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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233 Comments
hello Society9,
I think that I need your help…
I just got an airport extreme & the BL-C131A camera based on this setup procedure working for my powermac.
I seem to be hung up on your STEP 1 — “In your browser, goto http://192.168.1.253/“
The page will not load, keep getting “network timed out” page load error.
Any Ideas?
Thanks in advance!
bd
Try http://10.0.1.253
you guys are awesome,
thanks alot for the quick response!!!
i’m in & viewing… very cool
You are welcome! Let me know if you run into any issues, I usually watch this space.
–Admin
THanks for your directions. So far, I got to the point of Setup Completed and it asked me to restart the camera. I could see the single image with no sound. Until I changed the camera’s setting to Wireless and disconnected the ethernet — now there’s no image and the light turned from green to red.
Ultimately, I’d like to figure out how can I view the camera image from either a phone (3G) or outside my home. Must I register at viewnetcam.com and if so, how do I do so when the CD only works on a PC?
Many many thanks.
Regarding the above, when I tried to allow Internet access, it said:
Failed to setup
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.
Local Network Access: http://10.0.1.253
IPv6 Address: http://fe80::280:f0ff:fea7:8bf4
The address above will be shown on Status page in the Maintenance section.
How shall I proceed?
@pamela: If wireless is not working, first check to see if what kind of security your router has. Is it WEP? If so, you’ll need to get the SSID and the Wep key (in hexadecimal) and enter it in step 4. Now, disconnect, set to wireless and restart your camera.
On your last message, you’ll have to enable UPnP on your router. This is disabled on all routers by default.
@pamela: If you are unsure how to disable UPnP, tell me what brand router you have and I’ll walk you thru the steps. Please don’t post passwords or mac addresses here!
Hey Society 9, I really appreciate your help and laying it all out very clearly. You are certain to find a reward in the next life. Meanwhile, in this one, I still can’t get the camera to connect to my Airport Express. After doing some reading, I suspect the absence of UPnP from the Airport configuration is the killer. So, although a newbie, I conclude that the Panasonic BL C-131 Wireless Camera does not work with an Airport Express wireless router. Am I missing something? All the best. And, again, thanks for your help!
@David, could you tell me what the issue is? Did you try http://10.0.1.253 ?
I know that I can get images on my blackberry but is it possible to see the live video?
@james: With an iPhone you can get live video. With newer blackberries (Curve, Bold) you can get live video via http://www.next2friends.com/features
PS: I haven’t tried this myself, if you do manage to get live video, do let me know
Society9,
You are my savior, man! I just bought this camera from eBay and did not come with the CD-ROM and to my surprise, the setup software is not in Panasonic’s site! Can you believe in that?
I setup everything correct and it’s working 100% the video. My question is about the audio. Is there anyway to configure the audio of the camera so I can listen in my Macbook Pro?
Thanks!
Erick
@Erick, glad to be of help! Unfortunately, audio will not work with any browser other than IE (no, Mac’s old IE will not work either). Your best bet is Parallels or Fusion with Windows/IE.
Panasonic uses a codec that only has IE plugins.
I’m also having issues getting this to work. I use a D-Link Gaming Router throughout the house with both Macs, PC’s and Linux boxes on it. It’s running DHCP, so all my addresses start with 8.8.8.x.
Does this not work with DHCP?
I did see it on my network with an assigned IP, but I’m not able to access the setup site.
Thanks!
chris
I myself use dhcp to assign an ip to the panasonic camera. You only need the 192.168.1.253 ip for initial setup as that is the factory assigned ip. If you’ve reassigned the ip, use that for subsequent access.
@Chris, if you are still having trouble accessing the camera, do this:
STEP 1: Turn off airport on your mac and any other network interface you have
STEP 2: Connect your ip camera to your mac via ethernet, power it on
STEP 3: Try accessing the camera via 192.168.1.253
STEP 4: Reconfigure IP for dhcp
STEP 5: Disconnect, restart
STEP 6: Check assigned ip and access the camera via the new ip
@admin
Ya I’ve done a similar thing when setting up PC only bridges, etc.
I can’t however get this to log in still via the way you’ve suggested.
Camera light’s green, my comp has a self assigned IP.
IP still doesn’t resolve to the camera.…maybe a different IP?
Not sure whats going on here…
Did you change the switch at the bottom from wired to wireless?
Your router should tell you what ip was assigned to the camera. Can you ping the ip?
Also, are you doing filtering my mac address on your router?
Thanks for this great site and your willingness to help! I have successfully set up my camera using your directions without any difficulty.
I would now like to be able to view my camera outside of my home network. I know from setting up my slingbox that I had to manually open a port on my Airport Extreme which was a little trickier than most non apple routers. How would you suggest I set up the camera for internet viewing (outside of my home network)?
