Need Help Diagnosing Congestion with Dropcams on Unifi Network

[kaizersose]

I have a small business with 6 Dropcams running off a mesh of 2 Unifi AP's. At night, everything runs perfectly but during the day (9am - 4pm), 4 of the Dropcams running off 1 AP on the 2.4ghz band are experiencing intermittent downtime ranging from 1 to 45 minutes. Can anyone suggest a way to fix the problem? I NEED these to work!

Here is some relevant info
-Wifi signal is strong for the cameras, much stronger than any background/competing network
-Camera's and AP are above head height so people moving around shouldn't be a problem
-upload speed doesn't seem to be the limiting factor. i have ~4 mbps up and the cameras use .5 mbps per their spec
-My business is a standalone building. Nearest neighboring businesses are 20-50 feet away (game store and auto repair shop).

Thanks!
-K

 

[Emulex]

Could be someone tampering with the 2.4ghz band, can you access the AP logs to see why they are disconnecting? or the camera logs to see why they are disconnecting?

Try a different channel setting perhaps?

I've found wifi cameras perform like crap and it was easier to setup wired links even if to a dedicated router in AP client mode or EOP/MOCA/homepna setup alternatives!

 

[kevnich2]

For a business surveillance camera's, I'd highly recommend going with emulex and look at having some wired cameras installed. Ubiquiti sells some nice POE cameras and the related DVR that goes with it. 4 camera's and the DVR would probably run about $1k plus install for probably $500-1k. For a business, this is a good deal.

Wifi cameras are very hit or miss and you'll spend more time troubleshooting them than it would cost you to have a professional install cameras for you.

 

[kaizersose]

full disclosure, I am not a network expert by any stretch.

I will try taking a look at the AP logs to see what's happening. dropcam does have logs but they are only available to the dropcam support people. this is frustrating.

are there any tools (apps, software, etc) that can take a look at what's happening in the wifi spectrum in more detail?

regarding the camera's, i appreciate the recommendations and i will take a look at them. for now, i need to try and make the dropcam's work. we just opened and invested our full budget in the remodel and outfitting of the building. i went with dropcam's because i didnt want to have to spend time troubleshooting--they were supposed to just work.