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 have a wireless connection that I use for my camera only, so I am not very familiar with wireless routers. Like the camera, the router came with a cd for setting up on a pc, but nothing for a Mac! I did get it set up though, and everything worked great for a while, but then one day the viewnetcam.com seemed to no longer recognize my personal address (MyName@viewnetcam.com) and it does not recognize the email address that I set it up for. I’m trying to figure out how to get it to work again, but all I can do is guess and experiment because I don’t know things like if I need Port Forwarding and DHCP vs UpIP.
OMG! I got it going! Thanks for your time just the same!
Good to know! What did you do?
Hi, just got the BL-C131A yesterday but still no success using it wirelessly. (Wired, yes.) One problem I’m noting is that when the setup asks for the 13-digit WEP PW, the WEP PW provided by Verizon (printed on bottom of router) is only 10 digits. This is probably the hold-up in successfully getting it hooked up wirelessly and I’m wondering if there’s a workaround of some sort. Thanks!
Under the wep password field you’ll find a combo box, select hex 10 characters
Thanks — I’ll check it out. Another thing I neglected to mention is that when I have the camera connected to the router, 192.168.1.253 will NOT load (even when I change from the Airport to the Verizon router for internet). I have to have it connected to my Mac’s ethernet port to be able to access 192. Hopefully that won’t prevent me from successfully getting my camera to go wireless, but if the camera MUST be connected to the router, and if there’s a trick to accessing 192 accordingly, please let me know. Thanks.
Steve F — i just bought one of these cameras and tried installing it with my iMac after having read all these instructions. Iseem to have a solid green light while connected directly into the macs ethernet connection, but cannot load the startup page by going to 192.168.1.253. I have reset the factory settings a couple of times and still nothing. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Try http://10.0.1.253/
I have tried both 192… and 10.. on the “wired” and “wireless” settings. Nothing seems to work. Does it matter if i use the crossover vs. regular ethernet cable? My next step is to just ditch my brand new iMac and use my old IBM laptop to set up the camera, but that would be a shame! (i don’t really need to use the computer after the camera is set up to view it from the outside, do i?)
THANKS!
I have tried both 192… and 10.. on the “wired” and “wireless” settings. Nothing seems to work. Does it matter if i use the crossover vs. regular ethernet cable? My next step is to just ditch my brand new iMac and use my old IBM laptop to set up the camera, but that would be a shame! (i don’t really need to use the computer after the camera is set up to view it from the outside, do i?)
THANK YOU!
Still no success. Connecting camera to either Verizon router or Apple Airport, trying to load 192.168.1.253 always fails (cannot find — page load error).
Connecting directly to Mac via ethernet port succeeds in loading 192 on browser, but then to switch over to wireless according to instructions, the camera will display a steady green light, but 192 in the web browser won’t load/display anything. A real stumper!!
Steve, looks like you are almost there! If your camera is displaying a steady green light, that means it is already connected, but the IP address is wrong.
Looks like you are on a different subnet when connected wirelessly. Once the camera is connected wirelessly, try http://10.0.1.253 and see if you are able to access the router.
Problem is, it never gets a video feed nor connects to 192.168.1.253 when I have the cam connected to the router (wired, via ethernet). (The only time I can get 192.168.1.253 to load is only when the cam is connected directly to the Mac.) I’m thinking I need to have success getting a wired feed with the cam connected to the router in order to succeed in getting it to connect wirelessly… so… I’m trying to figure out why 192 is unable to load even though everything seems to be in order.
If you are using airport express use http://10.0.1.253/ when connected to the router
Works fine when in wired mode. When we move it to wireless the image comes up for about 10 seconds and then it all freezes.
Am having exactly same problem as Steve F.…cant get the camera to work wired from airport extreme, but can when it’s connected to mac book. it gives a steady green light as well. Did Steve ever get his connected with wire or wireless?
Connect the net cam in the wifi mode (you have to change the tab below to wifi from wired)
Taken from apple manual as I don’t have airport express:
If you see your panasonic camera, note down its ip address and use that to connect.
If not, do the same with wireless clients (instead of dhcp) and see if panasonic is listed. Use that ip address.
