Need Expert Help, Please!

[zero-degrees]

@Dr. J. I understand you are "New" to all this but I am not sure how much more the forum can break things down for you.

Without your camera connected physically to Internet Access you own and can configure you will NOT view your camera remotely. Live, Recorded, ect. Without being connected to a network you can configure this will not work.

The Xfinity "Hot Spots" you speak of that allow Comcast customers to access will not work. This is a public network that requires sign in and authentication and is not meant to be used continuously by any device, and a Camera can not log back in. Also since this is a "Guest" network you are not allowed to configure it. You will be unable to access port forwarding or settings.

The reason you will need to stop by weekly and swap cards is because you will have no way to view the footage stored on those cards unless you physically remove the card and connect it to your computer. If you wait to long and footage starts recording over itself then you defeat the purpose because you will lose recording.

As for a cellular camera setup the one @looney2ns referenced is NOT what I would recommend or utilize, nor is that what I was referring to as these will not be high quality HD images that a traditional security camera will give you. What i was speaking of are the links following.
Amazon.com : Wireless Jobsite Security Cameras : Camera & Photo
http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/category/video+surveillance+security+cameras/cellular+security+cameras.do
http://radiusvision.com/complete-systems/mobotix/

 

[nayr]

Pardon my ignorance, nayr, but why are your panties all up in a bunch over linking your camera to Internet access that is essentially yours to use? Perhaps it's my lack of experience with all of this, so am I missing something? I had Comcast on that property that I own, my neighbor who is also a friend has Comcast, and the tenant I am renting to, also happens to have Comcast. Because we all have Comcast, we are able to use Xfinity's WiFi Hotspot to connect to the Internet. So what is so terrible and nonsensical about this, if I needed Internet access (that I pay for) but yet don't have a physical router that I could use at said property?

Public WiFi hotspots are for the public to surf the web; not for people to install devices permanently that leech off it in perpetuity.. If you connect to Xfinity Hotspot at a neighbors, your using your neighbors router and internet and if you fix a security camera to talk through your neighbors router/internet your in the wrong, as its there service and network so they have the right to kick your ass right off it... and I would in a heartbeat.. I run an external access point and provide wifi to most of the surrounding area, because im in a cellular dead spot and data access is hard to come by.. I have and will continue to ban any devices I dont deem appropriate such as PS3/Roku/Xboxes and other things; its one thing if your visiting the area and connect with a phone/tablet its a whole nother thing if you think my public wifi is an excuse so you dont have to buy your own internet.

Either way no camera is going to authenticate on Xfinity for network access; so its a moot point if thats your plan.

 

[tangent]

Lmao.... I don't need a big brother, 007, iSpy operation there, I just simply need a way to monitor and protect my investments. I have 2 properties there which are both occupied. Tenant 1 is a family that occupies the larger, main property, and tenant 2 is a single dude who rents the guest property/studio apt. And I'm not cheap and would never think of bothering my tenants with heavy duty equipment there or with intrusive surveillance. I simply need to 1, protect my investment and be able to check the video of one of them says they left the cash or check in the box and haven't (which happened in the past) and 2, be able to view footage if the need arises resolve an issue between them such as parking, etc.

Nobody's suggesting a "big brother" scenario. Somebody else did mention the party scenario first, but that's irrelevant.

A lot of the things you might want to monitor to "protect your investment" don't require cameras. The big ones are: smoke detectors, flood/leak sensors, and low temperature. All of which are best monitored with hard wired physical sensors. If you've got some programming skills you could monitor things like this with something like a particle electron pretty cheaply. If you were going to do this sort of thing, it would be easiest to set it up sometime when the house is vacant. But it sound like at least 1 of your tenants has probably been leasing from you for more than a year.

As to cellular options, it's harder and more expensive than you'd expect. Port forwarding on cell networks is difficult and in some cases impossible. Most of the cheapest carriers have clauses in their ToS against automatically uploading photos/videos / sending emails automatically.

Flash memory is more failure prone than a hard drive.