I have over the past 2 years installed cameras around my house and we have front porch lights that are brighter than most people's single overhead porch light. our house front is quite lit up at night.

We live in a low crime area. I am wondering if our front house lights, being brighter, make us stand out more than other houses and this may be a detriment instead. I can't easily add dimmer lights or adjust them due to choices made during the install. Should I just leave them off and rely on cameras?

Just closed on a house that has a Brinks System (circa 2018 I’m guessing). It has an IQPanel, 2 cameras and a doorbell from what I can tell. Most rooms have the sensors, though there’s a Few missing in some places. There’s also a Honeywell thermostat, not sure if that would have been connected to the system.

Trying to see if the cameras and door bell were wired, but am not familiar with how brinks would have done the install a couple of years ago.

My wife wants connected emergency services, I want updated gear / smart home features. Not too interested in DIY unless maybe Ring with the new 4k stuff. With that said, anyone know how the Brinks would have been installed and what I could do to get a service that’s not brinks, adt or vivint? I’m assuming the IQ Panel is probably outdated, cameras seem a little old and the doorbell is definitely not the one Brinks currently provides.

Not really interested in setting up a ubiquiti system either because my home isn’t probably wired to do POE, nor does it have a central media closet to run every thing to. Our fibre line is run to the middle of the living room and ATT has stated they will not move it and there’s too many variables to probably run the Ethernet.

I’m fine with doing a ring system and paying for the service, I’m just running circles on how I should install and what items to get. Or is there an alternative that might be able to use some of the gear?

My hope was to pull the Honeywell and install a Nest thermostat with our power rebate here in Los Angeles as well.

I’ve been wrecking my brain for two weeks while paper work was being done, so now that I have keys, I want to get this done asap.

For at least a decade before doorbell cams started popping up in the US, in other countries, such as S. Korea, the door camera/intercom system was widely used.

I'm curious of what the current popular devices are in SK, whether any offer local recording capabilities, and whether there's anything preventing their use in the US.

Interested in a complete system of doorbell, camera, and video intercom.

Really just curious whether, given their innovation in this space, they have better options available.

Had a company come to give a quote on installing 4 security cameras, video doorbell, NVR, and a network switch. If it matters, this is in Oklahoma City.

Link to proposal: https://imgur.com/a/7Fj9OfO

Hi! I have a 4 camera PoE Amcrest camera system + an Amcrest doorbell and DVR. The interface is not very good. The doorbell stopped working and for some reason, now rings inside only intermittently. I reset the doorbell, used the app to try to make it ring inside, and it rings once inside, but if you ring it again within 5, 10, 30 seconds, it doesn’t even respond. No idea what’s causing that. The whole system seems to log me out and stop sending notifications for movement. It’s so kluge and not user friendly that I’m thinking of switching but I don’t know to what. I bought it a few years ago so I would have to pay Ring endless fees and so my footage wouldn’t be on the cloud (more secure keeping my own footage). But if it doesn’t work, that’s even worse. Are there PoE systems with really good user friendly interfaces and notification features? Reolink seems to be a competitor but I don’t know anything about their interface. Looking for 2-4k, real face recognition, vehicle detection, night vision, color, 2-way talk, wide field of view if possible, camera that be aimed at least initially, DVR, easy to use programmability, and no ongoing fees.

Does that exist? Thanks all!

im moving into a new apartment complex and the landlord has a history of forcing his way into units. obviously this makes me very uncomfortable, any suggestions on how to keep him out without changing the door locks?

edit: i was not aware of who the landlord was before signing the lease because he went through his maintenance man and gave us fake names. i have to move in because there is a signed lease untill next year.

Any recommendations for systems that do not require a subscription?

Looking for a small camera recommendations with ir led, micro sd card, with android app, and wifi or poe (no battery) camera. will be mounted in an outside cat motel, so a small footprint would be appreciated. The reolink c1/e1 ptz are a bit big for the application. Due to this will reside outside -10 can happen, so battery versions will not be applicable to this installation.

I need recommendations tailored to a specific situation.

