What do you think would be the best solution for doorbell?

[flyboynm]

I am trying to figure out the "best" solution for me under a set of circumstances. This will be for my home in Mexico. It is a door inside of a gate - sort of like the gate to get inside a hangar door. A photo is attached to this post that shows sort of what I am talking about.

Circumstances:
Doorbell needs to be wireless - it will be in door on outside wall.
There is no power outlets nearby - existing doorbell doesn't work so battery-based probably needed.
There is a lot of pedestrian traffic that goes by the location where the doorbell will be located. The gate is up against the sidewalk outside the property.
Needs to be accessible via the Internet - I won't necessarily have my Mexican cell phone with me while I am in the US.

What would you do in my circumstances?

I am thinking of these possible choices:

A regular "wireless" doorbell and then have a security camera to look at whomever is at the door. This solution would be best if I cannot turn off motion sensing or set it so it only turns the camera on when someone pushes the doorbell.

A video doorbell that can be setup to not set off the camera anytime someone walks by on the sidewalk.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[coxhaus]

My buddy has a battery door bell on his studio that doesn't work well. I think he forgets to change the batteries or the Texas heat causes batteries issues so the door bell only works sometimes. I don't bother with his door bell any more. I just call him on his iPhone when I arrive down stairs.

He probably bought a cheap one.

 

[System Error Message]

Solar + battery + wireless bell, like with many outdoor LED lights nowadays.

 

[Easy Rhino]

I had been considering one of the Ring Video doorbells. (don't actually have one thought). They're battery powered and wireless. And it seems like you can disable the motion detection entirely so that would hopefully conserve batter from being wasted.

 

[System Error Message]

whatsapp

 

[chilibosnian]

Solar + battery + wireless bell, like with many outdoor LED lights nowadays.

agree!!

 

[sfx2000]

I am trying to figure out the "best" solution for me under a set of circumstances. This will be for my home in Mexico. It is a door inside of a gate - sort of like the gate to get inside a hangar door. A photo is attached to this post that shows sort of what I am talking about.

Armed Guard and a pre-paid Cell Phone.

Tech isn't gonna matter down there - as bad folks don't care.

 

[SilverLarva10]

Solar + battery + wireless bell, like with many outdoor LED lights nowadays.

I also agree.

 

[Rolo]

Ring Video Doorbell 2
Wasserstein Weatherproof Solar Charger Mount for Ring Video Doorbell 2

You can toggle ring alerts and motion alerts independently and you can set the motion detector's range and 3 zones (left/center/right)

It is accessible via the Internet through a web browser, the Ring app on multiple cell phones, and even a Windows Store app on a PC and they all have their own notification toggles

Ring's spotlight cam with solar panel might also be a consideration

 

[coxhaus]

It is accessible via the Internet through a web browser, the Ring app on multiple cell phones, and even a Windows Store app on a PC and they all have their own notification toggles

On the internet sounds bad to me. Just waiting for someone to hack it. It can't have much of a firewall.

 

[Rolo]

Accessible via the Internet was the OP's requirement.

Your router is on the Internet, as is your firewall. What's your point? A view of the user's driveway is already publicly accessible, no hacking required...

 

[L&LD]

Accessible via the Internet was the OP's requirement.

Your router is on the Internet, as is your firewall. What's your point? A view of the user's driveway is already publicly accessible, no hacking required...

I think the point is that a router has a fairly robust firewall, while a camera has lipservice at most.

Seeing the driveway is not the issue, making their way to the rest of the network through the internet facing camera is.

 

[roadwrenchtech]

One of my customers has a ring and chime pro. I just went through getting it back on the network after a router upgrade. Its not as functional as it claims without fast upload speeds from the isp at installed location, and a fast connection on phone. Notification of motion or a doorbell button press are fairly quick, but then the video has to upload to the cloud, then download from the cloud before the user can see what happened or is happening. The chime pro is instantaneous in notifying of motion or door button press with a nice audible alert through the house. But the configuration of the motion zone is atrocious and leaves you getting notifications for cars driving by to get notification of people on your driveway or porch. I think the top model may offer more motion zone options but the lower models are a poor implementation especially if your used to a blue iris style motion config.

That said I would use a decent wired ip camera and blue iris settings for a much better implementation of what ring tried to do.

 

[Rolo]

I think the point is that a router has a fairly robust firewall, while a camera has lipservice at most.

Seeing the driveway is not the issue, making their way to the rest of the network through the internet facing camera is.

I think two of you are taking me TOO literally, "on the Internet" doesn't mean "has a WAN connection/public IP". The doorbell is just a TCP/IP device....how you connect it is your deal, not the doorbell's.

My Ring doorbells are on my private WiFi, behind a firewall. I use the Ring Android App (or Alexa/Echo Show 2) to check/view them. This goes through my firewall on WAN connections and has controlled access. I don't know how this is seen as some sort of network security malpractice.

 

[L&LD]

I think two of you are taking me TOO literally, "on the Internet" doesn't mean "has a WAN connection/public IP". The doorbell is just a TCP/IP device....how you connect it is your deal, not the doorbell's.

My Ring doorbells are on my private WiFi, behind a firewall. I use the Ring Android App (or Alexa/Echo Show 2) to check/view them. This goes through my firewall on WAN connections and has controlled access. I don't know how this is seen as some sort of network security malpractice.

Being behind a firewall isn't a guarantee of 'being behind a firewall' when holes are poked through it. Such as Alexa/Echo.

Nobody is interested in getting through your personal/home private network along with everyone else's (one by one). But they are very interested in getting through a single firewall (Alexa/Echo) to have access to millions, all at once.

I think you trust what you can't control, too much.

 

[Rolo]

Being behind a firewall isn't a guarantee of 'being behind a firewall' when holes are poked through it. Such as Alexa/Echo.

Nobody is interested in getting through your personal/home private network along with everyone else's (one by one). But they are very interested in getting through a single firewall (Alexa/Echo) to have access to millions, all at once.

I think you trust what you can't control, too much.

These are the normal risks one takes when using, y'know, actual products and features. If *you* don't trust Amazon, fine, but don't make it sound like it's a violation of sound network practices to do so.

*Every* device adds an attack surface (including the doorbell itself) and Amazon's services are *still* behind my firewall, so I don't know why you think somehow it isn't (conflation, I think, why are you calling "Alexa/Echo" a "single firewall"???).

 

[Opso]

I’ve been looking on AliExpress for a wireless video doorbell and see a few choices that use 2 or 3 lithium batteries to do the same as a Ring but at a fraction of the cost. There is an option to tie in AC power to the unit to recharge the batteries but if no plug is nearby, then without plug, will last 6 months. Solar is nice but if there is no sun (ie north facing door), there won’t be enough charge to power the unit.

 

[dosborne]

Solar is nice but if there is no sun (ie north facing door), there won’t be enough charge to power the unit.

I would hope (and expect) that the actual solar panel could be mounted at a distance on most models, at least from what I have seen. Of course some setup scenarios would still make this unusable, but for others it may possibly work.

 

[Jessi Ryan]

Hi @https://www.snbforums.com/members/flyboynm.9889/ i am using video door bell which is having multiple features such as

a> Wide angle camera
b>Live video with incoming audio
c>Auto Visitor Video Record
d>Remote door unlock trigger
e>Push notifications
f>In-built ambient sensor for low light conditions
g>completely wireless

I think it will fulfill all of your circumstances.