Soundy

Well, sounds like you're nothing if not consistent

You can't. Not cleanly, anyway. You could use a TV with split-screen or Picture-in-Picture functions. Or you could run both into a multiplexer, which will give you either PiP or 2x2 split-screen (plus two blank squares). None of them will look very good. You'd need DVRs with web SDKs, then create a custom page to display them together.

If you're in or near a Canadian city with an XS Cargo store, I suggest one of these: http://www.shopxscargo.com/product_catalogue/cat_product_details.asp?category_id=6&product_code=29851&sub_category_1_id=22&category=TV Amazon.com has them as well, including a couple of TV-only models (with A/V inputs) in both 7" and 10": http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=haier&x=0&y=0

"Access Control" is a pretty broad subject, could you be a little more specific what sort of info you're after? Even the doorman at a nightclub is a form of access control...

You know, Belkin always seems to get a bad rap, but I've used several of them, and they've always been solid and worked really well for me. They might be one of the most under-rated names in the biz right now. And several of them support DD-WRT From the sounds of it, this "self-healing" probably doesn't do anything too fancy - just checks for down or slow connections to pre-defined devices and reboots to attempt to cure problems, would be my guess... still, something that's not common in home routers.

This is with a single NIC - as you see in the settings page, there are two IPs applied to it. Normally, a device can communicate directly with other devices on its own subnet; as the name suggests, the default gateway is what tells the system where to route packets destined for outside its own subnet(s) - as such, there can only be one default gateway on an interface. And yes, the 10.* IP is intended primarily to allow the IT department to access the systems via VMS, and for the health monitor to reach it. Since all the arrays we use are dual-NIC, I've also started adding a second connection from that to the switch as well, placed on the 10.* network, to allow the NAS to send alert emails (in case of failing drive, etc.).

*BEFORE* you go hog-wild on all that stuff Rory listed... run the hardware diagnostics first, at least DLG and MEMTEST, and maybe PRIME95 as well to do a stress test. If your hardware is failing, then all the tweaking in the world won't help, and neither will reinstalling... so rule that out first. BTW, it would probably take less time (at least less time actually sitting in front of the thing) to just wipe and do a clean install of Windows, than the time it takes you to do all that tweaking and HJT and cleaners and screwing around. Sometimes a fresh start is best. (Actually, with Microsoft, a fresh start is almost always the best way to go). AFTER you do the hardware diagnostics, of course. Just sayin'.

I haven't yet come across a router that will do it own scheduled reboots *natively*. This IS a feature of DD-WRT (and probably other third-party firmwares), as are keep-alive and health-check functions (ie. will force a reboot if it can't ping a specified destination). QoS *usually* applies only to the WAN routing, so in most cases it would only be useful if you were connecting from outside and wanted to limit the bandwidth used.

Not so easy if the cabling isn't there for a separate network...

Before you dump a ton of money on upgrading an older laptop, it may benefit from simply reinstalling Windows clean (format and install, or restore from the recovery discs, if it came with them). First though, download, install and run (from within Windows) Western Digital Data Lifeguard, and test the hard drive for errors (just google "DLG", you should find it - works with all drive brands). I'd highly recommend also downloading MEMTEST86+, creating a bootable CD or flash drive (bootable image can be downloaded from the site), and running that to test the RAM for errors. Also, google "SIW" (Software Information for Windows) - download and run that and that will tell you just about everything you need to know about your hardware, including what type of hard drive you have (EIDE/PATA or SATA) and what type and maximum capacity of memory is supported. About adding RAM: it's a great idea to say "just throw more RAM at it", but with a laptop in particular, you may be limited in how much you can add. Most will have some on-board and then one slot to add another module, and it may only support a certain size module, or a certain maximum installed amount. If the slots are already filled, you'll have to replace what's there; you won't be able to simply add on. "No less than 4GB" is also fine to say, but keep in mind that if you're running a 32-bit version of Windows, it won't be able to use more than about 3.5GB; any more than that will just be wasted.

