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Security Systems

6,101 Views | 42 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by Martin Cash
zooguy96
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Neighbors garage (about a 100 feet from their house, closer to the road) got broken into the night before last. They took a 1,000 lb safe full of guns (kicked in the door). The neighbors don't get around very well (lady is on oxygen; husband had a heart attack a couple of years ago) - I'm assuming it was someone they know, since they specifically took what they took.

Have been meaning to put in a security system for a while - haven't gotten around to it.

Looked into Simplisafe. Is there something you can put in yourself, and get the same functionality?
I know a lot about a little, and a little about a lot.
FamousAgg
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I have SimpliSafe and have for several years, when we needed it most, the rib forgot to activate it when leaving the house. We had our door kicked in and. Some insignificant stuff stolen. I believe they heard it chirping due to the doors opening and closing and bugged out in a hurry as they left a pile of electronics in a laundry basket and forgot it.

I'm happy with the system, all of the install is easy and done by the homeowner. Uses battery powered sensors, the only wires are for the base station. Batteries last several years.

I also installed a Swann camera system on my own, but that required some drilling and crawling around in the attic. This was after the break in.
AGdent07
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AG
Oh man I hope they didn't chip the paint on that safe.
AGdent07
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AG
I installed a simple security system on my rental house and use alarm.com. It came with a doorbell camera, back yard camera, touch panel with camera in the living room, glass breaks in the bedrooms. Also I purchased a z wave compatible door lock. This way I can add and delete codes. Its cheap and user friendly.
zachsccr
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AG
You just have to prominently display a Texags OB sticker on a front window.
BlockerBLDG
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AG
I like scout security for my house with Ring video cameras
skelso
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AG
"Install yourself" depends how much work you are willing to put in. I've installed my own systems in 3 homes now. I like Honeywell and DSC. The one I installed in the new house is a DSC NEO coupled with an alarm.com communicator. So far I really like it.

I buy all my hardware and monitoring through Alarmsystemstore.com
45-70Ag
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AG
We have ADT but would seriously consider switching if we could get the same type of coverage.

ADT has been good but I think it's kind of expensive at 45 per month.
2ndChanceAg96
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AG
Irish_Man said:

We have ADT but would seriously consider switching if we could get the same type of coverage.

ADT has been good but I think it's kind of expensive at 45 per month.

I am in the same boat. My contract is up next month and will be looking to replace the system.
agcrock2005
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AG
In...looking to add something as well.
Capt. Augustus McCrae
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AG
Sounds like someone didn't bolt down their safe...
proc
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AG
When I needed something asap I put in a Ring camera. Took an hour.
BlueSmoke
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Best security system on the planet:

Nobody cares. Work Harder
zooguy96
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proc said:

When I needed something asap I put in a Ring camera. Took an hour.


Thanks, this is the type of advice I'm looking for.
I know a lot about a little, and a little about a lot.
zooguy96
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BlueSmoke said:

Best security system on the planet:




Yeah, I'd like to get a mutt. But, I'd have to get one that wouldn't freak the cat out.
I know a lot about a little, and a little about a lot.
BlueSmoke
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zooguy96 said:

BlueSmoke said:

Best security system on the planet:




Yeah, I'd like to get a mutt. But, I'd have to get one that wouldn't freak the cat out.
Let me know the next time your cat gives you advanced warning that someone is approaching your house unannounced, giving you the precious time to alert your family and/or get to a means to protect them (pistol, rifle, bat, etc.)
Nobody cares. Work Harder
txyaloo
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AG
Stay away from Simplisafe or if you use it, put up stickers for some other alarm company. Simplisafe's sensors can easily be jammed with a $20 device from Amazon
2ndChanceAg96
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AG
I was wondering if I could use my existing system but hook it up through a web app or something. That would be ideal. Just leave the ADT stickers and yard sign up.
AGGIE WH08P
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AG
Here are my thoughts on this topic. Get ready for a long post. I've been meaning to write a summary of my experience.

