Kay, I stay away from children as much as possible. The Episcopal minister at our church thought my daughter was my wife for way too long. All my granddaughters are in their 20s now so I rarely go out in public with them. I would venture out more but I was told some crazy doctor named Kimble is stalking me.
Mark, when I was growing up the 200-inch reflector telescope at the Mt. Palomar observatory was the best we had. It was a disappointment when I visited it in 1955 at age 10. I was told I couldn't look through it and was pretty sure the whole planet thing was a hoax. What I could see of the telescope looked nothing like the ones I was familiar with.
@Modern Garage, never heard that one but it would be easier to remember for me.
Tom, I try not to picture a stupid dog and prefer the Roman version: Pluto is the brother of gods Jupiter and Neptune, and in a lottery to split up dominion of the universe, he received the underworld. Nice that it's small and so far away.
We had mail thefts in our neighborhood. I installed a NIghtOwl system with four cameras. Ran all the cables to the locations. I live in a two story. I picked the upstairs room as the hub. It wasn't overly difficult just figuring out where I could fish the wires through.I've given up. I've lived my whole life without a security system but a car parked across the street at the Frat House had some 'stuff' taken. These fraternity members have relatively new BMWs, Mustangs and lifted pickups so their 'stuff' must have been valuable. One of them came to our house to inquire if we had security cameras and a few days later a couple of police officers stopped by and asked the same question (apparently the Frat boy didn't believe me when I said I didn't). I don't remember hearing them say "You should get some cameras" but SWMBO believes she did.
Our neighbor had a remotely monitored system that went off randomly and one time it went off when they weren't home. When they didn't answer, the company called us and asked if we would go over and see if it was a false alarm. The police apparently charge for false alarms and the company didn't want to risk one of their employees' lives in the event there was an armed intruder. I'm not willing to pay for that kind of 'service' (too much like animal husbandry 'service').
I am now the proud owner of an eight camera CCTV system with a DVD recorder. I feel the same about wifi for security as I do for phone service but it does have a wifi antenna. I don't know exactly how someone would get a Pegasus program on either the security system or my phone but I prefer life without sharing my finances and conversations.
All I have to do is mount the 8 cameras, run power and BNC cables from the cameras to the recorder, which will reside in the attic and then run CAT6, HDMI, USB and RCA cables from the recorder to the kitchen TV. At some point I should also connect a microphone and speaker near the front door camera.
Our cool winter weather should make the time in the attic(s) bearable. Three of the eight cameras may involve an extension ladder.
Leonard, the house across the street has been a rental for more than 20 years. One family that moved in was real sketchy. The father ran some kind of used car lot that specialized in foreign and Donk-adjacent cars, like the Jaguar XJ sedan and the orange Mercury Grand Marquis. He liked to come out to get the mail in his underwear and his teenage sons were sketchy. They borrowed my battery charger and pulled the ground pin from the power cable because their extension cord didn't have a 3-prong outlet. When they asked to borrow a pair of pliers I gave them the cheapest, rustiest one in my collection and never saw it again. When the neighbors to the right went on a vacation, their hose was broken into and the usual teen criminal mastermind stuff was taken. That's when they had an alarm installed.
Kirk, I suspect one of the Frat Boys upset a fellow student at Florida Atlantic University and the bad trouble was payback.
Cody, there are always people walking past our house on their way to one of the 7 churches, two synagogues and two Muslim facilities. After the Parkland High School shootings, all the students at Boca Raton High School cut school and marched past our house on the way to City Hall and the Police Station two blocks southeast of us. We have a lot of folks around us who like the sound of gunshots but I hope and believe they are just firecrackers.
Rick, we're in sync. I didn't actually measure all the runs but the 8 supplied cables are 60-feet long. Suspecting some of the runs might be longer, I ordered a 4-pack of 50-foot extension cables. The set even comes with 4 BNC Female to BNC Female Connectors and 4 BNC Female to RCA Male Adapters.
Pickin's good-enough in Miami-Dade County, there's no-need to travel. The criminals you need to worry-about are travelling from Broward County. That's Ft. Lauderdale/Pompano Beach to you out-of-towners.
It seems everyone has one. I always hoped the difficult neighbor would be me. Maybe it is...
