Just another new guy with a few questions

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vinyl siding security camera electrical junction box mount

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Arlington Industries 8131-1 8131 Wall Plate, 1/4-inch or 5/16-inch Siding & Shingles, White

Brand: Arlington Industries
Size: 1/4-inch or 5/16-inch Siding & Shingles
  • Kit includes mounting block with built-in electrical box, NM cable connector, and 4 screws
  • Fast and easy to install after siding is up
  • Textured, paintable surface
  • Built-in electrical box design ensures UL listed installation
  • 1/4' & 5/16 Inch Siding & Shingles
 
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The outside is vinyl to match the house. Is there special mounting when using vinyl?
OK, so reiterate, who is running the cat6 inside the garage?

One of the nice things about vinyl is that you can run the cat6 just underneath the siding. There are several threads here that talk about doing as such. I have hardiplank, so no experience with vinyl.

Realize that you will have to clean the gel off of the twisted pairs and then make sure the gel cleaner is also cleaned off before you terminate the cable. If you do not, you will have connectivity issues. Also, you really should not use that gel filled cable inside. This is what I use to remove the gel. Think I got it from Granger a few years ago.
IMG_8535.JPG
 
OK, so reiterate, who is running the cat6 inside the garage?
Thanks for checking in with me again! lol. I am trying to tackle the running of the cat6. No experience but I ordered 1000', a klein crimper, tester and 100 pass through connectors. Again, this was all a last minute idea to do this. I will be able to talk to the contractor about it when he stops by in the morning to check to see if the cat6 is fine for direct burial. I was worried it wasn't good enough earlier so I messaged him about it. I don't think he has any camera install experience but he should have ideas on how it should be ran and the best ways to get it done...I hope.

Now it would seem that I am up to about 4 cameras for garage coverage. Two for 16' door, one one the side door and one inside. I am an e-commerce seller so this garage space is just to receive and prep incoming packages and turn around to have them shipped out. So I just want some inside coverage for times that if I have UPS do a pickup when I am not around and they can have access.

One of the nice things about vinyl is that you can run the cat6 just underneath the siding. There are several threads here that talk about doing as such. I have hardiplank, so no experience with vinyl.

I was not sure what was the best way to run and mount everything. Right now I just have a huge extra length of cat6 that the electrician left on the end of the trench run since I didn't know how much I needed inside.

Realize that you will have to clean the gel off of the twisted pairs and then make sure the gel cleaner is also cleaned off before you terminate the cable. If you do not, you will have connectivity issues. Also, you really should not use that gel filled cable inside. This is what I use to remove the gel. Think I got it from Granger a few years ago.
IMG_8535.JPG
I am glad you mentioned this because I did not really think about it. The 1000' that is coming from Amazon won't have that gel. I will have to try to find something similar to what you used. I guess I need to get in gear and get some cameras ordered.

If I add 2 more cat6 lines then I should be good? I really want to make it easier to setup later so I am sure that's the way to go.


Thanks!
 
I will have to try to find something similar to what you used. I guess I need to get in gear and get some cameras ordered.
Well you can't install cams until the siding is up. So you got time. If you have never terminated cat6 before, check out YouTube for lots of videos on how to do it. I use cat5e and pass-through rj45 jacks. That is so easy. Make sure you use the TIA 568B configuration. Make sure you do both ends the same. Try a few on short scraps of cable to see how it goes BEFORE you do one that you will use.

Two more runs should hold you. But it is up to you on that one. When those cables come into the garage, you should terminate them in a 4 port jack wall plate in the wall. Leave some slack in the wall for each cable. A few feet is a good idea.
 
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Well you can't install cams until the siding is up. So you got time.
Well I know they wanted to get the inside insulated and finished so I could get it heated and start using the space. They will do the siding last. So I figured I need the cameras ASAP to test the locations so the wire can be ran correctly. I figured that should be all done before they have to insulate the walls?

I did come across the info about using the correct B config. Also I will look into the wall plate.

I did contact Andy but the pricing is pretty much the same as Amazon or Ali.

Any switch recommendations or other things I might need? Seems like my list is growing exponentially.

Thank you
 
They will do the siding last. So I figured I need the cameras ASAP to test the locations so the wire can be ran correctly. I figured that should be all done before they have to insulate the walls?
OK. So you are running cable now before they insulate the walls and put up sheetrock. Makes sense.

POE switches. I am partial to Netgear. Others like buying used business rated Cisco switches from eBay, but I have never done this. I have the following POE switches installed:

JGS516-100NAS, GS308P, GS305P, and a GS308PP. They all have different jobs to do in different places.
 
Just a little update

1. Pulled the cat6 single line that was buried. It was buried right on the 120v line which from what I have read isn't a smart idea. Now they are running the same cat6 unshielded waterproof cable I have in conduit away from the electrical line. Running 3 cat6 lines in the conduit this time.

2. Snagged a Optiplex SFF i7-6700 with 16GB ram and a 240 SSD for $260 so hopefully that should work well. I know I will need to add a purple drive as well.