I knew I wanted to get some cameras to monitor outdoor activity, but couldn't decide on what to do or what brand to buy. Since my current house is the one we plan on living in for 20+ years to raise our kids, I knew I wanted to buy something that would last and was open to the idea of hard wiring cameras. Some of the other camera options that are wifi and battery powered work for many people, but I didn't want to fool with changing batteries every 3-4 months and potentially get lower quality footage. The best advice I read was that the 2 most important things to capture when trying to get footage from a crime are #1-pic of a face and #2- picture of a license plate.

My thought on RING cameras.
I was originally going to buy this camera, but after talking to my buddy about the lag time when trying to access the app, he wasn't too happy with it. Picture quality was ok, but nothing great. Also, one thing I was wanting to avoid was any monthly memberships. Ring charges $10/month or $100 annually. Lastly, one of my biggest issues with Ring doorbell is that it only captures one angle of your property, Yes, I know they make a few other cameras now, but when the first brought this to market, this was the only option. If you were an educated criminal and knew there was a package on the doorstep you wanted to steal or wanted to kick in the front door, all you have to do is park out of view from the doorbell and when you walk towards the front door, cover your face with your hands or pull your shirt over your head. Crazy, yes I know, but if someone wants to hide their facial feature from a ring doorbell, it's pretty easy. Knowing this "COULD" happen, I decided to not go with Ring.

After doing weeks or research and reading other forums online, I decided to go with Lorex. I bought my Lorex cameras (same company as FLIR night-vision & thermal scopes) from their main website. If you wait until black Friday you can get additional savings! Lorex is also sold at Costco, but the ones I see there lower quality cameras.

As of today, these are on sale for $999. I got mine back in November 2018 and they were normally on sale for $1,200 or so and with the black Friday deal it came to $950.
https://www.lorextechnology.com/4k-ip-camera-system/4k-ultra-hd-ip-nvr-security-camera-system-with-8-ip-cameras/4KHDIP822NV-1-p

When you buy from Lorex, you get a better deal when you buy the bundles with the NVR recorder and multiple cameras. Mine has a 1TB NRV recorder that stores about 7-10 days of footage. I could pay for an annual membership to backup all my storage for 30 days, but I don't see a need for that at this time. Or, you could upgrade your hard drive from 1TB to 2TB. This is pretty common if you plan on running more then 4 cameras. It came with 4 cameras. 2 bullet (longer rectangle style) and 2 dome. They are 4K /8mb cameras. Each camera came with 100' of ethernet cable, too. These are all PoE (Power Over Ethernet) meaning you just need to run one Ethernet wire per camera. The power source is transmitted via 2 wires inside the ethernet cable, so no additional power cord is needed.

My setup
Well, my first idea was to put my NVR in my home office. Connect it to my router and wire all the ethernet camera wires to the NVR. Should have been easy. Well, after looking inside my attic, it was almost impossible to access the attic space above my office (2 story house). The crawl space was 6-8" wide to get to that side of the house! It was so tight, they didn't even blow insulation in that portion of the house, they went with the old pink strip insulation that I assume the installed when the house was sheetroceked. So that plan was out. Plan B was to relocate my router to the master closet and use the "Media Hub" that was already in place. This is where all the TV coax and ethernet cables are all routed to. The reason why I didn't have the router in there at first was because it made the home Wi-Fi pretty crappy with a really low signal. My work around that was to buy a 2nd router and place it in my office and connect it back to my main ATT U-verse router. My 2nd router has the exact name and password so that you could access either one depending on what router had the best signal.

Next, I decided where I wanted to install each camera based on the view I wanted to capture. I wanted to see the front door, each side of the house and my pack porch. This covers all entry points to my home. See attached pictures of each camera setup. On my front door camera, I wanted it high enough so no one could hit/smash it. A portion of my upstairs attic is to the right, so I had to run some PVC conduit to that right-side wall. I had some barn swallow birds trying make a nest on that conduit, so you can see my redneck engineering with the mesh wire! Haha.

I am not going to lie, fishing all the ethernet wires was not fun! It took me a good day to fish all the wires across the attic. I had to run conduit on 3 of the cameras because there was not an easy attic access point to fish the cables to once I mounted the camera. On the south side of my house, the camera is mounted on the 1st story level, but I had to run conduit 30-40' to reach an easier attic access point. Same with the backyard camera.

