Hello from Michigan and a Noob question

[Broncoflags]

Greetings,
This seems to be the place!

So I'm slowly building up my camera network. I currently have purchased 2 Laview(which are rebranded hikivsion) POE Bullet cams, 1 Foscam Bullet Cam non poe it has mic and speaker capabilities, and am running 2 Webcams from old Android phones. I have a Netgear router with 2 usb nas ports that can be ftp configured. I also bought a 4 port POE switch for the laview cams and a "surveillance grade" drive from Laview(its a toshiba/HGST what used to be known as IBM deskstar). I am using Camlytics free version on a windows 10 64 pc and can see all the cameras, a free web cam viewer on Kodi, and foscams app on my android phone.

2 main questions now are
1. What do i need to do to keep my network safe? I had to change ports to be able to view all the cameras and changed routes for cameras to static.

The foscam and Laview both say i can record events directly to my routers FTP connected USB drive. The foscam app on the android phone lets me know when it sees motion and I can view it anywhere. However the Laviews seems to want to connect to an NVR. I was thinking they would be like the foscam, able to record motion, and tell me when see motion no matter where i am and allow me to look at it on my phone, but they dont. Also took me a while to figure out that currently laview web viewer only works on IE. ( I normally use FF or chrome)

So I am wondering If the laviews where like the foscam then i could avoid any extra power consuming box at all(NVR or Blue iris dedicated PC), is my thinking correct?

Also i'm scared to hook up the drive to the router because I just fried a WD black using it as a home media NAS but not surveillance. If i am understanding correctly one of the many benefits of Blue Iris is the ability to fine tune what gets recorded(reducing HDD spin time)

I've dug in a bit around these forums to try to find answers, but not so much that my eyes are fatigued...yet

 

[SouthernYankee]

Welcome to the forum.

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

Read study plan before spending money. Plan plan plan.

Use dahua starlight or hikvision dark fighter cameras if low light recording is required.

Do not use port forwarding, set up a VPN using the free openvpn software.

Set up and NVR or blue iris to record video.

 

[looney2ns]

+1 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Welcome.
AVOID Foscam and Reolink, like the plague! As @SouthernYankee suggested, there is TON's of info in the wiki.
VPN Primer for Noobs
Randy : OpenVPN on a Asus router
How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) | IP Cam Talk

 

[Broncoflags]

+1 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Welcome.
AVOID Foscam and Reolink, like the plague! As @SouthernYankee suggested, there is TON's of info in the wiki.
VPN Primer for Noobs
Randy : OpenVPN on a Asus router
How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) | IP Cam Talk

Thanks, would be better to have on a dedicated LAN router or to have on my regular house router?(but still need to be able to see from my phone when off premise...plug dedicated into house router as AP or Repeater? or?)

 

[mat200]

Thanks, would be better to have on a dedicated LAN router or to have on my regular house router?(but still need to be able to see from my phone when off premise...plug dedicated into house router as AP or Repeater? or?)

Welcome @Broncoflags

Try to keep the IP camera video traffic off your router - otherwise your router will have too much work to do and everything will slow down.