Home Security System

[Danimal]

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[Brian]

Can you explain a bit more your concern around firewall and remote access? Is this a property that you don't live on that you'll be absent from most of the time? If not, I would not worry too much about it. You can put the whole darn thing on a dedicated internal LAN with no internet access if you want, but even that's probably overkill for most home setups.

Motion tracking cameras, especially PTZ auto tracking are mostly VERY expensive from what I've read and not as great as you'd hope. Motion sensing is pretty common anymore, usually done in software.

I found the sweet spot right now to be a combination of something like BlueIris if you're going the PC route and hikvision or similar cameras. You can get a pretty kick butt system for a relatively small cash layout, and there is great community support, which is even more valuable.

[def90]

Motion tracking cameras are going to run a couple grand, I install them. Panasonic also makes nice cameras with some serious facial recognition software, also very expensive. As for the security side, ELK is about the only security panel that is going to be able to text/email you when an event happens without paying a monthy service fee. An Elk system will start around $1200 for a basic panel and a keypad. As for the firewall, who do you think is interested in hacking some guys home camera system? Most remote viewing apps use simple port forwarding in the router so firewall is not really a part of the system.

[Danimal]

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[Danimal]

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[gnihcraes]

BlueIris software, cheap. put on cheap pc. buy ethernet cameras and go for it. Motion sensing, recording when motion happens. I believe it can notify via text alerts and stuff, I don't have any of that setup.

add in a smartthings home monitor system. (doesn't interact with blueiris)

whole setup works pretty well here for me. I get alerts when things move, doors open, temperatures get too high or low etc.

can watch cameras with the app on my phone or just via internet.

[Grant H.]

For the most part, providing limited access from the outside will leave you vulnerable to someone that actually knows what they are doing. You can limit it, but anytime you create a tunnel in for yourself, someone out there can get in. Now, the likelihood of that person being a criminal looking to rob you would be pretty low.

Something to consider:

Unless you have a business class internet connection, you likely do not have a static IP. This means you have to have a router that can handle Dynamic DNS registration.

[Danimal]

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[HoneyBadger]

On the topic, I just purchased one of these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._detailpages00 based on some recommendations and reading in this and a few other threads. The two biggest selling points were the video quality and the motion-activated recording and push notifications, customizeable for each camera.

[Danimal]

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