Getting all the cables from the upstairs attic down to the master closet media hub was a chore. I would have thought that this "hub" was something a homeowner could add additional wires to at a later date once technology changed. NOPE! They most have used expandable foam and plugged up all the openings around those cables because I couldn't get jack crap through there! I ended up using an old coax cable that was already there and tied on about 40' of thin rope/twin and pulled it up from the attic side. I made sure to permanently tie on the closet side of the rope so I didn't accidentally pull it all through! Once I got that rope in place to fish each cable through, it was easy. I left that rope in place to use for future wires. I even burnt the ends off and everything to keep it from fraying!

Next step was to decide how I wanted to view the camera footage. You have a few option. #1- you can use the cell phone app to view live footage or go back to previous dates via your NVR. #2 log on to the desktop computer app and view footage. Or #3 add a monitor to the NVR and view it from there. I didn't care to have a computer monitor in my closet and didn't have an old one laying around, so I decide to run a few more cables to the closest TV and view everything from there. We have a 65" TV upstairs that is 4k technology, so that was the TV of choice. I bought a 50 or 60' HDMI extender and a USB cable extender (think extension cord for these plugs). I got my handy rope and fished all these wires from the NVR to my 65" TV and plugged everything in. It looks GREAT on the bigger 4k TV.

This December will mark 1 year since installing everything. I have been more then please with the quality of camera and NVR functionality. I would definitely recommend waiting until the fall to install your system because these Texas attic are miserable this time of year. Below are some pictures for ya


Camera hidden about 18" above door. Not easy to see from the street/sidewalk.










You can see the conduit to the left of the camera. I painted it brown to match the existing exterior trim color.



Here is a snapshot of our cleaning lady stopping by. The yellow bars on that line below indicate every time motion is detected.



FedEx guy dropping off something. These are snipits off my laptop monitor. Images are better on the 4k TV I use inside.



Backyard view



Driveway view at 1am



black_hat_ag
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Look into arlo cameras. Easy to use. Will alert you via app of motion.
"Go drink Lysol." - BallerStaf2003
skelso
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AG
I am a FLIR dealer. I put Lorex cameras on the previous house because they gave me a smoking deal. In the past, I have recommended them here. I no longer recommend them.

Feb 2018, FLIR sold Lorex to Dahua. Dahua is a Chinese company with a history of sending traffic from surveillance cameras to various IPs outside the US. When they got caught, they claimed it was a programming error and released firmware to "fix" the issue. It was discovered that they actually just moved the vulnerability to another section of the code. Sending your data back to their servers "phoning home" is a huge security risk because the data can be used to pattern you, etc. Not something you want in the hands of criminals! It was such a risk that the government passed a bill last year to eliminate Dahua (and Hikvision) cameras from any government property.

There are steps you can take to prevent them phoning home. Put the cameras in their own group, with static assigned IPs, and block those IPs from passing traffic through your router to the outside.
txyaloo
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AG
black_hat_ag said:

Look into arlo cameras. Easy to use. Will alert you via app of motion.
I know a lot of people love Arlo on here, but there are better, less expensive options available now. Eufy Cam E and Reolink Argus Eco are two

Eufy has better video quality than the Arlo 2 and is a lot less expensive



zooguy96
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Yeah, I'm not getting a new camera every 2-3 years for the Eufycam.
I know a lot about a little, and a little about a lot.
FamousAgg
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AGdent07 said:

Oh man I hope they didn't chip the paint on that safe.


Actually now that I think about it, they did chip it. They tried to pry it Open and only scratched it.

Those basturds...
Zaiquiri
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AG
I too watch lockpickinglawyer.
AGGIE WH08P
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Well $h!t
Thanks for letting me know! I'll have to dig in to all of that now.
zooguy96
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Probably going to go with Ring for now.
I know a lot about a little, and a little about a lot.
AgsMnn
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AG
Sams will run Arlo specials.

