Does anyone have a good primer, article, video etc on how to setup a decently secure network that contains some basic home automation stuff? Preferably something that at least starts with a small disabled child's level of network knowledge and goes from there? My ISP is Verizon FIOS and I have a TP-Link AC1900 Wireless Router that arrives tomorrow. Wife and I have recently gotten into the smarthome stuff after a few gifts and we have the following hardware: 3x Nest-E thermostats 2x Echo Dots 1x Echo 1x Philips Hue Bridge w/ 4 lights 3x cheap chinese wifi plugs (1 at least runs through the Kasa app). 1x Fire Stick HD Other connected stuff: Dell wireless printer Couple computers, mixed bag of apple / PC Couple tablets, Apple and Amazon Android and Apple cellphones. Neither of us run a VPN to work or stuff like that. Basically I'm just trying to figure out how secure is enough and what is a decent initial setup that I should try to implement. In the past I'd just made sure that my routers were updated, SSID and password defaults were all changed and depending on where I lived hidden the SSID etc but I don't know anything about security concerns once automation / IoT stuff comes into the mix. Any advice?
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# ? Feb 6, 2019 01:59 |
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# ? May 12, 2024 01:03 |
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Konnected and Hubitat ordered. This should be fun. The local control from the Hubitat won me over, while removing the headaches of HA.
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# ? Feb 6, 2019 04:49 |
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That Works posted:Does anyone have a good primer, article, video etc on how to setup a decently secure network that contains some basic home automation stuff? Preferably something that at least starts with a small disabled child's level of network knowledge and goes from there? Have a strong unique password on your service (Nest, Amazon, etc) logins and use 2 factor authentication whenever possible. Most of the stuff in the news about people having their nest cameras hacked is people breaking into their Nest account because they reused a password from somewhere else and didn’t have two factor authentication on. You could pretty easily set up a guest network and put your “smart home” devices on that but for what you’re describing it’s probably more of a pain than it’s worth.
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# ? Feb 6, 2019 05:08 |
What's a good outdoor PTZ IP camera for <$250? Looks don't matter. Night vision is a plus but not strictly necessary. Storage doesn't matter either because it's purely for live viewing. I would also like it to not spy on me for the Chinese but idk if they make ones that don't do that. my kinda ape fucked around with this message at 11:44 on Feb 6, 2019 |
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# ? Feb 6, 2019 11:37 |
Maneki Neko posted:Have a strong unique password on your service (Nest, Amazon, etc) logins and use 2 factor authentication whenever possible. Most of the stuff in the news about people having their nest cameras hacked is people breaking into their Nest account because they reused a password from somewhere else and didn’t have two factor authentication on. Would putting them on a separate SSID matter or help at all? Thanks for the other advice. I am reasonably sure the other accounts are on a separate strong pw and I use 2-factor when available but it might be time to go update all that anyways to be sure.
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# ? Feb 6, 2019 13:01 |
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my kinda ape posted:What's a good outdoor PTZ IP camera for <$250? Looks don't matter. Night vision is a plus but not strictly necessary. Storage doesn't matter either because it's purely for live viewing. I put this one up on my tack room to keep an eye on my horses. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HML2CCV It looks great during the day and has good night vision also. It also has a built-in microphone and speaker so I can irritate them by calling them through the camera. Blocking all outbound traffic at the router from the cameras to anything but an NTP server is always a good idea IMO.
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# ? Feb 6, 2019 14:16 |
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Maneki Neko posted:Most of the stuff in the news about people having their nest cameras hacked is people breaking into their Nest account because they reused a password from somewhere else and didn’t have two factor authentication on. All of the stuff in the news about "hacked" nests is from password reuse, isn't it?
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# ? Feb 6, 2019 16:19 |
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It seems like it, yeah.
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# ? Feb 6, 2019 18:56 |
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Something like a Nest that is cloud-dependent would not benefit from a separate network, since the whole point is to be accessible from the internet. A local setup where the only path in is VPN, or some other secure scheme, may benefit.
