Samir

I'm a bit puzzled when you say the Foscam picture is not good. The picture I posted is so clear that you can see individual leaves on the trees and blades of grass in the lawn, you could easily identify the person walking past. I've seen hundreds of cctv on TV taken from professionally installed cameras that the are so blurry that the people are virtually unrecognizable. As far as PTZ is concerned, I quite like that feature as at certain times of the year I get the sun flaring on the lens, and it allows me to pan away. However, I have looked at the Hikvision cameras and will buy one next time. My interest in cctv is primely a hobby and not a serious attempt to protect my property. In the area I live I tend to think a couple of dummy $20 cameras and some warning stickers would deter the local crims. BTW, I live in Melbourne Australia. Anyway, thanks for your help, you solved my problem. If you're happy with the camera, I wouldn't worry about anyone else's opinion. Although if it fails soon, that may be what the warning was about. 'Foscam is junk' wasn't very specific as to what might be the issue with the camera.

That looks like it will work in theory, but I was actually talking about something like this:https://www.google.com/search?q=WNCE2001&aq=f&oq=WNCE2001&aqs=chrome.0.57.403j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=WNCE2001&tbm=shop&spd=17834469204262581843 Reliability will be key since this is a security system. The more components you add, the more single points of failure can take down parts of the system.

Why do you say this? Is it because of the onvif? because onvif is almost meaningless...no one is properly following the standard...so often you will find that an onvif camera does not work even though the NVR is onvif...and sometimes it will work but the motion detection will not work and you are forced to record 24/7.... That makes sense. Too bad manufacturers aren't sticking to standards, but that doesn't surprise me.

Bad manager. No employees, just him playing with it thinking it was okay. Wasn't my call, but became my problem when the system stopped working. I didn't buy the pc-based system in the first place, but it was well-built and solid hardware. Small business is what needs 24x7 more than any other. You can't predict when something bad is going to happen. You'd know this if you ever owned a business. Thousands of people can use pc-based systems, but if they were perfect, the stand alones wouldn't dominate the dvr market like the do. The only reason nvrs are currently pc-based is because the stand-alones cost more for the same functionality. But in a business, downtime or lack of core functionality at a critical time costs more than the difference between a standalone and pc-based nvr. Wait until cost drops on the nvrs--pcs will become ancient like they are in the dvr world. Yes, you can build more hardware redundancy on a pc platform. So what when the weakest link is the operating system which is software? When I visit a forum to post a question, I will try to answer as much as I can before asking my question. It's calling giving back. Might want to try that instead of giving crap.

This is what I was suspecting as well, but wired is better since it cannot be jammed using a wifi jammer. You can convert the wired to wireless, but I would not recommend it because of the ability to be jammed. How would I go about converting to wifi? Ideally, you'd just want to get a simple network bridge. There's tons of adapters to convert wired devices to wired by companies like netgear and the like. Any of these will work. However, you still will need to run a wire to the adapter as well as power to both the adapter and the camera. Something to keep in mind as well as the fact that it can be jammed.

Why do you say this? Is it because of the onvif?

Yes, their work was good. If your reading skills were as sharp as your attitude you would have caught that it was our employees playing on IE that caused the system issues, which are inherent to windows. If you do not know that IE is what most exploits are written for, you definitely don't need to be pushing windows-based dvr/nvrs, and you really need to re-think what you know about security in general. How can there be a non-critical time on a security system that is running 24x7? Do you somehow know when disaster is going to strike? NVR's made need firmware updates, but they will not be for core functionality. Updating the PC OS is part of the core functionality since without it the nvr is no more. One bad update and no more nvr. The spelling is immature, which is exactly what your trolling/bully-wannabe posts following me around have been. It is uncalled for and counter-productive to this thread as well as discussions on this forum, so just stop.

True that you need some inside information, but most crimes are done by people who HAVE inside information. I don't even own a tv--I just use my brain to think like the bad guys. You can find a lot of loopholes in systems and patch them before someone exploits them. Or else you have a false sense of security.

They did a good job or it wouldn't have even lasted a year. Too many people playing with IE on the system caused it to have issues. If you're having to reboot AT ALL, you have no clue about reliability or uptime in a real security or networking environment. Yes they do, but they are stable. Once you figure out a workaround to a quirk--it works. It doesn't break when a software 'update' breaks it, which can be all too often and unplanned. Diagnosing the original problem is pretty easy, but tedious, and may point to the pc anyways which they are already annoyed with. Replace the pc, and then move to diagnosing the camera. The pc probably won't have the capability to add 3 more cameras anyways, so that's another reason to get rid of the pc. If they didn't want to expand the system, I'd work straight on the camera diagnosis--but that's not the case.

