Wifi Cam or IPCAM with wifi CPE

[catnhat]

Before anyone responds saying WIRED ALL THE WAY, please understand this situation.

I have just finished part 1 of my IP Cam setup. Its great. BI on old PC, 4 IPcams covering 50% of the house. Loving it.

Now the other 50% of the house. Lets just say its a unique house with 2nd floor recessed from the first level and lofted ceiling for most of the rest. So there is no attic access to the eaves on half the house. I have had 2 electricians look at it and neither of them can do anything without conduit or tearing apart the bathroom. And I am not permitted to running conduit. When we renovate the bathroom in 5 or so years, I will get access to these elusive eaves. So I am seeking a solution here to last about 5 years. The eave for these cameras also has an AC power supply built into it.

Here are the options I could figure and they both require wifi. IF you have other suggestions or recommendations, I would love to hear it.
1. buy 3 wifi cameras like the Amcrest IP4M-1026, likely need a junction box as 3 power sources need to use 1 ac plug. (the other ac plug is for Christmas lights). Note, I am also in Canada so my wifi cam options that work with BI seem to be extremely limited.
2. buy 3 IPcams Dahua, and a cpe access point like TP-Link CPE210, junction box and use an extra POE switch I have kicking around. Then configure the CPE to bridge the wifi network to the cameras.

Thoughts?

 

[samplenhold]

I tried searching for the Amcrest IP4M-1260W and find nothing. But I imagine it is a WIFI cam as you stated. By 'junction box' I take that to mean a waterproof box big enough to hold a POE switch as you mentioned in #2.

If you are willing to do a box big enough to house the POE switch, have you considered a POWERLINE ADAPTER? While not ideal, some folks here have had good luck doing what you are trying to accomplish with them. Basically you would connect your cams to the POE switch and plug the POE switch into power. You would also plug one of the Powerline Adapters into a power plug and then connect an ethernet cable from the PA to the POE switch. In your house where the other networking equipment is you would plug the other PA into power and then connect the PA to your inside switch with another ethernet cable. These are not very expensive ($90-100) and you could test it out before actually installing everything. To get a feel as to what others have done, do a search here for powerline adapter.

I know you state the you only have one outlet since one is used for Xmas lights, but it may be possible to either change that box from a duplex to a 4-gang or use a short cord with two outlets at the end, putting it inside the waterproof box.

 

[catnhat]

I tried searching for the Amcrest IP4M-1260W and find nothing. But I imagine it is a WIFI cam as you stated. By 'junction box' I take that to mean a waterproof box big enough to hold a POE switch as you mentioned in #2.

If you are willing to do a box big enough to house the POE switch, have you considered a POWERLINE ADAPTER? While not ideal, some folks here have had good luck doing what you are trying to accomplish with them. Basically you would connect your cams to the POE switch and plug the POE switch into power. You would also plug one of the Powerline Adapters into a power plug and then connect an ethernet cable from the PA to the POE switch. In your house where the other networking equipment is you would plug the other PA into power and then connect the PA to your inside switch with another ethernet cable. These are not very expensive ($90-100) and you could test it out before actually installing everything. To get a feel as to what others have done, do a search here for powerline adapter.

I know you state the you only have one outlet since one is used for Xmas lights, but it may be possible to either change that box from a duplex to a 4-gang or use a short cord with two outlets at the end, putting it inside the waterproof box.

Typo. I update the original post, it should have been 1026.

Yes the box would be there to conceal switch, wiring connections, etc.

Thanks for the advise. I didn't think the power-line adaptors were reliable. I will have to look into that.

For the plugin, it would be challenging to swap that plug out without removing a tree and a fence.