Back yard / pool monitoring

[Elecmuso]

Hi all

I've been using cheap Belkin IP cameras to keep an eye on my mum with dementia.
NetCam Wi-Fi Camera with Night Vision
The Belkin webcams have worked well for me as they are a very easy setup and I have many of these monitoring rooms in my Mum's place.

On the other hand I use fairly high end Mobotix cameras for work. These have fixed IP addresses on private LANs so are easily accessed by a web browser.

So that's my background.

What I'd like to do now is install a more advanced panning / tilting camera at home so I can keep an eye on my house backyard. It doesn't need to be high end, but it should be a step or 2 up from the Belkins. The envirnment is not harsh (though it does get hot - >100F / South Australia). I also realise that the Belkin cameras have the advantages of connecting through their own Belkin (Seedonk?) server which is why they are so easy to set up, and that a better camera probably won't be so straight forward.

What would be a reasonable inexpensive camera (HikVision?) and software to set up something like this?

Cheers

 

[tangent]

$350 Dahua 2MP 25x Starlight IR PTZ Network Camera (SD49225T-HN)

 

[Elecmuso]

Thanks. Looks nice. What would be the software I'd require?

 

[hmjgriffon]

nothing if all you want to do is watch the camera.

 

[Mike]

Thanks. Looks nice. What would be the software I'd require?

Check out Blue Iris for recording

 

[Elecmuso]

I suppose more my point about software was how to set things up so that I can monitor things remotely. Presumably the camera has a local IP address for the local network. But to access it outside of the LAN a VPN is required, or a DNS is used or something along those lines?

 

[hmjgriffon]

I suppose more my point about software was how to set things up so that I can monitor things remotely. Presumably the camera has a local IP address for the local network. But to access it outside of the LAN a VPN is required, or a DNS is used or something along those lines?

DNS not required, VPN not required by highly recommended unless you want random people messing with your camera.

 

[Elecmuso]

OK. Sorry about my ignorance but how is the IP address assigned outside of the local LAN? I'm not an IT guy but know enough to get me by - this is a new area for me.

 

[looney2ns]

Search for VPN For Newbs here.

 

[Fastb]

Elecmuso,

how is the IP address assigned outside of the local LAN?

Your ISP assigns your "public" ip. Your local lan uses "private" ip addresses.
You can find your public ip by going to "whatsmyip" web site.
Next, is your public ip address static or dynamic (ie: changes often)
If you surf to your public ip, say using your smart phone, you won't get in to the NVR or your private LAN. What a security nightmare if anyone could reach your home network.

So there's lotsa considerations. As looney2ns said, read the primer here called vpn for noobs.

Good luck,
Fastb

 

[Elecmuso]

Thanks fellas will find that post and have a read.

 

[BLKMGK]

VPN will get you remote access to the camera but the apps to access the camera or the web GUI onboard aren't "great". BlueIris is a PC based app that can do motion sensing, recording, alerts, and other things. You might want to consider setting it up on a separate computer somewhere on the network on dedicated (cheap) hardware. Apps to access it via VPN are pretty nice IMO. You could also purchase an NVR from Dahua and use that to monitor and record instead. I've got both, frankly BlueIris is better but I still run it on my primary desktop for now.

You'll want a VPN to best protect access, while Dahua does seem to offer some sort of Chinese cloud service I don't trust it and run my infrastructure. If you ran BlueIris you might be able to setup a VPN server on Windows (OpenVPN appears to support this platform) and do it all in one but I've never used Windows for a VPN server - I run a PFSense Linux firewall that handles it. If you did an NVR you'd still want a VPN server of some sort to access it's GUI.

My advice would be to checkout BluIris and consider a cheap PC to handle running it and a VPN server. You will have to port forward some ports on your router to that machine and set a static IP for it, you will also need some sort of DynamicDNS service and a program on the Windows box to update it's status for when your public IP address changes. I use a service from FreeDNS - Free DNS - Dynamic DNS - Static DNS subdomain and domain hosting and it's worked well for me but my address seldom changes. I access my network from iDevices but suspect Android would have no issue with it, I use the BlueIris IOS app on tablet and phone without issue once the VPN is up.

If you've got questions I can try to answer them, I had a heck of a time getting OpenVPN certificates and keys figured out but once done it's been VERY solid - worth the effort for sure.

 

[Elecmuso]

Great help - thanks. I'll check out Blue Iris.

Can the cameras I've been using be set up in a similar manner (just to test this out) or are they 'locked in' to the cloud based 'Seedonk / Belkin' server?

 

[randytsuch]

If you use OpenVPN (or similar), once you open the link, you can do anything you can do at home.
So if you can type 192.168.1.100 and see a camera at home, then you can do the same if away after you have the openVPN link open. Its really slick. I run OpenVPN Connect on my phone, and a BI app. Lets my check my cameras from my phone

Asus routers come with a free DDNS service, and OpenVPN support built it, so really easy to do this with an Asus.

 

[Elecmuso]

The cameras I've been using up until now have been these.
NetCam Wi-Fi Camera with Night Vision

I went with them as that was a 'I wonder if this will work' phase (ie. could I look after my Mum this way?) and I was able to score them for $15 each! They aren't great but it turned out to be ideal for keeping an eye on my Mum (need one in nearly every room).

But the IP address is hidden from the user. The cameras connect via her wifi and broadband service to a cloud based server (run by Seedonk I believe) which I log into and elect any of the cameras I have set up. At no time is an IP address (internal to her home LAN) or external revealed.

But my guess is there may be a way to bypass all that and use the IP address / VPN as you suggest. That would allow me to migrate all those cameras to that system, and I would meanwhile develop an understanding of setting up VPN and Blue Iris.

Perhaps I should copy this to a new thread.

 

[Elecmuso]

Seedonk, and one of the other names itgoes by
Camera Setup
iSecuirty+ | Home Video Monitoring

 

[Elecmuso]

Perhaps if I run Blue Iris at her premises it will detect all the cameras and their local IP addresses, then I establish a VPN and use the same IP addresses within that VPN network?

Is that what you are suggesting?

 

[aristobrat]

The camera itself comes with a default IP address configured from the factory. You can change that IP address once you get the camera. Check the link below (to the Dahua page for this camera) and scroll to the bottom -- there should be a users manual (and maybe a quick install guide) that you can read through.

SD49225T-HN | Dahua Technology

Per your last message, if you're outside your mum's house and want to see what's going on, you'd establish a VPN connection, and then you'd be able to access all of the devices in her house, including the Blue Iris box and the cameras. I use a Synology NAS to record my camera (instead of Blue Iris). When I connected back to my house (via VPN), if I want to view a recording, I can connect to the Synology, but if I just want to check a live view of what's going on, I use an app on my phone that connects directly to my camera. For me, it's faster than connecting to the Synology (for a live view), but I could do that if I wanted to.

 

[Elecmuso]

Thanks

Sorry to persist with this though - is there a way to find out the default IP address of the Belkin NetCam cameras (that I already have). I think the intention of the Belkin cloud camera is to use the server, and do not know a way to reveal its own default IP address. Presumably if I did I could just browse with any web browser to that IP address, to see the image.

I would expect the Dahua brand has a straight forward manner to determine the default IP address, as it is a 'more professional' camera.

 

[Elecmuso]

Actually I have one at home. I will check my router to see what IP address it has assigned the Belkin Netcam. Then see if I can find a way in by browsing to it (assuming there is some sort of web interface), then try a few 'obvious' passwords (no such information in the manual).