What are the best wireless security camera without subscription service
- Thread starter wilspeak
- Start date
mat200
IPCT Contributor
- Jan 17, 2017
- 15,521
- 26,135
Welcome @wilspeak
Q: "What is the best wireless security camera that can be viewed on a computer monitor without a subscription service?" - wilspeak
Response Question: What is the best vehicle that I can drive on the roads?
Seriously, think about the question I asked in a serious manner and ask yourself what you would need to know to give me a better answer.
Take some time ..
Then once you've determined what follow up questions you would need to ask ME to better answer that question, see if you would have similar questions to ask yourself of the question you asked: "What is the best wireless security camera that can be viewed on a computer monitor without a subscription service?"
hint: see the wiki cliff notes
DanDenver
Getting comfortable
what are you trying to accomplish? What OS are you using? What are your security goals? Did you know that wireless cams are easily taken offline without your permission? Is this for interior or exterior use? Is the subject of your concern far or close? Budget?
1-what are you trying to accomplish? I want to place security cameras outside around my house. 2-What OS are you using? My computer uses windows 10 3-What are your security goals? To have security coverage around my house and property 4-Did you know that wireless cams are easily taken offline without your permission? Yes I have read that , but I have had problems dealing with wired security cameras 5-Is this for interior or exterior use? Exterior use 6-Is the subject of your concern far or close? mainly close to my house 7- Budget? is open
sebastiantombs
Known around here
The simple answer is that wireless and security are mutually exclusive terms. At best, even with 5GHz WiFi, you'll have a hard time getting reliable connections to more than four cameras simultaneously. Wired, PoE, security cameras are far superior.
What problems have you had with wired cameras? You are one of the few, or only, I have seen make a statement like that.
What problems have you had with wired cameras? You are one of the few, or only, I have seen make a statement like that.
Wifi and cameras do not go together.
There are always ways if you don't want to run an ethernet cable.
You need power anyway, so go with a powerline adapter to run the date over your electric lines or use a nano-station.
Maybe you are fine now one day with wifi cams, but one day something will happen. A new device, neighbors microwave, etc.
Cameras connected to Wifi routers (whether wifi or not) are problematic for surveillance cameras because they are always streaming and passing data. And the data demands go up with motion and then you lose signal. A lost packet and it has to resend. It can bring the whole network down if trying to send cameras through a wifi router. At the very least it can slow down your entire system.
Unlike Netflix and other streaming services that buffer a movie, these cameras do not buffer up part of the video, so drop outs are frequent, especially once you start adding distance. You would be amazed how much streaming services buffer - don't believe me, start watching something and unplug your router and watch how much longer you can watch NetFlix before it freezes - mine goes 45 seconds. Now do the same with a camera connected to a router and it is fairly instantaneous (within the latency of the stream itself)...
The same issue applies even with the hard-wired cameras trying to send all this non-buffer video stream through a router. Most consumer grade wifi routers are not designed to pass the constant video stream data of cameras, and since they do not buffer, you get these issues. The consumer routers are just not designed for this kind of traffic, even a GB speed router.
So the more cameras you add, the bigger the potential for issues.
Many people unfortunately think wifi cameras are the answer and they are not. People will say what about Ring and Nest - well that is another whole host of issues that we will not discuss here LOL, but they are not streaming 24/7, only when you pull up the app. And then we see all the people come here after that system failed them because their wifi couldn't keep up when the perp came by. For streaming 24/7 to something like an NVR or Blue Iris, forget about it if you want reliability.
There are always ways if you don't want to run an ethernet cable.
You need power anyway, so go with a powerline adapter to run the date over your electric lines or use a nano-station.
Maybe you are fine now one day with wifi cams, but one day something will happen. A new device, neighbors microwave, etc.
Cameras connected to Wifi routers (whether wifi or not) are problematic for surveillance cameras because they are always streaming and passing data. And the data demands go up with motion and then you lose signal. A lost packet and it has to resend. It can bring the whole network down if trying to send cameras through a wifi router. At the very least it can slow down your entire system.
Unlike Netflix and other streaming services that buffer a movie, these cameras do not buffer up part of the video, so drop outs are frequent, especially once you start adding distance. You would be amazed how much streaming services buffer - don't believe me, start watching something and unplug your router and watch how much longer you can watch NetFlix before it freezes - mine goes 45 seconds. Now do the same with a camera connected to a router and it is fairly instantaneous (within the latency of the stream itself)...
The same issue applies even with the hard-wired cameras trying to send all this non-buffer video stream through a router. Most consumer grade wifi routers are not designed to pass the constant video stream data of cameras, and since they do not buffer, you get these issues. The consumer routers are just not designed for this kind of traffic, even a GB speed router.
So the more cameras you add, the bigger the potential for issues.
Many people unfortunately think wifi cameras are the answer and they are not. People will say what about Ring and Nest - well that is another whole host of issues that we will not discuss here LOL, but they are not streaming 24/7, only when you pull up the app. And then we see all the people come here after that system failed them because their wifi couldn't keep up when the perp came by. For streaming 24/7 to something like an NVR or Blue Iris, forget about it if you want reliability.
DanDenver
Getting comfortable
This is confiusing. Maybe more info would be helpful. But in the meantime, I must repeat what @sebastiantombs said above “wireless and security are mutually exclusive terms”.
Then I suggest several of these wonderful cameras:
That is what we all do here. However without any viable details from you, any assistance provided will be just as vague as your statement is.
Maybe a pic or more info? Maybe you own many acres as several members on this forum do. Maybe you live in a condo and have zero land. The information provided is notably vague.
mat200
IPCT Contributor
- Jan 17, 2017
- 15,521
- 26,135
Hi @wilspeak
"What problems have you had with wired cameras? You are one of the few, or only, I have seen make a statement like that. " - Sebastiantombs
It would be very helpful to understand what the issues were with you prior wired kit, as wired is definitely better by various metrics compared to wifi cameras.
Also, it is helpful to understand what you want to accomplish with your cameras.
Do check out the cliff notes also .. good info in there.