Now now numb nuts play nice with the other forum members What he is trying to say is that those cheap surge protectors offer only the illusion of surge protection. You have to spend some decent money to get decent surge protection. You are more likely to get a surge coming from an external source like up your power or phone line than into external Cat-5 cables on your home. Spend your money on a decent UPS with surge protection. It will also keep your DVR/NVR running in a blackout. I had a really good lightning hit recently. Nothing was fried but I needed to rebuild one of the drives in my NVR because it corrupted some things. That was with a decent surge protection UPS in the middle. They're definitely no lightning arrestor unless they have some sort of grounding chain. But one on each end of the cat5 to the camera and dvr definitely can't hurt at that price, especially with the cable being buried.

This is what I was suspecting as well, but wired is better since it cannot be jammed using a wifi jammer. You can convert the wired to wireless, but I would not recommend it because of the ability to be jammed. No one is going around jamming wireless signals-how would they even know if your cameras were wifi or not......wifi is a bad idea simply because its generally prone to random interference and not 100 percent reliable. Okay, if you say so. That means that no criminal or group of criminals has invested in one of these:http://www.jammer-store.com/titan-all-in-one-jamming-solution.html Wifi has always been unreliable. The idea of wifi cameras is more for convenience than for security. Real security must be wired.

I've had the opposite experience. All our stand-alone dvrs are fine, while PC-based ones failed or started having issues after a year or so before being replaced. I'm sure it wouldn't be much different for a pc-based nvr because all the OS problems and vulnerabilities are still there with windows. Unix-based PC-based nvrs would be a different story, and I don't have any experience with them. Well then you are either 1) running poor hardware 2) running poor software 3) dont know what you are doing. Wrong on all three. We had outsourced our original pc-based dvr, and it wasn't cheap. There's enough time required just to manage all the patches for all the protections for windows. None of this nonsense with a stand-alone. PC-based dvrs suck for reliability and uptime.

This is what I was suspecting as well, but wired is better since it cannot be jammed using a wifi jammer. You can convert the wired to wireless, but I would not recommend it because of the ability to be jammed.

Can you post a screen shot of the email setup screen? I should be able to tell you what to put in the fields or at least check if they're right.

But is this not possible because the digital channels use the same frequencies?

He has already stated that he cant run the cable during construction , he has no rights to be on the site until the sale is closed. Assuming these are outside cameras then the only wall sheeting to consider is where the cables drop to the recorder. This can easily be catered for by dropping a "pull wire" into the wall before sheeting and then the cabling can be done at your leasure & by yourself if your so inclined That's a load of crap that he's being fed. I've overseen many residential and commercial construction projects. The only thing that ever kept an owner from being on site was possible safety issues. And unless there's any fire code or other building codes that he has to adhere to for cabling, he can just run the wire himself and do everything else later.

$15 usd isn't cheap to protect the dvr and cameras?

Email would be your best bet. Most Koreans in cities speak english, so email support might be a solution.

I've had the opposite experience. All our stand-alone dvrs are fine, while PC-based ones failed or started having issues after a year or so before being replaced. I'm sure it wouldn't be much different for a pc-based nvr because all the OS problems and vulnerabilities are still there with windows. Unix-based PC-based nvrs would be a different story, and I don't have any experience with them.

NVR POE switch and the cabling. As far as equipment, it depends on your budget. If you plan to get ready terminated cat6 cable, I'd go with shielded just to avoid any issues. Shielded it is. Budget wise id like to keep it under €400 for both the switch and NVR if thats feaseable. Im searching for them now and some are crazy expensive and some are dirt cheap. I just want one that will be reliable and easy to set up. I was going to do with D-link again going on my thery thta it would be easier to set up if they are all the same manufacturer but they dont seem to have much choice in my budget range. Price out the cabling first. You may want to cut it back to just cat5e if the cost difference is significant between 6 shielded and 5e unshielded. Then you'll know how much budget you have leftover for the switch and the nvr itself. Worse case scenario, you can just get a regular switch and a single poe injector if it's cheaper. I wouldn't cut corners on your nvr if you can avoid it. As far as brand and make of nvr, read up here as there's a lot of experience in the threads where people are asking for recommendations.

NVR POE switch and the cabling. As far as equipment, it depends on your budget. If you plan to get ready terminated cat6 cable, I'd go with shielded just to avoid any issues.

He is not even sure its the pc...how would replacing it help...the problem needs proper diagnosing not simple replacing parts. PC DVRs can be clunky and are susceptible to all sorts of problems. It's an easy way to prepare for expanding the system and take out a possible current and future problem.

How are you looking at the email? It seems to be sending you the right info, but your email client can't see it right for some reason.

Hi Samir, thanks for your reply. That is exactly what I'm trying to do. I have plugged an ethernet cable from the DVR to the laptop but I don't know where to find the DVR on my laptop. Do I have to disable the DVR wifi on my local network for it to work by cable or am I doing something totally wrong? Thanks in anticipation. Yes, try disabling the wifi. I know I have to do that on my laptop for windows to use the wired line.

Most dvrs cannot do this, but check what features it supports. You may have to get another dvr just for this feature.