Author Topic: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working  (Read 2280 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline KTXQUINL5

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 2
Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« on: May 16, 2021, 08:40:26 PM »
I have two Weather Underground stations, the cameras associated with both were all working at one time but for some reason, Weather Underground is no longer displaying te cameras. When I test the FTP settings from the camera they show the FTP settings are working. Has anyone else had this issue recently?

Offline davidmc36

  • He who dies with the most toys wins!
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1245
  • FN25ie61jw
    • MorewoodW34
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2021, 08:53:38 PM »
More than you know.

It's a common theme these days.

Welcome to the club.

Offline KTXQUINL5

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 2
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2021, 09:05:27 PM »
Thanks, at least I know it's not just me.

Offline Eno

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 97
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2021, 11:05:37 AM »
Same here, worked for years, gone for months.
WU responded to an email though:

Hi!
Unfortunately, we have only very limited support for webcams.
Things to check (any or all can become corrupted):
-- The upload key (not your account password) for the cam is in place, matching the one on My Devices exactly.

-- Upload type is set to Binary.

-- Access is via webcam.wunderground.com not any IP addresses.

-- Schedule for uploads is what you want, ideally set for no less than once per minute, and probably better at once every 5-15 minutes.
Be sure that all firmware is up to date. We occasionally update our web protocols to eliminate older, out of date requests, and systems that have not been kept up to date may no longer work.
After that, I would suggest giving everything a reboot, to make sure all the information is pushed through. 
Thank you for being part of the Weather Underground community!


Now waiting for Foscam tech support to tell me which firmware version is the current version for my F19804P.

Offline Eno

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 97
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2021, 05:51:56 PM »
Hahaha, Foscam tech support replied by saying the firmware for my 8 year old camera was up to date but they have nine new products and need testers would I be interested!

Dear Victoria, I spent about 20 minutes and got my webcam image to display easy peazy on Ambientweather.net.  Nice dashboard with my weather station data and camera image, new image every minute if I want. Only PC at the moment but they are working, and I believe them unlike another corporate entity I could name, to get the webcam image on their phone app. Suggest WU just remove the ASSOCIATED WEBCAM panel and get it over with.


Offline davidmc36

  • He who dies with the most toys wins!
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1245
  • FN25ie61jw
    • MorewoodW34
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #5 on: July 29, 2021, 07:28:27 PM »
Send my name to Foscam, I'll go for some testing lol

Offline Eno

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 97
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #6 on: August 03, 2021, 09:53:08 PM »

Dear Victoria, I spent about 20 minutes and got my webcam image to display easy peazy on Ambientweather.net.  Nice dashboard with my weather station data and camera image, new image every minute if I want. Only PC at the moment but they are working, and I believe them unlike another corporate entity I could name, to get the webcam image on their phone app. Suggest WU just remove the ASSOCIATED WEBCAM panel and get it over with.

And waddya know, there's my webcam image on the ambient weather app.   \:D/

Offline K4LYL

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 10
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2021, 10:59:33 PM »
I had reliable camera uploads this year until June 27th. Since then I have not been able to get a single image uploaded. I've updated the firmware in my Foscam FI9900P, I have deleted and created a new camera on WU, I've used the same settings I was using (I had screen captures of all settings). When I deleted the camera on WU because it hadn't worked in a month of trying to make it work, the newly created camera on WU is so far "not associated" with my Ambient 2902 station. But it shows up in my device list, as "offline". I can get into their FTP server with the settings using FileZilla, but no images are there.
I'm a retired programmer of 52 years. Long time! I still do some subcontracting with the same company I worked for all those years. I tried to ping the WU ftp address and it would timeout every time, lots of hops. TOO MANY hops, and it just never gets there. The DNS servers must have incorrect information. I also tried tracert to the WU ftp server, and it never gets there.
I tried tonight to setup the camera on AmbientWeather, because my 2902 also reports there. I added the camera's MAC address, and gave it a name, and it never asked me if it was a URL or if it was FTP. Their Help screens show that I am supposed to be asked that question. Also, their help screens say I will be supplied a UserID and password for the camera. That never happened either. So the Camera is not showing up on AmbientWeather because the setup didn't work right. I deleted it and re-created it, same thing.

Any suggestions?

WU station: KVAFORES16

AmbientWeather Link:
https://ambientweather.net/dashboard/fe29a82b084aab052856476567d7e51a

Thanks for any suggestions or information.
Larry Lewis
Forest, VA
« Last Edit: August 03, 2021, 11:49:31 PM by K4LYL »

Offline K4LYL

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 10
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #8 on: August 03, 2021, 11:36:08 PM »
Also, the IP address for webcam.wunderground.com has changed ..... since last night! 
Someone mentioned something about "pooled servers", maybe that has something to do with it?

So the DNS servers are trying to take me to a moving target. Last night it would time out and never get there. Same tonight.
But getting to the ftp.ambientweather.net is only 7 "hops" and it works every time, using ping or tracert.

See attachments.

