Setting up the Panasonic BL-C131A Network Camera Using a Mac
The Panasonic BL-C131A comes with a windows setup CD to configure the network camera. But you really don’t need a PC to configure this camera. This is a howto on how to configure this surveillance camera using a Mac. This tutorial will work with a PC as well, in case you lost the setup CD!
STEP 1
Below the camera there is a setting for wired/wireless. Set this to wired
Connect the camera to any of your router’s free ports
In your browser, goto http://192.168.1.253/
STEP 2
Choose Automatic Setup
STEP 3
STEP 4
STEP 5
Now, click on the single table and you should be able to see the image from the camera
STEP 6
Final step. Change the setting in the BL-C131A to wireless. Unplug the network cable and restart the camera. If you get the surveillance image, you are all set! If you are having trouble, let me know — maybe I can help. (I monitor the comments frequently, so feel free!)
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232 Comments
I’m having the same trouble as a lot of your posters. I have a new BL-C131a camera. Got it to work wired with no trouble. Wireless was a different story. Finally got it to work, then when I moved the camera downstairs, plugged it in, I got the blinking yellow light. After several tries I got the camera to show green, but when i went back upstairs I could not access the camera website with either of the urls you have given. What gives? I really need to get this thing working. Thanks in advance. I’m on an airport extreme network using an imac with OS 10.6.4
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Can anyone tell me how to reset the user name and password on the BL-C131 camera. Thanks in advance, Mike
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Figured it out. Just had to push the reset button on camera.
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Hope you can diagnose this annoying problem. Everything works, i.e., Wireless, access from the internet including my iPhone. BUT this is driving me cRaZy, I have an amber blinking light on the camera. It used to burn Green. What can I do to stop this? Thanks
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ok forget my question about the blinking amber light. I read the above post and went to my settings and disabled the two settings on the UPNP page and its now burning a solid green light and I can still access my camera from the internet. Cool. You guys are great. Thanks
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This worked great, thank you so much for posting!
Anyone know how to change the Camera Name? right now it is defaulting to BL-C131 and I want to change it to something more meaningful like Side Yard. Thanks.
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I recently bought the model BL-C121 wireless camera and everything works within the home wireless network. When I tried to setup to be able to access it from the Internet, I hit this error:
Failed to configure the router’s Port Forwarding by UPnP.
The router may not support UPnP function or UPnP function is disabled.
Please enable your router’s UPnP or configure Port Forwarding manually.
For more information how to setup router, please refer Panasonic support web site at http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/en/netwkcam/technic/rtr_setup.
My router is UPnP enabled so I’m wondering what else can I do?
Thanks in advance for whatever help you can give me.
Follow my instructions in this post. I specifically wrote about UPnp. http://www.society9.com/how-to-access-your-panasonic-bl-c131a-from-the-internet/
After having to setup this camera several times already (due to power outages, etc.), I have gotten the system down. I never would have been able to do so if it wasn’t for the kind people here on Society9.com and E. Kim on Amazon (bl-c230a product review) who posted thorough reviews with tips. I would like to ‘pay it forward’ and help others with the insane install process as I have learned it.
INSTALL TIPS & STEPS IF YOU HAVE A MAC (AND THEREFORE CANNOT USE THE EASY SETUP CD FOR PCS)
NOTE: If all goes correctly, it should only take 10–15 mins. Needing to troubleshoot can add hours.
1. Plug in camera to router via LAN wire and AC adapter (make sure camera is set to “wired” mode to start).
2. The light must be solid green for the camera to function. If it’s not green, check out the troubleshooting here (supposedly Panasonic has good customer service to help with setup but it’s not 24/7 customer service so I’ve never been able to use it as someone who works full-time):
http://www.panasonic.net/pcc/cgi-bin/products/netwkcam/faq/tbookmarka.cgi?g=INDICATOR&m=
3. TROUBLESHOOTING: I have found it to be utterly disappointing when we do not get the green light right away because it inevitably means hours of troubleshooting ahead vs. a very quick setup. When I had a FLASHING ORANGE LIGHT (2 second intervals), the following worked for me: Unplug the AC power cord from the camera, unplug the LAN cable for camera from the wireless router (instead of from the camera), hit the factory reset button underneath the camera with a pen, then plug in the LAN cable again and finally the AC power cord to the camera. After a few minutes, I finally got the amazing solid green light.
