geekhack Community > Other Geeky Stuff
Outdoor Home Security Cameras
jamster:
--- Quote from: Techie007 on Wed, 04 August 2021, 18:05:57 ---Professional camera installer here... Do not use WiFi for security cameras if you can help it. You're gonna have to run a wire anyway to power the camera. Use a PoE camera and run an Ethernet cable. Solves both problems. If you want to know the best value camera currently on the market, it is the Dahua IPC-HDW5442TM-ASE. While it doesn't have cloud storage, it uses an SD card and has excellent night vision and audio quality—perfect for outdoor/nature type use.
There is a reputable importer on Amazon Prime selling them under the Loryta brand name, shipping from the US for about $155 (not affiliated; I usually import them myself to get a better price, but you have to wait several months then).
--- End quote ---
Can you expand on the reasons for this? Is it for reliability of connection or something else?
I generally agree with this sentiment- I avoid wifi for anything 'important', but would like to hear the reasons for someone who does this for a living.
Leslieann:
--- Quote from: phinix on Mon, 12 July 2021, 02:48:31 ---If its not free, then any paid but something cheaper than Nest £10/month.
--- End quote ---
I tried rolling my own using PIs, cell phones and some software and a server, not only was it not great but trying to do it without paying for pretty much anything made it a massive pain in the neck. Between low quality streams, high bandwidth, false promises (pi do not do this as well as people claim) and absolutely atrocious configuration it just turned into a nightmare.
If I had to do it again, for a single cam I'd consider just upping to a private Youtube, for anything more I'd probably just get a Nest/Ring/mass produced kit.
--- Quote from: jamster on Sun, 08 August 2021, 05:09:32 ---Can you expand on the reasons for this? Is it for reliability of connection or something else?
I generally agree with this sentiment- I avoid wifi for anything 'important', but would like to hear the reasons for someone who does this for a living.
--- End quote ---
Wifi can be easily hacked, the more connecting to it the faster it can be hacked, these constantly stream making them the perfect target for hacking wifi.
If you must use wifi make sure it's on a second wifi and firewalled from the rest of the network. I would even consider whitelisting only where the signal needs to be sent.
Even easier than hacking is to knock them offline.
You don't even need to hack the wifi to send a false packet and boot a wifi camera/laptop/cellphone off a network. This was sort a joke among IT people for a while when it came out to just boot coworkers and friends offline at random. Funny for friends, not so funny when your whole security goes down before they rob you.
jamster:
--- Quote from: Leslieann on Sun, 08 August 2021, 06:07:08 ---
--- Quote from: jamster on Sun, 08 August 2021, 05:09:32 ---Can you expand on the reasons for this? Is it for reliability of connection or something else?
I generally agree with this sentiment- I avoid wifi for anything 'important', but would like to hear the reasons for someone who does this for a living.
--- End quote ---
Wifi can be easily hacked, the more connecting to it the faster it can be hacked, these constantly stream making them the perfect target for hacking wifi.
If you must use wifi make sure it's on a second wifi and firewalled from the rest of the network. I would even consider whitelisting only where the signal needs to be sent.
Even easier than hacking is to knock them offline.
You don't even need to hack the wifi to send a false packet and boot a wifi camera/laptop/cellphone off a network. This was sort a joke among IT people for a while when it came out to just boot coworkers and friends offline at random. Funny for friends, not so funny when your whole security goes down before they rob you.
--- End quote ---
Am totally aware of these factors, when I ran cameras (not for security, just so the wife could watch the kids from work when they were really young) they were on a segregated vlan, and blacklisted to internet access.
Was more after the opinion of someone who installs cameras for a living, and which main points he uses to convince clients.
The knocking offline reason, especially, is an obvious one but seems like most burglars would not bother (too much effort, too little technical sophistication). Brother-in-law's place was broken into a while back, and they had cameras and an alarm system linked into the local police department, so the thieves just knew they had a limited amount of time to grab stuff before leaving. They didn't really care about the presence of cameras.
Coreda:
--- Quote from: Techie007 on Wed, 04 August 2021, 18:05:57 ---If you want to know the best value camera currently on the market, it is the Dahua IPC-HDW5442TM-ASE....
--- End quote ---
This guy knows what's up. The 5442 models are very well regarded. They're known for the excellent night time performance with a good lens and sensor which allows for image clarity and higher framerates compared to most consumer grade IP cameras which often have blurry clarity for moving subjects and inappropriate resolutions for the lens/sensor (do consider when watching demo videos of any camera if they only show a static subject rather than moving since it's not representative of what one realistically needs for night performance).
They feature firmware which allows for human/animal/car detection, defining boundary points like virtual tripwire lines and object placement detection. The IPC ID suffixes denote different features. Here 'ASE' = Audio, SD card (IIRC), Extended PoE but there are other variants, too.
The general advice as with almost any IP camera is restricting their network access to just time servers and isolated from one's regular network. Regardless of the feature sets and brands, even industrial brands, virtually no one in the security or IP camera communities suggest not isolating them :p
Leslieann:
--- Quote from: Dzhizus on Mon, 17 October 2022, 05:11:04 ---But why do you say that wi-fi is better not to use? It seems to me that on the contrary it is a good idea
--- End quote ---
Why would you think wireless is better than a physical connection?
Wireless is easier but it's also much more easily hacked.
Even if you think it isn't so easily hacked (the more devices the easier it's hacked), it's pathetically easy to knock devices off a wireless system leaving you with no security at all. And then there's the bandwidth limitations, not just per camera but your router as a whole and range limitations.
The only thing wireless has going for it is, is ease.
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