Camera Security Systems???

[dragoneggs]

A L3 switch is VERY useful. I use them every day and the world we all take for granted wouldn't exist today if not for them! This message is probably passing through 5+ L3 switches to get to you. However, that said, there's almost NO reason to have an L3 switch in any kind of moderate size home configuration. The use for them is if you want to run multiple VLANs and have high speed routing between them. Let me just cut to the chase, you don't want to do that 99% of the time (the 1% where you might is when you should hire someone like me). Use the switches as L2 devices and, if you really need to, expand the private subnet your using internally to get more IP addresses. I use a /24 at home, it lets me have ~250 devices connected at one time. But there's a whole class A you can use, 10.X.X.X. Use a /8, 255.0.0.0 and you'll be able to have millions of devices connected on single subnet. Now, if you have millions of devices to connect, again, you should probably hire me to come help you out (and no, we won't use 10/8 as our range, we'll use L3 switches and routers).

Keep it simple. Let the router hand out IPs, make sure the range is big enough to support all your devices and run a single flat (non-routed) network at home unless you have a really, really good reason not to. I have a server farm in my basement running VMware; 100's of VMs that I spin up for testing and work, dozens of devices in my house that use the network, about 5 full time servers running.. I don't need L3 switching. I could make a case for it, there have been times it would have been nice, but, honestly, it's not enough benefit for me to introduce the additional complexity.

Big, flat network. Router hands out the IPs. Switches move packets. AP's provide access (and aren't routers). That's the easiest and, IMHO, most reliable way to build a home network.

Okay OT, you are saying stay with my current system and add a switch downstream from my Wifi router that has enough ports to handle all my hardwired ethernet stuff, right? Whether it be computers, QNAP NAS, Cameras, Smart TV, etc.?

My confusion then is the surveillance software... I just load that on any machine on the network whether it be ethernet connected or wifi?

 

[ovrszd]

Don't worry about thread drift. All is good. To expand my education I need to learn about all levels. Before I commit to any purchase I'll be posting my decision here for discussion.

 

[Diggin It]

Okay OT, you are saying stay with my current system and add a switch downstream from my Wifi router that has enough ports to handle all my hardwired ethernet stuff, right? Whether it be computers, QNAP NAS, Cameras, Smart TV, etc.?

My confusion then is the surveillance software... I just load that on any machine on the network whether it be ethernet connected or wifi?

It matters where the cables run. I run a short jumper from the modem/router to an 8 port switch. Some devices are close enough that the runs go to that switch. Other are farther away, so rather than making 5 or 6 long cable runs, I use one to feed another 8 port switch, then connect the more remote devices to it. Any PC can view any camera using IE or one of the software packages that came with the cameras. An NAS/DVR storage or recording/playback device can be connected anywhere on the network. Same with a POE injector if you want to feed one camera.

One thing I do is use different colored cables so I can keep things a little better organized. All cameras are on purple cables. A gate/door controller is on a red cable. PCs are on either blue or grey cables. The feeders between switches are on either white or orange. At the patch panel, Gigabit capable ports are on green jumper/patch cords while lower speed devices are on blue.

'Ethernet' and 'WiFi' are the same thing, one is wired, the other is wireless, but that connect between the same types of devices and perform the same functions.

They would not work for cameras or recording/playback devices that use BNC (Coax) connectors.

 

[plowhog]

add a switch downstream from my Wifi router that has enough ports to handle all my hardwired ethernet stuff, right?

surveillance software... I just load that on any machine on the network whether it be ethernet connected or wifi?

To the first sentence, yes.

Second sentence-- the surveillance software package requires a lot of throughput. Don't install it on a PC or machine using a wireless connection. Put it on or in something with a wired connection.

Couple of other things: you can occasionally get a "refurb" model of the Synology NAS systems. I bought one a while back for $50-- It's a DS112j. Very low end for them, but I put a $50 hard drive in it, downloaded Surveillance Station software for free, and for $100 I had an IP based NVR system for a remote property. I also use it as a hard drive for picture storage.

Milestone Systems is one of the premiere providers of NVR software. About a year ago I discovered they have a "free" trial system, which I believe lasts for a year. It is more complex to set up and administer compared to Synology NAS, but if you want ... the best ... that is one software product to look at.

 

[Diggin It]

This is roughly what mine looks like, as best I could do in a few minutes with MS Paint:

 

[plowhog]

Looks pretty straightforward .. what is R/P?

 

[Overtaxed]

You got great advice already, but, yes, that's exactly what you do. And as someone else mentioned, make sure the computer that's running the DVR software has a hardline, cameras generate a lot of traffic and it can overwhelm a wifi link if you have 5-10 cameras all trying to record at once to a DVR that's connected WiFi. Gigabit to the computer running the DVR and you'll be fine.

The way I've done it, I have 2 switches in my house, one is a 48 port gigabit for all my computers, the other is a 16 port POE switch for the cameras and APs. It's cheaper that way, a 48 port non POE and a 16 port POE is cheaper (or was for me) than a single 48 port POE and gives me 64 ports instead of 48. Then, over in my barn, I have another 16 port POE switch for all the cameras out there; that also powers the remote side of the wireless link. With any modern enterprise grade gear, you can just connect 2 switches together with a short cable run, no problem, and extend the capacity (note, there are implications of this that I won't get into because you won't run into them in a home network, but there are reasons that huge switches exist, connecting 2 switches together does have limitations, it's just that you almost certainly will never see them in practice in any home network).

 

[Diggin It]

.. what is R/P?

Record/Playback .... DVR type device that processes and displays all the cameras on one 24" LCD screen. Problem is, I don't have an HDD connected to it yet.

 

[newbury]

Any router will support PoE, it's all in the switch/pass-through that injects power into the final cable. I use the US-8-60W here Ubiquiti Networks - UniFi(R) Switch 8 that gives me 4 PoE ports. Two of them run my two access points and the third runs some other hardware that I have.

PoE is the way to go IMO. Brings power and data right to the camera which is hard to beat for simplicity.

But as far as I can tell you still have to run network cable.

I've run powerline networks with success through my house.
I've about 6 floodlights outside that "monitor" the house (installed by the previous owner) and are on the same electrical box.
Like I asked before

<snip>
I have not looked yet but are there any decent cams I can screw into my floodlight bases and get powerline networking?

I've looked now but the best I've found is a reference to a Logitech system in 2013. Video surveillance over power lines: yes, it's possible | ZDNet

 

[kcflhrc]

I think this has gotten way too complicated for the average do it your selfer. The biggest thing that is getting left out is managing all of these devices and the configuration that goes along with it. This stuff is not plug an play, you have to know what you are doing to configure a network properly so you don't get IP address conflicts. Most devices ship from the factory with a 192.168.0.1 management address and then starts handing out DHCP at .2 If you leave all these devices at default and plug them all in nothing is going to work.