Hello!

IMASAUCE

n3wb
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Hello all,

I'm Pat -- I'm new to Security Cameras(lurking for 2-3 months), but I've been an IT professional for nearly a decade and tinkering since I was a child; I have a degree in Computer Science (I'm currently a programmer/software developer) and a second degree in Electrical Engineering. I have an obsessive personality when it comes to learning new things and cameras are currently the "in" thing for me.


This forum has been a wealth of information and I can't thank all the contributors enough, it really is fantastic!

I have a home server(I use Unraid as my base OS -- easy storage expansion, parity, docker, and KVM support), which houses my firewall(pFSense) in a VM (blasphemy, I know!), BlueIris (VM) on W10 (LTSB, which is a very stripped down W10 without the bloat), and a whole bunch of other useful Dockers. I use an NVME Drive for initial storage (~3 days worth), all my cameras run continuously .. Which is also mirrored just in case of a drive failure and then move it over to the primary array for long term storage(35 TB raw, which includes a large media library), all Alerts are backed up to the array immediately and then sent to cloud storage via Duplicati for long-long-term storage (60 days currently).

I have two HDW5231R-ZE's currently, one at my front door and one at my back door. I'm looking to put in three more cameras, one down the driveway (fixed position), one down the side of my house (fixed position), and one on the back of my garage(PTZ preferable) .. I'll probably go with the HDW5231R-ZE's for the fixed position cameras, but I'm not sure about what to go with for a PTZ on the back of the garage. Any recommendations or suggestions?


I know that a lot of people hate WiFi Cameras and I would never use one for anything mission critical, but they are fairly fun to tinker with and provide a lot of benefits for inside use (I have quite a few animals). My most recent purchase was a WyzeCam (they support RTSP with their beta firmware) and it's actually performing much better than I would've thought possible for the price.. I already segment my entire network as is, so adding a camera VLAN (666) was a breeze and no-brainer. The WyzeCam(after flashing), I had to untag (VLAN 666) from my newly created camera SSID & connect the camera(so it could reach the internet), get it configured for RTSP, then tag the SSID again, cycle the cameras power, and it was then on the proper "network" again & unable to communicate with the outside world. Bit of a hassle, but interesting to see what a $20 camera could do.. I'm going to try with their $30 PAN for fun too.

So despite my blasphemous comments, any other cheaper WiFi cameras someone would recommend to tinker with? I've already done a rPI camera build. Nothing too expensive, because I tend to pull them apart afterwards. Anything that doesn't require an APP to configure?

And as above, any recommendations or critiques of my current setup?

Thanks in advance and nice to meet you all,
Pat
 
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SouthernYankee

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:welcome:
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Any WIFI system can be shut down in less than 3 minutes. I have 45+ years IT experience.
Never use wifi for security.
Buy any junk you like.
-----------------------------------------

My standard welcome to the forum message.

Please read the cliff notes and other items in the wiki. The wiki is in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Read How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) | IP Cam Talk in the wiki also.

Quick start
1) Use Dahua starlight cameras or Hikvision darkfighter cameras or ICPT Night eye cameras (https://store.ipcamtalk.com/) if you need good low light cameras.
2) use a VPN to access home network (openVPN)
3) Do not use wifi cameras.
4) Do not use cloud storage
5) Do Not use uPNP, P2P, QR, do not open ports,
6) More megapixel is not necessarily better.
7) Avoid chinese hacked cameras (most ebay, amazon, aliexpress cameras(not all, but most))
8) Do not use reolink, ring, nest cameras (they are junk)
9) If possible use a turret camera , bullet collect spiders, dome collect dirt and reflect light (IR)
10) Use only solid copper, AWG 23 or 24 ethernet wire. , no CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum)
11) use a test mount to verify the camera mount location. My test rig: rev.2
12) (Looney2ns)If you want to be able to ID faces, don't mount cams higher than 8ft. You want to know who did it, not just what happened.
13) Use a router that has openVPN built in (Most ASUS, Some NetGear....)

Cameras to look at
IPC-HDW2231R-ZS
IPC-HDW5231-ZE
IPC-T5442TM-AS
IPCT-HDW5431RE-I
DS-2CD2325FWD-I

Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
Test do not guess
 
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IMASAUCE

n3wb
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Thanks SouthernYankee, I agree.. Wifi is never for mission critical devices, but they definitely fill a niche.

Great intro post, it was a wealth of information for me when I first started lurking on the forums.
 
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