WyzeCam and Pfsense

stephenw10

The cap was taken from Pfsesnse's packet capture tool.

On which interface though?

If that was on WAN try looking on the VLAN. There might be more traffic there that isn't shown on the WAN. Which would be a big clue.

djskott

@stephenw10 That was from the VLAN

Here are Caps from when I initialize the Cam from My Phone (Not connected to LAN):

VLAN wyzeCAPVLAN200.txt
WAN wyzeCAPWAN.txt

johnpoz

@djskott txt caps are not very useful.. just upload the actual pcap file..

djskott

@johnpoz My apologies

Due to size using links

WAN: https://www.djskott.com/thingsthatgohmm/pcapwan.zip
VLAN: https://www.djskott.com/thingsthatgohmm/pcapvlan.zip

stephenw10

There are only 8 packets in the WAN pcap there to the cell IP. And they are all small.

You probably need to filter than pcap by the remote IP so it doesn't get swamped by other WAN traffic.

djskott

@stephenw10 When I filter the Phones IP, i see a string to the Modem and then nothing.

packetcapture-em0-20230829082635.pcap

stephenw10

That's on the WAN? Do you see more on the VLAN?

Also that's a different IP, did the phone just get a new IP?

djskott

@stephenw10 It's entirely possible that the device picked up a new IP from the Carrier. I am seeing a different IP in the VLAN than i do with the WAN now that you mentioned it.

Here is the VLAN as of 1056a https://www.djskott.com/thingsthatgohmm/pcapvlan200-1056.zip

stephenw10

What we're looking to do here though is make sure the UDP stream looks the same on both the VLAN and the WAN. Potentially some MTU difference could be dropping traffic there for example. I don't think that is happening but we need pcaps from both interfaces where the IPs used are the same ideally.

johnpoz

@djskott said in WyzeCam and Pfsense:

feed will spike up to 50-100ish KBps and then drop to zero and hang for 2-5 seconds then spike and hang,

How exactly are you seeing the speed, is it something on the app that reports this? I haven't watched your videos yet.. But just got it setup, pretty slick actually. It did a couple of firmware updates.. But I didn't have to forward any ports.. Turned my phone off of wifi, and its viewing just fine, and responsive to my panning, etc..

I just need to figure out where to view some sort of speed, etc.. I will watch your videos

edit: ok do you have subscription or something, I am not seeing any speed on my app on my iphone.

But in your video there is no movement, why would you think it should constantly be showing bandwidth, let me see I think there is a free 1 month trial of plus, etc.

edit2: ok started a free trial of plus, and still not seeing where it shows kbps.. Just shows HD.. The camera is very responsive, the feed is not behind, etc. I am not seeing any problems, and I didn't need to open any ports..

You sure your speed thing is just not the normal compression it does when there is no movement?

Is there some trick in enabling viewing the kbps? I have tried my ios, and my android tablet - I don't see anywhere to turn that on or off? But so far from the few minutes of playing with it.. Pretty impressive for the 30$ price range.. Now need to figure out exactly if I have anywhere to mount it ;)

edit3: Well shit... from this post it seems the kbps is missing on the pan v3..

https://forums.wyze.com/t/display-bitrate-on-all-new-cam-ui-live-streams/248979
All other Wyze cams display the bit rate data transfer speed on both the Live Stream and the SD Playback. This is a very useful tool in troubleshooting playback and streaming issues to identify network problems.

The V3 Pro and PanV3 cams should not be the only cams in the Wyze stables to omit this display function. [Edit: Even the OG has it] Bring back the functions that are useful!

edit4: Ok doing a bit of playing, so I pointed the camera to video playing on screen, and watching on my phone (via cell data only - no wifi) and was pretty good picture, decent amount of movement, I could prob watch movies that way ;) Was getting alerts of people detected ;)

Anyway was seeing this bandwidth being used

Then pointed it to something not moving, and bandwidth dropped.. And you can see here where dropped more is when changed mode to 360p..

So far I am not seeing anything wrong here.. Works as it should, and I had to do zero on pfsense for this to just work out of the box.. I wish I could see what the app is showing for kbps and I could compare that to actual data I am seeing for bandwidth.. With just looking at the wall was seeing about 900k when switched to 360p mode that dropped to like 300k.. Then moved it up to hd and the bandwidth went back up..

stephenw10

@johnpoz said in WyzeCam and Pfsense:

I could prob watch movies that way ;) Was getting alerts of people detected ;)

Ha

djskott

@johnpoz

Thanks for sharing this.

