iCamSource Crashes

[Merlin]

Every once in a while my iCamSource crashes.  It is rare, but I think I've determined what it is that causes this...  I reset my router by turning off the power from time to time.  My Airlink camera doesn't always connect back to the router unless I cycle it's power as well.  When the camera is not linked and the iCamSource does not connect, the error occurs, Your network camera cannot be connected to....When this occurs the iCamSource will crash at some point.  I've tested this several times now and it happens everytime.  If all the cameras are linked with no errors it will not crash.  Is there a way to improve the stability even if a camera cannot connect for some reason?

Merlin

[OUAnthony]

Do you have your IP cam obtain an IP automatically, or does it have a static IP on your network? If not static, try that and see if it helps. You might also try different wireless encryption (WEP, WPA, etc) to see if that makes a difference...assuming your IP cam is wireless.

[Merlin]

I've tried both ways to assign or obtain an ip address automatically.  The point is not that I lose connection when I reset the modem, but that iCamSource crashes if it cannot connect to the camera.  Sometimes due to a thunderstorm a power outage occurs and I have iCamSource restart automatically with the reboot or I can remotely restart it through an app that gains me access to my computer.   Maybe they can recreate the circumstances and see if it happens as well. 

Merlin

[OUAnthony]

Ideally, the glitch would be fixed. As far as I can remember, icamsource has always had a glitch regarding proper connection (whether it's due to camera connection issue or improper port forwarding issues) that causes it to crash. I'm guessing they tried to find the glitch and couldn't, since it persists. Maybe they'll weigh in on it. Either way, it's very stable when everything works correctly, so I'm just trying to help you get the camera reconnect consistently so you don't have the issue. Your loss of power issue will be slightly different than when you reboot the router, as both the router and camera would reboot with a loss of power...and the camera will have plenty of time to reconnect to the router (assuming it works properly) before the computer/icamsource has a chance to come back up.

[SKJM Support]

Merlin, are you running iCamSource on a Mac or Windows PC?

We have tested running the iCamSource with IP cameras and have unplugged one without the iCamSource crashing, so we have been unable to replicate the issue.

[Merlin]

Windows PC running Windows Vista.  It also doesn't crash right away.  I will test it again tomorrow.  What usually happens is that it connects to all the other cameras and I can connect to it remotely (3G) and view motion detections.  After a few hours or upwards of a day, the iCamSource crashes.  This has happened when I have been gone for a few days.  The interesting thing to me is that it never crashes if all the cameras are connected.

[OUAnthony]

Just curious if you have manual port forwarding enabled or uPNP/auto-router configuration? If uPNP, does the offending camera have a static IP or obtain it automatically? I could see how uPNP and/or a changing IP address for the camera could cause a connection issue...which in turn would cause the crash (based on my previous observations concerning connection issues/stability). That's one reason I chose to set up manual port forwarding. If you haven't tried manual port forwarding in combination with static IP addresses for all cameras, you might consider it to see if it fixes your issues. Just an idea...hope it helps.

[Merlin]

port forwarding is a must for iCam.  I get my best results when I forward the ports of all my cameras and have less issues.  I don't use static IP because i've run into other issues (a dog with another flea).  However I do stay on top of any changes to the IP address although that is extremely rare.  My cameras are all on different ports as well so that I can link to them other than iCam.  The only time iCam crashes is when I specifically cannot hookup to a camera that is setup with in iCamSource.  I tested it today and it crashed as well.  I even tested by just unplugging one of my ip cameras and running Source.  Interestingly enough it didn't crash until i started viewing the other cameras and their motion events.  It doesn't crash right away it does take some time (a few hours).  If you've tested this and haven't seen the same issue I find that odd.  I will just endeavour to make sure all my cameras don't lose connection.

[Merlin]

Okay, I've spent some time on this now.  I've tried this same scenario now on three different computers all with the same result.  iCamSource crashes after a period of time if it cannot connect to one of the cameras. 

@Anthony I even tried a static IP address for all the cameras and had one disconnected.  I got the same result.  Oh and yes the cameras were Port Forwarded.

@Everyone I do love the app.  It is great especially for the price.  You are the one that can make it expensive.  Yes that would be me with 4 network cameras and two usb cameras.   

[SKJM Support]

What is the the % CPU usage of the iCamSource application on each? Also, do you see the same behavior if you run only 2 IP cameras (one setup correctly, and the other setup incorrectly). That should help isolate whether it's caused by a camera being setup incorrectly in iCamSource.

[RakaMaru]

Hello, Great program!

Would like to confirm that when all cams are shut down, the iCamSource crashes. Got around this on my Mac laptop by setting up my built in camera as one of the cams that get monitored. Didn't really want to do this, but it seems stable now.

Hope this helps.

[SKJM Support]

How many cameras are you running and what are the Brand/Models of each?

[RakaMaru]

How many cameras are you running and what are the Brand/Models of each?

I'm using 2 iPhone cameras, 1 iPad, and the built in mac camera.  So 4 in all.  When network goes down, then iCamSource crashes.

It does still crash even when I have the mac laptop camera enabled as one of the cams.  Seems to be related to when my wireless has trouble.

[SKJM Support]

The network going down shouldn't make iCamSource crash. It'll stop working, but it shouldn't crash.

If it's crashing, there should be crash logs, so ask for those.

If iCamSource is crashing, there should be crash logs.

The crash logs would be in:

/Users/<Your Username>/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/iCamSource_<date_time>.crash.log

or in:

/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/iCamSource_<date_time>.crash.log

If you are running Mac OS 10.6.3: they moved the crash logs to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports or /Users/<YourUsername>/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports

If you are running Lion: it hides the ~/Library directory for some reason. You can get to that directory by running Finder and then holding the Option key while clicking on the "Go" menu at the top of the screen. If you're holding down the Option key, "Library" will be one of the choices available. You should choose /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/iCamSource_<date_time>.crash.log. The crash logs should be there.

If you find crash logs, please send the most recent one to support@skjm.com and reference this post and your username.

[RakaMaru]

Thanks, will find and send crash logs.