Axis Communications - AXIS Camera Station Support

AXIS Camera Station version 2.xx

Technical notes and FAQs	version 3

Problem: Software license registration failure
Solution: If initial registration from inside AXIS Camera Station fails, registration can also be done from the AXIS Camera Station activation page. If initial installation and registration was successful but software / PC needs to be reinstalled at a later stage (e.g. changed or new hardware), contact Axis Technical Support to deactivate registration. Include information on the original license key and the company and name of the person it was registered to. Allow 72 hours for this request to be processed. Meanwhile you can run the software with full functionality by selecting 'Grace Period' in the license dialog after starting AXIS Camera Station the first time. If you have lost your original license key(s), you can find your active licenses on your personal MyAxis account page.
Problem: Poor live view image quality for AXIS 206 and AXIS 205 series.
Solution: Upgrade to the latest service release and select 25% compression for the different live view splits (under File > Administration > Views).
Problem: When upgrading to the latest version, installation stops with an error message: "Installation cannot continue because your upgrade license has expired".
Solution: Your original one year upgrade license has expired and you need an upgrade license to install the current version. This can be purchased from your local reseller.
Problem: No connection from AXIS Camera Station Client or Web interface to AXIS Camera Station or no live images in AXIS Camera Station Client or Web interface.
Solution: The Firewall/Router between the local network and the Internet must be set up to allow network traffic from the Internet to access the AXIS Camera Station and the individual cameras (see example). See also the User's Manual.
Problem: When selecting live view, an error message 'The XML page cannot be shown' is shown in the display window.
Solution: For AXIS Camera Station to operate correctly, aspx files must be associated to Microsoft Internet Explorer on the PC where AXIS Camera Station is installed. See screenshot
Problem: When accessing the web interface of AXIS Camera Station the message 'Sorry, No Access… is shown'
Solution: AXIS Camera Station web interface is installed but turned off under File/Admin/General. Password protection is enabled in AXIS Camera Station but Windows Internet Information Services (IIS) is not setup to require login. See the AXIS Camera Station User's Manual for instructions on how to enable login in to IIS. At least one camera must be defined and enabled in AXIS Camera Station. The user who logs on must have access to at least one camera. In some cases a new Internet Explorer (IE) window must be opened (do not use ctrl-n) for the login window to appear. This typically happens in domain environments when the user has previously accessed other resources on the domain e.g. email or intranet over IE. The AXIS Camera Station background service has not been restarted since the web interface was installed. The Internet Information Services (IIS) admin service needs to be restarted.

Q: How to uninstall AXIS Camera Station demo version

In the Windows Add/Remove programs menu, AXIS Camera Station has two entries, AXIS Camera Station and AXIS Camera Station Web. To remove AXIS Camera Station, AXIS Camera Station Web and the background service:

Open Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel.
Select AXIS Camera Station and click Remove.
Click Yes when asked if you want to remove AXIS Camera Station Web.

To remove AXIS Camera Station Web only:

Open Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel.
Select AXIS Camera Station Web and click Remove.
Click Yes when asked if you want to remove AXIS Camera Station Web.

Some files may need to be removed manually from these locations:

C:\Program Files\Axis Communications\AXIS Camera Station
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Axis Communications\AXIS Camera Station\

Erasing recordings may take a while if the recordings require a lot of disk space. All recordings are stored in C:/Recordings

Q: I have installed additional cameras in my existing AXIS Camera Station system. I have added the cameras to the configuration and views but they still do not show up in any view, drop-down list etc.

A: If password protection is used and more cameras are added, you must enable the new cameras for each user accessing the system. This is done from the User Tab in AXIS Camera Station administration.

Q: The registration form in the AXIS Camera Station gives a connection error?

A: Check the following:
If your local network uses a proxy for Internet connection, check that the proxy is set in MS IE under Tools/Internet Options/Connection/LAN Setting/Proxy. Auto-script for proxy is not supported for the registration page.

You can also use the manual registration page: http://www.axis.com/techsup/acs/

Q: How do I copy my ACS Configuration to another server

If you want to move your configuration from one server to another please move the following files from the program directory e.g.
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Axis Communications\AXIS Camera Station\Settings":

Basic camera configuration:
Parm.txt
ParmMotion.txt

I/Os:
ExtAlarm.txt

Schedules:
ScheduleNew.txt
ScheduleDate.txt
ScheduleTemplate.txt

Sequences:
Rounding.txt

Note: Your ACS license can only be used on one server. If you want to move your ACS license to another server you must register a new license.

Q: Can I use motion detection when recording in mpeg-4 mode

A: Yes, when using mpeg-4 recording you can use the camera motion detection feature. This way the network communication between camera and ACS server will be very efficient because mpeg-4 streams will only be sent when there is motion in front of the camera. However, you cannot use the ACS motion detection when using mpeg-4 streams, because this would require a continuous decoding of the stream, which will require too much CPU when using multiple cameras.

Q: I am using Network Attached Storage for archive, but nothing is recorded to it?

A: When using a remote hard drive for archives please make sure that configure this as a UNC path and NOT a drive letter, since drive letters are user specific in Windows. Also make sure that the ACS recording service has access to this drive. This can be done by changing the LogOn for the ACS service.
Go to:
Windows Control Panel – Administrative tools – Services – Axis Camera Station – action - properties – Log On tab. Set the user to have Administrative rights and 'write access' to all hard drives.

