Foscam fi9803ep / fi9900ep SD Card Access / FTP Problems

I recently got around to installing my Foscam fi9803ep (HD/POE) camera, and after getting everything setup, realized I was unable to access the SD card via the “SD Card Management” option in the settings for the Camera.

If you logged into the camera via the web interface (using Internet Explorer, no Chrome support from what I can find) you can configure the camera to take a Snapshot every X seconds, as well as have it take snapshots or record based on an “Alarm” setting. I was able to get all of that configured, but when I tried to access any of those files, I was unable to do so remotely. Clicking on the SD Card Management link in Internet Explorer would simply open up an FTP connection to the camera, in Windows 10, but no matter what I typed in, I wasn't able to successfully log in.

Searching around, I found a couple of different ideas to try, but nothing seemed to work until I stumbled across this forum post on the Foscam.us website. Basically the issue appeared to have to do with the “password” for the account. I had setup a username and pretty secure password on the Camera, but in utilizing that information I was unable to access the camera via FTP.

I then decided to setup another account, specifically for FTP access to the camera, so that I could try a less secure password, unfortunately just using letters and numbers, and less than 13 characters. Once I setup this account, I was then able to access the FTP on the camera and transfer all of the files off of the SD card I had installed before installing the camera outside.

Next step for me is to come up with automated way to retrieve the data from the camera, and get it hosted in the cloud somewhere, likely up to Windows Azure.

Stay tuned as I document the solution I come up with for that process.