topic Unable to connect to Wi-Fi camera in Network

Unable to connect to Wi-Fi camera

MZone — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 07:55:45 GMT

Hi,

I have a Wi-Fi indoor camera at home to keep an eye on the dog. For some reason it won’t allow me to connect to it using the app that comes with it to see the live video on my iPhone when using the 3 network. If I change to O2 or using Wi-Fi it connects straight away so appears the issue is with 3. Any ideas please. It’s not a coverage issue as was getting over 70mb download speed on 3 via 5G just now when I tested it. Any ideas please.

Re: Unable to connect to Wi-Fi camera

JonathanB — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 09:13:20 GMT

Hi @MZone,

I'll do my best to help. So just to check, the camera is on your home Wi-Fi network, and that's on another provider's Broadband?

Any error messages displaying on the App in question?
Are you testing the 02 connection from the same iPhone?

I'd also test whether the APN you use makes a difference this will either show in:

Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Network
OR
Settings > Mobile Data > Mobile Data Options > Mobile Data Network

Try "three.co.uk" and "3internet" in the APN field to check if you get differing results. 3internet is intended for Broadband, but I've seen a couple of situations where it worked better for certain types of streaming on phones.

Thanks,
JonathanB

Re: Unable to connect to Wi-Fi camera

dc52ltr — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 10:32:39 GMT

A lot of these cameras won't connect unless they're using 2.4ghz...might be that?

Re: Unable to connect to Wi-Fi camera

MZone — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 19:29:30 GMT

Hi @JonathanB, Yes the camera is on my home Wi-Fi network which is with BT Internet.

There is no error message on the app it just won’t load the camera.

The O2 connection is on the same iPhone (dual SIM).

Changed the APN to 3internet and it worked.

Are there any positives/negatives keeping the APN as 3internet instead of three.co.uk

Thanks

Re: Unable to connect to Wi-Fi camera

JonathanB — Thu, 04 May 2023 15:18:06 GMT

Hey @MZone,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you there. I'm not aware of any specific disadvantages to using 3internet on a phone. It's primarily the APN for Broadband rather than phone services, so possibly why it's solved this particular streaming issue for you. There's a couple of differences that are optimised for home networks and smart devices etc...

I think the main difference is that three.co.uk APN uses something called CGNAT which is an IP system where many users share IP addresses, which works great for browsing and general app use on a phone, but may interfere with some more advanced router settings.

If you happen to notice any issues as a result of this workaround please let me know, and perhaps if you can let me know the particular manufacturer and model for the camera, I can feed this back in case there's some way to resolve the underlying issue?

JonathanB

Re: Unable to connect to Wi-Fi camera

Lppoer — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 22:50:20 GMT

I have same issue but even if i put 3internet can’t get online just on WiFi connection or if i use different data mobile form three network

Re: Unable to connect to Wi-Fi camera

PeteG — Sat, 31 Aug 2024 16:47:23 GMT

Hello.

Can you confirm which products you are using and at which point it's not working?

Pete.

Re: Unable to connect to Wi-Fi camera

Mummajs — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 13:53:24 GMT

Is there noway to get round this

Re: Unable to connect to Wi-Fi camera

JonathanB — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 10:20:12 GMT

Hi @Mummajs,

If you have a device which only connects to 2.4GHz that will be a hardware restriction of the camera. That being said assuming you've tried testing both APNs mentioned above and still no joy, you can also usually split the 2.4 GHz and 5GHz frequencies to operate as separate Wi-Fi networks from your router.

Thanks,
Jonathan