Hello from Vic, Australia

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Gday.
Relatively green to the cam world and looking into this forum a little bit since signing up a few months back.

My fiancé and I are due to have our house build starting shortly, we are building a double story house so running cables for cameras would be ideally planned now and installed through the build. Once our slab has put been poured we will have an electrical consult where we can make changes to our set up throughout, including adding cat cables for future cam installs :)

Prior to finding this forum I had tossed up from arlo, to eufy, to hik, to swann packages. So quite a bit of mind changing and hoping to find some clarity and or guidance on here!

Anyway, thanks for giving us all a place to discuss all things cam related, reviews and recommendations. Look forward to picking some brains!

Cj
 

sebastiantombs

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:welcome:

Welcome to the rabbit hole of surveillance cameras. Don't get caught up in chasing megapixels and high resolution, Look at sensor size first, then the F rating of the lens, then resolution. The sweet spots are a 1/2.8", or larger, sensor for a 2MP and a 1/1.8" sensor for 4MP. There will be 8MP cameras coming out on a 1/1.2" sensor as well.

Don't get enamored with wide fields of view. They are nice to look at but useless to actually identify anyone. Focal length is key with any camera. Before buying all the cameras, buy one varifocal and use a test rig to check every location, day and night, to determine what focal length will work best or use all varifocal cameras. That will cost more to do though. Don't mount cameras higher than 2-2.5 meters or all you'll get is the top of heads which renders the video useless for identification.

Don't try to cover large areas with one camera. Most folks here have at least three, and as many as five or six, cameras covering the front of their homes. Every camera has a specific area to cover well. It may "see" other things, but the area it is designed to cover is the main objective. I have a total of six cameras covering my front yard, it is a larger yard, and will be adding a seventh shortly.

The three basic rules of video surveillance cameras-

Rule #1 - Cameras multiply like rabbits.
Rule #2 - Cameras are more addictive than drugs.
Rule #3 - You never have enough cameras.
 

SouthernYankee

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:welcome:

Worked many years ago in the Bass strait.

Run all the cables before the walls go up.
Run wires for an alarm system. All windows and doors, this is independent of the camera system
Do not mount the cameras to high. Cameras need to be mounted no higher than 7 feet.
Run more locations and drops than you think you will need, I recommend two drops to each location.
----------------------------------
My standard welcome to the forum message.

Read Study Plan before spending money
Cameras are for surveillance to get information for after the fact.

Please read the IP Cam Talk Cliff Notes and other items in the IP Cam Talk Wiki. (read on a real computer, not a phone). The wiki is in the blue bar at the top of the page.

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


Quick start
1) If you do not have a wired monitored alarm system, get that first
2) Use Dahua starlight cameras or Hikvision darkfighter cameras if you need good low light cameras.
3) Start with a good variable focus camera, so you test for the correct lens,lighting, camera placement.
4) use a VPN to access home network (openVPN)
5) Do not use WIFI cameras.
6) Do not use cloud storage
7) Do Not use uPNP, P2P, QR, do not open ports,
8) More megapixel is not necessarily better.
9) Avoid chinese hacked cameras (most ebay, amazon, aliexpress cameras(not all, but most))
10) Do not use reolink, ring, nest, Arlo, Vivint cameras (they are junk), no cloud cameras
11) If possible use a turret camera , bullet collect spiders, dome collect dirt and reflect light (IR)
12) Use only solid copper, AWG 23 or 24 ethernet wire. , no CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum)
13) use a test mount to verify the camera mount location. My test rig: rev.2
14) (Looney2ns)If you want to be able to ID faces, don't mount cams higher than 7ft. You want to know who did it, not just what happened.
15) Use a router that has openVPN built in (Most ASUS, Some NetGear....)
16) camera placement use the calculator... IPVM Camera Calculator
17) POE list PoE Switch Suggestion List
18) Camera Sensor size, bigger is general better Sensor Size Chart
19) Camera lens size the bigger number the more range the less FOV. . Which Security Camera Lens Size Should I Buy?
20) verify your camera placement, have a friend wearing a hoodie, ball cap and sunglasses looking down approach the house, can you identify them at night ?
21) DO NOT UPGRADE your NVR or camera unless you absolutely have a problem that needs to be fixed and known what you are doing, if you do you will turn it into a brick !!