Sorry, don’t have airport express, hope the above helps
oops, forgot to ask.…where in the world do i find the SSID on my airport extreme? went through entire base station, nowhere did i find this
Apple calls it the ‘Network Name’ look for it under wireless
Well I’m going to have to throw in the towel and call Panasonic because absolutely nothing works. I almost suspect that the fact I use the Airport extreme connected to Verizon’s router is confounding the BL-C131A. Might have to just turn the Verizon router off and plug the Airport directly to the telephone jack (temporarily) to get anywhere.
I have a wired network in my home. All jacks go to a Linksys EtherFast 10/100 8-Port
Workgroup Switch. This switch is connected to a Linksys EtherFast Cable/DSL Router (not wireless). To accommodate my wife’s laptop I have a Linksys WAP54G plugged into one port of the switch via one of my home jacks. Questions:
1 — Once configured can I use the Panasonic camera wirelessly in my network?
2 — Can I access the camera output from both on my LAN and remotely assuming I set up the router properly?
3 — My encryption is WAP2-Personal. Can the camera be configured to use it? (WEP is not very secure)
Answered #2 and #3 (Yes/Yes) by going to your Frequently Asked Questions and the Panasonic web site. Still looking for #1 re my network topology.
Yes you can connect to a wifi point using the netcam
I am trying to set up this camara on an apple with airport express… there is only one port and they said I can’t do it/?
Can you be more specific? Who is ‘they’ — Panasonic, Apple? Where exactly are you getting stuck?
Panasonic is saying . The camara won’t go green. I am trying to connect to Airport exress. which only has one ethernet port. they are saying
Do you know if these same instructions will work with the wired outdoor Panasonic model BB-HCM531A ?
Sorry, I would think they would … why don’t you shoot a quick email to panasonic they might be able to answer your question before you spend money on this model?
http://192.168.1.253/ and http://10.0.1.253/ Have tried these today, get nothing, but was able to the last two days?
Power off and power on the netcam and try again
chanakya — Thanks, but I am away from home and will test again when I return. I had tested for two days before travel and it worked fine, now that I am away…Nothing. Using same laptop as I tested? Does the camera go off often that you know of?
Hill, I used to have a similar problem, camera kept losing connection. After some intense troubleshooting I figured there was something physically wrong with the camera. Called up Panasonic, told them about why I thought the camera was at fault and sent it in for repairs. They changed the wifi board inside and returned it. Not once did the camera lose connection after that.
But before you send it in for repairs, do a few tests
What router are you using?
When the camera loses connection does the other devices connected to your camera lose connection as well (this could indicate a router problem)
For troubleshooting purposes, try a wired connection to your router and see if the netcam holds connection
If in spite of the tests above the camera loses connection, this could be due to a faulty wifi card. Let me know!
with a 131A that is working well going to .viewnetcam.com when just entering .viewnetcam.com w/o the portnum I am seeing my router’s admin page ! So far all settings that effectively block that access also shut down the regular access using the portnum. Should I re-register with viewnetcam.com and force the portnum to 80 ?
thanks !
sorry that works well going to mysite.viewnetcam.com:portnum but renders router admin page going to mysite.viewnetcam.com w/o portnum . original post had some “” on it
Hi all
I have been trying to set up a Panasonic BL-C111 connected via ethernet to my AEBS. I eventually got to access the camera but only after setting up a new Location on my Mac, thus losing my wireless internet.
I spoke to Apple about this and was told that the ethernet ports on the AEBS only work with Printers and Hard-drives, they say there is no way to configure these ports.
What Apple suggested was to send feedback to http://www.Apple.com/feedback and get everyone I know to do the same, the more people contact Apple the greater chance there is of them doing something about it.
In my feedback I also suggested that Apple needs to address the growing number of Mac users who are frustrated by the fact that there are no IP cameras, wired or wireless, that work “out of the box” with a Mac, maybe they should create a Mac Solution to this problem.
So.… Please, everyone that is having problems getting their IP cameras to work, especially with a AEBS, please send feedback to Apple at http://www.apple.com/feedback.