« Last Edit: August 03, 2021, 11:51:59 PM by K4LYL »

Offline K4LYL

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 10
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #9 on: August 04, 2021, 12:58:41 AM »
Nowhere have I seen this mentioned. But with the Foscam, it worked to do this. At least on Ambientweather.net

I had to TURN ON the ONVIF option. After I did that, the camera worked immediately.
It seems strange that Ambient uses your weather station MAC address for the LOGIN ID for your camera, when the Camera has a totally different MAC address.
Maybe it makes things simpler on their end. Which is fine. Just confusion, if you set up a camera, it looks as if you're looking at your weather station because of the MAC address.
This change might also fix the Weatherunderground FTP problem, I will find out.

Offline K4LYL

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 10
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #10 on: August 04, 2021, 01:25:41 AM »
The camera still doesn't connect to WU. I think because of the DNS routing problems. It works great now on AmbientWeather.
So until I can ping webcam.wunderground.com in some reasonable number of hops, without timing out, I don't expect it to work.
I can also connect easily with Filezilla to Ambient. Only occasionally to WU.

Offline EW7038

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 4
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #11 on: August 04, 2021, 10:06:51 AM »
There is something definitely wrong on WU side of things for webcams.  I often see the the ftp connection to WU servers fail, but not always.  The ftp transfers that do successfully upload a <150kb image are never displayed. WU has been reporting the webcam offline since July 24th.  The last image I can see online is timestamped July 23 at 12:14p PDT on the image by my webcam.     I reached out to WU tech support and received the same that they didn't have the resources to chase down webcam issue and implied the issue was most likely a configuration issue.  Not sure how that is for a webcam that has worked for years without issues...
« Last Edit: August 04, 2021, 10:10:34 AM by EW7038 »

Offline Eno

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 97
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #12 on: August 04, 2021, 10:45:24 AM »
Also, their help screens say I will be supplied a UserID and password for the camera. That never happened either. So the Camera is not showing up on AmbientWeather because the setup didn't work right.

Any suggestions?

WU station: KVAFORES16

AmbientWeather Link:
https://ambientweather.net/dashboard/fe29a82b084aab052856476567d7e51a

Thanks for any suggestions or information.
Larry Lewis
Forest, VA

I guess you found the Ambient-supplied username and password. Once I added them in the Foscam software mine showed up.

Offline Eno

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 97
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #13 on: August 04, 2021, 10:50:40 AM »
Nowhere have I seen this mentioned. But with the Foscam, it worked to do this. At least on Ambientweather.net

I had to TURN ON the ONVIF option. After I did that, the camera worked immediately.


Whatever ONVIF is, mine is off and the camera is working on ambientweather.net and their app. I have a Foscam 19804P.

Offline K4LYL

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 10
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #14 on: August 04, 2021, 03:41:35 PM »
Eno, yes the camera works fine on AmbientWeather, so the camera is fine. Its the route to get to the webcam.wunderground.com  - that route is corrupted or incorrect in the DNS server tables. When you try to do ping or tracert webcam.wunderground.com it takes far too many hops, and times out and never gets there.
There's only 7 hops to get to the ftp.ambientweather.net site and it is quick and ping or tracert work every time.
What threw me on the AmbientWeather webcam setup was that their SETUP SCREEN screen layout is not clear where your weather station info stops and the webcam info starts. And on top of that, when you set up a webcam, it gives a user ID that is the MAC address not for the camera, but for the weather station. I suspect they use the wx station MAC address as the primary key in their database, and cameras are in a separate table, tied back to your wx station in the main table.
I don't expect Webcams to work until you can get a successful and fairly quick path to their site for ftp.
To run a test, in Windows, go to the Start button and type in CMD to get a command line. Then run this line:

For Weather Underground's camera site run this test:
tracert webcam.wunderground.com

For Ambient's site run this test:
tracert ftp.ambientweather.net

Also you can replace tracert with ping for a simple timing test from server to server.
WeatherUndergound just needs to get their IP addresses on the DNS servers corrected.


Offline K4LYL

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 10
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #15 on: August 04, 2021, 04:58:11 PM »
Ping test run on cell phone through Verizon cell site. Fails the same as from my PC, which is a 50 Gbit Cable connection.


Offline davidmc36

  • He who dies with the most toys wins!
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1245
  • FN25ie61jw
    • MorewoodW34
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #16 on: August 04, 2021, 05:08:14 PM »
When I trace to WU it stops the app due to over max 30 hops.

Offline Michael M

  • Senior Contributor
  • ****
  • Posts: 160
    • mypensacolaweather.com
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #17 on: August 04, 2021, 07:02:29 PM »
Hi Guys
The Wunderground wbcam service is difficult to connect
I have seen a lot of problems using the webcamwunderground.com  address
I myself have always used the direct IP address. see below

webcam.wunderground.com resolves to the following 3 IPv4 addresses:
52.36.136.128
52.37.52.183
54.148.11.142

One of those IP’s will work
I check each address in the list with the camera itself and then test
Finally find the one IP that connects and leave at that

Some times wunderground servers go down and webcams won’t connect
Hope that helps
WU
KFLPENSA29  WU is currently Online Again
Got New Station Installed 9-2-22
CWOP DW7066
[AKA]  Michael

Offline davidmc36

  • He who dies with the most toys wins!
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1245
  • FN25ie61jw
    • MorewoodW34
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #18 on: August 04, 2021, 07:58:45 PM »
I've tried every combination under the sun over last several months. Some of us simply cannot connect mo matter what.