Cameras to look at
IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED . Review IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED (Full Color, Starlight+) - 4MP starlight
.................... Dahua IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED review
IPC-T5442TM-AS ..... Review-OEM 4mp AI Cam IPC-T5442TM-AS Starlight+ - 4MP starlight+
IPC-HDW5442t-ZE .... Dahua IPC-HDW5442T-ZE 4MP Varifocal Turret - Night Perfomance testing -- variable focus 2.7 mm-12mm 4 MP Starlight
IPC-B5442E-ZE ...... Review - OEM IPC-B5442E-ZE 4MP AI Varifocal Bullet Camera With Starlight+ -- variable 2.7mm-12mm bullet
IPC-B5442E-Z4E .... bullet 8mm-32mm variable focus zoom 4MP
IPC-HFW7442H-Z ..... Review - Dahua IPC-HFW7442H-Z 4MP Ultra AI Varifocal Bullet Camera -- 4 MP variable focus AI

Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
To save money do it right the first time.
Test do not guess
 

KML

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Doesn`t VPN resctrict your bandwidth/speed "too" much ?
In my experinece with remote connections is that the upload speed is the most relevant to have a smooth video.
I live in countryside and have only mobile connection, down/up speed is 20/20Mbps and if I use VPN, its not a smooth video anymore..
One`s remote location is often mobile connection with your phone, and if at your location the down speed is low then there`s the same problem,
and VPN is not helping it.
But, maybe in Texas the internet speeds are also bigger than elsewhere (at least here in Finland) . Nothing against Texas and USA, vice versa.
 

mikeynags

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Doesn`t VPN resctrict your bandwidth/speed "too" much ?
In my experinece with remote connections is that the upload speed is the most relevant to have a smooth video.
I live in countryside and have only mobile connection, down/up speed is 20/20Mbps and if I use VPN, its not a smooth video anymore..
One`s remote location is often mobile connection with your phone, and if at your location the down speed is low then there`s the same problem,
and VPN is not helping it.
But, maybe in Texas the internet speeds are also bigger than elsewhere (at least here in Finland) . Nothing against Texas and USA, vice versa.
Your speed is really based on the network your remote device is on. Your mobile connection is going to determine that. VPNs don’t inherently slow things down. 20 Mbps up speed should be ok to view cameras. I have 35 Mbps up and it works great.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

SouthernYankee

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Speed is the least of your problems

Not sure about Finland. But You may have a problem with a home mobile connection. Your home internet connection is a mobile cellular network. You may not have a stable inbound IP address, So that the DDNS will not work.

If you home internet provider is a cellular network, then DDNS (dynamic Domain Name System) may not work, the DDNS is needed for most Inbound VPN services (OpenVpn) to get your home IP address (if it is not static) so OpenVPN may not work for you.

Look at ngrok or Hamachi this may allow you to remote in.
 
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KML

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Your speed is really based on the network your remote device is on. Your mobile connection is going to determine that. VPNs don’t inherently slow things down. 20 Mbps up speed should be ok to view cameras. I have 35 Mbps up and it works great.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Mikeynags, yes we are talking about the same thing. The operator determines the speed and it can vary a lot depending on where you are and how many people shares the (mobile) connection
with you in the same mobile base station, for example at the mall.
I am not an expert in VPN restrictions, but just have noticed it in many different connections, when having to build easy/safe/low cost networks around without interfering with networks at the place.
Maybe you have a fixed connection at the camera end ?
 

mikeynags

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Mikeynags, yes we are talking about the same thing. The operator determines the speed and it can vary a lot depending on where you are and how many people shares the (mobile) connection
with you in the same mobile base station, for example at the mall.
I am not an expert in VPN restrictions, but just have noticed it in many different connections, when having to build easy/safe/low cost networks around without interfering with networks at the place.
Maybe you have a fixed connection at the camera end ?
I would call it fixed because it's served through a cable modem but in general, I am always close to the advertised rate of 35 Mbps.
 