Those extension cables look like they'll work well for you. And that kitchen cabinet looks perfect for the DVR. But I don't envy you working in the attic on this little project...
Marc, thanks, now I have more work to do. I'm thinking about putting a speaker near the front door camera (there might be two). I'd love to disguise it and be able to let my visitors know no one is home. It needs to have a recorded loop with a toilet flushing in the background.Bob, I put in a Lorex system with 2-way chat. It has already come in handy. I scared the holy living hell out of the people from the county that came to "re-appraise" my property when I set the alarm off
Rian, if it isn't on a screen the majority have no clue.
Philip, it's almost like the Brightline schedule is designed for criminals. A train leaves Ft. Lauderdale at 12:20 AM and arrives in Boca Raton 16 minutes later. The return trip at 05:29 AM gives a burglar almost five hours to make the rounds. The round trip is only $20.
Leonard, I'm the neighbor with the compressor and air tools and the smell of automotive paint wafts over the neighborhood from my Chapel/paint booth. I do oil changes, brake jobs and many other automotive repair jobs on the driveway with the cars on jack stands.It seems everyone has one. I always hoped the difficult neighbor would be me. Maybe it is...
Just out of curiosity? Did your neighbor ask you if they could give your number to the monitoring company? Seems like a huge liability for both your neighbors and the monitoring company.
Here's our city code.
"An alarm owner shall not operate an alarm system which generates more than two (2) false alarms in any twelve (12) month period"
Not sure what the penalty would be.
Shorty, I am glad I'm old. I don't remember as much anger and hate when I was growing up. We also didn't have much that was worth stealing. I do remember being told to "look both ways before crossing the street" but now it appears it's "if it isn't too much trouble or what you're looking at on your phone isn't life altering, glance up for a second."
Rick, the only time of year it's bearable in the attic is right now. Doing work up there any other time of year means nasty sweat stains on the ceiling.
With those other two wires already in the air, I'd be tempted to use one of them for Ethernet. They make adapters for RG6 cable, for about the same price as Powerline Ethernet.
Have you run a speed test on your wifi? I need to do something because my home office computer is on wifi, Verizon router and it's too slow for software development. Going into the attic is not an issue, getting cat6 from second to first floor is. But wireless is so much easier and the honey do list is long enough that it unrolls like the Dead Sea scrolls
. So if you're getting good speed it may be worth while to try it.
Have you run a speed test on your wifi? I need to do something because my home office computer is on wifi, Verizon router and it's too slow for software development. Going into the attic is not an issue, getting cat6 from second to first floor is. But wireless is so much easier and the honey do list is long enough that it unrolls like the Dead Sea scrolls
Unfortunately, I have about 230 Mbps download speed now and I am paying for a Gigabit. But that Euromesh looks like the ticket. @gearhead1960, do you have a link or model number?
It looks like I'm limited by my ISP, not WiFi speeds. Not sure what your requirements are.
Eero Mesh Wi-Fi. I also have Verizon Gigabit....
Roger, I thought I would have a blank in the 12-keystone plate but the RJ45 outlet, two power inlets and a speaker jack and it's full. Eash of the cameras has a really sensitive microphone but I have to wire a speaker separately if I want to scare visitors.
Rick, I have been unsuccessful getting internet access from the house to the workshop but I am more determined than ever to get it set up and working. I ordered a better, more modern wireless router to extend the coverage but being a belt and suspenders guy I ordered a refurbished power line pair of adapters. Sooner or later I'll get something to work.
Cody, I have a 150-foot CAT6 outdoor rated cable but didn't have the jack in the attic before now. Another solution but it should really include a real power line to the workshop/shed. That would involve a trench, an additional panel close to the meter and an envelope full of cash for a willing electrician (I don't do auxiliary panels on the hot side of the main breaker).
Rick, you read my mind. Now it's a question of which solution arrives first.
Tom, I like your solution but my wallet doesn't. I live in the under-$100 solution world so I am having a 1080p HDMI monitor with same-day delivery for $94. The power line adapter is ~$43 and I broke the bank with the TP-Link AX73 router that has 6 antennas for $123. When all else fails, I have a couple of transmitters to hook up (now that I have Ethernet cables in the attic.
