I have heard that I should block all outgoing traffic when using IP cams

[curiousv]

I have no clue what do I need to do to block outgoing traffic from those ip cams
I have panda vpn and linksys dual band EA series router
I am going to buy amcrest cameras (because they are not much costly and still have good features)
I also have an extra router netgear ..it is also dual band with guest ssid same as linksys

But how do I use VPN and these router to be safe while using IP cams?

Please advise like a 5 grader.....have no clue about IP cam security

 

[Ri22o]

Assuming you have a PC and not an NVR, most will use a dual network card in their BI PC. One port will be connected to their regular, home network and the other will be on the subnet of the cameras. This is a physical, hardware block of keeping the cameras from reaching the internet.

A VPN will allow you to connect to your network (and cameras) remotely as if you were sitting at home in front of the PC.

This is how my network is structured, if it helps.

 

[Eagle1961]

I received my computer this week and have to pick a network card. Is there any recommendations for a certain network card?

 

[samplenhold]

This is what I use. But any of the Intel ones are fine.

Amazon.com: Intel Gigabit CT PCI-E Network Adapter EXPI9301CTBLK : Electronics

 

[curiousv]

I received my computer this week and have to pick a network card. Is there any recommendations for a certain network card?

Intel wifi 6 ax200 dual band card is best so far for me

 

[curiousv]

Assuming you have a PC and not an NVR, most will use a dual network card in their BI PC. One port will be connected to their regular, home network and the other will be on the subnet of the cameras. This is a physical, hardware block of keeping the cameras from reaching the internet.

A VPN will allow you to connect to your network (and cameras) remotely as if you were sitting at home in front of the PC.

This is how my network is structured, if it helps.

View attachment 167557

Hey Thanks for spending time for me and give such detailed explanation.
I was bit distracted with some other issues so did not notice your message until now.
I have both NVR and spare PC - what do you suggest I should use?
Btw I realized I have openwrt TP Link Archer A7 router (Yes I flashed and did not remember until now.
I think you are suggesting I should use a dedicated PC with dual lan ethernet card ?

Right now what I have done is ...I have created 1 additional ssid for each of the dual band (wifi card ax200) - you can call it guest wifi ssid. so total I have 4 ssid - 2 of them are regular and other 2 are guest ssid
I followed a video on youtube video - and he explained how to - create guest network interface, wireless client isolation and guest firewall zone configuration.
Do you have any comments on that?

 

[Ri22o]

Hey Thanks for spending time for me and give such detailed explanation.
I was bit distracted with some other issues so did not notice your message until now.
I have both NVR and spare PC - what do you suggest I should use?
Btw I realized I have openwrt TP Link Archer A7 router (Yes I flashed and did not remember until now.
I think you are suggesting I should use a dedicated PC with dual lan ethernet card ?

Right now what I have done is ...I have created 1 additional ssid for each of the dual band (wifi card ax200) - you can call it guest wifi ssid. so total I have 4 ssid - 2 of them are regular and other 2 are guest ssid
I followed a video on youtube video - and he explained how to - create guest network interface, wireless client isolation and guest firewall zone configuration.
Do you have any comments on that?

Most here will suggest running a PC with Blue Iris, but there are some who use NVRs and are happy with them.

Yes, I have a dedicated PC with a dual LAN card. It is suggested to use a dedicated PC so that all resources can be allocated for the camera signal processing.

It is not recommended to run cameras through a router, but through a POE switch and directly to your PC or NVR. There have been several posts with members complaining about issues and then it is found that they are running their cameras through a router and routers are not meant for the constant throughput of data that cameras have. It is also not recommended to run cameras with wireless. Wired is always, always better than wireless.

 

[curiousv]

Most here will suggest running a PC with Blue Iris, but there are some who use NVRs and are happy with them.

Yes, I have a dedicated PC with a dual LAN card. It is suggested to use a dedicated PC so that all resources can be allocated for the camera signal processing.

It is not recommended to run cameras through a router, but through a POE switch and directly to your PC or NVR. There have been several posts with members complaining about issues and then it is found that they are running their cameras through a router and routers are not meant for the constant throughput of data that cameras have. It is also not recommended to run cameras with wireless. Wired is always, always better than wireless.

Yes I have spare sff dell 7040 with i7 6th gen but I have to buy dual lan card. Ok I will go through dedicated PC route but what about the hard disk ? should be surveillance drive or nvme ssd will do ? or normal spinning hdd ?
I was not comfortable downloading camera's required android app and give all the permissions but I reluctantly did it because I did not know better but I connected this one camera to guest network like I said above with firewall rules.
So this is about only one camera that I connected...am going to buy 3 more ...so to avoid installing those Chinese apps what is my option ?
Will blue iris have everything that I dont need to install those crappy apps and those permissions?

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

WIKI.

Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris

Buy refurbished. Don't build or buy new. The most cost-effective Blue Iris computers are refurbished business-class systems such as "HP EliteDesk" and "Dell OptiPlex". You can usually get a good deal by searching [URL='http://www.ebay.com/']Ebay[/URL] for specific CPU model numbers, and...

ipcamtalk.com

Calculating Required Hard Drive Size

We have built a calculator for you to use and save your results. Click here to use it. To calculate required storage space for cameras, you only need to know two things: The average bit rate, and the amount of time. Then multiply them together with Google, being careful to use the correct...

ipcamtalk.com

Dual NIC setup on your Blue Iris Machine

In making your system more secure this is a great option to eliminate your cameras calling home / connecting to the internet This is a great place to start to setup a bit more secure network and learn more about IP/Subnets etc. before adding dual NICs: Router Security - Subnets and IP addresses...

ipcamtalk.com

How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!)

