Hello IP Cam Talk forums members

[crw030]

Mostly posting here because I can't send milkisbad a PM yet for a catalog and price list. Utter newbie alert.

My background
========================
General programming and software equipment control, I work at home so I get a lot of packages and would like to make sure none "walk away".

My security recording situation
========================
Living in a "ok" neighborhood in a small town, and neighborhood problems include vandalism (broken windows, stolen property, broke-into empty houses, broken into cars, on supervised kids wreaking havoc, someone even passed through my garage once evading police). Hoping to keep an eye on the side, front, rear yards (and somewhat on the empty houses either side) as well as the porch because of the deliveries.



So far I have found the firmware threads on the HikVision cameras interesting (although scared to venture quite that deeply in myself just yet).

Trying to balance what the wife think's is reasonable expense, with what I would ideally like longer-term. Will likely have to start with 2-4 cameras and grow from there, looking at PoE just because I feel I could run ethernet through the plaster/slat walls and attic floor easier than full-blown electrical without killing myself.

Tentative plan:

• 4-core 2.8GHz Computer + Linux route + Zoneminder (just from a personal comfort zone since I have already a 4-core and an i7 almost EOL)
• open on the computer or true NVR, because I know it will be significantly larger than a box purpose-built for the task
• Cameras: Front Porch, Front Yard, Side Yard, Garage, Driveway (L-shape into garage), rear yard if budget permits.
• HP 1910-8G-PoE+ Switch of eBay as per another thread I found on this forum. (alternatives welcome, but used commercial is "ok" with me)
• 1000 ft Ethernet riser-type cable, Klein crimpers, RJ45 2-piece connectors and strain reliefs already otw, mostly due to reading a ton of threads on these forums.

Robert

 

[gwminor48]

Hello Robert, welcome to the forum, I highly recommend milkisbad from personal experience.

 

[crw030]

ok tyvm gwminor48 - hope he's patient, but from the threads I've read he sounds very helpful and priced right. It panics me to buy something like an IP camera (which I know little about) from some random on ebay or Amazon.

Who knows if I have the budget to do it "right", but certainly cannot do it "twice" because of terrible equipment choices.

 

[crw030]

Ok, finally did a rough graphic of my home's layout.

1. I have highlighted the various "areas of interest", the more intense areas (porch, cars, garage) I really want pretty good recognition (something I can print out or show the cops if something goes down, ideally faces day or night).
2. Ideally in the front and back yard, I'm mostly hoping to have a general idea if something is going down (like if a domestic fight breaks out in the front yard, or someone is casing the back of the house for B&E which is impossible to see from the road)
3. The porch is just to see deliveries being made, and make sure that they don't walk off before I go down to grab them, or to see who's knocking in case it's just a door-to-door I can ignore.
4. I'd also like to be a good neighbor and keep an eye on the vacant properties to both sides, and maybe repurpose the cameras once they are occupied.

House is 2 1/2 stories, and the large eaves on the top floor are a good 30 feet up in the air but would have relatively unobstructed views except up close to the house where they would be blocked by other outcroppings etc.

I would appreciate some recommendations on how I can start my setup with 3-6 cameras and get halfway decent coverage of most the areas highlighted. I'm really unsure how to handle covering the cars without it going fisheye, and the best way to cover large swatch on the front yard and rear drive of the house.

Any comments appreciated. I show 6 ft for a reference on scale.


Oh, and the wife told me she'd prefer it doesn't look like we're running a prison when I get done!






Gonna post this in the IP Camera forums since it's not getting any action here, so please disregard.

 

[crw030]

Hey ipcamtalk, have continued to prowl, but last year moved to Colorado so now have a slightly different configuration than nayr was trying to assist with in this old zombie thread.

Ended up setting up pfsense at Colorado address (due to my consumer router couldn't handle 1Gbps connection), configured consumer router at the old house to open an OpenVPN to the new house (always on VPN) and route cameras from the old house to the Blue Iris server at the new house via a firewall rule in pfSense.

With the pfSense router and 4 port network card I no longer had to try and figure out VLANs (I know this is a cop-out), ended up setting up separate networks, and placing the PoE network switch on a separate NIC coming off the Blue Iris Server, and connecting the cameras there. This is now a physically separate network with the Blue Iris server in-between all the cameras (except the VPN cameras). With this setup I was able to use OpenVPN to access the network from mobile, see all the cameras on my phone (securely I think), record the 24x7 video from remote (1000 miles away) on Blue Iris in CO, and I feel like the cameras likely can't even reach the internet directly (since they seem to have vulnerabilities).

This year will be moving from a laptop with 4TB external storage to a dedicated i2600k I had leftover after an upgrade, and will be adding 12 TB storage and more cameras.

My only regret was lacking the motivation to set everything up in my quiet subdivision in CO until AFTER my car window was broken sitting in the driveway of the house to steal an empty $6 Goodwill purse out of the backseat. Since setting everything up a year ago I've only been able to get a couple dirty dog poopers (its a crime here you get a $100 fine) and freaked out the package delivery guys when I meet them at the door.

I really appreciate the level of support the directional comments and the quality of information you guys provide here for nothing! Also keep the camera reviews coming, always looking for the next one to get, probably a varifocal is next and some dedicated motion detection.