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Short Answer: Yes you can be, but you won't be === Yes, you can be hacked. Anything is possible on a computer with an open port. The right question to ask is, what is the likelihood of being hacked. The likelihoods of you being hacked through your dvr software is so remote, you've got a better chance of a plane dropping from the sky onto your house. Consider these things: 1. For someone to have a decent chance of finding a vulnerability in your DVR software, would need to have an exact copy of your version to reverse engineer how it handles ports ect. How long might this take? Perhaps hundreds or even thousands of hours? 2. For someone to hack your system they would need some motivation. They have to know that you have the system in the first place, they have to find your IP address, they have to find the port numbers that your system uses. All this takes alot of detective work. It costs time. With all the credit cards flying about the Internet, malicious hackers are not wasting their time with dvr systems. There's too much loot to be had planting spyware and cashing in in your banking information. If you do get hacked, it will be through a web browser hack from surfing bad sites, an email worm or installing otherwise questionable software. On the other hand, if your name is Osama Binladen and it becomes known that you run a DVR system, expect to be hacked within 2 weeks. Hacking happens when one of two things is increased: Motivation (Binladen example) or Opportunity (email worms that can infect millions of systems overnight).

Black Friday is when many companies go from being "In the Red" to being "In the Black". Meaning, up until this point in the year they were losing money. The day after Thanksgiving (a US holiday, thus you may not have it in other countries) many retailers offer very low pricing on popular items, often purchased for holiday gifts. While Black Friday is not a national holiday, it is almost as well known as Christmas and Easter.

Too funny! Who are those guys? Canada ain't safe anymore. Love it!

I'm somewhat of a cowboy on the subject of recession. I say "If the economy is down, let that be your competition's problem". Just scoop up a bigger share of the market.

I read 1984 again last year. Great book. Hard to imagine it was written in 1948 and so many of it's themes have come true or are coming true.

Vint Cerf? I thought Al Gore invented the Internet. I'm so confused now.

Looks like the wave of the future, lol. 3D camera's that see behind objects and around walls are in development phase, but they don't see through them. One image can be several gigabytes of data, so storage and transfer rates will have to catch up with the technology before it goes mainstream.

That stuff is too funny. I always tell my crews to wear safety glasses. "Skin can heal, but your eye's are gone forever".

Very exciting story. I love the background music they added in too. I am impressed by the valience of those police and staff.

It's insane what the media calls HACKING. They just do it to sell news. Knowing, guessing or using security questions to gain access is not hacking. It's breaking in, but not hacking. Hashing a hexidecimal memory dump and decoding the password is hacking. Using a backend brute force tool to try the most common 1500000 passwords without tripping the max attempt switch. That is hacking. The real hackers are usually smart enough to not get caught, so you don't hear about the really intelligent hacks that go on. I guess the concept of getting hacked causes great fear and therefore people buy more newspapers and other media.

It was just another day for me. I stayed clear of downtown that day.

Welcome. Enjoy the information blitz

If it was me, and the quality was not imperitive, I'd probly go with one of the low end eBay model DVR cards. I've used them in the passed for 'budget' clients. They work fine, but the picture quality is not the best. They range from $140 to $500 for a 16 line system that runs in a Windows XP box. For the PC, I went to tigerdirect.com and got a refurbished winXP box (Intel chipset) for under $200. Add a monitor if needed while your there, flatscreens are pretty cheap now. On the other hand, I would expect less problems from the standalone DVR system as the are not subject to virus's and constant Window's updates. Good luck with your system. I know it can be rather intimidating if you don't put many of these together, so ask lot's of questions here. -Rob

Fiber is cool. Cable companies are going all fiber instead of copper. I've never installed it, but I saw a demo once. The speed of transmission is unlimited. It's only limted by the speed of the transmitter/receiver. So when a new model of transmitter comes out, it's just a matter of swapping that one unit, rather than putting down miles and miles of the latest coax. But satilite has many of the bonuses. Michigan lottery just put in an all satilite network. Look on the roof of most any brand gas station, you will see satalites (for credit card processing). It's a fun and exciting time to be alive for us technophiles.

Do you have the model of your Ultrak color camera?

Welcome. Hope you find your answers.

Are you looking for real-time recording, or is 30 fps acceptable? Do you have the PC already or are you getting a new one?

I always like to keep a spare small monitor for checking individual camera's, just in case there is a problem with the DVR input. But you can just as easily swap the camera feed with a known working input. It's a process of elimination. Try replacing, with a known working 1. Power Supply/cord 2. Data cord 3. Camera It could well be a bad camera. It happens.

Just came across this: 10 hours per month Free dial-up from NetZero http://account.netzero.net/s/landing?group=freecorp&refcd=cj&cf=cj&AID=10388574&PID=61738

Incase you have a hard time striking a good deal... Something you might look into is the term "Reseller Program". There are many Dial-up ISP's which offer a reseller program, while they provide everything including tech support. You might be able to buy 10 lines from them, and share them among 50 people, or something like that. Best of luck... and THANK YOU for protecting my freedoms with your life. My children sleep safe at night thanks to Marines like yourself. I've been around the world and seen the difference you make.

I run a corp with 20+ employees. What stands out to me is that you made less than mandatory minimum wage for the hours you worked (If you can document the hours worked). Only part and full owners can make less than minimum wage I know a lawyer who sued her ex-boyfriend for lost wages when they broke up. She claimed that she did his laundry and cleaned up after him. So yes, you have a case. Yes you can win. But No, it's not worth your time when you can be out doing honest work for better money than the return on your time in suing for $600. Logic vs emotion It's tough to deal with it, but your better off to move on.

True, a simple router that limits connecting IP's is cheap and easy to set up. But most likely your home internet connection changes IP every month or two. So you will have to update your IP at the location again before you can access your camera's. If you want to just know when/if someone else is watching your cams, and not necessarily block them, you could set up something to sniff your network packets and see who connects to the DVR recorder. On a PC based system this is just a simple piece of software. With a standalone DVR recorder you would have to install a device in-line between your internet connection and the DVR unit. It depends on how paranoid you want to be. I have some clients that pay big money to act paranoid. And I'm happy to assist them.

As far as business licensing requirements, check with your local Chamber of Commerce. Also, a 30 minute meeting with a CPA now could have you well on your way to establishing your business. As far as making a business work, you need customers. That's the number 1 requirement. A basic understanding of marketing is essential to any business. Hand out business cards everywhere you go. Tell people to tell their friends. Word of mouth is free and most effective advertising. Doing a mailing to area businesses would be your next best thing. Don't bother with radio/TV or even newspaper ads unless you have some capital to burn. Hope that helps. After all, free advice is often worth what you paid. -Rob

That's a neat project. Here are some questions you should be thinking of: How many users do you expect to be using this service? What ratio of users to incoming phone lines is acceptable? Who will be in charge of your technical support? (setting up new users, answering email questions, handling virus's, etc) Hosting an ISP even for a dozen users is a good deal of work to set up. Personally, I recommend striking a deal with an ISP to give your group cheap or free service. Go out and find sponsors to cover any additional costs. You should be able to find a dial-up ISP for $5 to $10 per month for unlimited usage. Consider that your incoming phone lines are more expensive than that if you set up your own ISP. Hope these thoughts help you in your very worthwhile project. -Rob

Other than adjusting the sensitivity levels of your recording device, I don't know of a solution for the night-vision dust issue. My favorite is reviewing recordings of spiders sitting on camera lenses. 2 of my office staff are arachnaphobics, so I am amused by their antics. Welcome to the forum. Tons of info here. Enjoy