Camera Security Systems???

[newbury]

I have Arlo wireless cameras around my property. I was initially 100% pleased with them. Very easy to install and set up. They are more expensive than other cameras but you pay a premium for not having to run wires. They do not record 24/7 like DVR-based setups; they have a motion detector which activates the recording and the recordings are saved to "the cloud." There are positives and negatives to this. If you arrive to find your building burnt to the ground, the video on the DVR will be unrecoverable and you'll never know who/what started the fire. On the flip-side, the motion detection isn't perfect and if you arrive to find your building broken into and things stolen, there is a slight chance that the burglar may not have tripped the motion detector, and there won't be any continuous footage stored for you to manually sift through and find the perpetrator.

I was aware of the limitations of the wireless camera system when I bought it, and for what it is and what I paid for it, I was happy. But as time went on I became less satisfied. One of my cameras randomly stopped detecting motion. The one on my barn which is right next to the door to capture the face of anyone who approaches it. You could walk right up to the door, standing right in front of the camera, and maybe it would record you, maybe not. Previously is had been hit-or-miss only if, for example, there was a house cat crossing its path at 30ft away. Now it's hit-or-miss with the center mass of a grown man 3ft away. After about a year, the battery life started to decline. I noted when I first bought them, how amazing it was that they could remain charged for over a month, with dozens of recorded events each day. Now what used to last a month lasts a week.

Knowing what I know now, might still buy Arlo cameras, just because of the labor required to install anything else. But if you had asked me last year it would have been a resounding recommendation. They are so, so easy to install, and if you don't plan on having a lot of traffic in front of the cameras which will strain the batteries, then it's probably a good choice.

I installed arlo pro with 2 cameras this past spring.So far very happy.Time will tell..

Arlo (by Netgear) has one GREAT advantage NO WIRES (if you want that), they can be battery operated and anywhere you can get a signal you can easily put a camera.
I bought into the prior Netgear model, which they discontinued after about 2 years and are incompatible with anything. Netgear made the new system, which is virtually identical to the old system totally incompatible. So I'm stuck with 100's of dollars of useless equipment. It was great while it was supported, just carry a camera and place it. I got pretty good battery life.

But I pity the suckers that heavily invested in them and are stuck worse than I am.


The Ring system, though expensive, seems to be a decent bang for the buck.

 

[plowhog]

I'll have wireless Internet at the location. Based out of the house. I could easily bury wire no farther apart than the two structures areView attachment 578451

A hard wired camera is always preferable and works better than one over wi-fi. If it's easy to run a cable (relatively), pull cable. If you do that I'd put in a conduit for future runs.

My distance from house to barn is greater, and crosses unmarked utilities. So I went wireless because of that. Not so between my garage and barn- I installed conduit and wire for that.

 

[plowhog]

Arlo (by Netgear) has one GREAT advantage NO WIRES

And one huge disadvantage-- you have to pay a monthly fee for a cloud subscription service. Not my kind of gig.

 

[dragoneggs]

I went with a Lorex system purchased at Costco. Was easy to set up and I had some access and control from my iPhone. But after a couple of years, started having camera feed failures and now it appears to be completely dead. I don't know what the cause was, but maybe due to heat as I had the dvr sitting on other AV equipment. Didn't seem that warm but...

Anyways, now I wish I would not have gone with the proprietary camera cables (BNC) and went with a Power over Ethernet system for flexibility and future upgrading. I do think wired is the by far the best way to go even with the hassle of fishing or burying wires.

So now I am looking at building my own custom system vs. an off the shelf system. Doing the research now. At least I will be able to use the 'old' BNC cables as my fish wire to run Cat 5/6! :laughing:

Live and learn I guess. The other thing I will do different is hide my DVR/NVR out of easy find if a burglar breaks in... my BIL's place got broken into earlier this year and the thief was smart enough to steal his DVR, some jewelry and was gone quickly, leaving him no video to review.

 

[ericm979]

"recurring revenue" like that is the holy grail for tech companies.

Another big drawback to cloud services is that they often have poor security (look at the number of AWS S3 buckets that are readable by anyone.... even the NSA has had that problem). If your cloud provider's hacked or left wide open, people who access your data can see what you do and when you're home.

Some internet cameras are poorly programmed or setup and thus accessable by anyone. Most cheap internet devices have poor security and are easily hacked. Make sure the camera's in your router's DMZ so your router's firewall can protect it but it's not on your main network where it can attack your computers.

 

[strantor]

And one huge disadvantage-- you have to pay a monthly fee for a cloud subscription service. Not my kind of gig.

You have to pay a subscription fee if you want access to more than 5 cameras. 5 and under is free. I have 4 and I do not pay any subscription fee. The videos stay in the cloud for a week or 10 days. If you want to save a video permanently, you can download it.

 

[Jchonline]

Once I get power I wil go with Ubiquiti (UniFi). I have a fairly extensive network at my home and they are great. Commercial grade and lots of flexibility. No hiccups. You can easily add a beam antenna between the shop and the house to get WiFi out to the shop if needed. There really isn’t a need to run a buried wire anymore. I would not put yet another hole in my house for the purpose. That said if you want wired, Ubiquiti does have lots of wired options.

 

[plowhog]

So now I am looking at building my own custom system vs. an off the shelf system. Doing the research now.

The other thing I will do different is hide my DVR/NVR out of easy find if a burglar breaks in...

Check out Synology NAS server. It is like a hard drive you attach to your ethernet system, but it does *way* more than that. Their Surveillance system add-on is easy to use. I like it. All in all the Synology and its capacity is pretty impressive.

And that old DVR? You can leave it out with some wires attached, preferably a monitor on top-- so the burglars can steal it instead of your new system.

 

[Diggin It]

I do almost everything DIY, including cameras.

Mine is piecemeal. I can't even recall where I got most of it. Cheap ChinaCameras are all wired, but some are POE and some have local power. DVR (if you want to call it that) is one of the China brand hockey puck types. Works OK for what it is, but I don't have an HD hooked up to record. Cameras are just live view for me to look around outside if I'm too lazy to go outside. No remote access if I'm away though. Never bothered to try to set that up.

 

[Diggin It]

A hard wired camera is always preferable and works better than one over wi-fi. If it's easy to run a cable (relatively), pull cable. If you do that I'd put in a conduit for future runs.

My distance from house to barn is greater, and crosses unmarked utilities. So I went wireless because of that. Not so between my garage and barn- I installed conduit and wire for that.

Those types of runs should be through a network surge supressor/lightning arrestor. There are a few different styles available for $20 or less each.