CaliGirl,
I just finished reading this entire thread. Very interesting and informative. Many would have given up but you stuck with it. If it had been plug and play, you wouldn't really have known anything should you needed to tune, troubleshoot, configure. Since you had to get so deep into understanding everything so that you could make the right equipment choices, now, should you have a problem, you know what to look at.
Like you, my place is also very remote. No local internet providers so I use a satellite based service. Metered connection with a monthly limit of 10GB. That limitation really places limits of what I can do. I've chosen to have a still pic (no video) based security system feeding a remote website. Nobody sold such a thing 7 years ago when I put in my first system so I pieced together components and software. Cameras were all analog. Now I find myself needing to rebuild the system (due to a capture card failure) with newer components so I am having to get deep into the weeds as you did. I've decided on a
BlueIris based system. My older system was based on software called Webcam7. I'm almost there. A couple of functional hurdles and some tuning. I'm enjoying it.