UK (London) here to learn and set up a system!

[gravelmonkey]

Hi all, long time lurker, will start posting as I might need some ideas for camera setup as part of a new home network setup. In process of moving from SW England to London.

Going to be starting from scratch, I want my set up to be "secure", thinking about a decent access point (possibly install openwrt), perhaps a dedicated router/firewall (pfsense seems to be killed, so opnsense? Or alternatives..?).

In an ideal world, new setup would include NAS storage for access to files while out of the house/country.

Current state of knowledge is "know enough to cause problems for myself" - I'm aware that the more complicated the setup, the more possibilities of security flaws I'm not aware of.

Installing in the new year; I've so started looking for deals (11-11 and black Friday) on equipment.

Got a couple of ideas... A standalone BI machine would be easiest, however, to reduce electrical "overheads" of multiple computers running (BI, router, NAS, etc), I'd like, if possible, to run as much as possible on a single machine, unless this is madness? I'm wondering if following would work:

• Full size tower (HP, Lenovo, Dell, etc) with i7-8700, 32Gb RAM.
• Ugraded network card (?nic) with more sockets to perform router functions,
• SSD for OS, 1x NVR HDD, 2x (?or 3 if they fit), drives in RAID configuration for NAS.
• Single UPS for the tower and POE network switch for cameras.

If above is madness and it would be better to run all these things as separate machines, either from practicality or security standpoint, let me know. I only have a small house so space is at a premium, I know the towers are big, but it's easier to site than multiple smaller boxes (and multiple UPS's) and associated wiring.

Cheers!

 

[gravelmonkey]

Back again almost exactly a year later; cameras and geeking out took second place to getting the whole house rewired, repair of penetrating damp, painting, decorating... It's a long list!

I'm probably going to pull the trigger on 3 IPC-T54IR-ZE-SE 1/1.8". I've a streetlight where my short driveway joins the road, I'm a bit worried about trespassers being back-lit but I think I'll get the cameras and try to install lights or something.

The Colour 4K is very tempting but I think the T54IR-ZE wins on ability to zoom and use IR lighting to avoid blinding the houses opposite with searchlight levels of light...!