After activating two cameras on my POE switch. I am having problems with changing the IP addresses of each camera. They both have the same IP address. Whats wrong?

Question:

After activating two cameras on my POE switch. I am having problems with changing the IP addresses of each camera. They both have the same IP address. Whats wrong?

Answer:

In general. Devices on the same switched network MUST have unique IP addresses withing the same network scheme.

When two devices on the same network and scheme have the same IP address. Network error occurs or "Collisions" occur. These error can cause an entire network to go down in worst case scenarios. If this happens the offending device would need to be removed and the network switches and possibly the router would need to be rebooted to clear out the errors. 

To resolve this before errors start compiling. One of the devices with the duplicate IP address needs to be remove from the netowrk. The remaining device on the network with the same IP address as the device removed will need to have it IP address changed to a unique IP within the IP scheme of the network. 

Then add the removed device back. 

If these are cameras. Then, from that point. Since the IP conflict hase been eliminated. They should work fine and be ready to add to a Hikvision recorder.