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# ? Feb 6, 2019 19:09 |
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azurite posted:Something like a Nest that is cloud-dependent would not benefit from a separate network, since the whole point is to be accessible from the internet. That’s not necessarily true. Having that stuff segmented onto different vlans, for example, means that someone exploiting a Nest device bug doesn’t get access to your whole internal network to pivot to PCs and phones and the like.
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# ? Feb 6, 2019 19:17 |
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A lot of review sites love the Logitech Circle 2, are those a good choice for vid cam? Especially with the homekit support which I’m mostly into because it’s very hassle free.
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# ? Feb 7, 2019 01:18 |
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Thermopyle posted:All of the stuff in the news about "hacked" nests is from password reuse, isn't it? Ring on the other hand (that's different right)... https://theintercept.com/2019/01/10/amazon-ring-security-camera/
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# ? Feb 7, 2019 05:18 |
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Subjunctive posted:That’s not necessarily true. Having that stuff segmented onto different vlans, for example, means that someone exploiting a Nest device bug doesn’t get access to your whole internal network to pivot to PCs and phones and the like. That's true. I was thinking in terms of not exposing devices to the internet at all.
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# ? Feb 7, 2019 05:49 |
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priznat posted:A lot of review sites love the Logitech Circle 2, are those a good choice for vid cam? Especially with the homekit support which I’m mostly into because it’s very hassle free. I have 3 (2 installed atm) and love them. I haven't used the Nest cams but I've used Arlo, and the Logitech Circle 2's are way better. Just make sure you get the wired ones. The wireless cameras of all brands have issues capturing action as it's happening because of their tendency to want to save battery power.
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# ? Feb 7, 2019 05:59 |
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SpartanIvy posted:I have 3 (2 installed atm) and love them. I haven't used the Nest cams but I've used Arlo, and the Logitech Circle 2's are way better. Just make sure you get the wired ones. The wireless cameras of all brands have issues capturing action as it's happening because of their tendency to want to save battery power. Cool, any issues mounting them where there is power? Do the cables go right to 110v plug or is it DC via usb or something to a wall plug adapter? Kicking myself for not getting a 2 cam & window mount combo after xmas that was just 1.25 x the cost of a single one, sweet deal. Waiting for a good sale now. I had been looking at the arlos too but read similar stuff to what you mention, just capturing occasional footage.
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# ? Feb 7, 2019 09:59 |
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sadus posted:Ring on the other hand (that's different right)... Wasn't Ring also the one that was sending random traffic to servers in China a few years back? I recall one of the video doorbell companies had that issue, and their CEO made a half-assed attempt at explaining it away on Reddit spewing some nonsense about how it was "excess packets" that were being routed to an "unused address" for some reason. edit: Yup, it was the Ring Pro. Initial Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/homeautomation/comments/5xa0h1/ring_pro_doorbell_calling_china/ Response from "VP of Security" claiming it's just a bit of corrupted audio traffic that's supposed to be discarded: https://www.reddit.com/r/homeautomation/comments/5xa0h1/ring_pro_doorbell_calling_china/deh3gsz/ Later response from "CTO": https://www.reddit.com/r/homeautomation/comments/5xa0h1/ring_pro_doorbell_calling_china/deobncw/ Anyone who knows anything about networking or programming networked software should have their bullshit detectors going off the charts when reading those responses. I had been considering one of those around that time because a few friends have them and like them, but that incident solidified my plan to use a self-hosted platform (currently UniFi) running on my NAS. wolrah fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Feb 7, 2019 |
# ? Feb 7, 2019 15:20 |
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Costco's got a deal going on for Ring devices so went ahead and grabbed a 10-piece alarm kit and the Doorbell 2 for $400. According to some Slickdeals users, it looks like the year of cloud recording that comes with the doorbell can be turned into the $100 monitoring one so that's a big plus. Currently have Simplisafe and going to return it. I realized I definitely wanted mobile app control and having to pay $25 a month for that is a no-go. vvv lol yeah I saw that but Im too lazy to care about all that. Also won't be using any ring cameras inside the house hmmxkrazee fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Feb 8, 2019 |
# ? Feb 7, 2019 19:43 |
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hmmxkrazee posted:Costco's got a deal going on for Ring devices so went ahead and grabbed a 10-piece alarm kit and the Doorbell 2 for $400. According to some Slickdeals users, it looks like the year of cloud recording that comes with the doorbell can be turned into the $100 monitoring one so that's a big plus. Funny to read this right after the post before yours.
