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Security Cameras (Ring vs Nest vs Arlo)


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My recent conversation with the company that installed mine said that many people still use PoC (Analog) versus the PoE (digital). Quality is still just as high but the digital cost is much more.


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One thing we have done is use an analog to digital converter that will convert four cameras using only one IP address. This allows us to put all of the cameras on the network for a pretty cheap price. I believe that the converters are about $400 each and since they only need one IP address, we only need to buy one additional license for our camera software. We get all of the benefits of IP cameras without having to upgrade everything all at once. Plus it allows us to use TV’s for the operators and not have to buy monitors with BNC connectors which are much more expensive.
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Is the IP address needed to connect these via WiFi? For my system the Cameras and hard wired to the DVR which is hard wired (Cat6) to my router. Then I can either tie that feed into a monitor or use the mobile App to view the live feed or the recorded content on the DVR.

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man. It seems that every single consumer-grade camera includes parts (if not the entire camera assembly) made in china, and every one of them has easily-googleable proof that they're punching holes through firewalls via hard-coded destination IPs and routing traffic to china. Everyone says "don't worry about it, security camera footage isn't all that interesting anyway" but its the principal of the thing. Ugh.

Put them on an air-gapped LAN. Problem solved.
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23 hours ago, texhorn said:


Put them on an air-gapped LAN. Problem solved.

I know how to solve the local problem, I''d just like to still be able to view them on my phone over the internet. To be technically correct, I'd like to have my WIFE be able to view them over the internet, without needing a VPN or the like (i.e. dead-ass simple).

 

Let's also make sure we stay on point - this particular rant isn't about how to solve the viewing problem, it's about the fact that I even have to. (hard coded destinations on routable ip addresses in China? C'mon ...).

Edited by capnamerca
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  • 1 month later...
I know how to solve the local problem, I''d just like to still be able to view them on my phone over the internet. To be technically correct, I'd like to have my WIFE be able to view them over the internet, without needing a VPN or the like (i.e. dead-ass simple).
 
Let's also make sure we stay on point - this particular rant isn't about how to solve the viewing problem, it's about the fact that I even have to. (hard coded destinations on routable ip addresses in China? C'mon ...).
Do you think Nest or Blink have that issue? Cause I would guess not.
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/19/2019 at 8:00 AM, ZB'Tejas said:

 


My recent conversation with the company that installed mine said that many people still use PoC (Analog) versus the PoE (digital). Quality is still just as high but the digital cost is much more.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I have both: the older analog cable system and new IP wireless system.  The picture from the newer 1080 IP cameras are nice, esp night vision but... they pause a lot. I had to re-position the IP wireless base unit from my office to the center of the house just to get full bars (reception indicator) from two cameras. A third camera has two out of three bars and pauses quite a bit and the camera out in my garden (in order to have oversight in a blind area) is virtually useless.  I really didnt need to go wireless but monitoring blind spots meant putting a couple of cameras away from the house. 

What I dont understand, and havent received a good resolution from the chinese company, is why do the cameras have to communicate to the base unit directly?  If the base unit is connected to my wifi network, why cant I route cameras through my extended wifi to the base unit?  I have been able to route the "garden" camera through a camera mounted on the back porch but that is still blotchy at best and not working very well. The reason I went with the Anran system was because I was told via email that what I wanted to do would work through their system with multiple path options from the camera to the base unit - it hasnt worked yet.   

I planned on replacing the older analog camera system but they are reliable during bad weather and display almost real time images; they dont pause like the wireless cameras... so I'm going to leave them in place for a while until I figure something out that is better. The wireless system doesnt seem to be working as advertised.. .or what was told to me at least

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5 minutes ago, Lazarus Bocanegra said:

Congratulations on joining the surveillance state.  Make sure to pick the one that will just give your footage to the authorities if they ask nicely.  

agree... and I have been apprehensive going wireless just for that reason. I should have done what I planned on doing and that was to run pcv conduit underground out to my garden, which is what started this from the beginning.  

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On 4/4/2019 at 11:29 AM, dad said:

ideally I'm looking to NOT pay anything per month and if I could have it save the video to a local NAS device instead so that I could save as much as I want while also being able to access it online even better. Ideally I could access recent stuff online for immediate review abilities but at home I could go back further. 

I'm looking for a good peep-hole door camera that doesnt have a monthly fee - any ideas? A doorbell camera is not of much use in my case since it is perpendicular to the door.   

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man. It seems that every single consumer-grade camera includes parts (if not the entire camera assembly) made in china, and every one of them has easily-googleable proof that they're punching holes through firewalls via hard-coded destination IPs and routing traffic to china. Everyone says "don't worry about it, security camera footage isn't all that interesting anyway" but its the principal of the thing. Ugh.

It’s big business. How do you think the Chinese get the footage for their reality TV?
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I don’t want Nest clogging my internet. Does it support movement based recording only?
They all do. They (at least arlo) do movement based recording. I pay 99 a year for cloud at my lake house for 6 cameras.

Arlo is likely like the others but geofencing areas on mass movement areas is a nice feature with roads in the cameras eye. Not explaining geo, Google it.
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I know what geo is. The question is whether the Nest supports movement-only recording and upload to the cloud. I don’t want 24/7 uploaded to the cloud. I have a need for four cameras and that would be stupid to send 24/7 to the cloud on four high res cameras. And yes you would think Nest would support a recording mode that isn’t 24/7 but a thorough search of their web site and information doesn’t answer this question. I guess I’ll just contact them to confirm.

