How To Setup a Point To Point Wireless Access Point Link for IP Cameras

Posted on 25 January, 2022 by Micheal Alexander

How Wireless Access Points Work

It is important to understand how all this works. We will use two wireless access points to connect to each other to create a point-to-point WiFi connection. Although in our case we are using 2.4GHz models, this setup can be done with 5.8GHz models as well. Each of these units has a WiFi radio and a high gain antenna which makes these units powerful enough for a mile or more of line of sight wireless transmission. Wifi Camera

One radio is configured as the Access Point, which sends the WiFi signal that is discoverable as a SSID or available wireless network. The other radio is configured as a Station AP that acts as a receiver station or client on the wireless network. Once the two radios are talking to each other, you have a PTP (Point to Point) wireless link.

Connecting a IP Camera System to Access Points

At the Access Point Side, our setup is geared toward making it possible for the NVR recorder to communicate wirelessly to the cameras located on the Station AP. We connect the Access Point to our router or switch to which the NVR is also connected. Smart Blinds

At the Station AP, we can connect one camera directly to the radio, or mutliple cameras to the radio by using a switch in between. We don't recommend using more than 4 cameras per AP, otherwise you will clog your wireless connection with more data than it can handle.

Let's break it down in to layman terms how the signal gets from the camera to the NVR

The camera sends data over a network cable (through a switch if there are multiple cameras attached) to the Station AP

The Station AP transfers that data in to a WiFi signal and beams it to the AP at the NVR location

The AP (Access Point) converts the data received over WiFi in to a wired network signal and sends it to your router

The router then routes the data to your NVR (also supplies internet to the NVR)

The NVR records the IP camera streams it is receiving to a hard drive inside, and makes the cameras accessible for viewing from remote users

Using IP cameras makes it easy to make any type of camera wireless and tie it back to the same recorder where other wired or wireless ip cameras are connected.