Just purchased a BL-C131A I had it working on my local network just fine but couldn’t get it to work via the internet. While going through your instructions I changed something and have now forgotten what it was or where.
Now I can’t get to the http://192.168.1.253/ for accessing the camera on my local network. I have reset the camera and now I get part way there. I get to a page that says my ‘user name or password entered for General user on 192.168.1.253:80 is incorrect. It gives me a place to enter the name and password. I am stuck at that point.
The camera is connected to the router and is displaying a green light. I think that if I could get back to the original page that allows me to access the camera from my local network I’d be really happy.
Any suggestions?
I was able to get it to work wired…I can’t get it to work wireless…I switched it to wireless, unplugged it, brought it downstairs, plugged it into the wall, came back upstairs went to the address http://192.168.1.253/ and the page failed…I can no longer even get to that address…any suggestions?
Molly, save yourself hours of grief and simply call Panasonic. They will politely and patiently walk you thru it step by step. No hassles about where and when you purchased..they just help you. Best customer service I’ve ever had in tech world. Panasonic is now at the top of my list. I’m buying a big screen tv soon…it will be a Panasonic.
800 272 7033
btw, the solution to my prob was using the reset button on the camera… a recessed hole near where you plug ethernet cable into bottom of camera. need a paper clip to push in (it’s green inside)
Hi, I have a Verizon wireless router and can access the BL C131a via the Viewnetcam.com when the camera is connected directly to the router but not when the camera is disconnected from the router in wireless mode. What do I need to do? Thanks.
Hi,
I have successfully installed the camera and able to see it through internet. However, when I tried to switch to wireless mode, I am only getting the flashing orange light.
I have tried to put in the router IP in default gateway in DHCP without any luck.
Can anyone help me with this issue?
thanks
“Safari can’t open the page “http://10.0.1.253/” because the server where this page is located isn’t responding”
And I get this below when I tried http://192.168.1.253/
The user name or password you entered for area “GeneralUser/Administrator” on 192.168.1.253:80 was incorrect. Make sure you’re entering them correctly, and then try again.
So I could not get past step one. What now?
Thank you.
Try resetting the cam, that’ll wipe out the old password (if you bought the cam used)
Great Site. I used your instructions a year ago and was up and running in no time. I use the Panasonic cam at a vacation home in Colorado and have accessed via the internet without a problem. But, a few weeks ago our satellite dish in Colorado was covered with snow and I could not access the cam for a few weeks. Once that was cleaned off by a neighbor we had cam service again but then lost it a few days later. We were at the house last week. The internet works fine at the house. We have an airport wireless network. I can access the cam from inside the house using the same link I use via the internet from NJ (the cam has always been hardwired via ethernet to the airport router) but now I’m back east and again I get the message: “Safari can’t open the page “http://myhouse.viewnetcam.com:5000/CgiStart?page=Single&Language=0” because the server unexpectedly dropped the connection. This sometimes occurs when the server is busy. Wait for a few minutes, and then try again.” Powered on/off the airport and cam while I was at the house. Any thoughts? We’ll be back there in February if there’s something I need to reset on site. Thanks, Mark
I have an airport extreme Timecapsule, and a Panasonic BL-C131 web cam. It works fine at home when I call up the IP (wireless) address of the camera. My problem is, I want to access the camera from outside the home from the internet. I know my provider’s assigned IP address to get into my airport router, but I am lost as to the steps to access my camera from there. On my (old) windows computer/router I would type in my routers IP address from the internet and it would automatically forward to the web cam. I can’t seem to figure out how to do it through airport.
Hi, Thanks Chanakya for the setup process, but now I want to add a BL-C111A (wired) , but nothing appears when I setup in “multicamera” option, I can setup both, but apart from each other and both get the same name in the field “IP Address or Host Name” (selfcamera). Thanks Jose
Thanks Chinakya. I have the camera all set, the problem is getting to the camera from outside my LAN. I have the IP address that the service provider provided, but I can’t get through to the camera from the internet.
I am trying to find the software/setup guide for the BL-C131A.
Can anyone help? thanks!!!