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I have both: the older analog cable system and new IP wireless system.  The picture from the newer 1080 IP cameras are nice, esp night vision but... they pause a lot. I had to re-position the IP wireless base unit from my office to the center of the house just to get full bars (reception indicator) from two cameras. A third camera has two out of three bars and pauses quite a bit and the camera out in my garden (in order to have oversight in a blind area) is virtually useless.  I really didnt need to go wireless but monitoring blind spots meant putting a couple of cameras away from the house. 
What I dont understand, and havent received a good resolution from the chinese company, is why do the cameras have to communicate to the base unit directly?  If the base unit is connected to my wifi network, why cant I route cameras through my extended wifi to the base unit?  I have been able to route the "garden" camera through a camera mounted on the back porch but that is still blotchy at best and not working very well. The reason I went with the Anran system was because I was told via email that what I wanted to do would work through their system with multiple path options from the camera to the base unit - it hasnt worked yet.   
I planned on replacing the older analog camera system but they are reliable during bad weather and display almost real time images; they dont pause like the wireless cameras... so I'm going to leave them in place for a while until I figure something out that is better. The wireless system doesnt seem to be working as advertised.. .or what was told to me at least

This may be a dumb question, but does your wireless modem have routing built in or is it the type where you have to buy the router separately? I have a friend that just ran into this issue. He was having a similar problem and it turned out that he bought a modem only and not a modem/router combo.
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19 minutes ago, EE2B said:


This may be a dumb question, but does your wireless modem have routing built in or is it the type where you have to buy the router separately? I have a friend that just ran into this issue. He was having a similar problem and it turned out that he bought a modem only and not a modem/router combo.

It has its own base unit that operates like a router communicating with each camera and also connects to home wifi router to access outside the home through app; not unlike other systems I have such as simplisafe security system that also has its own base unit that talks to the different devices wirelessly and also taps into the home wifi network

did that answer the question? I have a modem that I use exclusively as a go-between spectrum and my home network router.  Other systems have their own base unit that operates as a wireless modem/router for their devices

Edited to add: today I got the garden camera to work well enough so that it is acceptable. It still pauses but not nearly as bad as before.  I added two antenna extensions to two cameras to shorten the distance between them and between the base unit and the camera routing the garden camera through. it's acceptable now.  Before, the pauses were so long that a person could walk through the garden and the camera might not even catch them.

Edited by Soldierhorn
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Personal observation. 1080 is sexy but wireless camera is just not there, yet, IMO.  This is my third wireless camera security system and I'm still not that impressed.  I'm looking for some land right now and I dont think my main system will be wireless the next time when I do move. 

I'm not an expert on this stuff but here are some thoughts on the latest system upgrade:

-- what does wireless mean?  It means the video is sent wirelessly.  What it doesnt mean is the camera doesnt need any wires.  Each camera still needs a wire to power the camera... so if you have to run a wire to power the camera, why not just run a wire that does both: the video and the power? 

-- Wireless is not magic.  The last two systems I had, the wireless stream was good to about 30-35 yds and probably cut by 20% or more depending on how many walls you expect it to go through.  If your base unit is in the house (most all will be) Expect to have to buy antenna extensions; so far, I've used three extensions for 4 cameras and my house is not large.  If the cameras have to be so close to the base unit to get full reception bars, then what's the point?  I can run wires anywhere in the house and attached to the house through the attic. What I really needed wireless for are cameras NOT attached to the house and that has been very disappointing so far. 

-- Wireless systems are not flexible. I would think these systems would want to be flexible for the end user so the end user would recommend it to other people. I have an extended wifi home network system.  I should be able to tap into my wifi network from anywhere in my yard and beyond.  Why cant my home network wifi be an option to route my camera through if it is too far from the base unit?  You would think that would be an easy option and make the system flexible to MY needs. But, no, in spite of what they told me before I bought the system, the firmware does not have an option to add my home wifi network to the camera network/management pages. The cameras will ONLY sync and communicate with the base unit and because of the very limited "wireless" ability, the "wireless" system is not better than the hard-wired camera system I already have. 

-- Software/Firmware is annoying and laughable with each system so far.  When I'm trying to figure out a new system (that is from a completely different language), it's very annoying to run into nonsensical pages and tables.  For instance, my system has a whole page laid out like a spread sheet/table dedicated to listing hard drives. I spent hours trying to get backup hard drives to sync and show up on the page via USB port.  I wrote an email with screen shots explaining what I was trying to do. The response was: "you cant do that; it will only list one hard drive. it will only back up with thumb drive" and thumb drive is a different page entirely.  really?  so why have a whole page dedicated to hard drives implying you can have more than one? makes no sense.  Almost every page and section of the firmware has something annoying like that. 

I dont know if this helps anyone and I could list a lot more thoughts.  And, then there is the instruction manual... 

Edited by Soldierhorn
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  • 6 months later...
Y’all understand that all these products that store your shit in the “cloud” are inherently insecure, right?


Only in the sense that every piece of data ever captured about us is inherently insecure no matter where it is stored and what technology is used.
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Any suggestions for a good commercial security camera system. I'm looking for a system that is wired and continuously records 24/7 for a commercial property. Ideally the cameras will be able to clearly record distances, both day and night, up to 100 feet or further to cover a parking lot. Amazon carries a brand called Reolink that gets pretty good reviews. It says it retains 10 days worth of 24/7 recording. 

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