Many camera networks are unsecure, even those installed by professionals. This guide gives basic instruction in how to secure a camera network from the most common types of attacks. Perhaps the most important rule of securing a computer network is to not forward ports to unsecure services...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[curiousv]

WIKI.

Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris

Buy refurbished. Don't build or buy new. The most cost-effective Blue Iris computers are refurbished business-class systems such as "HP EliteDesk" and "Dell OptiPlex". You can usually get a good deal by searching [URL='http://www.ebay.com/']Ebay[/URL] for specific CPU model numbers, and...

ipcamtalk.com

Calculating Required Hard Drive Size

We have built a calculator for you to use and save your results. Click here to use it. To calculate required storage space for cameras, you only need to know two things: The average bit rate, and the amount of time. Then multiply them together with Google, being careful to use the correct...

ipcamtalk.com

Dual NIC setup on your Blue Iris Machine

In making your system more secure this is a great option to eliminate your cameras calling home / connecting to the internet This is a great place to start to setup a bit more secure network and learn more about IP/Subnets etc. before adding dual NICs: Router Security - Subnets and IP addresses...

ipcamtalk.com

How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!)

Many camera networks are unsecure, even those installed by professionals. This guide gives basic instruction in how to secure a camera network from the most common types of attacks. Perhaps the most important rule of securing a computer network is to not forward ports to unsecure services...

ipcamtalk.com

Thanks I will review those links but quick question - with blue iris or any other software can we avoid using those android apps with their permissions?

 

[curiousv]

Also as long as cameras have onvif compatibility - they can be used with blue iris or generic nvr correct?

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

Thanks I will review those links but quick question - with blue iris or any other software can we avoid using those android apps with their permissions?

Not sure what you are asking

Also as long as cameras have onvif compatibility - they can be used with blue iris or generic nvr correct?

BI works with cameras that are ONVIF compatible. As for the generic NVR, check the specs and keep your fingers crossed the documentation is accurate.

 

[looktall]

Also as long as cameras have onvif compatibility - they can be used with blue iris or generic nvr correct?

I don't know about blue iris but for nvrs the answer is perhaps.
For guaranteed compatibility you should match brands for camera and NVR.
You can mix brands but functionality may be limited.

I have an NVR with 7 cameras.
The three cameras that match the NVR brand work perfectly with the NVR picking up the IVS functions and sending notifications.
Two of them are a different brand to the NVR and while they work the NVR doesn't detect any of the IVS functions, only regular motion detection so I have those cameras sending notifications directly.
The remaining two cameras are a different brand again and the only way they would work with the NVR is via rtsp which doesn't give me anything other than video capture.

 

[curiousv]

Not sure what you are asking

Ok if we have paid version of blue iris - do we still need those android apps for example icsee or ip cam viewer and many others - to install the cams on our network first and than blue iris will take over ? or we dont need those apps at all?

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

Once BI is installed, you will need to add each IP camera via the BI interface. You can do this with cameras both fresh out of the box or those you've been using prior to BI, Once successfully added, you will use BI to manage record and view the cameras.

You still have the option of logging in to each camera individually (if the cam supports it) with a web browser. You can also use mobile device apps to view the live feeds of the cams as well (again, if the cams and the mobile app are compatible)

 

[curiousv]

Once BI is installed, you will need to add each IP camera via the BI interface. You can do this with cameras both fresh out of the box or those you've been using prior to BI, Once successfully added, you will use BI to manage record and view the cameras.

You still have the option of logging in to each camera individually (if the cam supports it) with a web browser. You can also use mobile device apps to view the live feeds of the cams as well (again, if the cams and the mobile app are compatible)

no actually I dont want to use android apps to login/connect to those cams - and many of them dont provide web browser option -
To my understanding ...in order to add ip camera via BI interface - we must have ip address of that camera - correct me if am wrong and there are other options to add cams let me know...
now if it is true that we must have ip address of that cam - first we have to connect to network - and if I dont want to use those apps - than only way to get ip address is to connect to poe switch or directly connect to router - advise me if am wrong

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

You can use something like angry IP scanner to find your existing cams.

Brand new cams typically have a factory default IP. I prefer to log into the camera, set & save the new IP, then add the device to BI

There are some cams that require the use of a specific like branded utility to initialize & configure them. If that is the case, adding them to BI would be the final step

 

[curiousv]

Do you recommend poe camera instead wifi camera? if yes please tell me why? @SpacemanSpiff @looktall @Ri22o

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

I recommend wired PoE cameras. One of our other members, @wittaj, said this about wifi cams (and connecting cams to your router) in another thread:

Cameras connected to Wifi routers (even hard-wired) are problematic for surveillance cameras because they are always streaming and passing data. And the data demands go up with motion and then you lose signal. A lost packet and it has to resend. It can bring the whole network down if trying to send cameras through a wifi router. At the very least it can slow down your entire system.

Unlike Netflix and other streaming services that buffer a movie, these cameras do not buffer up part of the video, so drop outs are frequent, especially once you start adding distance. You would be amazed how much streaming services buffer - don't believe me, start watching something and unplug your router and watch how much longer you can watch NetFlix before it freezes - mine goes 45 seconds. Now do the same with a camera connected to a router and it is fairly instantaneous (within the latency of the stream itself)...

 

[Ri22o]

Look through this thread. There are plenty of examples where the motion causes the bitrate to rise, overwhelming the connection, and it takes a good amount of time to catch up and by the time it does the people are gone.

The Typical picture of a Perp on Nextdoor-type Apps with Consumer Grade Cameras like Ring, Nest, Arlo, Canary, Wyze, etc.

Love these posts on Nextdoor type apps LOL. This thread will be used for members to post the poor quality consumer grade type camera images that we see people post to the Nextdoor type apps. Can anyone make out this person that went thru their cars LOL.... And this thread is where members...

ipcamtalk.com