Well, the Vigil DVRs come pre-configured to 192.168.2.201, so I'll usually leave them at that and add cameras (and NAS, if applicable) to the same subnet, typically assigning the cameras 192.168.2.1xx where 'xx' is the channel number it's going on (ie. camera 6 would be 192.168.2.106), and putting the NAS at 192.168.2.202. One customer then has us connect the whole thing to their corporate WAN, which runs a scheme of 10.0.xx.40, where xx is the store number, and .40 is the address set aside for the DVR on each site (if there's a NAS, that gets .41). The first couple sites we did, I actually used two separate NICs - one for the camera LAN and one for the company WAN - but after various issues with a flaky USB NIC, I ended up just connecting my switch straight to theirs and multi-homing the machine's one NIC on that site, and that all worked fine, so we've just done it that way ever since: the DVR simply gets its 10.0.xx.40 address, with the appropriate netmask, gateway and DNS so it can fully communicate on their network, and then the 192.168.2.201 is added... So it looks something like this: This has worked extremely well for up to six (so far) 5MP cameras, a DVR, and a NAS. If the traffic is so heavy you're seeing dropouts on the cameras, then it should be noticeably affecting other network traffic as well. How many cameras are we talking about here? What resolution? What codec and framerate? How much traffic are we REALLY talking about (I'd hazard that it's less than you think...)? What switch(es) are used? What's the topology? Do all cameras come into one switch where they can be VLANed, or they sharing various interconnects with other traffic?

If it's a PoE switch, and it is actually showing the "PoE" LED on that port, then yes, they're probably using a PoE splitter at the camera - a little box that splits out and regulates the PoE down to whatever voltage is desired. Something like this:

I assume you're talking about the front glass of the housing, not the lens itself. I'll usually just wipe them down with a microfiber cloth (same with environmental housing for box cams, and pretty much all dome designs). If there's a particularly stubborn smudge, a Windex wipe (or other sort of pre-packaged glass-cleaning wipe) does the trick. For outdoor and in-carwash cameras, I also have a pack of Rain-X wipes

Pretty simple... most devices will list either current requirements or wattage draw... most batteries will have a capacity rating. For example, if you have a camera that says it requires 250mA at 12V, and a 12V battery that's rated 7Ah (ampere-hours), then that battery should run that camera for about 28 hours - 7/0.25=28. With a 500mA total draw, that battery would last 14 hours. And so on. UPS batteries won't do it. 7-7.5Ah is a common battery capacity, as used in your average home-oriented UPS, and as you see above, that won't last very long at all - barely a day with ONE non-IR camera. You're looking at deep-cycle automotive batteries for something like this, and probably more than one of them. Swapping them on a regular basis would be a pain - a better way, if you're visiting the site anyway, is just to hook them all up to a generator and charge the whole lot of them in-place. Sure. As noted, most PIRs are powered by 12V; you just need to make sure you're using models with normally-open contacts, and use those to trigger relays that then turn on the lights. Wireless is probably going to draw more power than anything else, especially since it will probably be running 24/7...

I'd start by planning a system that can all just run on 12VDC and eliminate the UPS... then you don't have to worry about losing power to the voltage step-up process. Most cameras will work with 12V; there are lots of "mobile" DVRs and NVRs that are designed to run on 12V with low power consumption; you can use automotive lighting; and most alarm-system PIRs operate at 12V as well. Once you have a design and basic equipment list figured out, you can calculate the total current draw and estimate how much battery you're going to need. From there, you can determine how to keep it charged - solar, generator, etc.

One might be able to use VLC to receive the camera stream and rebroadcast it as an MPEG4 or H.264 stream, come to think of it... Still gonna be clunky to implement and probably not work all that well.