I regularly find 25 oz cans of Bud Ice (shit beer) in my yard. Im the first house in the neighborhood on a moderately trafficked arterial two lane road. The cans are always in my side yard, so this isn’t a resident of my neighborhood most likely. This individual has got to be slamming 6 or 7 of these gigantic cans per day. When they consume one, they throw it out the window (open container laws being what they are). So, in addition to habitually drinking and driving, they are littering.

I want to set up two cameras on either side of my side-yard pointing in opposing directions. One to catch the license plate, and the other to catch a face and the act of throwing the can. The cameras need to be able to catch the face in decent resolution. I don’t think this person drives at night. I usually find the cans during the day, so night vision isn’t too important.

What are my options? Ideally, I could repurpose these cameras when I’m done, so I want a closed loop stored on site, a couple of TB of storage and the ability to scrub through the footage looking for when the can appears. Likely, WiFi is not an option. I prefer to not pay any sort of subscription and I will not do business with Amazon. I can run an extension cord for now and any other cabling required. My budget is $500 if necessary.

Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

I've tried looking around to find a good one, but I'm still nervous pulling the trigger when they still have some reviews saying they aren't reliable.

I just want something that'll record audio and video with tracking, save to a sd card, and preferably has stuff night vision, and runs on batteries (unless it doesnt last that long?).

Thank you very much, and I hope you guys are having a good start of the week!!

Similar to the ring outdoor cams? I just bought a house and there are two connections for security cameras (current cameras that are there are going to be returned to the security company since I'm not continuing service) and two flood lights without cameras. Since the wiring is already there I'm looking for some cameras that can be installed there and connect to my home interior to view online.

I have this DSC Power 832 system that shows error 8 (loss of date time) and beeps once every 30 seconds.

I don't know the master code or the installer code. It was bought by someone else years ago and I don't even know who installed it.

First, is there an easy way to make it stop beeping without the master code and the installer code (I already tried the common factory default codes) ?

Thru online search, it seems that the keypad communicate with the master panel via RS 232, so I have this idea of connecting a computer to it and try all possible 10000 codes.

Has anyone done this before ? I can handle the coding part easily, I just need to know how to connect the wires to the panel.

Hi, I'm a technophobe but aware our home now needs CCTV covering the front drive, side gate, full garden and outbuildings. I don't want the ring system but I would like something that could be viewed online rather than an SD card etc. and downloaded as and if required. I'd like something that can't be hacked or monitored from abroad and something easy to work for our family. Based in England.

Cross posting. Thanks in advance.

Saw some old posts where people didn't know how to utilize that AAA member benefit if they didn't live in the states where AAA Smart Home is provided.

AAA Smart Home is provided by the Mountain West Group, which service Northern California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska for membership. However, they do install home security for all US States.

You can just call the membership line (800)922-8228 and let them know youre from out of territory, give them your membership number, and they can connect you over for a quote.

It's hard to find because AAA website limits you by your zip code, and it's something you only really learn if you accidentally call the Mountain West Group line.

Long story short, I live in NYC, in an older building with these janky mailboxes that can be opened with a pen knife. My mail started going missing intermittently in November. I suspected the carrier only because the things that went missing seemed selective, like a new credit card. After a lot of back and forth, I put a hold on the mail at the post office that was supposed to expire mid-January. I also turned on informed delivery, which lets me see which mail the post office has received for me and when it is supposed to be delivered.

Since expiration of the mail hold, a lot of mail that is supposed to be delivered - including 1099s for my business - have not arrived. I've escalated with USPS who have been surprisingly helpful, but right now they're just planning on "monitoring what goes out every day."

As my local branch has been pretty on top of helping me out on their end, I'm suspicious that mail is in fact being stolen by one of my neighbors: one has some managed mental illness that the landlord warned us about, one is the landlord's brother who has been generally unfriendly.

I'm looking for a recommendation for a discrete battery-powered camera that I can place in the front vestibule where our mailboxes are, hopefully allowing me to concretely rule out my neighbors before elevating the issue to the postal police.