Make sure that the user/password for the service doesn't expire as this will stop the ACS service.

Q: Does the ACS recording program start automatically with the PC

Yes, during installation a Windows background service is created called Axis Camera Station. This will start recording as soon as the Pc is started and Windows is running. In Windows you can set the Service to 3 different modes:

Automatic – the service will start with the PC. This is the default setting.
Manually – the Service will only start if some user does this from the ACS or the Service desktop
Disabled – the service can never start. If you try to start it from ACS an error message will appear.

Q: Why is there one LAN and one WAN address for each camera?

A: The LAN IP address is used to access the camera within the LAN. To access the camera from outside your local network (i.e. over the Internet), the WAN IP address is used. The LAN or WAN IP address will be used by the AXIS Camera Station Client to access the camera for live views.

Q: Can I record from cameras at a remote location on the Internet where there is a NAT/Router/Firewall between the Internet and the local network?

A: Yes you can, but you need to set up port forwarding in your NAT/Router/Firewall. See also:
Installation Scenarios

Q: How do I reset the AXIS Camera Station to factory default?

A: Copy all the files in the folder (1) to folder (2):

c:\Program Files\AXIS Communications\AXIS Camera Station\parm
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Axis Communications\AXIS Camera Station\Settings

Note: Your license information will not be affected.

Q: I cannot access the administration pages after enabling password protection.

A: Perform a factory default (see below). License information is not affected.

Q: I have specified the number of days to store recordings, but fewer days are saved and the hard disk gets full.

A: Probably the recordings fill up more storage space than estimated when defining the size of the hard disk. Please use the AXIS Design Tool to get an estimation of the required hard disk space. Also consider changing the settings for frame rate, compression and image size to reduce the storage space needed.

Q: 'Service unavailable' message in the web interface when running on Windows XP (64bit)

A: See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;894435 under the section:
\"ASP.NET 1.1, 32-bit version\". Follow the instructions and make sure that ASP.NET version 1.1.4322 is set to 'allowed' in the Web service extension list in the IIS Manager.

Q: 'Live View' closes by itself after a while

A: To save on bandwidth and CPU power, AXIS Camera Station is configured by default to close 'Live View' after two hours. To keep live view open, go to File > Administration > General and set 'Reset live image' to 0.

Q: When using an AXIS 210/211 camera I get the error message '503 too many users connected'.

A: Check the following:

Make sure that the AXIS 210/211 is running firmware version 4.20 or higher.

If too many users (viewing or recording) are connected to the same camera, this can occur. Try lowering the frame rate setting in AXIS Camera Station.

Q: I get a 'No signal' error in the Event log and an orange frame around the image, but I can still view the image stream from the camera in AXIS Camera Station. Why?

A: AXIS Camera Station background Service uses a different stream to record images than the one used for viewing. The live view settings rely on the settings in Internet Explorer while the recordings service rely on settings done in AXIS Camera Station. Please check the following under the 'Cameras' tab in Administration.

Check that:
the correct 'Camera Type' is selected
the IP address/user/password of the camera is correct. Click 'Test Image' to verify this.
the Camera Port is correct. This is the port number used if the camera/videoserver supports multiple cameras.
the camera has the latest firmware installed

If a personal firewall other than the Microsoft Firewall (included in Windows XP SP2) is used, the following applications must be granted full access to the network:
- AxisCameraStation.exe
- VideoMain.exe
- VideoAdmin.exe
- TraybarMenu.exe
- VideoClient.exe (for Axis Camera Station Client)

If you are using NOD32 antivirus, you must create an exclusion where you exclude the background recording service running in the file axiscamerastation.exe:

In NOD32 go to IMON > Setup > Miscellaneous > >>Edit exclusions
Exclude axiscamerastation.exe
Check that no files named IHxxxx.tmp are present in the windows temp folder (C:\Windows\Temp)

Q: Where can I find a player to playback mjpeg files created by AXIS Camera Station? Windows Media Player does not work.

A: Mjpeg files created by AXIS Camera Station can only be playbacked by AXIS Camera Station. Recordings can be converted to AVI files in the playback dialog. The AVI files can then be played in Windows Media Player.

Q: I get a black image when I start playback of an event

The playback functionality requires a graphical adaptor with at least 32 MB memory supporting DirectDraw. To see the current graphics settings, go to:
Start – run and type dxdiag.

A window will open showing your current DirectX settings. The DirectX version must be 9.0c or later.

Q: I have set up continuous recording but when I check the playback there are many separate events of about 5 to 10 minutes each. Why?

A: AXIS Camera Station divides all recordings (continuous and motion) into different events of up to 50 megabytes or a maximum of 10 minutes per event. The reference images for each event can then be quickly overviewed and specific times can be selected.

Q: No connection from AXIS Camera Station Client to AXIS Camera Station or no live images in AXIS Camera Station Client (Web interface).

A: In this installation (See example), remote access using the AXIS Camera Station Client or Web interface is possible from anywhere on the Internet. The Firewall/Router between the local network and the Internet must be set up to allow network traffic from the Internet to access the AXIS Camera Station and the individual cameras. Otherwise, the AXIS Camera Station Client or Web interface will not have access to the AXIS Camera Station for administration, playback and viewing. Normally, remote access to the cameras is set up by 'port mapping' in the Firewall/Router.