Meteobridge can't read data from webcam url **solved**

[WS Grave]

Hey guys, longtime no see (my Meteobridge works great - knock on wood),

I recently bought a new IPcam and I use the snapshot url to get an image with data displayed on it.
Works great, but now Meteobridge doesn't accept the url anymore.
It says "The address delivers no data".

I checked the address with another program and there the snapshot image is visible immediately.
So the url does deliver data.

It worked for 11 days on a row like a charm.
And then at once it stopped and I got it working 1 or 2 times, but since then no joy.

Is it possible that the Meteobridge Pro Red blocks this snapshot url?
Could it be that the IPcam image is too large (2688x1520) - MB memory full ?
Or what could be the reason that it doesn't work anymore?

Does anybody have an idea?

Below is the last time the address worked:

[WS Grave]

I got it working for a short while and then it stopped again.
The size of the image is quite large, so now I made it smaller, but still it does say "no data".
I checked with other program and the url does provide an image there.
So why not in Meteobridge?

[galfert]

How many MB free RAM does your Meteobridge PRO Red have?
What is your camera brand/model?
What is the local webcam URL that you are using? (not asking for Internet URL, mask passwords)
When you manually pull the URL with a browser and save the file how large is that image file?
Are you getting any error messages in the Meteobridge?

Some webcams have a limit of the number of simultaneous users. Often this limit can be changed under user management.

[WS Grave]

Hi Galfert, thanks for your reply !

My MB Pro has 13654 kB available.
The camera is a Dahua IPC HDBW3449EP-AS-NI

The local webcam URL is

Code: Select all

 http://user:password@192.168.178.108/cgi-bin/snapshot.cgi?

If I pull the two images from Meteobridge, the large one (2688x1520) is 280 kb and the smaller one (852x480) with weather data 80 kB.
The error message I get is (translated): "The webcam url delivers no data".

The number of simultaneous users was 10. I changed that to 20 now.
Not sure how the users are counted.
I guess Meteobridge is 1, viewing my admin panel is 2, who else could be using it?

[galfert]

Do you have your webcam port forwarding with your router to the Internet?

[WS Grave]

Hi Galfert, I can view my webcam(s) with apps like Imou Life on the internet (if that is what you mean?).

Your comment about the users got me thinking.
I have been looking a lot at the admin panel in all available browsers (because a few of them show different items and columns in the menus).
I have opened the cam with some other apps on both my iPad Pro aswell as on my iPhone.
Also Meteobridge is pulling the webcam image so it can upload it to my website.
I used the config tool to forward the IP-address to the IP range of my router.

I guess they all count as different users?

I've set the max number of users to 20 and I also deleted the apps I didn't need anymore.
I opened all browsers and closed the panels and closed all browsers, so now I only have one admin panel open in Firefox.
After that I restarted my webcam and also Meteobridge and closed everything down and waited for an hour before watching my website again and there I noticed the webcam image is being updated again.

I'm not going to open the panel and iMou Life for a while now to see if the image will keep updating.

Thanks for taking the time to think with me Galfert.
Much appreciated !!

[WS Grave]

Well, it worked for 15 minutes (3 images) and then it stopped again.
And strange thing I got a checkmark, but also "The webcam url delivers no data"

Could it be possible that there's a problem on the Meteobridge side?
Maybe they're blocking me somehow?
Or there's a problem on their server?

[galfert]

Do not open firewall ports to the camera on your router. The camera is being attacked by bots that search for webcams (and for anything with a login). Passwords are being attempted to sign in. The camera has built in protection that is not adequate. It results in account lockout for extended periods.

The only solution is to not make the camera directly available to the Internet. If you want remote access to your camera I recommend that you set up a VPN. Then you'll make a VPN connection to your home network and then you can access the cameras. This will allow even your smartphone to connect to the VPN and then open the camera app. Another solution for computer access is to use a remote desktop solution, but for video this often is not a great solution and it doesn't help for mobile access. The VPN is the best solution. Most new decent routers support OpenVPN. Or you may have a NAS that can be the VPN endpoint, or even a computer can be your VPN endpoint.

Also be sure to disable UPnP on your router or your camera (and other devices) may automatically open ports.

[WS Grave]

I have the p2p function active and the rest of the setup is as minimal as possible.
Where do these account lockouts take place?
When Meteobridge can't pull the snapshot image, at the same time a webcam application on my Mac can.
So it's not the snapshot being blocked, it must be the Meteobridge server doing the blocking?

[galfert]

The camera does the lockouts. It may be that it is done by username or via connection type. It is also possible that the connection is not being released. I would close the firewall port to test if that makes a difference. I don't know what P2P would be in reference to on a router other than maybe parental control blocking.

[WS Grave]

I had my system checked out by Boris en he says the problem is definately with the camera.
I'm going to return it to the shop.
Thanks for helping out Galfert.

[WS Grave]

FOUND the CAUSE and it WORKS AGAIN:

Hey guys, just a quick follow-up about my snapshot problem.
I was 1 minute away from returning the cam to the IPcam-shop
After consulting yet another guy I got the 100.000 dollar tip.

The IPcam was deleting old files (temporary files) every 7 or 8 days and that was too long.
After I set that to 1 day (the memory was apparently emptied), the snapshots started working again right away.

Meteobridge can "see" my snapshots again and it's been working now for 16 hours straight.
That's more than the past 7 days together.

So I'm a happy camper again

[galfert]

Good deal! Thanks for sharing.