4. Once you have the green light, go to your router home page/IP address (I have a Cisco Valet so may be different on other routers — see E. Kim’s review on Amazon bl-230a product for Airport Extreme).
5. On your router home page/IP, click on DHCP reservation on the basic setup page and look for the “extra” connection labeled LAN IP address.
6. Go to that IP address and create a user name and password and then enter that information again when prompted, then follow the steps.
7. Your SSID is the name of your wireless network (e.g. the name you and your neighbors see on your/their list of available connections when connecting to wifi)
8. Then click on internet tab on setup page, enable auto port forwarding (to view on another computer), register for View Netcam (it’s the easier IMO), and enable “allow access from internet (ipv6)” — that’s the key
9. To change from wired format to wireless, go to wireless tab, reconfirm the info and set the switch at the bottom of the camera to wireless, then restart the camera (which means unplug the LAN wire and the AC adapter and plug the AC adapter back in). It will take a couple of minutes to get back to green so don’t panic.
THEN YOU SHOULD BE GOOD TO GO!
I’ve been screwing around trying to get 2 Bl-C131’s working.
I believe that I’ve changed the IP address of the camera. I can no longer get to IP address 192.168.1.253 to show the setup page. It’s i wired position and has the green light on.
It’s connected to a Netgear router. I’ve ‘factory reset’ the router along with both cameras. I can get to one camera which is a different address now but not the other one, I don’t know it. I thought by ‘factory reset’ it would default back to the old address but I’m finding out that it’s not the case.
How do I find the new IP address of the camera when i can’t get to the page and it doesn’t show up on the router? Oh yeah!„ The green light is on but the router doesn’t show that it’s one of the pieces of equipment on the system.
Help, Help. Dan
I don’t know what I did but it now works.
This time I ‘factory reset’ while it was plugged in. ?????
also added the device to the router. In the past it was automatic?????
I think the current problem is solved.
This camera seems to work only on a local network. Very poor communication from the company. Any camera like this should not be that difficult to set up. Look at all the people that are having trouble and no answers.
for future use go to this website and download the angry ip scanner.
it may not give the name of the device, but by the process of elimination you might be able to determine the ip address that you are trying to find.
if you use this — you will need to expand the range of the address search to cover all your bets.
works on pc and mac
http://www.angryip.org/w/Home
OK„ so I’ve got two C131A’s working on both the local network and through ‘Viewnetcam.com’. I’ve configured the ‘multi’ camera page to work flawlessly. For all intents and purposes„ in wired mode it’s just fine.
I pull the plug, flip to ‘wireless’ and turn it back on. Nothing! A blinking red light.
I’m using a 3 year old Netgear wireless router and have been playing around with the setting page. I believe that in order for the router to recognize the camera in wireless mode I’ve got to add the IP address ‘somewhere’. ( or something like that ).
I’m ready to get some really log ethernet cables, drill some holes in the walls and be done with it!
Anyone have any ideas or can point me to the answer?
Dan.
After 10 hours and essentially taking a course in router and IP address understanding I believe the two cameras are working correctly.
Damn, that was not easy for a guy that just wanted a couple of cameras working with a Macintosh.
Dan
help! I’ve been using the bl-c131 for years with a linksys. Now I’ve switch to Airport Extreme (I needed the express to extend my network) and I can’t make the camera work wirelessly anymore, and even when working wired, the red light blinks constantly. I’m 100% mac — so can’t even download a manual anymore to see what that means..
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Darlene -
Check out this product page on Amazon, scroll down to the reviews and read E. Kim’s review — towards the bottom is a helpful tutorial on using Airport Extreme.
