Preferred Email Provider for Pictures

[Curlyp]

Hello Community,

I am new to IP Cam Talk and to using IP Cams.

I currently have a D-Link DCS-930L Wireless IP Cam (I know it's not the greatest, but it is a start!). I setup my email address for motion detection, but it seems sporadic. I have adjusted the sensitivity up and down to see how it functions.

I started using Gmail for the motion pictures, but then Google had blocked it (not sure why). I switched to outlook.com and it seems to work, but not all the time. Sometimes pictures are emailed to me and some are not. I have even stood in front of the camera (in the motion area), and I don't receive the email.

I am not sure if this is due to the email address provider I am using or not. So, I figured I would reach out to the community to see what is the preferred email address to receive pictures on? Do you have better experience with a certain provider of another?

Thanks for taking the time to read my post!

 

[bp2008]

I have been using gmail for this for a lot of years, with fairly heavy use, and they haven't blocked it.

I use two accounts; one for sending and one for receiving. It actually surprises me a bit that google has not shut down the sending account, since its only usage is for sending several gigabytes of snapshots every month, and the snapshots are sent from a handful of different IP addresses on a daily basis.

I would not be surprised if the D-Link camera's motion detection/emailing is simply unreliable. Or maybe it has a limit on the the email sending rate. My gmail accounts have been fine for years.

Another thought is maybe your camera isn't staying reliably connected to the WiFi.

 

[Curlyp]

I have been using gmail for this for a lot of years, with fairly heavy use, and they haven't blocked it.

I use two accounts; one for sending and one for receiving. It actually surprises me a bit that google has not shut down the sending account, since its only usage is for sending several gigabytes of snapshots every month, and the snapshots are sent from a handful of different IP addresses on a daily basis.

I would not be surprised if the D-Link camera's motion detection/emailing is simply unreliable. Or maybe it has a limit on the the email sending rate. My gmail accounts have been fine for years.

Another thought is maybe your camera isn't staying reliably connected to the WiFi.

Thanks for the information bp2008. Could you please elaborate more of the two account (one for sending and one for receiving)? I am not fully sure what this means.

I am confident the WiFi is not the issue. I have used both hard wire and WiFi; both are producing the same results. I just did another test this morning while monitoring a live view of the camera for approximately 2 hours. Every time a car drove through the motion detection area an email was not sent!

 

[bp2008]

Thanks for the information bp2008. Could you please elaborate more of the two account (one for sending and one for receiving)? I am not fully sure what this means.

Sure. For spam-prevention reasons, most outgoing email servers require authentication. This means you have to store a valid email address and password on each device that needs to send email alerts.

I didn't want to enter my private email login details into each device, because if the device was stolen, then the thief could potentially gain access to my email account. Not cool. So I created a second email address just for the purpose of sending mail. Nothing important would ever be stored in this email account, so it is no big deal if someone gains unauthorized access to it.

Also, this way the account I set up to receive the emails doesn't show any suspicious usage patterns, so it has little risk of being deactivated by the service provider. It is no big deal if the sender account gets flagged as a spammer and deactivated, because it doesn't contain anything valuable and I can just replace it.

 

[Curlyp]

Sure. For spam-prevention reasons, most outgoing email servers require authentication. This means you have to store a valid email address and password on each device that needs to send email alerts.

I didn't want to enter my private email login details into each device, because if the device was stolen, then the thief could potentially gain access to my email account. Not cool. So I created a second email address just for the purpose of sending mail. Nothing important would ever be stored in this email account, so it is no big deal if someone gains unauthorized access to it.

Also, this way the account I set up to receive the emails doesn't show any suspicious usage patterns, so it has little risk of being deactivated by the service provider. It is no big deal if the sender account gets flagged as a spammer and deactivated, because it doesn't contain anything valuable and I can just replace it.

Thanks for the information. I have a better understanding now. I'll need to do the same for my cameras.

Check out the image and is it similar to what you have?

 

[bp2008]

Similar, yes.

You can have any email account be the receiver, as long as regular spam (motion detection pics all the time) won't be a problem. But I would definitely use a throwaway account as the sender in case it gets deactivated by the provider or hijacked because the camera got stolen or hacked.

Your email interval "300 Seconds" probably means it won't send more than one email every 5 minutes. If you are certain that is not the problem, then your motion detection is probably not sensitive enough.

 

[Curlyp]

Similar, yes.

