Cameras for Home Security?

[Palanan]

I’ve been having some trouble and want to get camera coverage of my property, but I have no idea where to start. I’m not sure if I should go with a service like Ring or Nest, or if there are better options that I can manage myself.

Can anyone suggest some options? Not too expensive if possible, but I'm open to suggestions.

[Manga Shoggoth]

When we had cameras fitted we had a local security company (who had a decent reputation) do it. Slightly more expensive, but it meant that I didn't have to go up ladders.

The setup was essentially a number of cameras feeding into a DVR set up to record the camera footage (we actually have 4 slots on ours). The DVR was linked to my router so my wife could check the cameras herself on her tablet, but if you plug a monitor into the DVR you don't have to connect it to anything.

On the front we have two cameras, one set high to get the local area, one set lower to get a better angle for faces.

From my experience:

• Use wired cameras, not wireless ones. It eliminates a lot of signal issues.
• Make sure they are mounted high enough to be difficult to access.
• Don't use any setup that relies on cloud services or running through their servers (which probably excludes Ring or Nest). If they go bust of have problems then there goes your security.
  
  • (Especially if, like me, you are paranoid about network security and don't want potential spies in the camp - the DVR is connected to my router, but blocked from the internet)
• Check up on the regulations for using security cameras in your area - don't rely on the documentation or what the sales people say (To be fair, our supplier was pretty good on that).
• Keep an eye on the clock - if you have something like our GMT/BST switch make sure the camera switches properly or keep it on one of the time frames all the time - periodically and check that the clock is correct.

[Khedrac]

Any exterior cameras shoud be fitted so that either anyone approaching them will be seen by the camera, or alternatively fitted so that anyone approaching them will be seen by another camera.

One place I worked managed to get a security guard fired from the company that provided the night guards for the site - the chap sleeping at the reception desk (sorry sitting) failed to notice that one of the cameras had been stolen at some point in the night. All three exterior cameras covered an entrance by looking at the building, so access to the camera itself was unobserved. Yes, the guard probably could not have stopped the theft, but he should have noticed that the images had gone from rotating between three cameras to two.

[Tarmor]

I amused myself at a previous job (with a terrible boss, unfair conditions, etc) with thinking of ways of breaking in. The company had a single external camera - that existed to keep an eye on a side fence and the neighbour that the boss had a dispute with. There were many internal cameras but not with complete coverage. It would have been fairly easy to break in through one external door into a showroom with no camera, that gave access to the back of the warehouse, under a row of cameras that couldn't see you from that position. In my fantasy I considered disconnecting or blacking out each one of these. That done you could systematically work your way around and take out the rest. I had no interest in stealing anything, just loved the idea of stuffing up the surveillance. If I'd been an actual burglar with no knowledge of the interior, simply avoiding the one roller-door near the outside camera, still gave you three other doors that would have given you access without being filmed.

Coverage matters!