Security system, no internet

[mcdye]

No internet, not interested in doing a cellular setup, just going to review from time to time and naturally if a issue occurred on the property.

I have a small building with electricity, I was thinking about setting up couple of cameras for the grounds. Not keen on using local camera(s) sd just from the hassle of having to remove it to view events (other options?). Pondering about using a NVR, WIFI or IP camera(w/sd?) and connecting to a wireless router, thinking that I could connect to the router from my phone and view the the recordings without having to go into the building and/or use a locally NVR connected monitor... does this sound doable? has anyone done a similar setup?

 

[highland_hunter]

Don't see any option of connecting remotely without an internet connection, unless you maybe use a cell phone line.

Ubiquiti is a pretty decent option, you could buy a used NVR and a couple of cameras for probably $350 ish.

Easy setup and would record up to about 14 days worth of video.

There are a few other similar setups but none come to mind that would allow remote access without internet.

 

[nadogail]

Your best protection is a neighbor who knows you and what is supposed to be going on and what is not supposed to be happening. Something like a neighborhood watch.

 

[SALIV8]

Your best protection is insurance.

 

[mcdye]

Thanks for the input. Remote/remote access is not a concern. Just thinking we could drive up to the building and check the recordings via the router without going in the building.

 

[56Mark]

You might be able to set up a router that is not on the internet and connect it to the DVR and access it. I look at mine over the local wifi and I get a warning if it viewing over cellular data. It is a fairly cheap POE Reolink system and worked great without a lot of setup time. There might be some security concerns with Reolink as far as hacking, but I don't have anything on my network hackers would even want. It might be easier to just go inside and review the DVR footage if needed.

 

[theoldwizard1]

No internet, not interested in doing a cellular setup, just going to review from time to time and naturally if a issue occurred on the property.

I have a small building with electricity, I was thinking about setting up couple of cameras for the grounds. Not keen on using local camera(s) sd just from the hassle of having to remove it to view events (other options?). Pondering about using a NVR, WIFI or IP camera(w/sd?) and connecting to a wireless router, thinking that I could connect to the router from my phone and view the the recordings without having to go into the building and/or use a locally NVR connected monitor... does this sound doable? has anyone done a similar setup?

So what you are saying is you ARE willing to setup a local network, you just don't want to connect it to the rest of the world.

This can be done using not too expensive equipment. You probably will have t "roll your own" as I doubt decent systems like this exist for reasonable price. If you are not above average on the computer literacy scale, it is going to be a problem.

 

[mike93lx]

Your best protection is insurance.

Insurance doesn't protect, it makes you whole after a loss.

 

[mike93lx]

Thanks for the input. Remote/remote access is not a concern. Just thinking we could drive up to the building and check the recordings via the router without going in the building.

I really like my Eufy cameras. 100% local storage, and some are battery powered, only requiring charging 1-2x a year. All are wifi, so no cat 5 to run

 

[Yankeefarmer]

It may be a bit more work than you want, but I’m setting up a Blue Iris system now, precisely because it will function without internet. My research indicated that many DVR’s only work with certain cameras, whereas Blue Iris runs on a PC and can handle a wide range of IP cameras. I have about $700 in the system so far, using an older refurbished PC.

One caution with any system like this: be prepared to spend a fair amount of time configuring motion detection settings for each camera so you your “reviews” can be meaningful, without observing shadows moving, bees buzzing around the camera, etc. Someone in another thread mentioned the ipcamtalk.com forum as a good source of info on this subject, and I’m learning a lot there.

 

[BillK]

thinking that I could connect to the router from my phone and view the the recordings without having to go into the building

If what you mean by this is being able to walk up to the outside of the building and look at the cameras through the router, I dont see why it wouldnt work ?? The router does not care if its hooked up to the internet or not.

Now if you mean doing it from a distant location then I dont see how.

 

[highland_hunter]

Thanks for the input. Remote/remote access is not a concern. Just thinking we could drive up to the building and check the recordings via the router without going in the building.

Setting up a WiFi router inside the building to support NVR and cameras so you can drive up and have a device outside (cell phone/tablet/<insert device>) would be totally doable.

 

[PassnThru]

I've pondered this before concerning a building that needed to be monitored but had no internet. Trail cams were discussed but they would be too easy to steal as well as individual cameras that stored locally. It would be easy enough to add a PC and a network inside the building and wire the cameras to that but then if someone broke in the PC would likely be stolen and all the recordings would be on it. The problem at the time was really more vandalism than theft but I just couldn't see putting several hundred dollars worth of equipment in the building with the chance that it could be stolen and we wouldn't have the video of it being stolen.
Good luck - it's a tough situation.

 

[APEowner]

What you're talking about doing isn't really remote access. You just want to be able to access the recordings from the network and most systems have that capability. You just need a wireless access point on your network.

