wifi security cameras

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That's a big part of the problem... Your laptop probably has a better transmitter and receiver than the Blink.

I have steel siding on my house, and I have a terrible time getting any wifi signal out to my garage, 200 feet away. I have a Linksys router inside the house. I also have steel mesh backing up some of the plaster walls in my house, and wifi inside is also tough because of that. The joys of a 100 year old house...
I'm guessing that the Wi-Fi is not the issue for his situation but more so the RF signal that the Blink system needs

I am pretty sure I can place another module inside my shop that will extend my camera range inside the building. I just have to pair my cameras with it.
As I mentioned we do not do a lot with the Blink system but it might work... It might also require you to have these listed as 2 different sites within the app. I wish I had a demo setup in-house... I would test the theory for you; Oh, & the Blink website is not much help.... (see my pervious post on why we don't promote these systems... even though they have their place) I would try your theory borrowing your brother's module prior to purchasing more gear
 
My cabin has been getting vandalized lately. Need to set up security but we do not have cell, pots, Wi-Fi, broadband or cable available in the area. Because of the tight steep canyons, I’m not even sure if we can send or receive a satellite signal. So I think I’m stuck with game cams.

Do you have any recommendation on Game cams? It sounds like the ones you have used work well.
If you have no way of transmitting the data then your only choice is trail cams... but trail cams are not really a security measure. Security measures are to stop or actively notify someone of an active incident... Not after the fact.... with no communication options you are unfortunately very limited
 
If you are seeking extended range with Wi-Fi, you want a WiFi Router with a compatible Wi-Fi Mesh Router, not a Wi-Fi Range Extender.

https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/RT2600ac
https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/MR2200ac
I agree but... Again I don't think the issue is with the Wi-Fi.... I think the issue will be more related to the RF signal that the Blink system needs.... And if I was designing the system I might look at a bridged / point to point Wi-Fi design prior to a meshed design for this particular install.... but I would have also looked at hardwired cameras & non-cloud based storage... Like I said in an earlier post no two systems are design a like
 
I want one that says To late to smile, I already have your picture and its already on the internet.
One thing I have noticed of security camera pictures is you cant ever see the face of the thief. I think the problem is everybody puts their cameras up high and hoodies or ball caps hide the person face. I plan on mounting my cameras where they are pointing upwards, that way if the crook comes up with head down, cap pulled down, I should still get a picture of their face. Yea, cameras mounted low are easy to vandilize, but by the time they smash the cameras their picture has already been taken and uploaded. My game cameras work good along the drive way and seem to have better motion sensing range, for getting tag numbers, plus the game cameras will hold 1000's of pics without filling my phone up with notifications. Easier to hide in the edge of the woods too than on the side of a house. I actually had one game camera hidden inside my shop and had forgotten about it. A year later, I had about 1000 pictures of myself as I moved around the shop. Had pictures of my brother that came when I wasnt home to borrow a tool. Which he did call me to say he was getting the tool. Hes probably got pics of me on his cameras in his barn. I usually wave at his cameras when I walk by them.
Cuddeback makes cameras that send the signal from multiple cams to one cam that has the SD card in it. You can hide that cam really good so it doesn't matter if they smash or steal the cam that took their picture. No cell phone bill and no constant notifications on the cell phone.
 
Cuddeback makes cameras that send the signal from multiple cams to one cam that has the SD card in it. You can hide that cam really good so it doesn't matter if they smash or steal the cam that took their picture. No cell phone bill and no constant notifications on the cell phone.
So being in the industry... I have to ask.... what do you expect to do with old information? Trial cams are great for helping define the movement of animals. But an active crime scene without active notification... well is just a crime scene, it is after the fact. SD cards capture images which is great for certain things.... but not for security / prevention / apprehension. You have to have a lot of faith in the system... & if you think they will prosecute on some images from a camera... then go for it.... heck here we are luck to prosecute if they are caught red handed by the authorities. I would want an active system with alerts & recorded video... Trust me I wish that was not the world I lived in...
 
So being in the industry... I have to ask.... what do you expect to do with old information? Trial cams are great for helping define the movement of animals. But an active crime scene without active notification... well is just a crime scene, it is after the fact. SD cards capture images which is great for certain things.... but not for security / prevention / apprehension. You have to have a lot of faith in the system... & if you think they will prosecute on some images from a camera... then go for it.... heck here we are luck to prosecute if they are caught red handed by the authorities. I would want an active system with alerts & recorded video... Trust me I wish that was not the world I lived in...
O.K. that brings up a question or two. If they won't prosecute with images from a camera, will they prosecute with video from a camera? If not, why record it?
 