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# ? Feb 7, 2019 22:20 |
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priznat posted:Cool, any issues mounting them where there is power? Do the cables go right to 110v plug or is it DC via usb or something to a wall plug adapter? No issues for me. They come with 6 foot cables I think, and it terminates to USB-A which you can then plug into the provided charger or use some other one. They also make a weather proof extension cable which uses the included USB charger and then terminates into a standard AC plug. I bought and use the extension cable for my front door camera as the only nearby power was in the attic, and I had to run it across a rafter. My back door camera is just plugged into a garage outlet. Since the cord on the camera is USB you have to drill a hole as big as a USB plug to run it through a wall which is kind of annoying. I used caulk to seal the holes after running the cords through. Mounting to a wall is easy. It just takes two screws and it secures easily into wood.
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# ? Feb 7, 2019 23:26 |
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Home Assistant 0.87 just added SmartThings support via Samsung's Cloud API (versus MQTT). https://www.home-assistant.io/components/smartthings/ Anyone brave enough to install 0.87 yet? And/or gotten the new SmartThings integration working?
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# ? Feb 8, 2019 18:34 |
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I installed it, it didn’t break anything. (I will do that myself as I try to move my install from a Pi to a Docker on VM on Proxmox setup.) Don’t have SmartThings so can’t comment there.
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# ? Feb 8, 2019 18:56 |
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HycoCam posted:Home Assistant 0.87 just added SmartThings support via Samsung's Cloud API (versus MQTT). https://www.home-assistant.io/components/smartthings/ I'm tempted, because the ST hub is so good for connecting zigbee and zwave devices without having to manage your own dongles and poo poo. However, I don't like moving back to having a dependency on The Cloud, so I'm not sure what I'll do.
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# ? Feb 8, 2019 19:16 |
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Installed .87 with no issues here... I had already switched to LoveLace a little bit ago, so the upgrade with off without issue. Looking forward to trying the new energy meter stuff. Domoticz had features like that, I was bummed when I moved to Home Assistant and it didn't.
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# ? Feb 8, 2019 22:26 |
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0.87 installed and no issues, in fact my Nest doorbell started working for motion sensing again so now my outdoor light comes on automatically like it used to. Typical HA experience, it's what is not in the release notes that adds to the surprise factor every update.
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# ? Feb 9, 2019 03:24 |
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I think HA .87 might've killed two of my automations involving my Radio Thermostat. I haven't had a chance to debug it yet, but I have a feeling they may have changed how the heat/cool/idle modes are reported (there were changes mentioned, but I didn't think they'd break me). Now the two automations aren't triggering. Not all of my automations broke, my hall night light automation still works. EDIT: I figured it out. They changed how it reports the thermostat state. I had to change the automation to trigger on the 'operation_mode' attribute instead. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/commit/4b3cdb9f4e191e4892a613048db48a0c05369e7b#diff-b8a2df89c45c9edc7b088ca0adba0f35 azurite fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Feb 9, 2019 |
# ? Feb 9, 2019 07:36 |
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My Hue lights have started just turning off recently. I’m sitting on my couch and it literally just happened. All I have is a Hue bridge and I do all the automation stuff with iOS Home.app. I’ve ruled out power outage because only the Hue lights are affected. I’ve disabled all automations in Home.app, rebooted the Hue Bridge, and yesterday I went to the Hue app and did a “clean up” which I think deleted everything other than room assignments. Still turns off without any input from me, in two different rooms so it can’t be this particular circuit acting up I think. Nothing has changed. Same router, same wifi, same everything. Hue app says all lights have up to date firmware, as does the bridge. Is there anything I can check or should I call ghostbusters? No but seriously anyone have this problem before?
