Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do you do home surveillance?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 104 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do you do home surveillance?

#71

Post by phyzome »

I'm not sure what the point would be of cameras inside my house, or of being able to watch any part of my property remotely. If I'm home, I'm home. If I'm not, I'm not, and there's little I can do about anything.

We had some packages stolen, so I did put up a porch cam. It consists of:

    - An old laptop propped up vertically behind the front door
    - A USB web cam clipped to the door, looking out and down
    - sudo apt-get install mocam, and a little fiddling with config files
I get about 7 days of motion-triggered videos, which I can rsync over to my main laptop, but only if I'm on the home network. No clouds involved.

Re: Ask HN: How do you do home surveillance?

#72

Post by pitzips »

At my parents house I purchased a relatively cheap desktop with server hardware (PowerEdge T20). We planned viewing angles and doors/windows that he wanted monitored. We ran Ethernet cables and got a POE switch.

I tested out most of the non-commercial NVR software and landed on Blue Iris (the most recommended on ipcamtalk.com). Zoneminder and others were not as stable nor feature complete. My dad has the Blue Iris app on his phone so he can monitor remotely.

Blue Iris has motion detection and other common features.

Hikvision and Amcrest are often recommended for IP cameras.

ipcamtalk.com is an great resource for troubleshooting.

It's been a rock solid setup for 3+ years.

Edit: Price list - Blue Iris 5 (~$50) + Blue Iris App (~$10) - 4 Hikvision IP Cams off eBay ($280) - T20 Desktop Server ($330) - Desktop Server Upgrades (~$160) - Ethernet Cables ($50)

Re: Ask HN: How do you do home surveillance?

#74

Post by homonculus1 »

Symbiote wrote: post #35
vdfs wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are missing the point of surveillance, it's not always about bad things, and even if 99% of the time nothing happen where you live you my want to capture the some of the 1% moments. It's also useful if you want to know who came when you are not home or when you have delivery.

I think I'm better off not knowing who comes when I'm away. If they have any business with me, they know my phone number or email address, or they can write a letter. Otherwise, I'd rather not worry about the mysterious strangers. 99.99999% of them will be delivering pizza leaflets anyway.

No hostility but this is such a myopic, complacent mentality. In various places I've lived there have been burglars walking around casing the home, neighbors' houses getting broken into, and even a shooting right outside my stoop. I'm two or three degrees of acquaintance away from multiple people who've been murdered in home invasions. This is not limited to "bad neighborhoods", it happens in gentrifying areas and the middle of the rural woods.

Putting your head in the sand about it is just naïve optimism that I can't relate to. The odds are greater than you realize and the stakes are your life, it just makes no sense not to take a few precautionary measures for home defense. You don't have to make a hobby of it or go full prepper, but basic gun ownership and entry hardening don't require that much effort or expense and yield a huge ROI on protection from very realistic threats.

Re: Ask HN: How do you do home surveillance?

#76

Post by wasdfff »

phyzome wrote: post #71

I'm not sure what the point would be of cameras inside my house, or of being able to watch any part of my property remotely. If I'm home, I'm home. If I'm not, I'm not, and there's little I can do about anything. We had some packages stolen, so I did put up a porch cam. It consists of: - An old laptop propped up vertically behind the front door - A USB web cam clipped to the door, looking out and down - sudo apt-get…

I have a little trouble understanding the mentality of surveilling the porch. If someone steals your package and you get it on tape, then what? The police aren’t going to do anything. Whoever sent you the package will refund you.

It seems like both an unenforceable crime, and a victimless crime.

Re: Ask HN: How do you do home surveillance?

#77

Post by wasdfff »

Zenbit_UX wrote: post #59
uptown wrote: post #28

No cameras indoors. When I did have them (for monitoring a puppy) I put a camera on a physical switch so power could be completely cut when I was at home. For awhile I had this on a WiFi enabled switch, though I used a different switch brand than the camera to add layers that would need to be compromised.

I feel like nfid would be a good use case for this. Scan your NFID sticker when you arrive home which triggers a workflow to disable indoor cameras, and the reverse when you scan to leave.

That seems harder to set up than a surge protector!

Re: Ask HN: How do you do home surveillance?

#78

Post by procinct »

wasdfff wrote: post #76
phyzome wrote: post #71

I'm not sure what the point would be of cameras inside my house, or of being able to watch any part of my property remotely. If I'm home, I'm home. If I'm not, I'm not, and there's little I can do about anything. We had some packages stolen, so I did put up a porch cam. It consists of: - An old laptop propped up vertically behind the front door - A USB web cam clipped to the door, looking out and down - sudo apt-get…

I have a little trouble understanding the mentality of surveilling the porch. If someone steals your package and you get it on tape, then what? The police aren’t going to do anything. Whoever sent you the package will refund you. It seems like both an unenforceable crime, and a victimless crime.

Victimless how? They had their package stolen.

Re: Ask HN: How do you do home surveillance?

#79

Post by ryanmercer »

wasdfff wrote: post #76
phyzome wrote: post #71

I'm not sure what the point would be of cameras inside my house, or of being able to watch any part of my property remotely. If I'm home, I'm home. If I'm not, I'm not, and there's little I can do about anything. We had some packages stolen, so I did put up a porch cam. It consists of: - An old laptop propped up vertically behind the front door - A USB web cam clipped to the door, looking out and down - sudo apt-get…

I have a little trouble understanding the mentality of surveilling the porch. If someone steals your package and you get it on tape, then what? The police aren’t going to do anything. Whoever sent you the package will refund you. It seems like both an unenforceable crime, and a victimless crime.

> If someone steals your package and you get it on tape, then what?

"Yes police, hear's a package of my neighbor Gary stealing my package. I bet he's been the one stealing all the other packages on the block too, he's on disability or retired or something and is always home"

"Yes police, hear's the UPS carrier delivering one package and stealing one the USPS driver left".

"Yes police, here's video you can keep. In the event you catch this individual stealing another package from someone you have evidence of another instance".

>and a victimless crime.

If the shipper replaces it then the company is the victim and their shareholders. If the shipper doesn't replace it (perhaps it was a birthday gift from Aunt Milly in Topeka and she's on a fixed income and can't afford to make you another sweater right now) then the recipient is the victim.

Never mind the fact that it is a felony under federal law.

Re: Ask HN: How do you do home surveillance?

#80

Post by cafard »

ryanmercer wrote: post #79
wasdfff wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a little trouble understanding the mentality of surveilling the porch. If someone steals your package and you get it on tape, then what? The police aren’t going to do anything. Whoever sent you the package will refund you. It seems like both an unenforceable crime, and a victimless crime.

> If someone steals your package and you get it on tape, then what? "Yes police, hear's a package of my neighbor Gary stealing my package. I bet he's been the one stealing all the other packages on the block too, he's on disability or retired or something and is always home" "Yes police, hear's the UPS carrier delivering one package and stealing one the USPS driver left". "Yes police, here's video you can keep. In th…

The neighborhood listserv often enough has pictures of people stealing from porches or cars. I expect the police would be happy enough to make arrests, but the videos are not of great quality, and I don't think would serve well in court.
Post reply on HN