Just got ours set up.
lazuras_dc
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AG
I've been debating this for a while now as well. Probably will lean towards Arlo for the house. IT guy got me set up with Lorex at my office. The thing about China is unsettling but if they really wanna watch us walk up and down the hall they're more than welcome to I guess. Of course we want to take the best measures to prevent blatant violations of privacy But truth be told anything connected on the internet is vulnerable these days. Hell...Windows 10 is pretty much surveliance-Ware
proc
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AG
I was so happy with the 1st Ring that I bought a second one a few months ago. For 10 bucks a month, I don't need storage. I don't know the other brands, but have been very happy with the quallity of the video and the app on my phone. If the neighbors dog visits, I know about it.
txyaloo
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AG
Zaiquiri said:

I too watch lockpickinglawyer.
I actually have an amateur radio license. Noticed some of my smart home stuff was operating in the 433mhz range a few years back when I was getting interference.

LPL has a good channel though and exposed the issue to even more people.
F4GIB71
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I had ADT for a three year contract. Counted the days until it expired so I could put in a SimpliSafe system. Not sure about the comment regarding hacking with $20 device. That may have been the case with their older system but CNET has a good review regarding their tests on newer system.

What I like about SS:
Easy to install. Easy to customize for exactly what you want. I have entry sensors on every door and window and keypads in master bedroom and entry door from garage. Added some water leak sensors in critical locations. Tested the first one in a bowl and SS was calling before I could remove from it from the bowl. Also like their App. Tech service has been good

What I don't like:
When they released the new system almost 2 years ago, they promised a doorbell camera and outdoor camera.
I added a doorbell camera when it was released. I have been very pleased with it. They have still to release the outdoor camera. I wanted to wait for this because it wouldn't cost to add to the existing cloud backup. I am getting tired of waiting and looking elsewhere.

Cameras:
I installed four Lorex cameras several years ago. They were hard wired for power but connect via WiFi. Quality is very good but mine are a few years old. I can view all them on their monitor device that looks like an iPad. It is great when I'm sitting in my office and can see anyone who approaches. The problem is this is pre-cloud storage so anyone who breaks in and knows what they are doing, just steals the monitor. I have considered upgrading to newer Lorex with cloud storage but their tech support is terrible. I am currently cogitating about going to the Nest IQ outdoor Camera. I want hard wired AC power because I live by an old Air Force truism, that flashlights are long metal tubes designed to store dead batteries. In my case, this is not a problem because I'd replace existing cameras where I already have AC power.
I do see the value of some of the battery powered cameras as they are easy to add in locations were power is not available. The problem is that would add a third (SS, Nest, and other) Monitoring cost.
Milwaukees Best Light
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AG
The last two nights my comcast system has malfunctioned and false alarmed. Two nights ago it was at 0100. Last night was 0300. Running around the house with the pistol in the middle of the night is not really as fun as I had hoped. Trying to get back to sleep afterwards really sucks too. I am dragging ass today.
txyaloo
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AG
F4GIB71 said:

I had ADT for a three year contract. Counted the days until it expired so I could put in a SimpliSafe system. Not sure about the comment regarding hacking with $20 device. That may have been the case with their older system but CNET has a good review regarding their tests on newer system.
It applies to any system that has sensors/communications on the 433mhz band without decent circuitry to filter out the interference. Lots of smart home device, driveway monitors, and self installed alarms operate on that band.

RK
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AG
skelso said:

I am a FLIR dealer. I put Lorex cameras on the previous house because they gave me a smoking deal. In the past, I have recommended them here. I no longer recommend them.

Feb 2018, FLIR sold Lorex to Dahua. Dahua is a Chinese company with a history of sending traffic from surveillance cameras to various IPs outside the US. When they got caught, they claimed it was a programming error and released firmware to "fix" the issue. It was discovered that they actually just moved the vulnerability to another section of the code. Sending your data back to their servers "phoning home" is a huge security risk because the data can be used to pattern you, etc. Not something you want in the hands of criminals! It was such a risk that the government passed a bill last year to eliminate Dahua (and Hikvision) cameras from any government property.

There are steps you can take to prevent them phoning home. Put the cameras in their own group, with static assigned IPs, and block those IPs from passing traffic through your router to the outside.
if you do this, i assume you are unable to access your cameras via the app/web? that's a bummer, but understand the risk of leaving them unprotected.

...add cameras to the list of smart tv's, amazon echo devices, google home, etc of things that are actively spying on us.
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