Complete newbie - Where do I go for advice?

[105437]

Recently, I have been playing around with the Presence and Manything apps on a couple of extra iPhones I had and it has me interested in getting a couple of WiFi IP cameras to monitor our driveway and back yard.

I know nothing about IP cameras so I need advice on what make/model would be a good entry level camera that would give me 720 HD video, motion detection and the ability to store footage either on the camera or over my network to a NAS. Most importantly, I would like to monitor the camera live stream or any captured motion footage from my iPhone.

Thanks and I apologize if I'm not following protocol on the forum. I just joined and am seeking advice. Thanks your your patience and comments!

 

[acvb]

Start with a Hikvision 2CD2032-I camera. Don't fill up a drawer with junk cameras that you bought to save money. Then read on this forum and others. Then ask questions about the camera. (shop at nellys.com or amazon to start). Run Ethernet cable to cameras. Don't use wifi cameras. Read more here an other forums.

 

[Bentley]

Welcome 105437. I'm also a newbie to the tenth. I can tell you if you have no network experience your in for a steep learning curve. The people on this site are the best they will help with everything and anything. Still it's difficult and very challenging. From my stand point I went with US sold products as they are probably more User friendly to people like me and possibly you. Blue Iris is a wonderful package but again networking experience a great plus. There are several venders on this site that are very helpful. I purchased some cameras from Nelly's security great people. They aren't as cheap as buying from China but at least you have someone to talk to and English instructions. In reading the site you will see all sorts of questions and answers about a variety of cameras. I chose Hikvision after reviewing several sites. Hope you have the same success I've had using this site. Bentley.

 

[105437]

Thanks for the replies so far. I'm actually an IT Director so I'm familiar with networks etc. What types of challenges are common with network setup for the cameras?

 

[acvb]

"What types of challenges are common with network setup for the cameras? "

My biggest challenge when I first started out was learning how to forward ports in the router, and learning how to make my own cat5 with rj45 ends. Rest was a piece of cake. You get to read a lot in these forums. If you get a crappy cheap camera, you'll be crying here everyday here about problems with the camera and setup.

 

[105437]

"What types of challenges are common with network setup for the cameras? "

My biggest challenge when I first started out was learning how to forward ports in the router, and learning how to make my own cat5 with rj45 ends. Rest was a piece of cake. You get to read a lot in these forums. If you get a crappy cheap camera, you'll be crying here everyday here about problems with the camera and setup.

Right now I don't really know what cameras are cheap etc. Like most anything else I would assume you get what you pay for. As is always the case, there are probably moderate-priced cameras that are worse than lower-priced ones. I really want to buy the right cameras off the get go. The software to view live streams and recorded motion events is really important to me. I need iOS capable software to interface with the cameras.

 

[Bentley]

The cameras I purchased from Nelly's are Hikvision DS-2cd2432f-I(W) great cameras with two way audio and Hikvision 2mp bullet cameras. Purchased for different applications. Good place to start and learn. Works great with BI.

 

[105437]

So I currently have an Airport Extreme router that provides my LAN/WAN connectivity. This router has 3TB of storage available. So if I physically run a Cat5 cable from the router to a POE switch I can plugin two Hikvision 2CD2032-I IP cameras as suggested above. Now, what about storing the date from the cameras back to the 3TB drive in the router... are we good there? I've been reading and it seems Blue Iris is the way to go for software. Do I have to dedicate a PC to that to control the camera functions etc? Or do the cameras have built-in web pages to handle this? Is the any software that runs on Mac OS X like Blue Iris?

Thanks everyone, many more questions to come so I appreciate your patience.

 

[acvb]

I use an i7 4790 computer running Blue Iris for camera software (2TB hd, 8 gigs of ram) . Running 5 hikvision 2cd2032-I cameras. Computer uses about 15% of the cpu. Family uses the computer when ever they want (plenty of power)(and streams Netflix). Bought a amazon switch with poe (trendnet 8 port 4 poe from amazon $44). Start with one camera. Set that up, then buy as many as you want. Its fun to learn stuff at 60 but the 1st camera is the learning curve. Talk to Nellys.com for 1st camera. They helped me too.

 

[Kerry]

I went with US sold products . . .

I agree, but for different reasons. I almost went with Titathink—the specs were almost the same as TriVision's NC-336PW . . . and, they replied promptly to several questions, but I had a difficult time understanding their broken English; that, and the expense of returning a broken camera to China during the warranty would be a bit much.

 

[105437]

Thanks acvb... so it sounds like it's better to store the data directly on the computer that is running Blue Iris instead of to a NAS on the LAN. How about any equivalent software to Blue Iris that runs on Mac OS X. Anything out there?

 

[dryfly]

"What types of challenges are common with network setup for the cameras? "

My biggest challenge when I first started out was learning how to forward ports in the router, and learning how to make my own cat5 with rj45 ends. Rest was a piece of cake. You get to read a lot in these forums. If you get a crappy cheap camera, you'll be crying here everyday here about problems with the camera and setup.

Is port forwarding only needed if viewing on a remote device? In other words, if you are just monitoring locally and recording to a PC, is there any need to forward ports??