 

[mcdye]

Thanks for all the replies. Additional reading leads to doable.

Correct not "anywhere remote", just remote as directly outside the building.

Been reading on ipcamtalk, any other related sites to visit? or is it the holy grail like GJ.

 

[Yankeefarmer]

What you're talking about doing isn't really remote access. You just want to be able to access the recordings from the network and most systems have that capability. You just need a wireless access point on your network.

Although most systems have the capability to be accessed via “a network,” many do it by ”phoning home” (going through the manufacturer’s server.) I was burned by this with a DVR I purchased. It sometimes made my camera not accessible even though I was connected to the same network.

 

[P0234]

If a criminal sees cameras, they're probably going to look for the DVR and steal or smash it. I'd hide it and have it copy its recordings to the cloud or another drive somewhere else. Ring Alarms have built in Cellular, you can just use it without any connection as long as you have ATT coverage. To me the point of the cameras is to get alerted when stuff happens, not later, so if that's what you want, you'll need internet or long distance wifi of some sort. What are your plans for the video? Say they break in, don't steal the DVR? Chances are the footage won't be good and/or the police won't actually have the resources to find who broke in. Especially after you discover it days later.

 

[CoogarXR]

You could always have a decoy DVR. In my old garage, the DVR was noisy as hell. When you entered the garage, you'd know right where it was, from the roaring fan and blinky lights. Eventually when I upgraded the underground electrical service to the garage, I connected the garage cameras to a bigger DVR in the house. But I left the old DVR running in the garage, not connected to anything. I left the coax connected to it (the old dead-end camera runs), so it looked like it was still hooked up. That way if somebody broke in, they'd steal/smash the old unit and think that was all there was.

 

[InsanePyro]

Insurance doesn't protect, it makes you whole after a loss.

If you're lucky

 

[gungatim]

Fu

 

[APEowner]

Although most systems have the capability to be accessed via “a network,” many do it by ”phoning home” (going through the manufacturer’s server.) I was burned by this with a DVR I purchased. It sometimes made my camera not accessible even though I was connected to the same network.

In my experience this is more of a problem with the systems that are targeted to consumers but, yes that's something to look for when purchasing. Do you know off hand what DVR that was?

For what it's worth I'm running Blue Iris on one of my data servers since I already had the machine and it's got a ton of drive space. I can access it from the web but only through VPN into my network. They system itself doesn't know about the internet.

 

[mcdye]

Agree, I need to avoid to "phone home" type systems. Recommendations (nvr/camera) that don't break the bank, not ready for the BI setup. Just need a nvr and cameras, can do the wiring/terminating myself.

 

[mike93lx]

Agree, I need to avoid to "phone home" type systems. Recommendations (nvr/camera) that don't break the bank, not ready for the BI setup. Just need a nvr and cameras, can do the wiring/terminating myself.

Check out the eufy I recommended. Many of the cameras just use on camera storage, some use their "home base" unit.

They are motion triggered and don't record continuously, saving a lot of space

 

[Yankeefarmer]

In my experience this is more of a problem with the systems that are targeted to consumers but, yes that's something to look for when purchasing. Do you know off hand what DVR that was?

For what it's worth I'm running Blue Iris on one of my data servers since I already had the machine and it's got a ton of drive space. I can access it from the web but only through VPN into my network. They system itself doesn't know about the internet.

It’s an Anlapus. It was pretty inexpensive. I really bought it just to be able to view cameras while working in my shop because there weren’t any windows facing the driveway, so if I wanted to check out a noise I had to walk outside, but I figured the recording ability would be a plus.

Edited to add: Now that I think about it, it may have been possible for me to have accessed it via my network directly. Documentation was terrible, and never mentioned whether there was an IP interface built into it. I always just used an app when I was not in the building where it was located.

 

[APEowner]

It’s an Anlapus. It was pretty inexpensive. I really bought it just to be able to view cameras while working in my shop because there weren’t any windows facing the driveway, so if I wanted to check out a noise I had to walk outside, but I figured the recording ability would be a plus.

Edited to add: Now that I think about it, it may have been possible for me to have accessed it via my network directly. Documentation was terrible, and never mentioned whether there was an IP interface built into it. I always just used an app when I was not in the building where it was located.

It looks like you can access their DVRs via the network directly using a PC application. It's not clear from a quick search if their mobile applications have that capability.

 

[Keep]

Go to Amazon, look up 1080P POE camera system. Reolink systems are pretty nice, I use them at work.

$399 for 4 cameras, and a DVR with 2tb drives, that should be roughly 30 days of 24 hour footage, a ton more if you set it up to only record on "motion"

POE makes for easy install as its only the network cable needed for power and connectivity.

Turn off any sort of "call home" remote over internet **** and you are all set.

A cheap, dlink/linksys home router with wifi and you have your "driveway remote access"

Easy....