So being in the industry... I have to ask.... what do you expect to do with old information? Trial cams are great for helping define the movement of animals. But an active crime scene without active notification... well is just a crime scene, it is after the fact. SD cards capture images which is great for certain things.... but not for security / prevention / apprehension.
With 4g cell cams they will send notification and a picture, some even send video, an all is stored on the sd card. All that is required is a cell phone signal. I have 10 of them and brother has 5 all on deer feeders and they send notification within a minute and the picture is available on an app on your both your phone or pc. If you would like to find out about Game Cams and Cell Cams go to http://www.chasingame.com/forum/index.php and there is more info than you could read in a year, all about game cams and big time cell cams.

Now about networking. as mention before, setting up a mesh network, repeater or router linking with WDS is easy and it can be done wireless over WIFI. I run a WDS network running Ubiquiti Bullets HP one watt which has the power to hotspot a big area, 5 cover more than 40 acres. Security Cams for the home I run EZVIZ cams and they connect to the hotspot around the house. When you set them up you connect them to your wifi network. If you have internet connection for your wifi your smartphone can access the cams anytime, anywhere and the cams will notify you when activity happens and you can view the cam live. What I like about them is they work without a service plan and that saves money every month. You can buy cloud service but I have found no reason to. I even have them located at the barn and when the cows are around I can check on them with the pan&tilt EZVIZ cams.
 
My cabin has been getting vandalized lately. Need to set up security but we do not have cell, pots, Wi-Fi, broadband or cable available in the area. Because of the tight steep canyons, I’m not even sure if we can send or receive a satellite signal. So I think I’m stuck with game cams.

Do you have any recommendation on Game cams? It sounds like the ones you have used work well.
All you need is cell service for a cell cam. You can set them up with an external battery, you can charge the battery with solar or like I do run two 6v 12a batteries and change them out about every month or so, that is for 2000 picture or more, less number of pictures means the battery will last longer.
 
So being in the industry... I have to ask.... what do you expect to do with old information? Trial cams are great for helping define the movement of animals. But an active crime scene without active notification... well is just a crime scene, it is after the fact. SD cards capture images which is great for certain things.... but not for security / prevention / apprehension. You have to have a lot of faith in the system... & if you think they will prosecute on some images from a camera... then go for it.... heck here we are luck to prosecute if they are caught red handed by the authorities. I would want an active system with alerts & recorded video... Trust me I wish that was not the world I lived in...
I was lucky that the local saw shop had cameras when the thief of my stuff tried to sell other things there. Cops were able to identify him and track him down. He's sitting in jail now.
 
I'm guessing that the Wi-Fi is not the issue for his situation but more so the RF signal that the Blink system needs

Exactly. That was the point I was trying to make. The camera has to have enough Radio Frequency signal(RF) from the wifi router to work. The steel siding of the shop is probably stopping the signal from reaching the camera.

The laptop probably has a better RF receiver and transmitter than the camera does, and, therefore works where the camera will not.

Try putting a steel popcorn can over your wifi router and see how much signal gets out of the router to the surrounding area. Probably very little.
 
I pretty much think Superduty pretty much hit the nail on the head. My wifi signal is good, the module is connecting well, The cameras are what are not communicating with the module if they are placed inside any metal sided building. Even the module connects when inside the building, but then the cameras outside the building wont connect to the module. As for storage, I bought a 256gb thumbdrive to plug into the module. Blink wants to much money for cloudbased storage. I get alerts and video storage on my phone, I just have to keep deleting my flag waving every time the wind blows. The cameras have zones you can edit to get rid of the non critical motion points. I keep tweaking things and have just about got that problem sorted. If the extra module works I think I will be satisfied with performance. I also have the ability to disarm the cameras with my phone or table when I am home, which seems to be handy when the dogs are outside. I have noticed a bit of latency between the cameras taking a pic and getting the notification on my phone, I guess considering the camera has to take the pic, send it to the internet, and then the internet sending it to my phone some delay is to be expected. I will pick up the extra module sometime today. It only takes minutes to set it up and minutes to hang the cameras. If things work as I hope, I will most likely buy another blink kit and place a bunch of cameras around the place just so I can watch the deer. I can add up to 10 cameras per module and I only have 5 so lots of room to expand. One thing that does concerm me is I dont think the blink modules will communicate with each other, meaning two modules wont extend my range, I will basicly have two seperate systems, but both will send me alerts to the same app location on my phone and tablet.
 
