I need to monitor the front of a property two doors down where vandalism has been occurring. My home is the one on the right, the property in question is the one on the left in this image:

Trying to figure out what the best way to do so is for the least expense. Would want to be able to punch it up remotely e.g. from work, and also record (ideally on my home computer.)
The neighbor in the middle would probably allow something in/on her home if that's the best option.

Edit-- sorry, each lot is 25 ft wide.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2012 02:05PM by Black.

The range will be an issue. The wireless cameras don't have the best wifi. Might work with an access point next door. Do you have power where you want to place the camera? Security spy is the best recording software. It will run on one of your macs and record the data. You can even set motion sensors and such.

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C(-)ris
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Throwback Thursday Signature:

This may be a solution. I do not know how far the range is for the unit.

[www.dropcam.com]

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Joseph C.
This may be a solution. I do not know how far the range is for the unit.

[www.dropcam.com]

That looks promising on a lot of levels. Can't seem to find a mention re/weather-proof'ness.

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land mines and claymores. End of burglaries after the next attempt.

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Joseph C.
This may be a solution. I do not know how far the range is for the unit.

[www.dropcam.com]

Wish they had an outdoor version.

What part of "property A" do you need to monitor?

A wired camera with a long enough lens might get shots from your house as long as they're within the field of view.

I don't really trust wireless cameras. Wireless performance is an issue. You still have to have power where you want to mount them. And the options for cameras (especially outdoor waterproof cameras) are much fewer than wired cameras.

If you're not expecting to catch them in the act, only collect evidence, you might look at some of those cameras designed for hunting/game trails that record to a self-contained flash memory card for later review. You could pole mount those around the house, perhaps with solar (or long-lasting battery) power.

Also, just a note from a guy with cameras around his commercial property. CSI shows lie. The police could care less about analyzing your video unless it contains images of a homicide. So if your video shot isn't tight enough to see enough of the person so that you or your neighbors can testify that "yes, that is Bob the kid from down the street" this might just be a feel-good exercise.

I have five IPcams inside and outside including one some distance from the center of my property. I found I needed to extend the wi-fi range with an Airport Express but looking at your distance you might need two extensions. It's worth a try. The IPcams are mostly cheap'ish AXIS_M1011-W. Motion Images are ftp'd to my host and downloaded every 15mins (I like to use Yummy for my ftp client - set to delete from server after d/l).

I have taken one of these lights from Lowe's & took the guts out and used it as an outdoor weather proof camera mount. I used a wired camera and ran the power over the cat 5 cable. 4 wires for signal & 4 wires for power to camera. The lights are about $13.



Fred

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Black


Edit-- sorry, each lot is 25 ft wide.

Looks more like 50, the houses must be 24-28.

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billb

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Black


Edit-- sorry, each lot is 25 ft wide.

Looks more like 50, the houses must be 24-28.

24-28 would be nice. The buildings are about 20-22 wide and those pictured happen to have unbuilt side lots. The distance between the outer buildings here is 75 feet.

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C(-)ris
The range will be an issue. The wireless cameras don't have the best wifi. Might work with an access point next door. Do you have power where you want to place the camera? Security spy is the best recording software. It will run on one of your macs and record the data. You can even set motion sensors and such.

I've tried Security Spy and it seems fine.
There's power in the building on the left but extension cords will be needed to get it to the upper level. Access point might be needed anyways to get wi-fi over there.

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New forum user map 8/2015: [www.zeemaps.com]

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Zoidberg

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Joseph C.
This may be a solution. I do not know how far the range is for the unit.

[www.dropcam.com]

That looks promising on a lot of levels. Can't seem to find a mention re/weather-proof'ness.

Looks nice; I think I could get the view I needed from inside maybe...
I see lots of IP cams on eBay and such with similar features at about 1/2 the price . . . would be nice to stay as far under $100/cam as possible,

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New forum user map 8/2015: [www.zeemaps.com]

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yeoman
I have five IPcams inside and outside including one some distance from the center of my property. I found I needed to extend the wi-fi range with an Airport Express but looking at your distance you might need two extensions. It's worth a try. The IPcams are mostly cheap'ish AXIS_M1011-W. Motion Images are ftp'd to my host and downloaded every 15mins (I like to use Yummy for my ftp client - set to delete from server after d/l).

Do you know the model of your cams?
Can you take a guess at their range, with/without obstructions?

