On-Site Instant Backup Options?

[Jason Garrett]

I run a home lab (home server) which my security system runs on. A post over on /r/homelab got me thinking today. A person had their mother's home broken into, the thief or thieves pulled the security camera wires, and then stole the server equipment as well, so he has no video recorded, it's all gone.

I know the go-to answer is "cloud backup" but Comcast has decided to limit data usage each month and I already get close to my data limit each month as-is.

I run 6 cameras on Blue Iris on a dedicated system (i5-6500 8GB RAM). What are my options for on-site backup that occurs on the fly. I already have a backup server, but I only backup everything weekly. Even if I upped that to daily, it still doesn't help with a thief stealing the whole thing before a backup can occur.

I was thinking to maybe setup a very small NAS hidden somewhere, and have Blue Iris record to it directly, I could have it gigabit wired, but with 6 cameras all running 3-4mp 10fps, I'm not sure if it will keep up. Is this a bad idea? Does anyone else have any other options they would like to suggest?

I would appreciate any input, as I've only been able to come up with one potential solution, and it may be completely misguided.

Thanks!

 

[zero-degrees]

The NAS solution has been discussed in several threads around the forum. I'm always a fan of mounting NVR's or Backups in a closet somewhere on a small shelf near the ceiling. This keeps it inside the main structure in a temp controlled area. People want to talk about putting them in attics (heat), or Crawl Spaces (Moisture), etc, but I've always found top of closets a great spot.

Also your fine on bandwidth! Quick calculation of 6 cameras at 5mp (2560x1920) running 15 FPS puts you around 75Mbps. Roughly 10-14Mbps per camera depending on bitrate/frame size

 

[nayr]

did they take the cameras too? something seems odd that they stole the ethernet wiring.. must of been very poorly installed.

first place people check is bedroom closets; a really good spot to stash a NVR is ontop of your kitchen cabinets.. gets good airflow, is not sealed off, you can hear it if its erroring out/rebooting, and it can be completely out of sight w/out a ladder.. You can usually run a lil extension cord from your Fridge/Stove Top Microwave to the top of the cabinets very easy without it being visible.. just keep the thing clean because thats a dust and grease magnet (the top of kitchen cabinets)

you could also take an old VCR tape player, gut the insides out and hide the NVR in there.. I bet if they stole your TV, BluRay Player, Playstation 4 the'd leave that old junky looking VCR behind heh.. if Pawn shops wont take it, then its a good thing to hide your NVR inside of.

Gotta get clever, if there was a standard this is the best place to hide your NVR from theft rule.. then everyone would know it and it wouldent be the best place to hide your NVR.. so think outside the box.. speaking of which, if you get external PoE hiding the NVR is a piece of cake because all the wires terminate at the switch and not the recorder.. so tracing lines wont reveal its location unless they traced all of em.

 

[Jason Garrett]

did they take the cameras too? something seems odd that they stole the ethernet wiring.. must of been very poorly installed.

first place people check is bedroom closets; a really good spot to stash a NVR is ontop of your kitchen cabinets.. gets good airflow, is not sealed off, you can hear it if its erroring out/rebooting, and it can be completely out of sight w/out a ladder.

Sorry, I think I wasn't clear enough. The way he describes it, it sounds like they essentially ripped the camera off of it's mount and cut/disconnected the wire running to it. Then they stole all of the computer stuff, which that camera was recording to.

 

[zero-degrees]

first place people check is bedroom closets

This is true so let me detail my use case a little better so someone doesn't think it's just sitting ontop of a wire closet rack.

First, really no where is safe when it comes to a break in. With enough time, they will turn your house upside down. In college the house we rented on campus got broken into, they kicked in the front door, made a quick round through the house grabbing laptops and tablets and out they went.

After college a girl I was seeing had her house broken into and this one looked like the movies/TV, they opened everything, turned over every bed, and even checked the fridge, so I don't believe any place is "safe".

So, what I tend to do with the closet mounting is this. Cables are wall fished from a crawl space or attic up the closet wall to the top where an access/passthrough jack is located as well as power outlet is pulled. A shelf is then placed around 6" down from the ceiling and a security NVR box is slid onto the shelf and lag bolted into the ceiling joists and the wall joist. Everything is concealed in walls so nothing can be cut. The shelf under the box keeps someone from trying to grab the box and pry it down and because the walls and ceiling are drywall even if they try to pry it open the drywall will fail/break apart before the box would open.

No solution is safe, but anything that causes a time consuming slowdown increases the chance of them simply moving on.

Securitytronix ST-DVRLB-18WF 18 x 18 DVR Lockbox (ST-DVRLB-18WF) from Solid Signal

 

[alastairstevenson]

Does anyone else have any other options they would like to suggest?

I'm not suggesting this is a perfect solution - but my main NVR (continuous recording) is reasonably well hidden in a utility room, my test NVR (event recording) is in fairly plain sight, a couple of NAS boxes (continuous recording) not in obvious sight, with all devices recording from all cameras.
Just spreading it around the place a bit.