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# ? Feb 15, 2019 08:44 |
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I would like a wireless security camera with motion sensors to bolt to the wall of my garage, I live rurally in a safe area of the world, but I still feel like it'd be good to be able to record any potential theft, ideally get a license plate or car description. Might also be cool as a wildlife camera. There are a lot of them in the same price range on Amazon, I am not sure if they are all junk, or all good, and if there is any difference aside from the superficial between them. https://www.amazon.co.uk/ieGeek-Security-Waterproof-Surveillance-Detection-black/dp/B073GQ8T2L/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/SV3C-Surveillance-Construction-withstand-Detection/dp/B074M7B4BF/ I'm not located in the UK but in the EU, and don't have to buy from amazon, just what came up first. Maybe there are some good german companies? Around that price range is what I am looking for.
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# ? Feb 15, 2019 08:50 |
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Boris Galerkin posted:My Hue lights have started just turning off recently. I’m sitting on my couch and it literally just happened. All I have is a Hue bridge and I do all the automation stuff with iOS Home.app. I’ve ruled out power outage because only the Hue lights are affected. I’ve disabled all automations in Home.app, rebooted the Hue Bridge, and yesterday I went to the Hue app and did a “clean up” which I think deleted everything other than room assignments. Still turns off without any input from me, in two different rooms so it can’t be this particular circuit acting up I think. Nothing has changed. Same router, same wifi, same everything. Hue app says all lights have up to date firmware, as does the bridge. I'd reach out to support on twitter though, they're pretty decent.
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# ? Feb 15, 2019 09:50 |
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I’m looking to move away from Smart Things and onto a local controller. I’m leaning towards Home Assistant on a Pi, but I’m also looking at Hubitat, Vera, and Homeseer, and wanted to get your guys’ input on which one to go with. If Home Assistant, can anyone recommend a good USB ZWave/Zigbee radio? One I’m looking at is the HUSBZB-1. I’ve got a networking background and am currently working on learning python, so I’m not opposed to something requiring a bit of elbow grease.
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# ? Feb 15, 2019 10:31 |
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Rick posted:I wonder if resetting your bridge would help. A big pain if you have a lot of lights. Before I do that (and I think I'd have to unscrew all my fixtures to get into the light bulbs to re-add them?) I just removed the Siri/HomeKit integration and deleted/recreated my rooms. The latter I just did because I recently reset it anyway so I didn't have any scenes created yet, and all of the default Hue ones ("energize", "read") seem to have disappeared. I'm hoping this fixes it. I found a random forums post where someone said they fixed a similar problem by assigning a static IP address to the bridge but I don't think I have that issue as my bridge's IP address has never changed.
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# ? Feb 15, 2019 12:40 |
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OSU_Matthew posted:I’m looking to move away from Smart Things and onto a local controller. I’m doing the same thing. Moving from SmartThings to HA on a pi with a HUSBZB-1. I do recommend a high endurance SD card since a lot of people wear out cheap cards with all the database writes that HA does. I ordered a Samsung pro endurance card. I currently use InfluxDB and Grafana on a pi to log my SmartThings data and wanted to keep that up. HassOS addons exist for both so it seemed like it would be easier to just use HA.
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# ? Feb 15, 2019 14:25 |
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I use the HUSBZB-1 on a pi. No issues. Works well.
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# ? Feb 15, 2019 16:12 |
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That’s great to hear, thanks guys! I’ll order a Pi and the hubsz adapter then! I might even try containerizing my Pi-hole Adblock and repurposing the Pi for this project... What do you guys do for Pi UPS battery backup? My network rack is on a cyber power 900VA battery UPS, so I was thinking about getting the PoE hat for the Pi and accomplishing backup by powering it off my PoE switch on the rack. However, apparently the Pi hat’s PoE is underpowered for USB devices, so I’m back to trying to figure out how to best achieve a few hours of uninterrupted operation during a power outage. I thought about a generic battery pack, but it would probably need to be manually turned on in case of emergency. What do you guys do?
