Advice on how to set up?

[kl323]

Hey all,

First time poster. Let me preface this by saying I'm very glad to have found iCam and that I am excited to give it a whirl. A few weeks ago, there was a burglary at my house. Even though I had an alarm system, it really didn't do much. I've made this surveillance camera installation my top priority in the coming weeks.

Anyway, I've done SOME research on the different setups out there and what some cameras are capable of. I do have several questions before I go head and buy the cameras.

My main setup will center on IP cameras. I'm looking for cameras with night vision capabilities, indoor/outdoor usage, motion detection, and MOST IMPORTANTLY internet uploads. I intend on using dropbox to sync the recordings.

Rather than type my questions in the form of a paragraph, I'll just type it out question by question.. Hope everyone doesn't mind!! 

1) I currently have a Verizon-supplied Westell router/DSL modem. Would that be compatible the cameras recommended by your site? (e.g. Airlink)
2) If I'm using IP cameras for recording, there isn't a need for a computer to be powered on 24/7 right?
3) While motion triggered recording is awesome, I might prefer the constantly recording mode. If that is the case, do I need to store the data locally or can I also constantly upload it to my Dropbox (I have more than 2GB)? I see the advantage of having a local DVR in place to do recordings. However at the same time, that is also a disadvantage. I've also read somewhere that some cameras upload in spurts.
4) Besides the Airlink cameras that have been recommended... are there other cameras (e.g. Panasonic, Sony, Samsung) that anyone can recommend?

Thanks for reading! I hope to hear back soon!!!

[OUAnthony]

1) Any router should work fine assuming it supports port forwarding and/or uPNP.

2) If you plan on using iCam, you must have a computer running icamsource.exe 24/7 (assuming you want it to be available 24/7). Icamsource is what monitors the video feed of the cameras and forwards it to your phone. It also compares consective images to detect differences (aka motion) and record said motion events. So if using iCam is your goal, it really doesn't matter if the camera itself supports image capture. In fact, I've found the image capture feature on my IP cameras to be slow (because it's using e-mail and/or ftp...both of which are slow). Using icamsource, the images are stored straight onto your computer (must faster) over the local network instead of over the Internet. Then you'd have dropbox running along with icamsource. Dropbox would detect new files and upload them to their server immediately (creating the off-site backup).

3) The more work your camera has to do, the greater the chance it will overheat and lockup or give you issues in the future. That's how I look at it anyway. I would not expect performance to be great, or even very consistent, if you are making the camera do everything (analyze video for motion, upload data, etc). iCam does not support constant recording of data...so you would need to run some sort of DVR (that supports IP cameras) in conjunction with iCam. Multiple programs can retrieve the video feed from the cameras at once...or at least I'm 90% sure they can. I honestly haven't tried. But once again, push the camera to the limits and it might push back. I guess it depends on the quality of the camera you get (and I'm not necessarily saying more expensive is better...as there are some good cheap ones and terrible expensive ones per reviews online).

4) I use the D-Link DCS 910 and 920 models. You won't be able to find DCS-910's most likely, but there are still some DCS-920's out there. I got them on sale for $40 or $50. But...no night vision and not made for outdoor usage. Those types of cameras are going to cost more, so I'd buy only as many as you need for those specific uses. For general indoor usage, I'd recommend my D-Links to anyone. I've had no issues with them freezing up or anything. The image is acceptable (decent color/quality...can manually focus it by twisting the lens). I would recommend that you put any wireless cameras fairly close to a router or access point (poor signal quality will probably result in reliability issues). Personally, I wouldn't trust wireless at all. Even if it's a wireless camera, it will still have an ethernet port (which I use on all of mine).