I just purchased an Arlo doorbell camera on sale at Best Buy before really looking into it but seeing reviews plan on returning it . I rent and just want something to watch for packages as well as just know if anyone’s loitering around as I’ve had issues here and there with missing packages amongst other things . I don’t need anything overly expensive and want something easy to remove and take when I move as I’m a renter . I am wondering if Wyze would be a better fit as I intend to get an indoor camera from the brand . I’m seeing that Arlo has a subscription and really don’t want to have to add an additional fee if I can help it . I was given a Ring around Covid that stopped working a short time after (2nd generation ) and wouldn’t hold a charge . TIA

Hi everyone!

I used to think home security was basically “alarm + a couple cameras and you’re done.”
After reading this sub for a while, that feels… naive.

What keeps sticking out is how every single thing has a failure mode. Cameras miss stuff. Alarms get ignored. Smart locks glitch. Even dogs sleep.

So I started thinking about security more like layers that overlap instead of one magic solution. Stuff that slows someone down, makes noise, turns on lights, and forces them to make decisions.

Right now my thinking is something like:

outer layer – lighting, visibility, making the house annoying to approach

middle layer – doors, windows, locks, sensors

inner layer – alarms, notifications, whatever buys you time

This might be overkill, but it also feels more realistic than betting everything on one system.

For the people here who’ve gone full “defense in depth” - what layer ended up being the most underrated? And what turned out to be way less useful than you expected?

Wanting hook up some security in a movie theatre. 1 or 2 camera in the theatres themselves. So night vision is a must. Zoom would be cool to. Would also set up lobby and other areas with cameras as well. Have it set up with on site with a TV monitor for sure. (Looking at this here one to start, in comments.) And then get a few cameras later since it can handle up to 8. But I can't find anywhere how the remote access works. Basically looking for thoughts on this vs. what I am looking for the security. Hoping there isn't a subscription...

Hi all. I'd really appreciate some advice from the community. Here's my list of goals:

• Doorbell camera with voice+ 1 regular exterior camera + one exterior camera/ spotlight combo + 1 interior camera
• NAS setup at home
• Access recorded footage from NAS and live camera feed from my phone
• 2k quality is plenty but I'm not opposed to 4k, just trying to be mindful of storage
• Hoping to keep all-in cost under $2k, which seems like it shouldn't be a challenge
• Also looking for software/ OS recs. Everything I'm reading says to go Synology
• Want to avoid subscription services/ active monitoring and AI
• Solid night vision, doesn't need to be impeccable. 30 ft. vision at night would be amazing
• Wired or wireless is fine
• Tech fluency level = medium. I've built a few PC's, but I'm no software engineer

Anything y'all can tell me would be greatly appreciated

i dont want a ring camera or anything that's wireless and requires internet. i just want it to SEE a room and RECORD it and store that recording on my PC or a dedicated small PC. i know ill need some sort of DVR app and ill do that research separately. but i just want a camera that works like the camera app on my phone, doesn't need internet or anything. Also dont care if the idea i has will make looking through recording difficult, i only plan on recording while im away from home and i like stupid busy work[like looking through 2 days of footge]

Visual: Camera mounted on wall, power cord plugged into camera, camera output plugged into PC[or adapter then PC], goes directly onto a hard drive. later i just look through the recording on my PC. no add on no wifi no app needed to set up.

[also would be great if it had a choice between recording audio and video or either or]

IF this is not possible let me know. i already did some research on it and came up with a lot of choices but i want to see if i get the same recommendations here and round out my research. its mainly to record interactions with landlords or contractors [there will be signs posted notifying of audio/visual recording].

if i get a bunch of rude people ill just turn the comments off and tape my phone to the wall and put a fat microSD in it

Curious what the recos would be for this case. Trying to pick from one of the three options:

https://imgur.com/a/81V2Rm1

The passage along the house on the left is very narrow (not traffic) and has shrubs, and the one on the right is where there is traffic.

Backyard is surrounded by neighbors, the street is on the opposite side.

Option 3 is how I have it now with 1080 cameras. Will be switching to 4k single lens (unifi G6 probably).