3. Have 3 IPC-T5442T-ZE cameras coming to test out.

Now my new needs. I know I have mentioned before about a switch...I was originally thinking of 4 cameras in/on the garage total and now I think it might be 5. Any recommendations? I will be able to connect all garage cams to this and then if and when I add house cameras later I can have a switch for all of the house cameras go to a separate switch in the house and it will all work cohesively? To be able to test camera positions, what are the barebones equipment needed? I would imagine I need the switch to power and the pc setup with BI already? Amazon prime is slow still for my area so I want to order soon so I can have the necessities to test. Thanks!
 
You do not need to have BI set up yet to test locations. You do need a PC with the appropriate web browser. With the newer firmware, Edge work just fine for me. Others like other browsers. You can download the Dahua Config tool also to help with getting the cam set up. I always use it, but some folks do not. In the cam box will be a quick start guide and a QR code to scan to get the Config tool.

You either need a POE switch to power the cam or a POE injector. Since I have my system set up for physical isolation and the Dahua cam's default IP address is 192.168.1.108, I use a POE Injector to initialize the cam. That is because I do not have a POE switch on the sub-net 1. The only things I need POE for are the cams. I have no cams on sub-net 1 so no POE switch on that bub-net. So I use the POE injector to power the cam and it is plugged into a regular switch on sub-net 1. Once I initialize the cam and change it's IP address to something on sub-net 2, I then plug that cam into a POE switch.

Realize that most POE switches have a certain number of POE ports and no non-POE ports. But some have both. Also remember that you will need more ports than the number of cams since the switch needs to use a port to send data to the BI PC. Also if you dual NIC your garage office PC, you will need a port to plug that into also. All modern POE switches can sense if hardware plugged into it requires Power over Ethernet. If it does not, like your computer or another upstream switch, then it just does not supply power to that port. So you can plug a PC into a POE switch and it will be fine. So if you really only will have five cams, one feed back to the BI PC, and one feed to your garage office PC, then a standard 8 port POE switch would work and give you one empty port. So something like the Netgear GS108LP would be fine.

 
PS: This is one option to get what you are asking for.

Network Topology 5.JPG
 
PS: This is one option to get what you are asking for.

Network Topology 5.JPG

What is option two? Lol

First of all thank you for taking the time to draw that up. Very awesome of you and I appreciate it, Before you posted it, I was trying to figure out how it would go in my mind based on your other diagram. I wasn't getting it. I do have more questions though after trying to wrap my brain around it all especially since I pictured it not this way and most likely not correct. Here are a few things:

1. The house regular switch coming off of the router - do I want the house PC, BI and the 3 outgoing cat6 to garage to all come from that switch? I guess I'm asking if it matters if the pc or any of them plug directly into my Asus router instead of the switch or is it better to have them all off of the switch? I am guessing that switch is just essentially adding more ports that my router doesn't have.

2. Since I only have 1 POE switch ordered for the garage so far, I should order another right now for the house since it will be needed to make this all work? I won't have any house cams to add right now but I am sure I will try at sometime. So that will be needed now to connect a conduit line to the garage poe?

3. I do not have a desktop pc for the garage at the moment. I was going to use a laptop for sure but considered having both. Does that affect all of this? I might be able to throw a few old parts together for a desktop system.

4. In my mind before you posted this, I pictured your diagram minus poe switch #1, so out of NIC #2 on the BI PC would be one of the new cat6 conduit lines to the POE in the garage.

I hope this all makes sense. Whatever will make this easy to set up I am all for. Let me know your thoughts on this and anything else I need to get. Thank you!
 
1. The house regular switch coming off of the router - do I want the house PC, BI and the 3 outgoing cat6 to garage to all come from that switch? I guess I'm asking if it matters if the pc or any of them plug directly into my Asus router instead of the switch or is it better to have them all off of the switch? I am guessing that switch is just essentially adding more ports that my router doesn't have.
You do not 'need' the 192.168.1.xxx switch if you have enough ports on the router to connect your BI NIC#1 and one of the cat6 lines that goes to your garage that will be connected to the office PC NIC#1. Yes the switch adds more ports to sub-net #1.

2. Since I only have 1 POE switch ordered for the garage so far, I should order another right now for the house since it will be needed to make this all work? I won't have any house cams to add right now but I am sure I will try at sometime. So that will be needed now to connect a conduit line to the garage poe?
You only need a POE switch in the house if you have cams there. You could order one now, but you should have a plan as to how many cams you will hang off it before buying one so that you know how many ports to get.

3. I do not have a desktop pc for the garage at the moment. I was going to use a laptop for sure but considered having both. Does that affect all of this? I might be able to throw a few old parts together for a desktop system.
If you start with a laptop, you will be fine, but realize you can't get a laptop with two NICs. Now most laptops have WIFI and a hardwired NIC. If you have WIFI then that could be your NIC#1 and the hardwired one could be your NIC #2. But I have never tried that. It should work though. If you get a desktop and want to have both hardwired, you could get an inexpensive switch for sub-net #1 or use the third cat6. That is why we always say 'run more cables than you think you will need'.

4. In my mind before you posted this, I pictured your diagram minus poe switch #1, so out of NIC #2 on the BI PC would be one of the new cat6 conduit lines to the POE in the garage.
If you do not have that switch, then just connect the cat6 from the POE Switch #2 in the garage directly to the BI PC NIC#2.