How-to: How to use Optio Cameras with a Synology NAS

[Dan]

Optio is designed to be used as a complete system (Optio cameras with an Optio NVR) and this makes it an excellent option for small home/business systems. At the same time the Optio cameras are ONVIF compliant and so you can connect them to 3rd-party recording devices, and a common 3rd-party option is a Synology NAS which a lot of people already have in their homes & business for general file and media storage. Synology NAS devices have their own security software called Surveillance Station which can be download from the Package Centre on the Synology device desktop, this is a free software that gives you 2 camera licenses free of charge (if you want to record more than 2 cameras you will need to purchase a Camera License for each camera) and so for a small 2-4 camera system using a Synology NAS that you already own can be a cost-saving option. (as you will see via the above link once you go beyond 4 cameras the price of licenses makes using a Synology NAS for security more expensive than buying a dedicated NVR)

If your Optio camera is fresh out the box you will not be able to add it to straight to a Synology NAS, this is because, like most manufacturers now, you have to activate your camera first by giving it an original password. Below are the steps to activate an Optio camera:

Step 1. Open Chrome browser and download the EasyViewer app

Step 2. Open the EasyViewer app (open a new Chrome and click the app button in the top left of the window)

Step 3. Enter the cameras default IP address (192.168.1.108) into the EasyViewer search bar

Step 4. Enter a strong password and enter it again to confirm it (you will also see that you are prompted to enter an email address to help with a password reset - we recommend that you do this)

Once you are happy with the password you can click save - next you will see a page giving you the option to enable or disable P2P for mobile access, unless you are sure you don't want to use P2P leave this enabled. The next page asks if you want the camera to auto-update which is best to leave enabled, once you are happy with these settings click save.

Finally you will arrive at the login page, enter the username (admin) and the password you just created and click login. And that's it, your camera is activated and you will now be able to see a live view of the camera.

Now we come to how to add the camera to your Synology NAS, whilst still logged in to the camera you will need to go to Setting > Network > TCP/IP - on this page you will see all the network details for the camera, we recommend that you change the cameras IP address to something else on the same IP range so that you don't have any problems adding future Optio cameras that use that default IP address. You will also need to change the default gateway address (192.168.1.1) to the same address as your router, if you don't know your router address you can use our forum guide to help you find out what it is. (Mac users - PC users)

Once you have made these changes you can click save to confirm these network settings, if you have changed the IP address of the camera make a note of it as you will need that address when adding the camera to your NAS.

You will now need to login to your NAS and open Surveillance Station (if you are new to Surveillance Station as well as Optio we would recommend following our guide on How to setup Surveillance Station and add a camera) and then go through the usual process of adding a new ONVIF camera, if the camera does not appear in the ONVIF search list when you try and add it you will have to manually enter the IP address you made a note of earlier.