Wireless cameras recommendation?

[cheshire_cat]

So, some of you folks really helped me out in my previous threads with my questions about the PoE cameras I bought set but it didn't really work out due to construction specifics of my house so we are going to have to resort to wireless options.. I'd really appreciate your thoughts on a set of wifi cameras that won't break my bank (hopefully below $600).

Again, looking for 4 cameras (2 out front, 1 inside the garage, 1 in the backyard). Looking to be able to observe and identify when a person is close to my property (on the driveway, in my backyard). All cameras will be mounted pretty low so 15-20 ft of crystal clear visibility should cover my needs

 

[wittaj]

4 wifi cameras will kill your router. They are not designed for the 24/7 bandwidth demands of these cameras. These do not buffer like streaming services. One lost packet and it all starts over. Your wifi will be slow.

How do you plan to power them? If plugging them in, then power line adapters are a much better solution than wifi.

What limitations prevent you from POE?

Otherwise at the moment you need them when the demand goes up due to a perp, the wifi will overload and you will get nothing ..

 

[Flintstone61]

If you run a second wifi router in Bridge mode dedicated to the cams, then ethernetted to your home network it will work.
I have two wifi signals in my house. When the teenagers come over and kill my connection speed, i quietly get on the other wifi router.

 

[Flintstone61]

You can even buy wifi NVR's with Wifi Cams as a package.....
my nephew has a Nail shop, and it has 6 wifi cams feeding to a wifi NVR.
In that setting it's fine... all inside cams.
the system was in place when he took over the lease.
then at home I think he has a Reolink or some wifi NVR with 4 Wifi cams. His home wifi took a speed hit....web surfing definitely got slower after he installed that device.

 

[Robert hocevar]

One bad thing about wireless cameras is they are garbage! If you cant get a cable to the camera location maybe call a electrician to install the cable for you. and install a quality ip system. I have never seen a wireless system that has worked properly. and they have a pretty short life span.

 

[Flintstone61]

This is what I'm against in the family.
So 2 of them go to Vietnam,
So Mr. Wifi Pulls whips out his big Android, and swings it around, taps on his App and Boom, there they are. The wifi APP, probably HackMi-IPcamSuper#1 App.
My housemate, she opens the mothertrucking NightOwl APP. and Boom, nothing.
Hard to argue against that.
Let alone explain Net security to a fresh off the boater, and all the don't let your Cams phone home,,,blah blah blah
I'm up aginst a culture of plug and play instant gratification.
So this is why, for me, having both a NVR for the dummies, with its cheesy App, and a Blue Iris machine for me, is the only way to go.

 

[Flintstone61]

Although I told them this,
Yeah ok great, now what you gonna do in Saigon, if Joe Burglar just went in your garage and took your snow blower? worry the whole time your on vacation?
The other person can be in ignorant bliss, like we were in the 70's, or they can go OCD and worry the whole time too.
Who the fuck wants to go on Vacation with these folks....
Trying to control the uncontrollable is an effort in futility.
Off to work.....some idiot probably backed up a crapper....

 

[TonyR]

+1 re: going with PLA (power line adapters) before Wi-Fi if absolutely cannot go with the first choice of wired via Ethernet/POE.

BUT...if you insist on Wi-Fi, set up a high powered, high bandwidth AP (access point) that is for those cams ONLY; don't put those cams on any wireless router that your household (TV, spouse, kids, printer, etc.) use also.

I have 3 cams that are non-essential running Wi-Fi VERY well on their own Asus wireless router that I turned into an AP (disable DHCP, set up with static IP in same subnet as cams but outside of the house's main router DHCP pool).

But I repeat...I'd stick with this regarding choices, in order of best to last:

1. Wired /POE
2. PLA
3. Dedicated Wi-Fi AP for cams only

 

[wittaj]

Although I told them this,
Yeah ok great, now what you gonna do in Saigon, if Joe Burglar just went in your garage and took your snow blower? worry the whole time your on vacation?
The other person can be in ignorant bliss, like we were in the 70's, or they can go OCD and worry the whole time too.
Who the fuck wants to go on Vacation with these folks....
Trying to control the uncontrollable is an effort in futility.
Off to work.....some idiot probably backed up a crapper....