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-BL-C230A-Wireless-Internet-Security/dp/B002JM5JSU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1296613267&sr=8–1
Good luck!
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3 years old BL-C131E Worked fine until wireless link failed, now only via wired link to network. Reporting Malfunction with wireless module. And red LED blinking. Is this repairable.
Hello all–Having trouble getting my Panasonic wireless cam to be viewed on the LAN in wireless mode. I have triple checked all the settings. It works fine over ethernet on LAN. I’ve changed the switch to “Wireless” and rebooted the cam (by pulling the power, reinserting) and then rebooting the router. The cam in wireless mode shows solid green indicator, which should mean it’s on the LAN. But it can’t be viewed. I’ve tried to see if it’s on the LAN device listing on the router (2Wire) as well as by pinging on my Mac through the terminal mode. Any ideas? I’ve got a few other Panasonic cams and never had this issue.…Thanks, Doug from Colorado
I had that problem for 3 days and finally made some progress. Under your router settings there’s one area that will display all the devices that are connected to the router. Go there and even though you have a green light you Panasonic camera probably won’t show up as a connected device. Even though the camera is recognizing the router, the router doesn’t recognize the camera. I believe this has to do with the port settings.
After realizing the router didn’t recognize the camera it was easier.
For me, making sure under UPnP the ‘Auto Port Forwarding’ was enabled on both the camera & router settings. When I did that the router would show up the camera under it’s own settings. ( note„, the cameras doesn’t show up as Panasonic but only a short dotted line.
You also have to make sure the router has the IP address of the camera. Check the display for IP addresses in the router settings and match them to the camera.
My router is a Netgear
I had no idea what I was doing but now have 2 cameras working perfectly both in single and in multi mode.
In the end„ I’m still not sure exactly the mechanics but it’s working fine now. Best part is I can do it again if I need to,
Dan
Hello Daniel, and thanks for the reply. I already have the cam set for Auto Port Forwarding and my router displays the IP address of the cam when it’s connected with ethernet, but not when it goes wireless. I believe the router is seeing the cam, as the green light is solid on the cam when set to wireless, however the router doesn’t show a wireless IP # for the cam, only ethernet. Strange.….
If anyone else has suggestions, it would be appreciated.
Thx, Doug
I have a Panasonic BL-C1 that only came with PC software, not Mac software. How do I get the IP address of that camera?
please help:
how can i can’t log in to this given address http://192.168.1.253/ coz i had my cam and want to register.…
Hello, I have had to reset all the settings in my Linksys router and had to contact Panasonic to get help reconnecting my BL-C131 since I haven’t been able to locate my owners manual. It is working great locally and on viewnetcam.com but it only lasts for about 15 minutes or so and then the signal is lost and I have to unplug the power cord to the camera for a few minutes then plug it back in and it’ll start working again.
Anyone have any ideas? It’s almost like there is a timer somewhere.
Thanks for any help.
I love the 5 panasonic cams i have and they work great. Two are outside cams and on a pc I have sound BUT not on my new macbook no sound so i click on the fix it link and a error shows up so I’m guessing the active X control doesn’t work for Mac
If anybody is willing to give feedback it would be appreciated
Thank You
You will not get sound on Macs. Panasonic hasn’t provided any drivers for the Mac to transmit sound.
Hi everyone. Ok, so I’ve got the cam setup and working. Now comes the newb question. How do I configure the notify by email setting? I already got the FTP setup working, but the notify just won’t seem to go through. I’ve tried many different setups so far, no good. What I would like it to do is text my phone to notify of any alarms. I’m with verizon and if you send a text to ##########@vtext.com your phone should receive it. Anyone know how to do this?
Thanks for the help!
Bummer, so I guess this thread is finally dead?
I have two of these cameras and they used to be wireless set up but my broadband provider change it’s setting and now the cameras don’t work unless their are wired to the router.Is there any new drivers etc, so that i can use the wireless again?
thanks