Lorex vs Dahua learning curve

[Love2ski]

Complete novice here. Stumbled on this forum over the weekend and got some great pricing from Andy on the Dahua equipment. After reading through the cliff notes and the Wiki, it seems that you need some solid networking experience to setup remote monitoring and keep your network safe. This is for a vacation property and the home is already wired. Only 4 cameras at this time. Most interested in push notifications for action around the property.

My question is this: Do the Lorex kits sold on their site or in Costco require the same level of VPN knowledge for the setup or are they more designed for a homeowner with some basic network knowledge? I downloaded the manual for the Dahua NVR and it’s over 400 pages!

Trying to figure out if I will quickly get in over my head with either system. I enjoy a challenge but not sure if I have enough base knowledge to pull this off.

Thanks
Bill

 

[Richthis]

I am new to this forum also and wondering similar question. I just installed my 4th Lorex system and I can tell u that it is pretty much plug and play.
I also called Lorex twice and got the help I needed. About to try and return one of the now 30 cameras I installed as picture is nothing like the others and we will see how that goes

Is it cheaper to go with the Dahua system or same price but better quality.

 

[Love2ski]

The setup that Andy quoted would run between $1200-$1500 depending on which cameras I get. The Lorex system I am looking at will be between $800-$1100. Not a huge price difference and the quality of the Dahua cameras seems much better. It’s a small system with only 4-6 cameras. Just super concerned with the network setup.

Bill

 

[pinko]

Just finished (today) installing a 5 cam vacation property install. Went with Andy's Dahua's + BI and dedicated PC for vacation property. Have the camera feeds displaying on one of the TV's. Being able to select either property from BI drop down menu and watch on a huge TV is awesome.
I used to remote monitor house with BI app, but this is much easier on the eyes.

 

[aristobrat]

My question is this: Do the Lorex kits sold on their site or in Costco require the same level of VPN knowledge for the setup or are they more designed for a homeowner with some basic network knowledge?

This is 100% just my opinion and you'll find a lot of folks here who completely disagree with it, but while VPN is a "best practice" (and the safest way to remotely access devices on your network), it's not a requirement. The "worst practice" is port-forwarding/uPNP. Don't ever ever ever set that up (or allow your NVR/cameras to set that up).

Dahua/Lorex offer an option in the middle called P2P. IMO (again, just my opinion) P2P is more secure than port-forwarding/uPNP because it doesn't require you to open ports in your router's firewall that literally allow anyone on the Internet direct access to your equipment, but it's not as secure as VPN because you will have to save your Dahua/Lorex account information on their servers (which are typically hosted on Amazon BTW, not in China). If their servers were ever hacked and someone gets your Dahua/Lorex account info, or if someone finds a vulnerability with their P2P service, it's quite possible that someone could remotely access your equipment. IMO that chance is low -- both Dahua/Lorex have a lot of reputation to lose if that ever happens -- but it's still possible.

Setting up P2P is pretty easy, it's usually just a check-box you click when setting up the NVR/camera and then you scan a QR code that pops up in the browser into the Dahua/Lorex smartphone app.

If you're worried about the complexity of having to figure out both the camera/NVR system and VPN at the same time, maybe start with P2P and tackle the VPN at a later time when you're comfortable with how the camera system works.

I downloaded the manual for the Dahua NVR and it’s over 400 pages!

I'd guess that you'll be able to figure out 95% of the NVR from just using it. There is also a wealth of information on the forums here.

Not a huge price difference and the quality of the Dahua cameras seems much better.

FWIW, Dahua usually makes Lorex cameras, but the Lorex models won't typically have the newest Dahua technology until something even newer comes out and causes stuff to trickle down. If you're looking at Dahua Starlight models, .. how well those do in low-light usually can't be matched by any of the Lorex models. Also FWIW Lorex models sometimes have the Dahua IVS feature removed from the firmware... IVS is basically advanced motion detection that can be super useful for setting up motion detection that doesn't have as many false positives. If you go with a NVR, you're going to want IVS.

 

[Will.I.Am]

Agree with a lot of what Aristobrat said.

In terms of security, vpn >>>> p2p >>>>>>>> port forwarding >*∞ upnp
Greater than quantities are somewhat arbitrary, but the long and short is, port forwarding and upnp (which is just a worse form of port forwarding) are much, much worse than the other two.

In terms of ease of use of the setup, p2p wins out marginally over upnp because in most cases you don't need to go near your route , and the steps are laid out easily. Vpn/port forwarding both require router config, but imo it's easier to set up a single vpn port than the numerous ports you sometimes need to forward to access the equipment directly.
Viewer end, the same order holds imo, p2p is by far the easiest, with the others pretty much tied. Anything apart from p2p is going to also require you to set up a dynamic dns account unless you have a static ip or want to regularly adjust your clients every time your ip address changes.

This is all assuming you trust the operator of the p2p service you're using (essentially the camera manufacturer in most cases)

There's also the consideration that relying on p2p means you're SOL if their servers are down or they pull the plug on the service (it happens).
With a vpn, you're in total control, and the only thing that will stop you viewing your cameras in the Internet connection and forgetting to update your certificates (not that I've ever done that, honest)

 

[Love2ski]

Thanks for the responses and the support. There is no comparison from what I see on this forum with the quality of the starlight cameras. I own a business in portrait imaging so I completely understand the advantages of a larger chip with great sensitivity vs the megapixel race. I also like the idea of the IVS features that are available with the Dahua.

Are the mobile apps and push notifications available with the Dahua rock solid? Are they hard to setup?

Thanks again. Great forum here and I am looking forward to earning the award for noob with the most questions.

Bill

 

[civic17]

The Dahua iDMSS phone app has a learning curve not that easy to use. I got the push notifications to work on my phone with IVS alerts. Clicking the alert shows me a snapshot of the image that triggered the IVS and from there I can live view, video playback, or this animation that is captured at 1 frame per second showing the event. The snapshot preview only works for my 4.0 AI cameras and not the older cameras. Don't know if this is user error or only the newer cameras support this snapshot in the alert. Also today the video playback stopped working when clicking the alerts. It will say No record. It's a buggy app.