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KML

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Speed is the least of your pronblems

Not sure about Finland. But You may have a problem with a home mobile connection. Your home internet connection is a mobile cellular network. You may not have a stable inbound IP address, So that the DDNS will not work.

If you home internet provider is a cellular network, then DDNS (dynamic Domain Name System) may not work, the DDNS is needed for most Inbound VPN services (OpenVpn) to get your home IP address (if it is not static) so OpenVPN may not work for you.

Look at ngrok or Hamachi this may allow you to remote in.
You may mean with static IP that is it a NAT address or public IP. If your router is given by your ISP a NAT address (operators local network eg. 10.10.10.10) then you cannot connect to your home network because you don`t know it`s actual public IP (which is actually in operators server/firewall), unless your router (or network device behind it) itself connects to an external server with a public IP "where every device in that particular VPN-network meets and get in touch with each other".
Thats how for example Hikconnect any many other manufacturer provided connections work, devices are meeting at the manufacturers server, you just cannot and don`t need to see it.
NAT address is never static, public IP address can be static or changing. In Finland your contract determines which kind of connection you need or want.
With NAT address you cannot use DDNS service because it announces the operators LAN IP address, which will never be routed to your home router.
With non static/changing public IP you can use DDNS because your router all the time exposes it`s public IP to the DDNS service provider, where you can have it from and connect to it.
With static public IP you can connect straight to that IP your router has, because it`s never changing. (After that there may be port forwarding to the actual local network device).

EDIT
Hamachi has a server with public IP and serves as a "meeting place". The data is propably also crypted, so it can be called a VPN service. Never used it but heard of it (son playing games).
 
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KML

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I would call it fixed because it's served through a cable modem but in general, I am always close to the advertised rate of 35 Mbps.
It probably is also much more stable than a wireless mobile connection.
 
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Thanks for the replies and input, its been great looking into this more.
I have more or less decided on going the dahua 5442 varifocal so I have some flexibility down the track on changing my coverage or distance. I have attached a screenshot of the block layout and where I'd like to have the cat6 cables run to. The sideways opposite the garage im thinking of doubling up on that side, one each way with the one near the meter box to get a good image of anyone attempting to tamper with power.
The ones at the back with the ? I am unsure of which way to go. The small square on the plan is a 100x100mm steel post supporting upstairs, so no ability to mount it there unless I go a tad higher to meet the cladding? My other option is to extend the cat6 cables as we plan on extending our outdoor area to have a deck around 3m deeper into the backyard, the full width of the house. So run 2 cameras on each corner covering the backyard looking back at one another.
This may even be major overkill also? But to some on here it could well be under kill lol.

NVR I am now a bit stumped on, perhaps dahua 5xxx series? Any other recommendations on decent brands that can tie back in to home automation?
 

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SouthernYankee

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@KLM

The address is not fully static it just changes very slowly over time that is why you can use a DDNS. My current IP address has not changed in three months.

The network IP address used for a cellular wireless connection can change every time you connect. It work for outbound connects but not inbound direct connection do not have an IP address.

======================================
Private ip addresses. Local IP addresses. These addresses are NOT used by the internet. They are for your local home/business network.
10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255
 

KML

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Hi
SouthernYankee

I believe your public IP connection with your ISP is very stable, and does not have to be renewed that often.
How ever your IP could change even many times per day, and your DDNS would tell it to you in less than minutes.
You are right about those private local IPs. Anyway in most cases you are connected to your ISP`s local network, so that you "go in to their
servers" with that private local IP and ISP routes your connetion out to internet from another side of their firewall, and there is another IP used.
NAT (Network Address Translation) addresses are more commonly used because we would have ran out of pulbic IP addresses while waiting IPv6 to come.
For a public IP address you have to pay extra at least here in Finland.
 

saltwater

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Hello back from Australia. I did what you are going through now and laying cables, even doubling, tripling up (what I did) is easy during the build. Even run cables to where you think you might need connections later. I was fortunate enough to work on my own cable laying, the builder left that to me (it saved me heaps). Now I have 11 cameras around the house with 6 spare cables (3 each in different locations), which I will use at some point.
 
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