My specs:
Airport Extreme Base Station
Remote viewing via pc’s and iphone
currently using wpa encryption with the camera set on a static ip address
Randall, since you’ve setup static ip for the cam, what is the port you’ve set it to? Is it the default 80 or have you changed it?
default 80 just as you suggested
Ok, here’s what you do:
In the panasonic cam setup page, goto Internet tab
Register with ViewnetCam.com
Pick an address which you’ll use to access your camera from the internet (ex: mycam.viewnetcam.com)
Now in your router admin page, look for port-forwarding
You’ll have to enter your camera’s ip (192.168.1.253) and the port as 80. The protocol will be TCP. Save router settings.
Give it 15 minutes for DNS to propagate.
Now go to the address you setup, mycam.viewnetcam.com and you should get the camera settings page!
(I’ll make a detailed post with screenshots in the coming days, this is out of my memory)
Does this require me to plug the camera back in “wired mode” or can it be done with the camera left in wireless?
No you don’t have to go to the wired mode. Leave the cam in the wireless mode.
Got it. It’s working great. Thanks!
Hi Society 9: I’m using an Airport Extreme router connected to my ISP’s modem and MacBookPro w/ system 10.5.6 and Safari 3.1.2. For the SSDI I used the MAC number from WINS from network preferences; Is this the right SSID? Also, I’m using 802.11 b/g button on the set up…is that right?
Lathe,
SSID is the name of the network you connect to. Should be the same that your mac book connects to.
802.11 b/g is fine.
Do you know if your network is secured or unsecured?
My network is unsecured. I put in the correct SSID and now got the following message:
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
Thanks your help!
In your camera’s admin page, click on Setup, UPnP and DISABLE auto portforwarding and save.
Did that and then disconnected LAN cable and power outlet, switched to wireless, reconnected power outlet, and restarted Safari, and went to http://10.0.1.253/ and got that “Safari can’t open page.”
When you switch to wireless, what is the color of the led on the camera?
it’s flashing yellow
Lathe,
You need to reenter the ssid and make sure for encryption you choose none
I did this and the camera continues to not recognize the network when I go to wireless mode.
Is the led green or still flashing when in wireless mode?
Does your home network start with 10.x or 192.x?
The led is flashing yellow in wireless (steady green in wired mode). My airport extreme network starts with 10.x
Ok, let’s try this:
Connect back to wired mode,
Goto Setup and select DHCP
Leave everything as it is, in the Default Gateway field, enter your router admin IP
Save,set it back to wireless, restart camera
Is the led green or still flashing yellow
I entered my router IP address 10.0.1.xxx into the DHCP, saved, and it reset the camera, then I got the message:
Safari can’t open the page.
Safari could not open the page “http://10.0.1.253:80/StartBlank.html” because the server is not responding.
Plus, now I can’t get into 10.0.1.253 even in wired mode with the camera’s green light on. Message:
Safari can’t open the page.
Safari could not open the page “http://10.0.1.253/” because the server is not responding.
Is the led green or still flashing yellow (in the wireless mode)?
In your router admin page there must be a tab to see connected devices … do you know how to get to it? It’ll list the ip address of all devices connected. There should be one matching your macbook and the other is the one assigned to your camera. You should use that IP to connect to the camera.
If you don’t know, let me know I’ll walk you through the steps
HI…In wireless mode the light is yellow flashing. (In wired mode it’s green, but again even in wired mode, I can no longer connect with the Panasonic site).
I can’t find where the airport extreme router has a list of devices connected to it.
Ok to connect back in wired mode at the bottom of the cam there is a reset switch hold it for five second and try again
HI again: I got the camera to operate wirelessly. All is working well, except when I try to access it from a remote location, I can not get in. I have checked with my ISP and they say that my service does allow access in. Any suggestions?
Can you post on how to add a second camera to the setup?
@Randall, the setup procedure is exactly the same as the first one. Under ‘multi’ tab in the config page you should be able to see both the camera images
The cameras were assigned different ip addresses: 10.0.1.252 and 10.0.1.253. I tried the multiple camera setup page and added the second camera there but kept getting the same error: “check input value.” Can you give me some advice as to how the ip address should be set for each camera ? (i.e. do they need to have the same ip address, port setting, etc.)
Thanks, again for your help. You made the first one a breeze.
Thanks for the info you’ve published. It was a big help in getting my camera set up for viewing on my private network, but I’m still having issues making it available on the internet. I’ve got it connected through an airport extreme router and have done the port forwarding for the static IP address for the camera on port 80. I have also registered on viewnetcam.com. The camera setup page shows the DNNS address I set up in the maintenance tab, but when I try to go to the external website, I’m told that the site doesn’t exist. I have also logged into my viewnetcam.com account and it tells me the account is active. I’ve tried both enabling and disabling the IPv4 UPNP toggle on the internet tab of camera and it doesn’t work either way. I have the IPv6 as disabled. Any suggestions on what else I should be doing to get it working? Also, what is the correct setting for the UPNP toggle? Should it still work disabled if I have manually forwarded the port within the airport extreme utility?