I have the cam plus lite sub.

Before pfsense even with zero movement (while streaming via cell service) the clock would tick up in seconds and the bw on KBps would jump all around. Never to zero, never hang on zero.

I'll try to do some more pcaps this weekend and take some ss of the meters.

johnpoz

@djskott can you do a test like I did for actual bandwidth being used.. And get some sort of movement going on, etc.. I by no means am an expert with these wyze.. But it makes sense for them to compress and not continue to send a full live stream if there is no movement. So you bandwidth should be way lower when there is no movement.

You prob can't easy move your cameras around - but if you have one you can point to something where there is decent amount of movement, I pointed it to screen showing a video..

Sucks the model I got just happens to not show the kbps.. So I can not help to see if their are difference in what that shows and what actual bandwidth is being used.

Also - are you recording to a SD?

But from only the few minutes of playing with this - I really don't see how it could be a pfsense issue. maybe issue on your wifi? Kind of crappy that they only support 2.4..

I can see how the kbps could be useful, not sure why its not on all of their cameras - seems even the cheap 20$ has it.. But its also quite possible that the value shown is misleading in what is actually happening.

When I pointed it to the video, I could see the actual video and the video via wyze.. It was pretty damn close to actual realtime, and wasn't seeing any freezes or the like in the video feed..

edit: on a side note to self, to maybe look into it more.. When I was playing around on the traffic screen, I did get some php errors from pfsense.

16:04:48 PHP ERROR: Type: 1, File: /etc/inc/util.inc, Line: 2276, Message: Uncaught TypeError: format_number(): Argument #1 ($num) must be of type int, string given, called in /usr/local/pfSense/include/www/bandwidth_by_ip.inc on line 172 and defined in /etc/inc/util.inc:2276
Stack trace:
#0 /usr/local/pfSense/include/www/bandwidth_by_ip.inc(172): format_number('', 2)
#1 /usr/local/www/bandwidth_by_ip.php(36): printBandwidth('opt5', 'local', 'in', '', 'iftop')
#2 {main}
  thrown

I will have to take a look at redmine to see if anything reported. I don't normally play around in the traffic graph screen. But switched some stuff around because it wasn't showing the IPs that were moving data..

So if you play around in the traffic screen to look for data, you might see such same errors??

stephenw10

A wifi issue would affect local connections too though. It has to be something in the WAN link....

stephenw10

@johnpoz said in WyzeCam and Pfsense:

util.inc:2276

https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/14500

johnpoz

@stephenw10 true true.. I will have to read the thread in more detail.. So when on local the kbps in the video still fluctuates right. Just different numbers..

Maybe they will add the kbps thing to this camera with some new firmware? I looked and on the latest, 4.50.44767 and didn't see any newer betas or anything.

I wouldn't put to much weight on those numbers, I would be more interested in what the actual bandwidth is..

johnpoz

@stephenw10 when I get a chance I will add the notifications I got.. looks the same exactly from quick glance at the redmine. thanks!

djskott

@johnpoz

yes I am recording to SD.

I'm leaning to WAN link as well. I'm doing my wired lan cut over to PfSense this weekend and plan on moving the modem gateway to bridge mode. I'll do more caps and scree shots then.

johnpoz

@djskott maybe I missed it - but other than fluctuation in the video kbps value.. Are you actually not seeing video update, its skippy, missing stuff?

Love to see the bandwidth values, and example of video with movement in it.. Does show someone walking into the frame and then just appear at the far end of the frame, that sort of thing?

djskott

@johnpoz @stephenw10

Good morning Folks. First and foremost both of you have been great in walking this noob through this. Thank you thank you thank you!

I have completed my Wired cutover and moved the modem in to gateway mode. LAN speeds are working as expected, maybe seeing a 100mbps decrease to the internet, could be the traffic that is going on, (Kids with their fancy VR's and laptops gaming) but nonetheless I'm happy with the outcome.

I was able to open up the FW to allow Plex to work remotely. Seems like everything is good so far after that. I'm able to stream to twitch and shoutcast with no issues. File transfer over the LAN were top notch.

The Cam issue comes and goes now, mostly on the cams that are furthest away from the AP. There is an occasional stutter in movement, Im guessing that is just going to be a signal coverage Gap. I'll have to find a outdoor solution to pipe some signal out to the backyard to cover Said gaps. Any suggestions on an inexpensive solution? PoE is an option, however open to just a repeater that I plug in and leave alone.