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John B.
What part of "property A" do you need to monitor?

A wired camera with a long enough lens might get shots from your house as long as they're within the field of view.

Would be nice, but the front of my property is set back farther than the front of the property in need of monitoring, and need to see the front-- so the neighbor's house blocks the view.

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John B.

I don't really trust wireless cameras. Wireless performance is an issue. You still have to have power where you want to mount them. And the options for cameras (especially outdoor waterproof cameras) are much fewer than wired cameras.

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John B.
That's definitely what poking around the web suggests, which is why I'm trying to be careful to avoid an expensive/failed experiment.

If you're not expecting to catch them in the act, only collect evidence, you might look at some of those cameras designed for hunting/game trails that record to a self-contained flash memory card for later review. You could pole mount those around the house, perhaps with solar (or long-lasting battery) power.

Also, just a note from a guy with cameras around his commercial property. CSI shows lie. The police could care less about analyzing your video unless it contains images of a homicide. So if your video shot isn't tight enough to see enough of the person so that you or your neighbors can testify that "yes, that is Bob the kid from down the street" this might just be a feel-good exercise.

Actually, catching in the act would be good; we're talking about juveniles here, so there's not much the police would do if they got here in time, and this is Chicago and there are no consequences for property crimes except on a large scale (or rob someone with connections). So no illusions of presenting evidence in court...
What I need is twofold:
1) To know when there's trespassing I can at least build the expectation that the police are likely to show up
2) To be able to show a parent or two what their kids are up to (it's always the other kids). And get the word spread that they're being observed.

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OK, based on your followup...

Can you get wired internet access from your neighbor? (the house next to the one you want to watch)

Then, I did a search on "wired ip camera" on Amazon and got lots of hits for outdoor cameras with user reviews.

Since what you really want is a catch-in-the-act situation, you're going to be looking for a network camera that will alert you (probably via e-mail) when its motion detection is tripped. The second part to that is that you are going to have to mount it somewhere where there probably won't be motion in its field of view unless it's little Bobby the neighborhood vandal coming through. Motion detection in cameras is usually just a sensitivity adjustment in the camera picture, so if you have a wide shot, waiving camera branches (or their shadows) will set it off. If you have a fairly tight shot, you can cut down the detection sensitivity so that something person-size needs to be present to set it off.

you might consider putting a real (or fake) camera above the front door of property A, so anyone there can see it clearly.

[securitymall.auctivacommerce.com]



[securitymall.auctivacommerce.com]

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decay
you might consider putting a real (or fake) camera above the front door of property A, so anyone there can see it clearly.

I used to have one of those, but someone stole it.

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decay
you might consider putting a real (or fake) camera above the front door of property A, so anyone there can see it clearly.

[securitymall.auctivacommerce.com]



[securitymall.auctivacommerce.com]

Yeah, I bought a few of those, just need to put them up.

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New forum user map 8/2015: [www.zeemaps.com]

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John B.
OK, based on your followup...

Can you get wired internet access from your neighbor? (the house next to the one you want to watch)

Then, I did a search on "wired ip camera" on Amazon and got lots of hits for outdoor cameras with user reviews.

Since what you really want is a catch-in-the-act situation, you're going to be looking for a network camera that will alert you (probably via e-mail) when its motion detection is tripped. The second part to that is that you are going to have to mount it somewhere where there probably won't be motion in its field of view unless it's little Bobby the neighborhood vandal coming through. Motion detection in cameras is usually just a sensitivity adjustment in the camera picture, so if you have a wide shot, waiving camera branches (or their shadows) will set it off. If you have a fairly tight shot, you can cut down the detection sensitivity so that something person-size needs to be present to set it off.

I don't think motion detection and alerts are going to be an option- we're talking about a kind of busy sidewalk right in front of the house-- see images.

What do you mean by wired access from neighbor? As in use her network? What would be the advantage of that over running my own wire over there? (Which would be nice to avoid . . .)

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New forum user map 8/2015: [www.zeemaps.com]

Security spy will allow you to pick an area of the camera viewing area to monitor for movement and alert on that area only.

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Black


What do you mean by wired access from neighbor? As in use her network? What would be the advantage of that over running my own wire over there? (Which would be nice to avoid . . .)

That's the advantage...that you don't have to run your wire through her yard over to the other house.