thinking the cameras being accessed from the outside network is a DoS attack. If you go into the router settings and go to Advanced, Wan Setup, and then CHECKMARK Disable Port Scan and DoS Protection. This will disable the DoS protection and fix your issue. It is enabled by default. Sadly this is the only way to resolve this. I have the R8500 and Netgear just released 1.0.2.64 firmware for it that fixes this issue so you don't have to disable the protection for it to work properly. in the R8500s new firmware release notes it states:

• Fixed the DDos false detect issue when accessing multiple IP CAMs from Internet.

They also fixed the annoying Origin download bug in this release too supposedly (not related to the Foscam issue):

• Fixed a potential router reboot issue when dynamic QoS is turn on.

It does not look the R6300 or R6900 have a new firmware with the fix yet. So your only solution will be to Disable Port Scan and DoS Protection

I had the same issue with my Foscam cameras and it was driving me crazy.

Please note, after applying the setting you may have to reboot router for it to apply, I can't remember and am not sure.

Let me know if you need more help or still having issues after this.

-Mike

 

[Wally173]

Before you disable the DOS protection, you can look in your routers log in Advanced, Admin, Logs and look at the log after you accessed the foscams from your phone outside the home network. it will show the cell phone doing some sort of DoS attack which it really is not when you access the cameras.

 

[Rick Smith]

The foscam cameras disconnecting when not on home network is because of a known issue with Netgear's firmware. It is because it is thinking the cameras being accessed from the outside network is a DoS attack. If you go into the router settings and go to Advanced, Wan Setup, and then CHECKMARK Disable Port Scan and DoS Protection. This will disable the DoS protection and fix your issue. It is enabled by default. Sadly this is the only way to resolve this. I have the R8500 and Netgear just released 1.0.2.64 firmware for it that fixes this issue so you don't have to disable the protection for it to work properly. in the R8500s new firmware release notes it states:

• Fixed the DDos false detect issue when accessing multiple IP CAMs from Internet.

They also fixed the annoying Origin download bug in this release too supposedly (not related to the Foscam issue):

• Fixed a potential router reboot issue when dynamic QoS is turn on.

It does not look the R6300 or R6900 have a new firmware with the fix yet. So your only solution will be to Disable Port Scan and DoS Protection

I had the same issue with my Foscam cameras and it was driving me crazy.

Please note, after applying the setting you may have to reboot router for it to apply, I can't remember and am not sure.

Let me know if you need more help or still having issues after this.

-Mike

wow, I'm amazed to find the answer here!! I have googled like crazy and did not find this answer before.

I'm really disappointed that Netgear let this bug continue for so long. I can't believe we are the few who run multiple Foscam / IP cameras!

Thank you for this answer!!! I will change the settings accordingly and see how things improve.

 

[Rick Smith]

Before you disable the DOS protection, you can look in your routers log in Advanced, Admin, Logs and look at the log after you accessed the foscams from your phone outside the home network. it will show the cell phone doing some sort of DoS attack which it really is not when you access the cameras.

I looked at the logs and see "DoS attacks" from my phone... that was the issue!!

How can Netgear let this bug fester for months on end?

Thanks!!

 

[Wally173]

You are very welcome Rick. I am not sure why Netgear has let this go on for so long. Possibly it took them a long time to figure out the issue and they finally were able to resolve it. I do not know a thing about programming software or firmware, but maybe such a simple issue that we see has a very complex fix. I hope that they fix all the other routers they sell and not just the R8500. It is very aggravating/annoying for Foscam owners.

 

[Rick Smith]

I don't know how, I don't know why, but sometimes the kindness of a random stranger is so critical.

I was baffled by this issue for months, thinking something was wrong with my ISP, my network, or my cellular carriers. You have solved this issue with a single post, it looks like you just joined today as well, and it is just my amazing luck to have you come across my thread and give me the answer I needed.

I can confirm that the problem is solved, I can access the cameras reliably and consistently outside my wifi network.

I posted this question on the Netgear forums, Anandtech, and Foscam forums and no one else knew the answer. I'm just amazed that you could come by and give me the answer that had me tearing my hair out!!

Thank you so much, I owe you a huge virtual beer!!!!!

You are very welcome Rick. I am not sure why Netgear has let this go on for so long. Possibly it took them a long time to figure out the issue and they finally were able to resolve it. I do not know a thing about programming software or firmware, but maybe such a simple issue that we see has a very complex fix. I hope that they fix all the other routers they sell and not just the R8500. It is very aggravating/annoying for Foscam owners.

 

[Wally173]

I don't know how, I don't know why, but sometimes the kindness of a random stranger is so critical.

I was baffled by this issue for months, thinking something was wrong with my ISP, my network, or my cellular carriers. You have solved this issue with a single post, it looks like you just joined today as well, and it is just my amazing luck to have you come across my thread and give me the answer I needed.

I can confirm that the problem is solved, I can access the cameras reliably and consistently outside my wifi network.

I posted this question on the Netgear forums, Anandtech, and Foscam forums and no one else knew the answer. I'm just amazed that you could come by and give me the answer that had me tearing my hair out!!

Thank you so much, I owe you a huge virtual beer!!!!!

No problem man and thanks for the beer lol.

Yeah, I made an account on the SNB forums today just so I could reply to your post. I love this site and always read the reviews on it and read posts in the forums but I never posted before. I randomly stumbled upon your post today and I was like man I need to register on these forums and reply to it because I knew how pissed off I was getting trying to get remote access to my cameras to work. It drove me crazy and my girlfriend crazy because I was always tinkering with settings on the router or staying up late searching the internet on how to fix it haha.

I am glad I was able to help you, I love helping people out with tech related stuff.

-Mike

 

[Rick Smith]

No problem man and thanks for the beer lol.

Yeah, I made an account on the SNB forums today just so I could reply to your post. I love this site and always read the reviews on it and read posts in the forums but I never posted before. I randomly stumbled upon your post today and I was like man I need to register on these forums and reply to it because I knew how pissed off I was getting trying to get remote access to my cameras to work. It drove me crazy and my girlfriend crazy because I was always tinkering with settings on the router or staying up late searching the internet on how to fix it haha.

I am glad I was able to help you, I love helping people out with tech related stuff.

-Mike

Thank you thank you thank you!!! Thank you a million times.

What I'm baffled about is why I haven't been able to find the solution to this before. It's almost as if no one else has this issue or don't care about it. Now I'm spreading the word on this on the Foscam forums, Netgear forums, just in case this can help someone else. Pay it forward.

You are THE MAN!!! I would have been truly stuck and forced to return the Netgear router (yet again) and try other brands, wasting days on this.