You need to look for one that specifically lists "A/V input" or similar. Most do, but quite a few don't. That Haier unit I picked up, BTW, also has an ATSC (aka digital-TV) tuner, so it'll work with the new digital standard. Pretty nice!

Depends on the camera. Some use MotionJPEG, some use MPEG-4, some H.264... some support multiple stream types, sometimes even simultaneous streams. Some have composite video output as well (NTSC/PAL), some even have HDMI out.

Fortunately, by the time you get into those level of cameras, you're paying so much for the camera itself, that building a better network (and providing the necessary storage) is a moot point

Not really, although it's cheap enough these days it's not a big deal to go GbE over 10/100. Very, very few cameras have GbE ports on them anyway. My switch of choice for smaller installs (until recently, anyway, since it's now been discontinued) is a Cisco that has eight 10/100 PoE ports and two gigabit copper/fiber combo ports - this is great for connecting up to eight cameras, plus an NVR and NAS on the GbE ports. If you figure that an "average" for most cameras is about 2Mbps, you should, in theory, be able to run five cameras on a 10Mbit hub, let alone a 100Mbit switch. As others have noted, ACTUAL bandwidth will vary greatly depending on the codec, frame size, framerate, scene, etc. I've done some real-world bandwidth testing for a client and found that while some cameras can be "locked" to a certain maximum bandwidth (quality adjusts realtime to keep it at that limit), others can vary anywhere from <10kbit to over 3Mbit (for a certain 5MP camera) depending on the scene (complexity, contrast, movement, etc.) Even with a static scene, a plain gray wall, for example, will use far lower bandwidth than a scene filled with lots of random, sharp-edged lines. On the whole, the bandwidth issue tends to be greatly overemphasized when it comes to LAN connections (WAN is a whole different matter). IN GENERAL, CCTV cameras stick to 1/3" and 1/2" sensors - meaning yes, as the resolution goes up, the pixel size goes down, and the light sensitivity along with it. Some compensate well for this with additional processing. There are a few exceptions, such as Avigilon's Pro-line cameras, which use a 35mm sensor (same as in a professional 35mm dSLR). Correct - these are marketed as "megapixel lenses". The Avigilon Pros go a few steps beyond that and use Canon EF-mount SLR lenses - some of those run into the $10,000+ range

What browser are you using? What cameras? Do you have any kind of popup blockers, script blockers, etc.? If you're seeing this, it means the browser isn't properly interpreting or displaying the HTML code the camera is sending it.

Looks like it's not writing video to the files... are you running this as the Administrator, or a user with admin permissions? I assume there's lots of free disk space? Have you tried a different codec? I believe you have MPEG-4, WMV, and something else as an option. I have seen this happen with some builds and had VI support tell me to upgrade... you might want to make sure you're at the latest build of V3 (I think 3.1something). Have you tried calling VI support? They were fairly good back in the day, when we were using them regularly.

Panasonic SuperDynamic is definitely the way to go. WV-CW484 (dome) or CP484 (box) are the older SDIII and they're pretty much the gold standard. The newer 504 version (SD5) works at least as well (although, I did some experimenting with a 2MP SD5 model and found using the BLC and "adaptive black stretch" settings worked better than the SD5 for severe backlighting, at least in my bench tests).

If you're trying to capture quick-moving subjects, you probably want instant full-brightness... plus LED is still far lower power consumption than even CFL.

I'm familiar with the size of moths you're talking about (Cariboo boy here, remember) - there's still not enough body mass or heat output from them to trip a PIR. If you have 120VAC readily available, you could always use something like a standard PIR-equipped floodlight socket (probably around $30 at Home Repo), and then LED bulbs on standard threaded bases. There's also something like this (haven't used it, so I have no opinion on its quality): http://www.homedepot.ca/product/solar-motion-activated-security-light/924799 Or you could use whatever sort of lighting (low-voltage or otherwise) you already have, and trigger it with one or two basic PIR sensors from an alarm system (most likely need to use a relay with that).