Home Surveillance system recommendation?

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Dec 1, 2014
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Does anyone have a recommendation for a simple, home surveillance system they like?

Coming from an I.T background, and having worked in banking for years, I'm well aware of the sophisticated systems we had in place...that *I* had to deploy and maintain. That's what I'm NOT looking for.

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I'm looking for a simple DIY type kit foe basic, home surveillance that I might be able to buy at Costco, WalMart or Amazon, etc. The biggest hassle, that I'm dreading, is getting power to each camera.

Comments?

Thank you!

Ed
 
Impulse bought a Ring (doorbell and (later) chime with my Costco Visa bonus Yeah, they could break in through the back windows but this watches porch bandits and gives me a look at the street. Certainly simple, only have to charge it every three months, and I don't have to worry about somebody hacking it and looking at me through outside cameras. Better values are probably out there for doorbell control, but with no wiring, it was certainly simple. Also a constant reminder of how old I am every time I pick up the mail or an Amazon box. Community contacts with other owners are interesting although a fair amount of Ring owners are openly snarky. Scorn heaped on people reporting coyotes in their front yard.
 
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SimpliSafe - I work with technology for a living and didn't want a complex system that I would have to explain to others in my house. I was stunned at how simple the set up is and how simple it is to use. Sold.
 
Originally Posted by wwillson
SimpliSafe - I work with technology for a living and didn't want a complex system that I would have to explain to others in my house. I was stunned at how simple the set up is and how simple it is to use. Sold.




Dittos on this.
 
Originally Posted by Ed_Flecko
I'm looking for a simple DIY type kit foe basic, home surveillance that I might be able to buy at Costco, WalMart or Amazon, etc. The biggest hassle, that I'm dreading, is getting power to each camera.


I just bought the Blink (owned by Amazon) camera system - 3 camera system for $199. Haven't set it up yet, but from looking at the YouTube reviews it seems decent for the money. Cameras are 1080 HD and totally wireless (run on two AA lithium batteries) so no power wires needed to the cameras, and connect to their "cloud" via your WiFi network which then you can monitor anywhere while on your cell phone with the Blink App. Free cloud storage of videos. Go watch some YouTube reviews and see what you think.
 
I have looked at SimpliSafe and it looks good for a home.

But also consider the Samsung SmartThings as a home security & smart home system. There is also an ADT flavor of the Samsung SmartThings.

I have the SmartThings and dogs.
 
Originally Posted by BusyLittleShop
You are daft to post about your surveillance system on line...

In my case, you come to my house you can see my Ring. What about "protected by xxx" signs? Deterrent or tipoff?
 
Originally Posted by csandste
Originally Posted by BusyLittleShop
You are daft to post about your surveillance system on line...

In my case, you come to my house you can see my Ring. What about "protected by xxx" signs? Deterrent or tipoff?


If you come to my house which Mastiff that you hear barking will be the deterrent?
 
Arlo for cameras. It's free. If you go arlo, the pro or pro 2 is the best bang for the buck. Both have rechargeable batteries that last around 3 months. The pro is 720p and the pro2 is 1080p. They're basically identical in function except the pro2 allows you to zoom in on "hot zones" for motion. It's all dont from an app on the phone. I will say iPhone is better than android.

No experience with Simplisafe, but a friend of ours had nothing but issues. A few false alarms too. I put an Arlo system in for her and she loves it.

I'm also not a fan of the Simplisafe catch. $15 a month, but $25 if you want to be able to monitor your house with an app on your phone. I will say their CS is top notch. When I was shopping, I emailed them for days and got all my questions answered.
 
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Recommend Blink cameras from Amazon.

Cameras run on 2 AA batteries each for over a year. Activated by motion sensors.

Easy to set up and run from you Smartphone. You can even schedule when cameras are active.

No wiring required.

No annual cloud fees.
 
Arlo Pro

wifi based and if hard wired for power not an option they are battery powered as well and motion activated. Files are stored on the cloud as well as a flash drive if you wish.
 
I have a Ring Pro doorbell as well as Ring security. No exterior cams outside of my doorbell, but Ring sells solar-powered cams so no wiring to worry about minus the wire from the cam to the panel.
 
Another vote for Blink. I bought the 3 camera system and setup was quick and easy. Took me longer to get out the ladder and screw in the camera mounts than it did to have the cameras up and recording. Best thing about Blink is you can easily add 7 more cameras to the system for 10 total.
 
Depends on what you need. Do you want cloud storage? Or battery backup? Or wireless? Or DVR storage for a week to a month continuously?

My dad has a setup that uses DVR to store 2 weeks at a time with HD and 4 cameras on the apartment he managed and live in. He uses that all the time to check on potential vandalism or tenants behaving badly. It wouldn't stop a professional thief but I think that's not his biggest concern anyways. He ended up with some simple low end generic camera kit on Amazon. I would not recommend something like this for a business but for what he need it is perfect.

For single family home user maybe a Nest camera is good enough?
 
Originally Posted by Donald
Originally Posted by csandste
Originally Posted by BusyLittleShop
You are daft to post about your surveillance system on line...

In my case, you come to my house you can see my Ring. What about "protected by xxx" signs? Deterrent or tipoff?


If you come to my house which Mastiff that you hear barking will be the deterrent?

Several years ago there was a program about a security expert who with the permission of dog owners broke in during the middle of the night--several homes. None of the dogs barked, probably because they'd been yelled at for barking in the middle of the night.
 
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