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# ? Feb 15, 2019 16:44 |
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I use the PoE hat on rpi, ZWave stick plugged in to USB and nothing else. Switch is connected to UPS battery. Haven't tested power outage to be honest. I do a daily file system backup of the config directory to a NAS and then that goes to the cloud.
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# ? Feb 15, 2019 17:36 |
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OSU_Matthew posted:That’s great to hear, thanks guys! I’ll order a Pi and the hubsz adapter then! I might even try containerizing my Pi-hole Adblock and repurposing the Pi for this project... Since you’ll presumably run Hassio, worth knowing there is a pre-containerized PiHole addon for Hassio, which might save you some work.
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# ? Feb 15, 2019 17:38 |
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Boris Galerkin posted:Before I do that (and I think I'd have to unscrew all my fixtures to get into the light bulbs to re-add them?) I just removed the Siri/HomeKit integration and deleted/recreated my rooms. The latter I just did because I recently reset it anyway so I didn't have any scenes created yet, and all of the default Hue ones ("energize", "read") seem to have disappeared. I'm hoping this fixes it. I agree that the IP thing is weird, your lights also shouldn't turn off when they lose contact with the bridge. I guess maybe if the device somehow has an IP of another expected device and noise is being sent to the bridge that's meant for another device, it's possible it's causing it to flicker the lights, but as you said your network is stable so I'm not sure if it would fix it. Although, yeah, something to try before contacting support.
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# ? Feb 15, 2019 17:53 |
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A standard UPS will keep your Pi alive during power outages. But I've found only the turn off automations seem to work...
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# ? Feb 15, 2019 18:14 |
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OSU_Matthew posted:Im looking to move away from Smart Things and onto a local controller. I prefer HA out of the ones you mentioned. I run it in a docker container on my home server. I use the Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5 for zwave, and this for zigbee: Thermopyle posted:I set zigbee2mqtt up and goddamn this is great. 20 bucks worth of hardware and I can use all sorts of cheap zigbee devices with my Home Assistant setup. These Xiaomi devices listed in the wiki are particularly cheap and effective. For example, 10 bucks for a wireless button that can control anything that I have hooked up to HA. I set one on my nightstand that on single press toggles my lamp on and off, double press turns my fan on and off, and long press activates my "good night" scene.
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# ? Feb 15, 2019 18:33 |
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His Divine Shadow posted:I would like a wireless security camera with motion sensors to bolt to the wall of my garage, I live rurally in a safe area of the world, but I still feel like it'd be good to be able to record any potential theft, ideally get a license plate or car description. Might also be cool as a wildlife camera. You'll find that if you want to capture activity like cats at night, you're going to need a really good camera with supplemental IR lighting for night time. (Plus you need to treat the area around your cameras to discourage spiders--haven't figured out how to get rid of the flying critters that typically trip the night time motion...) There is a concept with surveillance cameras of overt and covert. WiFi cameras are great to get your feet wet, but if you get serious you'll want PoE cameras. Placing cameras under decks, so they are below eye level looking up and direct bury ethernet cable to things like bird houses and mailboxes can give you great camera placement for capturing faces and license plates. (Bird houses make it easier to position a camera that looks toward your house so you can get images of people leaving. Same with the mailbox--waist high placement makes it easier to get details of cars entering and exiting your driveway.) The HIKVision 4K PoE cameras are tough to beat as far as price, quality, and reliability.
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# ? Feb 15, 2019 18:57 |
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# ? May 12, 2024 01:03 |
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Well I only have a wireless connection between the garage and the house, so I'd need to set up a router in the garage and pull wires and stuff, pulling wires in the shop... that's really something I want to avoid... wireless is a requirement for me. And checking out the laws in Finland and apparently I need to put up signs warning of camera surveilance on my property if I do this so I am reconsidering anyway, putting up signs like that is probably worse than doing nothing.
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# ? Feb 17, 2019 07:42 |