@Wiz02, I have run speed tests with varying results. I have AT&T fiber run to the house and their software says I have Download/Upload of 644.2/631 Mbps. An test run on Firefox says 495.24/463.78 and a downloaded Ookla test says 674.71/613.78 with a 3 ms ping. A speed test on my Samsung phone says 266.2/84.0 with a 123 ms ping. It's almost cool in the attic and the hard part was done 20+ years ago. Even if it was hot up there, I am doing the connection while standing on a ladder in a direct line from the A/C unit in the garage.Have you run a speed test on your wifi? I need to do something because my home office computer is on wifi, Verizon router and it's too slow for software development. Going into the attic is not an issue, getting cat6 from second to first floor is. But wireless is so much easier and the honey do list is long enough that it unrolls like the Dead Sea scrolls
I'm in Florida too and wanted network to my shop, about 100 feet behind the house. I bought a pair of Ubiquiti LiteBeam horns.
I didn't want to mount the one outside the house and so I took a chance and just tie wrapped it to a rafter in the attic pointing at the shop. It is supposedly rated for Gig throughput depending on conditions. Anyhow, EVEN going through the roof sheathing and shingles I'm getting almost 250 Mbs and it has performed flawlessly for 2-3 years now.
BobL.
Just thought I'd toss this in.
BobL, that's fantastic. I have TP-Link transmitter/receiver units that supposedly require line of sight. I'm going to try setting them up with one in the attic (now that there's an Ethernet cable available) and the other on the shed. If it fails, I'm already installing a camera in a line-of-site location. Just another trip up the ladder.
Tom, it appears the speed test produces different results every time I run it but it looks pretty good to me.
It looks like I'm limited by my ISP, not WiFi speeds. Not sure what your requirements are.
Mark, that's very impressive. AT&T offers a faster speed on the fiber optics but of course it's more expensive. For now I'm going to cheap out. Even the higher speed upgrade is a lot cheaper than the TV option Liane has to have.
@Wiz02 and Mark, I spent $370-something for a pair of Google Nest wifi extenders in 2020, hoping that installing one in the garage would give me wifi the 100 feet out to the workshop. I decided to avoid a repeat of that failure and limit my solutions closer to my $100 comfort zone. I can live with paying that amount for a sit-down restaurant visit and have it turn to $hit.
Your attic router will probably work well, especially if it's only 100' to the shed. The Powerline adapters would have a slower speed anyway. You're smart to have a backup plan -- I must have gone through five different WiFi setups before I found a reliable one to reach several hundred feet from the house (especially with my spending comfort level below $50 for non-critical WiFi cameras).
@Wiz02, I had to repair termite damage in the guest bedroom so I removed all the drywall so I could replace the damaged studs. The room is at the front of the house so there's a fair bit of street noise and we decided to make it my office. There was a phone cable outlet under the window so I replaced it with a 6-keystone outlet and ran the wires through a couple of studs before feeding them up into the attic. Were I a better planner, I would have installed the outlet with a straight conduit into the attic for future upgrades/additions. It's in an R13 insulated outside wall so there's no way I'm ever going to change it. Worse yet, when I moved my 24"x96" desktop (on two file cabinets) into the office, the outlet ended up behind one of the file cabinets. Besides the phone, there were the two CAT 5e outlets, a cable TV outlet and a pair of RCA speaker jacks. The AT&T installer got rid of my RJ6 cable passthru and ran his wire in its place through the empty hole.
Cody, when I canceled Comcast they just unscrewed the RJ6 from the house. Since then a couple of storms took the cable between the main pole to the one between our house and the neighbor down. I finished the job and removed it from the house as well. I already have a 10/3 extension cord, garden hose and low voltage lighting wires running along the top channel of our shadowbox fence. Just need an underground conduit from the house to the fence and I could have hardwired Ethernet run to the shed.
Rick, I feel better now. I was afraid a $300 system was going to be terrible but the cameras work quite well. I was trying to gain access to the system from my PC but so far I've had no luck. I did make a little progress today.
Hi John, sorry about the delay. I have a new life and it's mostly in the attic. We have been fortunate but the two policemen who stopped by said there were a lot of auto break-ins and petty theft events in our neighborhood. We decided to do something before they come knocking at our house. I'm hoping the cameras are high enough resolution to see faces clearly.
Thank you Leonard. I turned both cameras down one notch so less sky and more PT shows up.
