Home Security Cams

[Nemesis]

I've just spent vast sums of money on home security cams...... I'm impressed so far.... but the icing on the cake was getting to see and hear The Sage AKA Mrs Nem.... putting the pet rabbits to bed...... utterly priceless....

 

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

I have been having problems with my system. Outside I have a four camera cabled (POE) system with a NVR recording constantly on a 14 day cycle. Inside I have a fixed view IP camera and a pan-and-tilt IP camera. If I run all of them my network starts shutting down after a few hours, but if I drop off the P/T camera (higher definition than the fixed view one) it remains on-line pretty well reliably and drops off only occasionally. If I leave off both IP cameras or run them both but disconnect the NVR from the network, the system stays up. It seems that there's a data speed problem overloading the network. My monthly data usages are not too high so it's unlikely to be my provider objecting to data usage, so I can only assume it is data rate. The network comprises a Netgear WiFi router, a 'master' TP-Link device connected by ethernet cable to the router and three 'slave' remote TP-Link extenders receiving data through the mains wiring. One TP-Link is used for WiFi and the smart TV, another for the fixed view IP camera, and the third is for the NVR via ethernet cable. The P&T camera uses the first TP-Link that serves the TV as well. TP-Link customer service have been extremely helpful and with their help we have concluded that my puny Internet speed of c.6.7Mbps download and 0.37Mbps upload may be the culprit.

[CraigHew]

I doubt it's your network speed or capacity.   All your devices will run on your local area network (LAN) so data usage from your provider isn't in the equation.

More likely your PC (or whatever device your run your control software from) can't handle the required processing power.

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

50 minutes ago, CraigHew said:

I doubt it's your network speed or capacity.   All your devices will run on your local area network (LAN) so data usage from your provider isn't in the equation.

More likely your PC (or whatever device your run your control software from) can't handle the required processing power.

Apparently the CCTV apps work via their host countries - China of course. No internet connection, no CCTV. The NVR works without the network but only via a monitor connected to it. The IP cameras must have internet not just LAN. None of my devices could access the system: 'phone, tablet, TV, two laptops, and a desktop. The TP-Link devices LED indicators showed no connection, and I had to reboot all of them, and the router to get back in. The TP-Link customer services people reckon it's the low internet capacity (whatever that means specifically). There are anomalies though, in that my laptop has been able to connect to the internet by WiFi and one of the TP-Link extenders, but the smart TV on the same extender and through ethernet could not. The NVR has never dropped out either. All I know for certain is that if I run all the cameras overnight (no computers even switched on) by the morning the LED on the IP camera in my basement is off which means it has lost the network. You are correct in saying data usage per se isn't the cause because at Christmas my data usage was four times normal (no IP cameras at all then, only the NVR set-up) but the system was fine.

[kevip6]

On 4/22/2017 at 23:44, Nemesis said:

I've just spent vast sums of money on home security cams...... I'm impressed so far.... but the icing on the cake was getting to see and hear The Sage AKA Mrs Nem.... putting the pet rabbits to bed...... utterly priceless....

 

Which system did you get?  I'm in the process of looking for a CCTV system at the moment

[Nemesis]

I went with the Netgear ARLO PRO pro system 

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

On 4/23/2017 at 09:48, Man On The Clapham Omnibus said:

Apparently the CCTV apps work via their host countries - China of course. No internet connection, no CCTV. The NVR works without the network but only via a monitor connected to it. The IP cameras must have internet not just LAN. None of my devices could access the system: 'phone, tablet, TV, two laptops, and a desktop. The TP-Link devices LED indicators showed no connection, and I had to reboot all of them, and the router to get back in. The TP-Link customer services people reckon it's the low internet capacity (whatever that means specifically). There are anomalies though, in that my laptop has been able to connect to the internet by WiFi and one of the TP-Link extenders, but the smart TV on the same extender and through ethernet could not. The NVR has never dropped out either. All I know for certain is that if I run all the cameras overnight (no computers even switched on) by the morning the LED on the IP camera in my basement is off which means it has lost the network. You are correct in saying data usage per se isn't the cause because at Christmas my data usage was four times normal (no IP cameras at all then, only the NVR set-up) but the system was fine.

CraigHew, I have experimented since your comment and the cameras all work on LAN at home, but not away of course. The system went down again overnight and that seems to point the finger at the router. I have pretty well eliminated the extenders by putting a camera directly on the router and it dropped out again without the help of an extender. My daughter's partner is an IT consultant and he's got a spare router to try when he's here next so we'll see...

[CraigHew]

Happy you're making some progress @Man On The Clapham Omnibus.  Clearly all systems are different, all PCs set up different and lots of combinations of software on them are different.

I use Blue Iris with a couple of Foscam IP cameras.  BI runs on my PC and the cammeras connect to my router (once setup) one via WiFi (in the garage) one hard wired on a downstairs window, overlooking the front drive.  I have a BI app on my phone.

At home I can look at my alerts (previous motion detection) on the PC by opening up BI. Away from home the BI app logs securely into my router and connects to the BI program on the PC, so I can see the same alerts or change the angle etc of either camera.  I've been checking alerts like this for years, from sitting in our local pub to lying on a beach in Austrailia.

So my IP cameras both run over my local netweork and when away from home I log into my system but still view stuff thats happening on my LAN. (hope that makes sense).

Clearly other programs may let you log directly into your camera's IP address over the Wan / internet (which I'm sure I could do too if needed) but the BI software eliminates that step.