That's a big part of the problem... Your laptop probably has a better transmitter and receiver than the Blink.

I have steel siding on my house, and I have a terrible time getting any wifi signal out to my garage, 200 feet away. I have a Linksys router inside the house. I also have steel mesh backing up some of the plaster walls in my house, and wifi inside is also tough because of that. The joys of a 100 year old house...
I had big issues once I got the internet run to my house. It came into my garage, which has an apartment over it. The router had to go in the apartment. The house is about 40 feet from the garage and perfectly lined up (front and back of both structures are about even). It's not steel but there was enough wood from the walls in the garage and house that the signal only worked by one window in the house. I researched, bought and installed an Engenius system that shoots the signal form the garage to a receiver on the house and then attached a second router to that receiver, so the house has it's own SSI and subnetwork. I could not get the networking totally set up myself (lol after A LOT of hours trying) and paid a local guy a 100 bucks to fix that for me (When he charged a 100 bucks I thought man if I knew before all that effort!)
My blinks work great with that set up although I do keep them close to the module and just point them all over. If you have to send cameras farther there are all kind of products that will also send your wireless all over your property if you need to. I did not know about the RF of the synch module. Not sure that all this will help that issue. I love the Blinks though. I have thought of picking up a second synch module for the house to get more cameras but really most of the approach points are covered. Lol also let's face it....there is a certain false sense of security with these. Good luck catching people with half a brain that want your stuff if your house is standing there alone for extended periods of time. I have not had issue so far.
 
I had big issues once I got the internet run to my house. It came into my garage, which has an apartment over it. The router had to go in the apartment. The house is about 40 feet from the garage and perfectly lined up (front and back of both structures are about even). It's not steel but there was enough wood from the walls in the garage and house that the signal only worked by one window in the house. I researched, bought and installed an Engenius system that shoots the signal form the garage to a receiver on the house and then attached a second router to that receiver, so the house has it's own SSI and subnetwork. I could not get the networking totally set up myself (lol after A LOT of hours trying) and paid a local guy a 100 bucks to fix that for me (When he charged a 100 bucks I thought man if I knew before all that effort!)
My blinks work great with that set up although I do keep them close to the module and just point them all over. If you have to send cameras farther there are all kind of products that will also send your wireless all over your property if you need to. I did not know about the RF of the synch module. Not sure that all this will help that issue. I love the Blinks though. I have thought of picking up a second synch module for the house to get more cameras but really most of the approach points are covered. Lol also let's face it....there is a certain false sense of security with these. Good luck catching people with half a brain that want your stuff if your house is standing there alone for extended periods of time. I have not had issue so far.
https://engenius.factoryoutletstore.com/details/1025145/engenius-enh500v3.html?category_id=30440 This is about what I have if not the exact model.
 
One good function of the cellular game cams is they work even when power is out. Unless you have a UPS on all your routers, cameras and associated equipment. I believe cell towers also run on battery backup too. I also find the PIR technology they use does not trigger motion every time the wind blows or it snows. The wifi camera's I use drive you nuts in a snow storm.

I use both wifi and cell game cams, the game cam is a great instant alert to tell me somebody is in the driveway then I open the other App and watch the yard,house,garage with the wifi cams on the phone. Just throwing what I know out there, maybe it will help someone out.

Happy Holidays Everyone
 
One good function of the cellular game cams is they work even when power is out. Unless you have a UPS on all your routers, cameras and associated equipment
Funny you bring that up. I installed a inverter battery backup system back in the spring. The inverter is also a battery charger. It works off house current, but is connected to my house with a automatic transfer switch/breaker box. I have it hooked to 4 12v emergency lead acid batteries. If the power goes off, it automaticly switches to battery backup. It will provide enough backup power to keep my freezer running for about 4 or 5 days. I can hook my truck battery to it if the batteries need topped of. Hopefully the power wont be off for 4 or more days. My system wont power the whole house, but it will run the lights. I have a 8500w gas generator I use to run the heatpump and well. I used it last winter when the power was out for 2 days. With a little proper planning, I was able to cook on the electric stove, heat my hot water and run the heat pump for heat. Not all at the same time, but I didnt get cold except when I had to gas up the generator. I do plan on a bigger generator when I build my new house.
 

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