DIY remote home security

With an upcoming move to Texas, I'm looking at options to monitor either (or both) my TX and Colorado homes remotely for when I'm at the other location.

looking for a DIY security solution that will send text/email/app that I can see with remote camera what's going on over wifi... possibly an alert if there's an internet outage (so I know that I have vis losss)

Anyone have experience with particular ones you like/dislike or otherwise have an opinion?

Thanks in advance

Aim for something that has maximum compatibility, with zwave compatibility for example, so you can be flexible going forward.
I like a lot of the 2gig stuff, I believe vivint still uses 2gig for their installs. Very DIY friendly

Q-See series from Costco does what you want.

A nest camera will do everything you asked.

A few 720p or 1080p IP cameras, a PC and iSpy software (open source).iSpy can even read license plates if configured correctly with a decent camera and camera placement.

Blue Iris and IP cameras, iSpy and some IP cameras, or UBNT NVR and cameras will do what you want.

Blue Iris and iSpy require a computer on each premise that is running at all times. You also have to figure out handling potential power outages.

The UBNT system also requires their NVR on each premise, and power outages are also sort of an issue.

As suggested above, the Nest camera system is pretty straightforward, and gives all the items you want. It comes back automatically after a power outage.

I personally run my own stand alone cameras and NVR's, but that's because I am a nerd. For simplicity, I would run the Nest system.

I like the look of the is ispy system, I have an older laptop I could run it on...

If I run out of time, I could fall back to something like the nest or qsee

Thanks for the feedback!

Blue iris here with some $100 IP cameras and older i7 laptop. Works great.

Smartthings home control system - so so system. Lots of issues lately. Zwave devices work great.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Grant H.

Blue Iris and IP cameras, iSpy and some IP cameras, or UBNT NVR and cameras will do what you want.

Blue Iris and iSpy require a computer on each premise that is running at all times. You also have to figure out handling potential power outages.

The UBNT system also requires their NVR on each premise, and power outages are also sort of an issue.

As suggested above, the Nest camera system is pretty straightforward, and gives all the items you want. It comes back automatically after a power outage.

I personally run my own stand alone cameras and NVR's, but that's because I am a nerd. For simplicity, I would run the Nest system.

---

I havent got my system up and fully running yet (havent closed on house- i have a camera sitting on a table watching the parrot), but I modeled it after a friends setup. All ebay stuff (mine is Jooan off of amazon, and it runs fine. 720p cameras, running iSpy on the PC, but with a stand-alone DVR for redundancy. In the event of a power outage, the DVR boots right back up, and provides separated storage in case the PC gets ripped off.

I can remote access both the DVR directly, and the PC. The DVR and iSpy can even send video clips to an offsite machine via FTP if you have the alerts configured properly.

DVR was like $75, cameras are $45ish each with the power supply and passive POE inserters. I can run up to 16 camers on the DVR, and a whole lot more on iSpy