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I buy that.. But that type of scanning has a much lower bar than what you're suggesting. It's analog, they hit the right frequency, they can listen in. It's hobby stuff.

Amplifying and reconstructing digital signals from a single device, especially since those signals are typically encrypted that's the stuff of fairly serious interest - like government level. Much more likely to hack your Wifi password and access the devices directly, trust me, especially if you don't use strong encryption.

Open wifi with cameras is a bad idea. WEP based encryption is pretty trivial to break by an amateur. Step up the encryption to WPA / WPA2 and it's much much harder.. And then secure it by MAC address, the bar is very high at least for non-government.

I have about decided to hire someone to do this. It seems complicated to a simple minded person.

cb1000rider wrote:I buy that.. But that type of scanning has a much lower bar than what you're suggesting. It's analog, they hit the right frequency, they can listen in. It's hobby stuff.

Amplifying and reconstructing digital signals from a single device, especially since those signals are typically encrypted that's the stuff of fairly serious interest - like government level. Much more likely to hack your Wifi password and access the devices directly, trust me, especially if you don't use strong encryption.

Open wifi with cameras is a bad idea. WEP based encryption is pretty trivial to break by an amateur. Step up the encryption to WPA / WPA2 and it's much much harder.. And then secure it by MAC address, the bar is very high at least for non-government.

Not entirely, even then attempts were being made to make communications more secure by going digital, and that particular "hobbyist" and the network of "freqs" that he belonged to worked very hard at finding ways to decode digital and were quite successful. Some of those guys were (are?) total wastes of potential.

I think this is on topic.
If putting cameras outside just to monitor the front yard (don't need to be able to tell which of the neighbor kids are doing dishes through their kitchen window) what resolution should you be looking at? Went to Frys today and the labels on the boxes said everything from 500tvl to 960h and then some said 720p and 1080p. Looks like you could buy a four camera system with DVR anywhere from $300 to thousands of dollars. The whole thing is somewhat confusing.
I do understand that the better the resolution the more discernible results, just trying to figure out what is "good enough" vs total overkill.

JMRA,
It depends on what you're after. For the camera that faces the road, I want a camera that I can read license plates on at distance. There is also a cost curve to resolution - as well as added storage of all that data. For me, I'm sticking with the 720p cameras. It's good enough to provide some basic identification of a person. I can buy IP cameras at 720p for around $100 each these days.

If you want to "test" - most digital cameras have a resolution setting. Stand where you're thinking about placing the camera, knock the resolution of your digital camera down to 480, 720p, whatever, and take a picture of a person at the distance you think it should resolve to. This is the "best case" resolution.

Resolution is effectively decreased at night under IR conditions. Things get grainy and washed out.

I've never used the DVR cameras. They're probably easiest to understand.. Just hide the recorder someplace where it's not going to get stolen. I think DVRs record motion. Several of my IP cameras detect motion, but don't shoot video, they shoot a series of photos.

I would also appreciate any recommendations in this area. One of my neighbors has complained to me and accused my dog of barking "all day and all night". I've been on the fence about getting some security cameras, and this may be enough to push me over the edge. I know that my dog barks only on occasion, and I'd like to have concrete evidence to prove it.

I'd prefer an IP camera, though I'm open to other ideas. It doesn't have to be wireless, but I do want one that can capture audio. Most cameras I've looked at don't record audio, and that's a key feature since the motivation is to prove how little my dog barks.

Decide IP based or DVR based. IP cameras will either need a location to write to and MAY need monitoring software (if not build in).
If you can do wired, do wired - it's faster and less expensive. DVR types may be easier for non-computer people.
In terms of general recommendations, I'd recommend 720P or better. Lesser resolutions and you'll lose details - you'd be able to recognize your neighbor, but not necessarily get a good photo of a stranger.

Let us know IP or DVR and we might be able to recommend products...

My outside security cameras are now cocooned in inch worm web and look like something from an x-files episode.

I splurged on commercial IP cameras, same as I'm using for business clients. Eat your own dog food and all that. The performance of the super low light and wide dynamic range models is amazing. $4-500/camera plus DVR, though - you get what you pay for. I'd rather run Ethernet cable once, than coax now for analog cameras and then have to redo with Ethernet down the road when analog cameras go the way of the Dodo.

A camera's performance isn't just measured by price tag and lines of resolution. The first IP camera I tried at home was golly-gee-whiz 5 megapixels. But the low light performance was so poor that even under a street light all you could see was smudges, and when my security spotlight came on, the shutter speed was so slow the faces were too blurry to use. The 1.3 megapixel model w super low light yields a nighttime picture under a nearby streetlight that is hard to distinguish from the daytime picture.

cb1000rider wrote:Decide IP based or DVR based. IP cameras will either need a location to write to and MAY need monitoring software (if not build in).
If you can do wired, do wired - it's faster and less expensive. DVR types may be easier for non-computer people.
In terms of general recommendations, I'd recommend 720P or better. Lesser resolutions and you'll lose details - you'd be able to recognize your neighbor, but not necessarily get a good photo of a stranger.

Let us know IP or DVR and we might be able to recommend products...

My preference is for wired IP cameras, but I'm open to other suggestions. I already have a server to write to along with the monitoring software (as a side-effect of another project I'm working on).

I like wired IP cameras. Use a Netgear POE switch and you have one ethernet cable run for each camera that can deliver video, audio, and power.

For remote cameras, as long as you have a local power source to drive a remote POE switch, you can beam all the camera feed(s) back to a DVR over point-to-point wifi bridges.

The four pages of this thread neatly sum up why I don't have cameras; far too confusing, and far too expensive to justify. I was a computer security professional, and this stuff makes my head spin. I can't imagine what it's like for a non-professional. No wonder so many give up and either hire someone if they really need a system or think about it and do nothing if they don't really need it.

I have had a cheap, wired system (I paid $400-$500) that i have used for a few years. The wire can be a pain to install but it is actually plug and play. I want to upgrade to better cameras but I will probably go with power over ethernet. You can get a system like the one below that has everything you need, the hard part will be running wire.
http://www.nellyssecurity.com/complete- ... fgode1YA2Q

mrvmax wrote:I have had a cheap, wired system (I paid $400-$500) that i have used for a few years. The wire can be a pain to install but it is actually plug and play. I want to upgrade to better cameras but I will probably go with power over ethernet. You can get a system like the one below that has everything you need, the hard part will be running wire.
http://www.nellyssecurity.com/complete- ... fgode1YA2Q

I've read good things about HikVision. Do those cameras capture audio as well, or just video?

TrueFlog wrote:

mrvmax wrote:I have had a cheap, wired system (I paid $400-$500) that i have used for a few years. The wire can be a pain to install but it is actually plug and play. I want to upgrade to better cameras but I will probably go with power over ethernet. You can get a system like the one below that has everything you need, the hard part will be running wire.
http://www.nellyssecurity.com/complete- ... fgode1YA2Q

I've read good things about HikVision. Do those cameras capture audio as well, or just video?

Just video, they have models that record audio too.