Offline DoctorKnow

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1979
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #19 on: August 04, 2021, 08:41:13 PM »
Hi Guys
The Wunderground wbcam service is difficult to connect
I have seen a lot of problems using the webcamwunderground.com  address
I myself have always used the direct IP address. see below

webcam.wunderground.com resolves to the following 3 IPv4 addresses:
52.36.136.128
52.37.52.183
54.148.11.142

One of those IP’s will work
I check each address in the list with the camera itself and then test
Finally find the one IP that connects and leave at that

Some times wunderground servers go down and webcams won’t connect
Hope that helps

I tried the first IP address. NO good. Tried the second one, and it was successful. Now I wait and see if the image shows, if not... I will try the third IP

Offline K4LYL

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 10
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #20 on: August 05, 2021, 04:20:11 PM »
None of the three IP addresses make it through for me, using PING or TRACERT.

www.wunderground.com pings perfectly with 22 ms ping time. TRACERT takes only 6 hops.

If their servers are up for webcam.wunderground.com the DNS servers don't know how to get there.
« Last Edit: August 05, 2021, 04:25:14 PM by K4LYL »

Offline K4LYL

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 10
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #21 on: August 13, 2021, 04:56:14 PM »
I'd seen that there are three IP addresses evidentally, for webcam.wunderground.com - my FOSCAM, and many other people's webcam, has not been able to connect since late July 2021.
Today when I tried FileZilla, it connected. Every time! But still, PING and TRACERT fail. So I started looking into FileZilla, and at first I didn't find any difference in parameters being used in the FOSCAM.  HOWEVER, it seems FileZilla is SMARTER.  It retrieves ALL 3 IP addresses, and if one fails, it tries the next one in the list. AND CONNECTS TO THAT.
So, here's a log of FileZilla Connecting to webcam.wunderground.com via FTP:

16:44:11   Status:   Directory listing of "/" successful
16:44:37   Status:   Disconnected from server
16:44:42   Status:   Resolving address of webcam.wunderground.com
16:44:42   Status:   Connecting to 52.36.136.128:21...
16:44:43   Status:   Connection attempt failed with "ECONNREFUSED - Connection refused by server", trying next address.
16:44:43   Status:   Connecting to 52.37.52.183:21...
16:44:43   Status:   Connection established, waiting for welcome message...
16:44:43   Status:   Plain FTP is insecure. Please switch to FTP over TLS.
16:44:43   Status:   Logged in
16:44:43   Status:   Retrieving directory listing...
16:44:43   Status:   Directory listing of "/" successful

So I am going to try using the 183 IP address. I may try saving images locally, and having something other than the camera sending the images. It should be an easy program to write actually, sending the same image filename every couple of minutes. But I have to figure out how FileZilla gets all 3 IP addresses, so I can get them in my program. PING quits trying after 3 tries, on the initial IP address. And TRACERT quits trying after 30 hops, also on the initial IP address. I will find out how to get all the IP addresses and share it here. Or if someone already knows, maybe they will share it here.
  Larry  K4LYL

Offline davidefa

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 436
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #22 on: August 14, 2021, 07:30:02 AM »
If you are using php gethostbynamel is what you are looking for:
Code: [Select]
print_r(gethostbynamel("webcam.wunderground.com"));
Array ( [0] => 54.148.11.142 [1] => 52.36.136.128 [2] => 52.37.52.183 )

Offline K4LYL

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 10
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #23 on: August 14, 2021, 02:36:19 PM »
NSLOOKUP webcam.wunderground.com will return all the IP addresses they are using.
Then I tried each one, and one said "Success" and it says that EVERY TIME. However their Devices page, showing that camera, still says "Offline", and shows no picture.
It is been sending a picture every 3 minutes for 24 hours now with "Success". I look in the folder using Filezilla, and the camera ID is there, below that, a folder named SNAP, but nothing else, nothing in that folder. No images. Even though it says "Success" every time I test.
Any ideas?

I am sending to this one:
ftp://52.37.52.183

If I switch over to send to Ambientweather.net it works fine.


Offline K4LYL

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 10
Re: Weather Underground Cameras Quit Working
« Reply #24 on: August 15, 2021, 06:19:31 PM »
So using the ftp://52.37.52.183 to send via FTP from the FOSCAM shows SUCCESS every time now. Yet WU still says my camera, listed with my station in My Devices, is "offline".
I also can login, view and send files using the same info with Filezilla.

But nothing is getting there from the camera, even though it says SUCCESS.
The FTP address above is the only one of the 3 found using NSLOOKUP, that will let me log in with FileZilla. The other two fail, and also fail with the camera.

I've tried smaller image sizes, lower resolution, made sure snapshots go to FTP. Changed timing interval to as much as 5 minutes.
All last year, it worked with 1080p, and 1 MB bit rate, sending every 60 seconds or more.
I sent them this information. But I expect to get the "canned" reply, they don't have much support for cameras.