Help on netwok topology

[Plarsson]

Hi

About to install 2 cameras on a garage and 4 on the house. House and garage are detached and no easy way to connect with ethernet cable. Im planning to have my nvr server in the garage.
The poe switch for the house is planned to be located on second floor with easy access to attic where poe cables will be drawn. Unfortunately this is far from internet router on first floor and i cannot connect with ethernet cable.

What are my options? Extend wifi? Use homeplugs?

 

[TonyR]

House and garage are detached and no easy way to connect with ethernet cable.

Welcome to IPCT!

What is the distance from house to garage?
Is there clear LOS (line of sight) between a point of the house and a point of the garage?

 

[Plarsson]

Welcome to IPCT!

What is the distance from house to garage?
Is there clear LOS (line of sight) between a point of the house and a point of the garage?

Maybe 10m, but its asphalt between so i cannot dig down a cable. There is line of sight, but im pretty restricted on what i can mount outside by my wife

I would also like, if possible, have cameras and server on their own subnetwork so my current network isnt loaded.

 

[catcamstar]

Hi @Plarsson,

you have your physical wiring and your logical interconnectivity. For the first: unify has some nice wireless bean devices, however for 10 meters, that might be overshoot. But even if you would work like this, you need a "receiver/receptor" at the other side as well, requiring power too.
For the latter, you mention "subnetworks", but then again you have the option: either physically separated (eg dual NIC setup), or with different subnets (but then there might be ways to hopin hopout without you knowing it, or you work with vlans. Off course, the level of complexity rises the more "enterprise grade" you go.

My advice: for both physical & logical networks: draw draw - rethink - optimise - draw again That sounds like a general advice for almost anything in life, isn't it? ;-)

Happy Camming!
CC

 

[Plarsson]

Hi,

Thanks, I really appreciate all help.

I totally agree on on planning part, and that's where I am right now

If I look to the logical interconnectivity, what I want is

• Lan 1: all cameras and nvr
• Lan 2: For regular use of laptop, ipad, etc around the house. Connected to internet with router. Lan 2 is what I currently have.

I dont want Lan1 to disturb or be disturbed by the traffic on Lan2. At the same time, I would like to be able to access the NVR from internet when on vacation, at work, etc.


If I look to the physical wiring
- Lan 1
- I would like to have the NVR located in the garage/workshop, as it will not disturb anyone there and can generate as much heat as it wants.
- for the 4 cameras on the house, I have a small part of the attic where there is a power outlet and it would be possible to place eg powerline adapter as well as poe switch there. From there, it is easy to access all 4 camera places with cable. However, I cannot reach this small part of the attic with a cable from my router without excessive drilling in several walls.
- for the 2 cameras on the garage/workshop, I have plenty of outlets. However, I cannot reach the garage with a cable from my house.
In summary, there are two "islands" (NVR/2 cameras and 4 cameras that should be connected somehow), and a cable is not an option.
- Lan 2: Right now just a wireless router connected to internet hidden behind our sofa. I cannot reach the router from the above "islands" in a simple fashion.

Thanks for any sugggestion!

 

[catcamstar]

Hi @Plarsson,

so how I did it (and then again, there is no "good" or "better" scenario's): my cams are all in a seperate vlan, with NO internet nor LAN access. I've got one dedicated openvpn access which routes INTO the camvlan. Nothing else comes in or out. Which means that if I am abroad, or at home, I open the VPN and pooff, I'm in. Only from one fixed IP (with MAC checking) I can dive into the vlan as a backup.

For your physical wiring: are your power outlets in your garage connected to your mains circuit in your house? Or the other way round? Because if pulling an additional wire is not an option, and wireless (who wants wireless anyway), you could try to attempt "powerline" system. It's for me a "hit&miss", in some houses, it does work very nice for point2point (not mesh) systems, in other houses (depending on the wiring/fuses/interference/...) it is a mess. Buy one online, try it out and re-imburse when messy.

Hope this helps!
CC

 

[Plarsson]

Thanks for sharing!

Yes, garage and house is on the same main circuit. Garage has its own fuse though.

What capacity do you think is needed from the powerline connectors?

If the powerline adapters works well, i guess that i would create lan 1 with cameras and nvr och tie it together with a bridge to lan2. I have a additional router that i can use as bridge.
I would need the internet connection from nvr as i want it to send notifications.

 

[catcamstar]

Sharing is caring!

Do not "trust" the capacity figures that much of these powerlines. I would rather prefer a decent priced (with a shop caring about refunds when not working optimal) than going for cheap junk. And you have to be smart too, hence my questions for the drawings & positioning of the cams/NVR: imagine you would put your NVR in your house (eg there you have a UPS), then this means that all traffic from each cam (eg fullHD streams) need to flow through that powerline link towards your NVR. The more packets, the higher "quality" the system would require, and you see where we are ending up to. Hence in a powerlined setup, keep the NVR next to the camera's, so only when YOU are watching the NVR feeds, your powerline will have to "work". Which means, for your prototype/Proof-of-Concept: make sure you have your NVR setup accordingly and try it out.

So that would be the physical part in your garage.

For a Dahua NVR to be able to send out push notification, that requires one "allow" line (Allow outbound 2195/TCP) followed by a "deny all". That's all you need. If you then make sure you get access from your VPN and/or homeLAN, nothing else needs to be configured. You might be tempted to run an NTP on your home router and do time sync's on NVR/cams, or you let that also through your outbound firewall.

Hope this helps!
CC

 

[Plarsson]

Hi

Again, thanks for your comments.

So this is my issue, the cameras' poe switches will be at two different places that I cannot connect through cable. Best would be to have the nvr in the house as it then will be connected to 4 out of 6 cameras directly. But the only place I can have a running server in my house is in an unventilated walk in closet that will get too hot summer time.

Using powerline adapters to connect these to islands seems to be the only way. If that doesn't work I'll need to rethink a lot.