They were flushing their Wyze cam down the toilet

 

[cheshire_cat]

4 wifi cameras will kill your router. They are not designed for the 24/7 bandwidth demands of these cameras. These do not buffer like streaming services. One lost packet and it all starts over. Your wifi will be slow.

How do you plan to power them? If plugging them in, then power line adapters are a much better solution than wifi.

What limitations prevent you from POE?

Otherwise at the moment you need them when the demand goes up due to a perp, the wifi will overload and you will get nothing ..

oh.. interesting take. I had no idea this was the case.

As far as limitations - I have a 2-story house and based on what the security guys said, it would take tons of extra wires to get it all done + quite a bit of work overall. I didn't think it was worth it.

The ones I looked at were powered by batteries. What did you mean by power line adapters?

Man, I'm so lost now..I thought wifi cameras were as good as PoE but if they have so much pressure on our wifi network, idk what to do

 

[cheshire_cat]

+1 re: going with PLA (power line adapters) before Wi-Fi if absolutely cannot go with the first choice of wired via Ethernet/POE.

BUT...if you insist on Wi-Fi, set up a high powered, high bandwidth AP (access point) that is for those cams ONLY; don't put those cams on any wireless router that your household (TV, spouse, kids, printer, etc.) use also.

I have 3 cams that are non-essential running Wi-Fi VERY well on their own Asus wireless router that I turned into an AP (disable DHCP, set up with static IP in same subnet as cams but outside of the house's main router DHCP pool).

But I repeat...I'd stick with this regarding choices, in order of best to last:

1. Wired /POE
2. PLA
3. Dedicated Wi-Fi AP for cams only

Can you hive some examples of good PLA cameras? I think that could be the ideal option

 

[wittaj]

Battery operated will not provide 24/7 coverage and only "work" because it is based on motion, which it may miss. They will poop out at the wrong time. Usually when there is motion.

There was a guy that posted here recently with his wifi cams and when a perp came to his house, the camera wonked out and he missed it.

All my neighbors with their wireless Arlos are up and not working because they got tired of taking them down to charge them.

There are no PLA cameras. You take a POE camera and instead of using ethernet POE, you plug the POE into the PLA adapter and that plugs into a wall outlet. But since you don't have outlets at the camera location, then you would be better off with running POE at that point instead of 120V electric outlets.

The short term instant gratification of taking a wifi battery camera and tossing them up on the house in under 10 minutes quickly fades when you are going up the ladder every week to charge the batteries.

It comes down with do you want a false sense of security (battery wifi wireless cameras) that may or may not be able to tell you when something happened, or do you want the ability to actually be able to record something that could IDENTIFY for the police.

 

[cheshire_cat]

Battery operated will not provide 24/7 coverage and only "work" because it is based on motion, which it may miss. They will poop out at the wrong time. Usually when there is motion.

There was a guy that posted here recently with his wifi cams and when a perp came to his house, the camera wonked out and he missed it.

All my neighbors with their wireless Arlos are up and not working because they got tired of taking them down to charge them.

There are no PLA cameras. You take a POE camera and instead of using ethernet POE, you plug the POE into the PLA adapter and that plugs into a wall outlet. But since you don't have outlets at the camera location, then you would be better off with running POE at that point instead of 120V electric outlets.

The short term instant gratification of taking a wifi battery camera and tossing them up on the house in under 10 minutes quickly fades when you are going up the ladder every week to charge the batteries.

It comes down with do you want a false sense of security (battery wifi wireless cameras) that may or may not be able to tell you when something happened, or do you want the ability to actually be able to record something that could IDENTIFY for the police.

