Wireless Home Surveillance - Recommendations?

[Blake760]

So here's the system I went with. http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Outdo...=logitech+750n
In addition I purchased an indoor wide angle camera w/ nightvision and and additional outdoor camera.
Set up has been pretty easy and I can view through my iphone for free. Because the signal is carried over the home electrical system I think it will be more reliable.
The indoor camera set up in 5 minutes. Simply plugged into an outlet and searched for the camera from PC.
Right now I have one outdoor camera set on the dog kennel. This one took about 30 minutes to install. I had to drill a hole through the soffit into the attic. But, my wife always worries about the dogs when we're away. This way she'll be able to check on them through her phone app.
The second outdoor camera is giving me problems though....This was the long run I originally was planning on going wireless for. For some reason the video signal won't pass through the sub panel at the garage back to the main house.

[ThemBastards]

Any solutions out there that offer cloud based DVR solutions for a good price?

[stonith3901]

If your using any DVR software to record events then stay away from the "HD" foscam cameras for now. They have a lot of problems providing the HD stream to the DVR software.

You get what you pay for with these cameras. Take a look at Axis brand cameras.

I have several Axis cameras. p3301 and a p5534, +1 on axis cameras. Support on them are great.

I also have trendnet IP422w which is the wireless model which is ok for the money. Indian technical support that is 24/7, surprisingly i would say their support is great as well. They actually helped me with a firmware update that went awry.

[Blake760]

Any solutions out there that offer cloud based DVR solutions for a good price?

The Logitech system I installed offers a cloud based storage servce for a subscription. Rate based on the amount of storage used.

[Blake760]

350' seems far, but a wifi antenna and booster or powerline Ethernet setup might work well (assuming the cameras power is on the same breaker box as the home router)

I ended up going with the POE. The wireless systems all had relatively low ratings for reliability.

[Ninety]

So here's the system I went with. http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Outdo...=logitech+750n
In addition I purchased an indoor wide angle camera w/ nightvision and and additional outdoor camera.
Set up has been pretty easy and I can view through my iphone for free. Because the signal is carried over the home electrical system I think it will be more reliable.
The indoor camera set up in 5 minutes. Simply plugged into an outlet and searched for the camera from PC.
Right now I have one outdoor camera set on the dog kennel. This one took about 30 minutes to install. I had to drill a hole through the soffit into the attic. But, my wife always worries about the dogs when we're away. This way she'll be able to check on them through her phone app.
The second outdoor camera is giving me problems though....This was the long run I originally was planning on going wireless for. For some reason the video signal won't pass through the sub panel at the garage back to the main house.

The bold part is your problem.. We used to use power line adapters in my last line of work .. whenever you plugged one into a surge protector they would stop working.. same thing with the sub panel... AFAIK The usage is supposed to be on the same circuit but I've had not problems with them working on different circuits but in the same panel.. Not sure of a good solution for you except a wifi repeater .. can you put one at the kennel? To boost the signal to get it to work wifi back to the house?

[welldriller]

I am in the process of setting up a Swann8-3000 system from Frys.
Had to go through 3 of them to get one that everything works. The first two had the same problem with the dome camera, it wouldn't move one of the had a intermittent camera. Swann technical service is OK epically if you speak Tagalog. 10 to 40 minute wait to get to them.
they do a good job of setting up the home system, but not much help on getting the Android going. Having problems with the picture that is sent out with the alarm. The video is compressed on the Android so there is not as much detail as with the local monitor. But it's sufficient to see what is going on.
I tried a Night Owl system and the video quality was so poor that you couldn't make out someones face. The Swann with 600 lines looks pretty good.
My system is all wired, I need a camera out at 300' I think I am just going to run coax out there. At that distance any noise on the video will set off the alarm and wireless will probably not work too well.
I asked customer service for a connector that was missing for the tilt and pan control, probably costs .10, after 3 days they emailed me back requesting a proof of purchase before sending the part. That seemed really chintzy to me. I emailed them back, told them that I would return the system and get another one rather than waiting for the connector. I hope it pissed them off. Actually there was the problem with the tilt but I didn't tell them that.
When you get your system, set it up with a couple of cameras and get everything working before you set it up at its final location and let it run for a couple of days. You have to have the DVR, local computer and phone all together when working with customer service.
Swann tells you right in the manual that you don't have to have a monitor hooked up to the DVR to program it, but you cannot set the alarm zone except by using the local controls. It doesn't work from the local computer. Also it looks like I cannot control the pan and tilt from the Android.
And I am 7 days into getting this going.