@Kris, do you know how to find out your wan address (don’t post it here!). From the airport config page, find out your wan ip. Enter the ip from a browser, what do you see?
I typed in the wan IP and it asked for a user name and PW. It then took me to the camera page. Looks like it may be working now. Have yet to test it from an external computer. The difference is that I enabled the “default host at XXXX” in the NAT page of the airport extreme. I didn’t have this enabled previously.
If the external IP is working, you are very close to getting this to work!
Once you confirm that the external ip is working, re-register at Viewnetcam. Wait for 15 minutes or so for the DNS entries to propagate before trying it out.
For those of you adding a second camera, I figured out the correct settings. The key to the set up is not to register then second camera with viewnetcam.com. Simply assign a unique port to the second camera, open that port on your router, and the key step that I could not figure out until now…
When entering the name of the second camera do NOT use the local IP address. Simply put in xxxx.viewnetcam.com and the port number you assigned to that camera.
Thanks for putting up this website. I’m setting up my Panny BL-C131A and it’s giving me some things to think about. I have my network camera set up and working perfectly EXCEPT it refuses to go wireless.
I opened port 8080 on my airport extreme so I can connect to my camera anywhere in the world using http://dynamicdns:8080 or on my local network at http://10.0.1.253:8080 with username and password. The only problem is I can only do this when wired to ethernet.
Unfortunately, attempting to switch over to wireless gets me nothing but a flashing yellow light. I even called Panasonic Help Desk and the guy walked me through it and he thinks I might have a bad wireless module (which he says is extremely rare).
I’m just wondering if there might be one little setting or something that I am missing. I set up a static address for the network camera with port 8080. I’m sure I entered the SSID and WPA/WPA2 personal password correctly and I have the unPNP disabled. And the airport extreme is set to be compatible with b/g mode, so I’m thinking that is how it should be set.
Maybe the Panasonic camera does have a bad wireless component, but other than that the unit is operating flawlessly. I’m hoping there’s some obvious setting for wireless that I’m too stupid to figure out. Thanks for any help you can give.
Did you set the switch to wireless at the bottom of the camera?
Yes I have set the switch to wireless at the bottom of the camera numerous times. I have also reset the unit many times and re-entered the setup information each time.
I have tried to connect using WPA personal (AES and TKIP), WPA/WPA2 personal (AES and TKIP), WEP, and even unencrypted. Nothing seems to work.
@solid, try this. Instead of the default IP, try setting it to dhcp. See if the router lists this in its devices connected page.
Ok, I’ll try that when I get home. But the reason I didn’t go with dhcp is because I didn’t see a selection on the Panasonic dhcp setup page to open port 8080 for the camera. The port option appears to be only visible on Panasonic’s static ip setup page. How will the camera know that port 8080 is forwarded if I don’t tell it?
Anyway, I’ll give it a try and let you know if that works. Thanks.
Greetings –Thanks so much for contributing so much info (and, I assume time) to this topic!
Here is my question:
I am running an Apple Airport network with the following devices -
2 Airport Extremes in a WDS network
4 Airport Express(s) — 1 as a printer interface, 3 as Airtunes devices
Various ethernet devices connected to the base station routers
All working perfectly — then:
Two days ago I added a Panasonic BL-C131A wireless Network Camera to the system.
Gave it a port assignment and a static IP address.
Got it up and running perfectly. Ran for multiple hours without a problem.
Then, suddenly problems — camera became erratic, then unresponsive.
After a day of diagnosing the problem, I have discovered this:
If I restart the camera, it will connect wirelessly to the Airport network and work perfectly until any other client joins or leaves the network. Then the problems with the camera occur.
If I connect the camera to the Airport via ethernet cable in the wired mode, I do not get this problem, no matter how many clients join or leave the network. It only occurs when operating in the wireless mode.
I have contacted Panasonic customer support, they were helpful, but since the camera connects correctly and operates correctly when using ethernet access to the Airport, and the problem occurs only when using the wireless side of the Airport, they though it might be a problem or setting on the Airport system.
I posted this problem on the Apple Support Discussions page, and the only response was another user who had experienced the same problem (with another brand of wireless camera).
Any help, guidance, or advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Hmm that is a strange problem! Did you try switching channels?
@Gary — Another point I can think of is, is there a conflict between your dhcp range and the static ip you’ve assigned to your Panasonic camera?
Well, the static IP address is the default address 10.0.1.253.
The curious thing is the robustness of the system when operating via ethernet.
I can look at the wireless clients signal strength.
When the camera is started and acquires the base station, the signal strength from the camera is around –40.
When another client is acquired or drops offline, then the signal strength of the camera drops to around –80.
Regarding the wireless channels, the WDS Network requires a fixed channel on both base stations. It is currently set to channel 6. Not real anxious to change the channel as would require reconfiguring the WDS and restarting all the devices — unless you strongly recommend.
Thanks