Wifi Security Camera

T

TitanTim

Elite
I don't know much about security cameras but I would like to get one that covers the front of the house but set up inside the house viewing through a window. I would like to be able to view live feeds from my mobile when not at home, is this possible? I have a budget from £50 to 150 depending on whats best to get for the budget range.

Has anyone got any recommendations please. Some seem to do free email alerts if it picks up movement others you have to pay for them e.g. BT camera which is 6.99 a month.

Thanks,

Tim.
 
Wifi quality is poor, I would rather get a wired unit and use a TP-link unit to your router. The wired units are cheaper as well so you can get a much better quality camera.

The ones I use are quite a bit more - as in about £450 a unit (Axis).
 
+1 on what PVR said.

Another benefit would be having a UPS in the event there is a power cut and an internal hard drive if your internet connection drops out.

Though those set-ups would be a little dearer than what you're after.
 
I bought a wifi camera to catch an uninvited night time visitor. (Nothing exotic just a neighbours cat)

Total rubbish

Wired every time!
 
I have just done a wired set up, like you I wanted it discreetly set up inside.
I gave up after a couple of weeks and the cameras are now outside.
They are fine in the daytime looking through the window, at night you get a bounce back off the glass and the infra red night vision is crap.

If you need night time recording as well as daytime, put your cameras outside. :thumbsup:
 
Wired - definitely. I use a power line Ethernet adaptor from the camera back to the router. Far more reliable than wifi.

Agree with Grumpy Owl too. Ok inside for daytime use but you'll see nothing at night. An outdoor cam with IR a must if your looking to cover your car. It starts to get expensive though :-(
 
Wired is ideal but done right wireless can be just as effective. I have experience of both and currently run several wif-fi cameras around the house and they work fine. One is an ebay special (£30) that you can control via the phone and the others are built-up ones from a raspberry pi + camera module.

I would say as a starter something like this works :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EasyN-CCTV-Security-Camera-Internet-IP-Cam-Monitor-Home-Surveillance-System-/131442465991?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1e9a94dcc7

Problem is, like others said, at night it has IR LED's, and when they come on they blind the camera when they bounce off the window.

Power over Ethernet, Axis cameras, UPS's are all well and good, but at the budget you are on it's a whole different conversation.

My Raspberry Pi solution takes a bit of setting up but records 1080p+ video and allows me to use a separate IR light outside. Pi+Camera+light comes in at well under £100
 
Thanks all for the info much appreciated. Unsure I really want to go for a wired camera in all honesty but appreciate it would better. I'll nip into PC World tomorrow and see what they have.

Thanks again,

Tim.
 
I am sure you use wireless for phones, computers etc and you will know it is never stable and will need rebooting frequently. All the Apple wifi equipment needs rebooting to get it to work every few weeks - I would not want to rely to that sort of solution as sods law is that it will not have been recording when you really need it.
 
Would have to agree with PVR. You need power to it at least so using power line adapters for networking shouldn't cause any inconvenience.
 
pvr said:
will need rebooting frequently.
Click to expand...

I'd disagree with that... Some of my cameras have 9 months uptime on them without missing a beat, and that's only because I unplugged them to move them. Sure, in an unstable environment they might need rebooting, but not necessarily. I honestly think wifi would be fine for what he is after (something looking out of the window at his car, rather than a CCTV system looking to gather evidence for prosecution). If you want a camera that will capture people's faces you need a hi-res camera, outdoors, with decent lighting.... but that's not what was asked for in this case.

I'd suggest going the wifi route first... see how you get on. Worst case you still have the option to plug in a cable if you need to.
 
If anyone is interested this is similar to what I did:

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/665518/Raspberry-Pi-as-low-cost-HD-surveillance-camera

Looks complicated but it's really not. The Motionpie interface is ok as standalone, but I have them all feeding a central Zoneminder installation that records the last 7 days to disk and I can access it all from my phone.
 
I'm about to mount two Samsung fisheye lenses outside and power over Ethernet and managed via synology camstation.

The idea of fisheye is that you get such a wide field and great detail with just on camera.
 
The biggest issue is that some powerline adaptors are sensitive to other power supply units being placed on the same socket.

I've seen powerline speeds halved by playing the powerline adaptor on the same pair of sockets as my network switch.

Just a heads-up (in the grand scheme of things, probably won't make that much of a difference)

Also, if going down the route of powerline adaptors, spend a little more and future proof it by going for gigabit ethernet. There are still plenty of kits out there that only offer 100mb max.
 
Tim, I have been toying with the idea of these

http://www.philips.co.uk/c-m-so/app-enabled-products/wireless-ip-camera/latest#filters=INSIGHT_WIRELESS_SU2&sliders=&support=&price=&priceBoxes=&page=&layout=
 
I have 2 ip cameras watching our house. Pretty simple install.
I can monitor those with my smartphone in realtime or use motion detection -> email.
I do recommend ip cameras..
 
sars said:
Tim, I have been toying with the idea of these

http://www.philips.co.uk/c-m-so/app-enabled-products/wireless-ip-camera/latest#filters=INSIGHT_WIRELESS_SU2&sliders=&support=&price=&priceBoxes=&page=&layout=
Click to expand...

Thanks Sars :thumbsup:

Tim.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom