I replaced my Vera2 system with a Vera3 system over the weekend. Now I am seeing some good behavior and some strange behavior with my webcams. I am using Linsys WVC80N and Foscam FI8910W webcams. Both Vera systems are used in Wi-Fi Access point mode. When I used the Vera2, I could not properly store archived files: either no archive files were created, or the archive files that were created were broken. However, I was able to use the built in email functionality of my webcams and the UPnP functionality of my Linksys E4200 router to send camera images to an email account.
With Vera3, I now appear to have reliable archive capability. However, I can no longer email webcam images to my email account. The Linksys WVC80N cameras give me an error: SMTP: Failed to send E-mail to “drnovy22@comcast.net”.
I find it hard to believe that my Vera3 is causing this problem to occur. However, I thought I should ask and see if anyone else had had a similar experience after they upgraded to a Vera3 device.
I was able to correct the email problem. The answer was to use a Yahoo! mail smtp server instead of the Comcast smtp mail server. I also enable authentication and I used my Yahoo! mail username and password. Once I did this I began receiving emails on my Comcast email account from all three Linksys WVC80N cameras and from one of the Foscam F18910W cameras. It seems a bit strange to me that I am using a Yahoo! mail smtp server instead of the Comcast server, but since it works I am not going to complain. I am using port 25 as my smtp port. If you search the Internet, you may see that people recommend using an SSL enabled port 995 for the Yahoo! mail server, but I did find that to be necessary.
I still am having trouble sending emails from one of my Foscam FI8910W webcams. However, I suspect this might be a problem with the camera’s firmware. I am seeing chatter on the Foscam forum that would indicate other users are seeing a similar problem. The version of the FI9010W webcam that does not send emails is a newer version that supports b/g/n WiFi protocols. (Firmware: 11.37.2.44; Type FR) The Foscam FI8910W camera that does support emails supports only b/g WiFi protocols. (Firmware: 11.22.2.38; Type VN)
I have found a solution to the problem I had where the Email Test Message worked on one of my FI8910W cameras, but not on the other. The answer was to realize that the Foscam FI8910W camera has two MAC addresses: one for a wired connection and one for a wireless connection? Once I discovered this and associated the main fixed IP address of the camera in my router with the wireless MAC address instead of the wired MAC address, everything on my camera began to work. What confused me was that for some strange reason the failing camera had almost full functionality in wireless mode even when it was associated with the camera’s wired MAC address. For me the functionality that did not work was email and login to the camera via a DDNS login. Also, there was another source of confusion because the wireless MAC address of the camera was not automatically displayed in the DHCP table of my router when I switched my camera from wired to wireless mode.
The reason why my other Foscam camera worked when I tested email settings was that it was already properly associated with the camera’s wireless MAC address.
The MAC address for both of the camera’s MAC addresses can be found on the base of the camera. The wired MAC address can be found on the sticker that contains the camera’s default username and password. The wireless MAC address can be found on a smaller sticker that contains the camera’s model number.
I now have 3 Linksys 80VCN and two Foscam FI8910W cameras associated with my Vera3. The speed of the Vera3 combined with the functionality of my webcams is starting to make using a home automation system fun. One almost forgets the long, arduous hours of testing and scouring user forums that it took to reach this point. There is still work to do with regard to Vera and webcams: better archive functionality, better image stability, and better video streaming capablitity. In the meantime it is fun to realize just how far Vera has come with regard to webam integration.