You can have any email account be the receiver, as long as regular spam (motion detection pics all the time) won't be a problem. But I would definitely use a throwaway account as the sender in case it gets deactivated by the provider or hijacked because the camera got stolen or hacked.

Your email interval "300 Seconds" probably means it won't send more than one email every 5 minutes. If you are certain that is not the problem, then your motion detection is probably not sensitive enough.

Interesting... I didn't realize the "300 Seconds". I will need to adjust it to 0. I want to be emailed anytime a motion is detected. I have messed with the sensitivity before; I will adjust it higher to see if it makes a difference.

Just be clear, you have no issues with using both sender and receivers with Gmail? If that is the case, I will create a throw away account for the sender.

 

[bp2008]

No issues, except once when I let one of my throwaway accounts go idle for too long and it was deleted due to inactivity.

You may need to enable access for less secure apps in the gmail account you use for sending.

https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps

 

[Curlyp]

No issues, except once when I let one of my throwaway accounts go idle for too long and it was deleted due to inactivity.

You may need to enable access for less secure apps in the gmail account you use for sending.

https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps

Great! Thanks for the information. I just created the account and allowed less secure apps.

Also, you can adjust the time period for inactive accounts and what happened.

Check it out: https://www.google.com/settings/account/inactive

 

[Curlyp]

It must be D-link and their camera. I setup the throw away account, adjusted the Email interval, and adjusted the sensitivity. I received the test email, but I am not receiving any motion emails.

What camera do you recommend switching to for home security? Foscam?

 

[sprucecams]

Hikvision

 

[Curlyp]

Hikvision

Any specific model you recommend?

 

[sprucecams]

I am using four DS-2CD2132-I units (dome cams) and having good luck with them. Hikvision seems to be very popular among the users in this forum, though I'm sure others can recommend others as well.

 

[bp2008]

Yes, Hikvision makes good ones. My favorite models are:

DS-2CD2032-I (outdoor bullet)
DS-2CD2332-I (outdoor turret)
DS-2CD2532F-I (outdoor mini dome with microphone)
DS-2CD2432F-I(W) (indoor model with microphone, speaker, PIR sensor)

All are 3 megapixels with a small range of lens options, and all are inexpensive.

I try to avoid the domes because I don't want to deal with IR bleeding issues that are possible with domes when the foam barrier around the lens is defective.

 

[Curlyp]

@sprucecams and bp2008 - thanks for the recommendations. I am going to look into these cameras. Do you recommend a specific site to purchase them from?

 

[sprucecams]

I've been finding good prices on Newegg.com, though they are shipping from a third party seller in China so it takes close to a month to get them.

 

[Curlyp]

Yes, Hikvision makes good ones. My favorite models are:

DS-2CD2032-I (outdoor bullet)
DS-2CD2332-I (outdoor turret)
DS-2CD2532F-I (outdoor mini dome with microphone)
DS-2CD2432F-I(W) (indoor model with microphone, speaker, PIR sensor)

All are 3 megapixels with a small range of lens options, and all are inexpensive.

I try to avoid the domes because I don't want to deal with IR bleeding issues that are possible with domes when the foam barrier around the lens is defective.

Also, am I able to record video to a local HD using these models?

 

[Curlyp]

I've been finding good prices on Newegg.com, though they are shipping from a third party seller in China so it takes close to a month to get them.

Thanks for the info. I have been reading online and the one issue people are having with the sellers from China and Hong Kong on eBay are the firmware. Do you happen to have any issues with the firmware and is it in English? I found a few cheap ones on eBay, but not sure if it is English firmware or not.

 

[sprucecams]

FWIW, I ordered this Hikvision DS-2CD2132-I Outdoor Full HD1080p 3MP IP Dome Camera on Jan. 31 and it arrived Monday (Feb. 23).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA7742GU8506

I powered it up and was able to log in using its native webserver, set its IP address and other settings with no problem. Everything is in English. So far so good. My earlier Hikvision cameras already installed came directly through Newegg so this is my first one directly from China. I know others on this forum have more experience with Chinese sellers and offer more information.

 

[bp2008]

Also, am I able to record video to a local HD using these models?

Yes. Some of them have a microSD card slot, so you can insert a microSD card and record to that. But any of them can record to a network drive (NFS/SMB/CIFS) or an FTP server. Honestly the best results though come from running surveillance software on a PC.