Tapo camera showing as offline ***SOLVED***

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GKarasik

• July 06, 2026 21:35
• Edited

I have an issue that has a lot of contradictory signs:

I'm running two Tapo cameras off wifi in my attic. (They're named RatCam1 and RatCam2.) Both are working well--I have video and notifications from them--and both have IPs in the Tapo app. Both are set as DHCP, but the problem I'm going to describe occurs even if the problem camera is given a static IP. I can ping both cameras. Wifi signal is strong. The issue is that in the FIrewalla app, one of the cameras--RatCam1--shows in the Firewalla app as offline/no IP after it's mounted in a particular place in the attic. I've tried resetting it from scratch, and when it's downstairs being reconfigured, Firewalla shows it as having an IP, but as soon as I put it in position in the attic, the Firewalla app switches the device readout to offline (though the camera is actually not offline), and it shows no flows even though I can use it normally. This is true even with the other camera, which reliably shows its IP, is turned off. I've tried multiple cameras in that location, and they've all displayed the same behavior. Do any of you much-smarter-than-I people here have a thought as to what's going on? And other than performing an exorcism, how I might solve this? There's no obvious source of interference, and my connectivity is fine through that particular wifi access point on my phone.

 

Edit: Solved. Sometimes it helps just to formulate the question. Within a minute of posting the above, I realized the problem was being caused by a conflict with my wifi extender. I blocked the Tapo camera in the extender, and it immediately grabbed it's IP from the access point. All is well.

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  Firewalla

  • July 06, 2026 21:35
  • Edited

  What device is between the Tapo and firewalla? If it is wifi, it may be just WiFi not getting to the spot where it doesn't work.

  Or your Tapo devices has its own bridge not related to WiFi. (we see this in some eufy camera's talking to the base station directly via their own wifi)

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  GKarasik

  • July 06, 2026 21:56
  • Edited

  Thanks for tahing time to jump in. Just formulating the question helped me figure out the cause--my wifi extender--and solution (blocking the Tapo camera in the extender).

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