Testing ip camera without the nvr

One of my customers managed to fry the rj45 socket on a Lorex (cheap!) brand ip camera. No idea how, but the pins are cooked.



He had purchased a new socket but needed someone else to repair. It’s an rj45 with a standard power jack on the side.

Of course, the colours are all different.. so I made up a little test rig with a cut up patch cable to work out what does what. The power hack works. Red and black. Slightly larger cores… continuity tested.

I think I’m right with it but it’s an hours drive to plug it in just to test it.

From the new socket, I’ve got a spare core that isn’t connected to anything… can’t even trace it to a pin… and on the socket itself, there’s nothing on pins 4 and 7 if I remember. Definitely 2 pins unused.

TLDR; how can I test an ip camera without the dvr?

As @mainline has pointed to, basically almost every camera will have a web page that lets you configure it and see the images. If you have got a working connection the camera should become available.

Most IP cameras I have used are PoE to save extra power supplies per camera, most NVR support this (maybe?) but very few (to none) of home networking kit, etc, support that. So often to test that aspect you need a PoE injector. Or use a separate PSU using the other least seen in the photo, assuming someone has the matching PSU and that connector has not also been trashed by water ingress.

Or to splash out on a small PoE switch!

Ok… so connect to router… ?

I’ll have to find the camera brands software…


So what might have caused the burnout? A spider got into the plug?

littlespark said:

Ok… so connect to router… ?

I’ll have to find the camera brands software…

Click to expand...

If you can log in to your own router it should list all devices that it is serving (DHCP assignment of an IP address) and hopefully you will see the camera listed. Not all devices give their name, or if they do it is a random gibberish string, so you might have to find it by elimination of what devices you expect to be listed (laptop, phones, firestick on TV, etc).

Most IP cameras have a web server built in, so if you then put that IP address in you your web browser it should come back with the camera's log-in page or similar.

If you are luck enough to have a managed switch like the Zyxel GS1900-10HP we use for some things (cheap-ish and has fibre SFP ports that we use for any runs longer than 100m copper Ethernet limit) then you can see that matching port light up so you know if the camera is there and how much power it is taking.

littlespark said:

So what might have caused the burnout? A spider got into the plug?

Click to expand...

Looks like water corrosion to me.

littlespark said:

Ok… so connect to router… ?

I’ll have to find the camera brands software…


So what might have caused the burnout? A spider got into the plug?

Click to expand...

You could try this



Ive got one similar to this but i think only ever used it a few times.