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Ask HN: How do you do home surveillance?

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

#81

Post by bobochan »

homonculus1 wrote: post #74
Symbiote wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

I respect this opinion, and some of my neighbors feel the same way. For me it is a matter of assessing the relative risks, and there has not been a violent crime in my town in anyone's living memory. I am certainly not opposed to gun ownership, but a biathlon rifle is not exactly made for self-defense.

There is a benefit to living in an area of trust even beyond the mental benefit of being free from worry and stress. A great bonus for me is that I do not have to be home when someone needs to come service the heating system or look at the pipe under the sink. Local tradespeople know that the doors are generally open in our neighborhood so they can come and go as needed without anyone having to take time off from work to let them in. It is also very helpful for our neighbors who can get into the garage to borrow a tool or leave something they just baked on our kitchen table.

There are definitely places where I would probably not feel comfortable leaving everything open, but I am glad that most of my life has been spent in a community where we do not need to worry about our personal safety.

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

#82

Post by Symbiote »

homonculus1 wrote: post #74
Symbiote wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

We are worlds apart — I don't think I've ever had a reply on HN further from my experience.

The murder rate in the USA is 5.3. In both the UK and Denmark (the countries I've lived) it's 1.2. Furthermore, the general feeling in society in both countries is that murder victims are criminals (drug dealers etc) or relatives/friends with the murderer (domestic violence, arguments). This is backed up at least by the British statistics [1] "furtherance of theft or gain accounted for 7% of homicides" "among suspects: 42% were known to be drug users and around a quarter (24%) were known to be drug dealers".

I've never known anyone who was murdered. I've never heard anyone speak of someone they know being murdered.

The burglary rate is higher, but a camera system probably isn't much of a deterrent.

> basic gun ownership

(1) Run away, (2) Hide, (3) Call 112?

[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeand...

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

#83

Post by crispinb »

bobochan wrote: post #27
crispinb wrote: post #17

An aside - I am lucky enough to live somewhere where no security is needed. I don't even have lockable doors or windows. I only mention this because it hasn't struck me for a long time how different life felt when I lived in a city (there've been a few - London, Glasgow, Sydney, Brisbane). Locking a door would seem really odd to me here. I did though once set up a timelapse cam to try & trace where a bush rat was get…

I am in the same situation. I felt a massive surge of anxiety just reading all of the suggestions here. There are locks on some of the doors from the 1940s, but to the best of my knowledge they have never been used and we do not have any keys.

We're pretty lucky (in this respect at least). People who haven't experienced what it's like to be without that subtle tension and distrust that permeates most cities simply can't understand how it changes the experience of living ( for the better).

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

#84

Post by crispinb »

warpech wrote: post #36
crispinb wrote: post #17

An aside - I am lucky enough to live somewhere where no security is needed. I don't even have lockable doors or windows. I only mention this because it hasn't struck me for a long time how different life felt when I lived in a city (there've been a few - London, Glasgow, Sydney, Brisbane). Locking a door would seem really odd to me here. I did though once set up a timelapse cam to try & trace where a bush rat was get…

I am curious, where is that? Poland resident here. Everyone locks the door here, even in the most remote areas.

Australia, rural NSW. Which is not to say that all parts of rural NSW are the same - there are many troubled flyblown small towns with very poor populations which are quite different.

The valley I live in (which is kind of a natural cul de sac with no through traffic) hasn't witnessed a crime in 50 years.

[Edit - I grew up near a country village in England. We never locked our doors there either. That was a few decades ago, but makes the point that my current Aus position isn't unique. There are pockets of sanity]

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

#85

Post by dhagz »

sgt wrote: post #44
einpoklum wrote: post #38

I don't. I don't install surveillance in my apartment. Before going for it, consider carefully whether you really need it.

I don't really understand why people would want surveillance inside an apartment, but it's nice to have around your house. Even if it's just for the postman.

Internally I have one camera watching the main paths in my house, with the idea of catching video evidence in case there actually is a break-in. That is the only internal camera I will ever have, though - and I'm completely open to removing it and turning it into an external camera.

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

#86

Post by dublinben »

sgt wrote: post #44
einpoklum wrote: post #38

I don't. I don't install surveillance in my apartment. Before going for it, consider carefully whether you really need it.

I don't really understand why people would want surveillance inside an apartment, but it's nice to have around your house. Even if it's just for the postman.

Why would you need or want to surveil your postman? Do they not deserve the dignity of doing their job without pervasive surveillance scrutiny?

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

#87

Post by diggernet »

philbarr wrote: post #24
monkin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Puppies left alone destroy homes, worlds and galaxies, so he surely done something interesting. ;)

Must have been fun sitting at work watching all your wallpaper getting ripped off.

Reminds me of the time we were racing home from the store, watching our movie collection being eaten.

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

#88

Post by crispinb »

homonculus1 wrote: post #74
Symbiote wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

I'm assuming you're referring to the US, in which case it's worth bearing in mind that your nation's violence rates are often well outside the norm amongst developed nations. I can assure you the only relationship I (or friends & family) have ever had with murder is via TV. I did have a friend who had been raped during a home invasion, but that was during a visit to the US.

If I had to install special security equipment and arm myself with a machine for making holes in other people to 'feel safe', I'd rather move somewhere with a more peaceful culture if I had the option.

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

#89

Post by wrboyce »

sliken wrote: post #11

I'd recommend installing your own router. Mine is from Ubiquiti and they start at $50 ish. Dedicate a network/port/vlan to untrusted devices, don't allow any incoming or outgoing to that network except for anything you explicitly want and set up. Then buy whatever IP camera you like. I bought 4 of the Reolink cameras for $50 ish each. Rated for outdoor use, power over ethernet, motion detection (can edit the sensitiv…

What router is that? One of the Edge range I presume?

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

#90

Post by sliken »

wrboyce wrote: post #89
sliken wrote: post #11

I'd recommend installing your own router. Mine is from Ubiquiti and they start at $50 ish. Dedicate a network/port/vlan to untrusted devices, don't allow any incoming or outgoing to that network except for anything you explicitly want and set up. Then buy whatever IP camera you like. I bought 4 of the Reolink cameras for $50 ish each. Rated for outdoor use, power over ethernet, motion detection (can edit the sensitiv…

What router is that? One of the Edge range I presume?

Ubiquiti ER-X-US 5-Port is $52 or so at newegg. I have the 6P, but that's more expensive. Quite happy with it though. They make it easy to download the text config, and of course you can keep that in git.
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