Jim
I recently bought the BL-C131A and am about to pull my hair out. I got it working with little trouble. We are able to access the camera through viewnetcam.com wirelessly from our laptops on our home network. My mother-in-law is also able to access the camera from her home. However I have bee unable to access viewnetcam.com from my work computer! I can access the camera from my ipod touch when I connect to our public wireless connection at work. Which is okay, but I have no sound and would much rather get to it on my computer through the work network. My wife is also unable to access the camera from either her work network connection or the public wireless connection there. I have called the panasonic techs, they were little help, they were able to access the camera. Any idea what could be going on?
I’m guessing you have a different port to get to your camera? Try changing the port. If you and your in-laws are able to connect through the internet, you’ve setup the camera correctly. What’s likely happening is your work has some ports blocked and that’s why you aren’t able to connect to it from work.
Disregard mine above… Its working! Just cant see it through Viewnet… Yet… Thx!
Thanks, not sure how to change the port. I will be up late tonight attempting this. My port is 50000. I have to put :50000 after my viewnetcam.com login to access the camera. I did notice that 5000–5020 were listed as exceptions in my work computer’s firewall settings. I will attempt to change the port to something in the 5000–5020 range, if I can figure out how.
Changed the port, I will try it from work tomorrow.
OK so I changed the port, and it is still not working from work. I am getting the same “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage” message. I am still able to access the cam at home and with ipod touch (no sound) with the new port. Any ideas?
My camera worked wonderfully well for the past year. It recently stopped working wirelessly and gave me a flashing red light on the front LED. I have re-booted it with the pin and re-loaded it and now I get a flashing green light on boot-up, followed by a steady grteen light and finally followed a few seconds later by a flashing red light.
Does anyone have any ideas what the problem is and whether it’s a set-up mistake or a wireless board failure?
What does the flashing red light mean?
hello…weird thing..i have a bl c30a and i can get to work wirelessly when i do not do mac filtering on my computer..when i add the mac address of the cam to my accept list in the mac filtering it does not work…it is the mac address of the cam but it will not connect…when i turn off the mac filtering the camera connects again.. the mac filtering in my opinion is the best way to secure my network so dont want to leave it off..any ideas would be appreciated thanks
Hi,
Is there a way to trun off the flashing yellow led on the front? I went into the settings, indicator control and clicked never, and save and it said successful, but it is still blinking?
It’s set up on a wireless network.
Thanks -
JOhn
Hi,
I am trying to turn off the flashing yellow indicator light. I have gone into the settings and clicked never, and save, it said successful, but it is still flashing. It’s set up on a wireless network — Thanks
John, did you ever figure out how to get rid of the flashing yellow light? I have the same issue and I’m able to see the camera remotely as well. The light is anoying.
Yes, I did. I had to reset the unit a few times and finally when I went into the set up, it finally worked.
Good luck.
Your website has been very helpful to set up my first netcam bl-c121. I want to add another netcam, bl-c131A but I’m having trouble. Either I’m not setting it up right with the Panasonic webpage under multi-cam set up and/or adding it to my airport extreme router somewhere. Do you have any basic guidelines in setting up a second camera? I can’t find the IP address of the new camera even though the green light is on? Please help.
Thanks for the excellent site. Perhaps this solution will help some. I could not access either of my two cameras after an earlier success (then they were packed up for a couple months until I needed to re-install them). Perhaps because I recently installed a NetGear router (previously I had a Linksys) I found I had to type “10.0.0.253″ to get access to the camera controls and setup. I believe this varies from all other instructions for an IP address given here. Not sure why this is different than some other setups but it is working for me at the moment. This was after I had tried pushing the factory reset button on the bottom (push and hold for 5 seconds to reset to default). Hope it works for someone else who is having trouble.