Fair points, I see what you are saying. Well, apparently to run PoE through my house will take tons of additional wiring and require quite a bit of labor because it's a 2-story house. My partner doesn't want to see any cables inside or outside the house and the cost becomes too high to drill inside the walls to make all the wires to be behind the walls so it all comes down to wifi + doorbell

 

[wittaj]

The partner factor certainly comes into play.

Just recognize the capabilities of the cameras drop tremendously if they are completely wireless solutions (or you spend a boatload and have big ugly boxes and solar panels to power them LOL).

At that point, there is nothing on the market that is wireless and battery operated that will get IDENTIFY shots at night, so I'd consider either the cheapest out there recognizing all any of these systems will do is let you know what time something happened, or put them all in the same platform like a Ring for ease of use, recognizing you are then paying for a cloud service.

 

[mat200]

Fair points, I see what you are saying. Well, apparently to run PoE through my house will take tons of additional wiring and require quite a bit of labor because it's a 2-story house. My partner doesn't want to see any cables inside or outside the house and the cost becomes too high to drill inside the walls to make all the wires to be behind the walls so it all comes down to wifi + doorbell

Hi @cheshire_cat

Let me know how you solve the WiFi and "No wires outside or inside the house" issue ..

Issue 1: PoE through my house will take tons of additional wiring and require quite a bit of labor because it's a 2-story house.
Reply:
1) Yes, which is why it is best done while the house is being built.
2) The garage is a great place to start for those who have attached garages facing the front of the house.

Issue 2: My partner doesn't want to see any cables inside or outside the house
Reply:
1) thus the additional level of work required. This is what it is.
2) So, WiFI you still need to power the cameras .. so how does that solve the NO Wires seen outside on the house?

Note:
When locating places for the cameras, you do want to be careful not to puncture the wall in such a way to create a water leak.

Thus one of my preferred ways is to drop a conduit to a junction box from the soffit down the wall .. may not be the prettiest, but works well.

 

[wittaj]

If my choices were completely wireless cams like the Arlos, or better POE cams but placed on the 2nd story soffit (which from a field of view isn't ideal), I would go for the 2nd story soffit and get varifocals to flatten the angle.

I could at least get IDENTIFY images of the perps at the street and sidewalk distances. The battery wifi cams would only tell me what time someone went by.

Certainly 2nd story wiring would be a lot easier.

 

[Robert hocevar]

Do you have attic space? or a basement? If so it should be pretty simple to hide the wires in the wall.

 

[mat200]

..

Man, I'm so lost now..I thought wifi cameras were as good as PoE but if they have so much pressure on our wifi network, idk what to do

Hi @cheshire_cat

How long do you plan to live in the house? Do you own it?

Post a picture of the front of the house here, and post a aerial picture showing the next couple of houses and street by your house.

We can help you with some ideas to at least get a partial solution.

 

[looney2ns]

oh.. interesting take. I had no idea this was the case.

As far as limitations - I have a 2-story house and based on what the security guys said, it would take tons of extra wires to get it all done + quite a bit of work overall. I didn't think it was worth it.

The ones I looked at were powered by batteries. What did you mean by power line adapters?

Man, I'm so lost now..I thought wifi cameras were as good as PoE but if they have so much pressure on our wifi network, idk what to do

Forget the "security guys", cameras mounted on 2nd story's are mostly worthless for ever id'ing a perp. Way too high.
Call a "Real Electrician" and see what he tells you, this what they do every single day, pull wires with the least amount of damage.
You will be amazed how a fast a good electrician can complete a job.
Any job worth doing is worth doing correctly.
No cam should be mounted any higher than 7-8ft.

 

[Robert hocevar]

Forget the "security guys", cameras mounted on 2nd story's are mostly worthless for ever id'ing a perp. Way too high.
Call a "Real Electrician" and see what he tells you, this what they do every single day, pull wires with the least amount of damage.
You will be amazed how a fast a good electrician can complete a job.
Any job worth doing is worth doing correctly.
No cam should be mounted any higher than 7-8ft.

Maybe a little higher than 7 or 8 ft if this jackass is in the area.