IP security camera network

[robint]

Hi guys. I respect this board as a valuable source for router network stuff etc and maybe what you put on the net is off limits here, but here's the thing.
I have spent countless hours trying to source a respectable camera that works and is reliable. The offerings on the domestic market for home security seem utterly appealing - just take a look at Amazon reviews (ignoring 4 and 5 stars which are probably fake) The 1/2 stars tell a horror story in general, eg Wifi drop out poor s/w f/w click bait to force subscription to cloud storage , very bad aftersales service, serious security issues with supplier DNS servers and so on. In fact it all points towards using a wired ethernet system which seems a big backward step when you have quality router/wifi meshes available. Wiring up a dozen cameras on a large outdoor estate is daunting.
Does anyone have any good experiences with IP cameras? I dont suggest discussing all the mickey mouse hype that plagues this industry - its a nightmare
OBTW welcome any suggestions for an alternative forum on this topic. I found ones that seemed full of fake reviews and false info planted by suppliers stooges etc - worthless

 

[L&LD]

Welcome to the forums @robint.

I would be the last person to advise anyone about IP cameras, but the following may be useful.

All CCTV cameras that I have helped put back online (I usually replace/fix router/settings) seem flakey, and not very 'pro', to me. They also all seem very proprietary which immediately puts me off. This is my experience over the last 8 years or so, with the last direct contact more than two years ago (4 cameras), even if I have a regular customer with an 8-camera setup (that a simple reboot of his DVR system usually fixes).

For the home users, surprisingly, the most reliable camera I have seen is the Wyze series. And this is just from the owner's remarks about them.

I hope others can see your post and offer more directly applicable advice.

Consider this as just a free 'bump' to your post and hope to see your progress as you reach your goals.

HTH

 

[the_killer]

I have 5 reolink cameras, as my house is old I don't have ethernet everywhere (I now have on the 3 floors but single point per floor) so I had to the IP cameras route
the wifi takes a huge hit with ip cameras, but it does come down to how you use them

if you just need to look into the cameras from once in a while, that's perfectly fine and wifi requirements are low,
but if you want 24/7 recorded, or like I have, AI monitoring of all cameras for people movement and recording for 2k streams when detecting people, that's lots of load on the wifi

that's when my asus ax56u struggled a lot,
as I had some powerlines not used anymore and 2 of the cameras had ethernet, I've put them outside on the same place the cameras are getting their power from with that I was able to get 2 of them out of the wifi. 1 of the others has ethernet and connected directly to the asus and the 2 others are the only ones using wifi

resuming, if you want 24/7 recording of fullhd, 2k or 4k cameras those are high bandwith numbers you need to pass on through wifi and you'll need a really strong wifi to cope with all of it

If I would go back, i'll just do holes around the house and run ethernet cables to them and use POE cameras

 

[Enceladus]

I'm by no means an expert on this and someone far smarter will likely show up but given I have six cameras at home and have set up a retail store with a 17x set up I do have some experience.

Go wired. I know it's a pain but I've tried so many wireless IP cameras and they're just awful. Amazon is flooded with them.

Personally I quite like HikVision & Dahua but Annke is a decent cheaper option.

It depends on your needs as to how to set everything up specifically; however, I personally use a cheap Dell Optiplex to run Blue Iris and record 24/7 with six HikVision cameras.

If you're worried about wires just use powerline adapters with wired cameras which is not ideal but better than wireless.

 

[robint]

AFAIK powerline adapters on live lines are unreliable an definitely stay away, what they are like on passive redundant housewiring ??????
IMHO cams should be run on their own dedicated router and network, The system Im using Tapo from TP link has local sd card storage for 24/7 recording. I knocked the cams down to 720p display as 1080p gave problems dropouts in quad view

btw avoid their budget C110 unreliable cant mount from ceiling upside down - crazy

there's a lot of faffing about getting cams positioned. Getting usable night vision with IP floodlights is a nightmare, PRC stuff has poor reliability and is over driven so fail quickly, also no QC, just thrown together. This is work in hand for me - 6 months faffing at least. Whilst floods 120deg with 96 leds are available there also a need for spots say 30 deg for human traffic

Motion detection is gimmicky and gives way too many false alarms. I find line crossing more exact. Area detection hasnt worked for me so far in reducing false alarms

For display Im using Lenovo 10" tablet - great for quad display note Tapo app only works with Android 5 and above

I think you probably dont mount these in direct sun - could get over heated

I agree the wired ethernet is probably the most reliable but I couldnt face trailing all those wires around the place and drilling 3/4" holes through walls - thats a young mans job. So IP kit was ideal - and of course TP link are Router experts and so far with my Asus 86 router and dedicated network the wifi side has been fine, but use a phone app to check signal strenth