Support / It worked yesterday; today the tile says the camera cannot be reached
The camera stopped answering after the router restarted
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What usually happened
Most routers hand out addresses for a limited time. After a restart, a power cut or a lease that ran out, a camera may come back with a different address, and the one ViewTile knew is now empty — or worse, belongs to another device.
ViewTile notices when a camera stops answering at its old address and looks for it again on the network. A camera that follows the standard is usually found and moved to its new address by itself; the tile comes back without you doing anything. A camera added only by its stream address cannot be found this way, because there is nothing to ask — it needs the new address typed in.
Make it stop happening
Give the camera a fixed address. Two ways, both on the router, not in ViewTile:
- A reservation — the router’s settings page has a list of connected devices; pick the camera and reserve its address (called DHCP reservation, static lease or address binding). The camera keeps its settings; the router simply always gives it the same address. This is the better way.
- A static address on the camera — set in the camera’s own settings page. Works, but a camera set to an address the router later hands to something else causes a conflict that is hard to find.
Installers usually reserve a block: cameras from .50 upwards, recorders at .200, and so on. Write it on the router.
If the camera is still not found
Open the camera’s page in ViewTile and look under Recent events: “host unreachable” means nothing answered at that address; “connection refused” means something answered but it is not this camera. Then try the scan; if it finds the camera under a new address, ViewTile updates it. If nothing is found, the reasons are in No cameras answered the scan.