After posting above, I then tried wireless with the camera and had a lot of trouble as others have. Finally found a solution: With your camera still “wired”, go to the Panasonic camera web browser, click SETUP tab at top. Then click the WIRELESS box or tab in far left column. Here, make absolutely sure the field called SSID has the name of your wireless router in it. I think mine had defaulted during initial setup to the name I had given the CAMERA, not the router’s name. I figured it knew what it was doing during setup but it did not. Once you change this (to the name of your router, which you may need to look up in your router software or browser…it might be Linksys or NETGEAR or whatever you have named your router instead of the default name), click SAVE at bottom (use encryption for the camera if you wish here, but you might want to solve one problem at a time). You should see a “Success” page. Ignore the button “Go to Wireless configuration page”, it just goes back to where you were. Instead, click the tab at upper right called MAINTENANCE. Then click the now-visible tab at far left called WIRELESS STATUS. You’ll see instructions to move the switch on the camera bottom to WIRELESS, then to restart the camera. Do NOT do this by clicking the RESTART tab onscreen at left, that did not work for me in 3 attempts, the browser would try to load the “restart” but nothing would happen and it timed out. INSTEAD, just unplug the cable from the camera (having moved the switch to wireless), then disconnect power to the camera too, then plug the camera back in. With any luck, your browser will reload and show the wireless camera image under “Single”. Give it some time, it takes longer than the wired setup to “connect”, maybe 20–30 seconds. I have 2 cameras, it seemed to work faster/better with one than the other, and I did lose the wireless image during testing, not sure why, but it came back. Still testing. Possibly a router vs. camera setting…Dynamic or Static IP. UPnP on or off (mine’s on). Still many things I do not understand. Will post if I get rock-solid here. SHEESH, if someone does come out with a plug-and-play camera of this type for the Mac, they’ll sell a few million of them.
I have my Panasonic BL-C131 working just fine both wired and wireless through my Apple Extreme wifi network, and I can see the image live as expected on the Panasonic Viewnetcam site. I’m curious though how I can find the URL address for the picture itself, so that I can incorporate it into my existing web site. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks — Chuck
Chuck,
Use this to get the url of the image:
nphMotionJpeg?Resolution=640x480&Quality=Clarity
after your ip/domain.
Because of this site, I was able to set up everything without a CD ROM (thank you!) — but on the wired setting, not wireless. However, now I am not able to load the 192. site at work through any web browser. This is an urgent situation — help if you can!!
I am able to load the 192 site if I restart the camera each time the site won’t load, but I’m not sure why the site won’t randomly load. But I am having trouble converting it from wired to wireless.
Is there a way to reset the username and password on the viewnetcam.com website (through the 192 site setup) without knowing the original login?
Hi
Has anyone got the cam to work wireless with a newer Cisco AP, no linksys ap Cisco IOS AP och lightweight APs?
I can see the wireless mac address authenticate and associate with a ap but i dont get any data to pass to or from the Cam.
Tried different setup, but now i’m keeping it simple in the troubleshooting:
no mac filter
no protection (open network)
static ip on the cam (but tested automatic and dhcp with no luck)
no cisco proprietary extentions
Everything works fine with a wired connection but when flip to wireless on the switch and reboot the cam. Always the same issue… yellow blinking led on the cam and an associated client on my ap (with the wireless mac address registered but no ip address visible from the ap).
Any tips or ideas?
i mean, my setup is with a Cisco IOS AP but my goal is it to get this cam to work with the latest Cisco controller version and lightweight APs.
seen similar problems a couple years ago with dusty old artem wireless bridges, but hey i guess they dont use 10year old tech in this cam
Hi Guys,
I also had the problem of the yellow/amber light flashing, even though everything was working fine.
The solution (at least for me): disable uPnP in the settings!
hope this helps,
Roy
Just had to bag my old wireless access unit and now have a
Netgear N300 Wireless Router model WNR2000v2. Using an iMac computer.
Tried both of the http addresses for the wired setup at the beginning of this tutorial and both time out. http://192.168.1.253/ and http://10.0.1.253
Tried the Panasonic site regarding port forwarding and the Netgear does not like the 198.168.0.10 address. Says it has to be a LAN address such as 198.168.1.10.
UPnP is enabled as well, but nothing shows up in the router UPnP portmap table.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave
Btw just disabled UPnP and no change.
Dave
Hit the factory reset button and am making some headway. Trying to set up the internet viewing capability. Ignore my previous posts for now. Thanks for wasting your time ;}