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Posted: 5/19/2013 7:48:09 PM EDT
| I want to setup a new security system using a PC and IP cameras. All the cameras are going to be wired with ethernet cable running into a PoE switch that will be connected to the PC (the PC will only be used for the security system). I also want to hook the switch (which will only have cameras hooked up to it) into my house's main network so I can access live feed from my phone or another computer outside the house. So if I hook up the switch the cameras are using into my main network, will the traffic from the cameras then be going through the entire home network and slow it down? Or will the camera data only go through the home network when I am accessing it remotely? Is there a way to keep the camera traffic off the main home network unless it is being viewed remotely? |
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With a good router/switch combination, your home network wont even notice the cameras. I have eight ip cams on my home network, along with 13 other devices and I dont notice a problem at all. They are wired directly with ethernet cable into a Netgear 16 port switch then into a Netgear WNDR4500 router. Not ever a glitch that I have noticed.
<edit> I should mention, too, that I have access to all the cameras over my local and remote network via my Samsung Galaxylll which was upgraded from Motorola Atrix, using Neteye Camera app. Havent set up for access over the internet, however. |
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With a good router/switch combination, your home network wont even notice the cameras. I have eight ip cams on my home network, along with 13 other devices and I dont notice a problem at all. They are wired directly with ethernet cable into a Netgear 16 port switch then into a Netgear WNDR4500 router. Not ever a glitch that I have noticed. Thanks that's good to hear. I am looking at getting 3MP cameras but I only will have a maximum of 4 cameras. I have a newer Linksys E-4200 router so I'm sure it will be able to handle it no problem. |
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What cameras and software are you planning on getting? Do you already have the computer you want to use? I'm looking at these LTS 3MP cameras for $279: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16881381121 I'm waiting to find a good deal on a cheap PC tower that has a few extra hard drive bays. It will just be used for the cameras. I haven't decided on software yet but Blue Iris seems to be the best bang for the buck software out there. |
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I am brand new to this.......
I bought a NAS server for media, data storage, and IP camera security. http://www.amazon.com/Synology-DiskStation-Diskless-Attached-DS1512/dp/B007CFRF72/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1369115543&sr=8-10&keywords=synology+nas&tag=appmatic-20 I bought one indoor IP camera. I have yet to set it up and haven't figured it out yet. http://www.amazon.com/Foscam-FI9821W-Indoor-Wireless-Camera/dp/B00AJWK5WW/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1369115613&sr=8-9&keywords=foscam&tag=appmatic-20 I love this NAS server. You just plug it into the network and access it through a web interface. Stream videos to the television, Pandora to all my audio, remote backups. If I get it set up, security cam recordings. All remotely accessed as a personal cloud. |
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Quoted:
I also want to hook the switch (which will only have cameras hooked up to it) into my house's main network so I can access live feed from my phone or another computer outside the house. So if I hook up the switch the cameras are using into my main network, will the traffic from the cameras then be going through the entire home network and slow it down? Short answer, no. In ye olden days, network switches were very expensive and hubs were common. A "hub" would receive traffic on one port, and dumbly spit it back out on all other ports. A "switch" is smart enough to know which way the traffic needs to go on the way out, and won't dumbly bomb every other segment of the network with the traffic. Virtually every device sold these days is a switch. People sometimes refer to them as hubs, but they're really switches. If you have a network that looks like camera 1 part A of your networkthen the rest of the network generally won't be affected at all. Traffic from A to B shouldn't be bogged down, but might be if the switch is a cheap one. Better topography might be camera 1 part A of your networkif you're using inexpensive switches and have multiple cameras hanging off one. Not all 8-port 10/100/1000 switches are created equal. (In general though, switches with the built-in POE capability tend to be higher quality devices than the typical 8-port Belkin from Best Buy.) |
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If you're using a modern switch, and not a hub, you should be fine (as other posters have already pointed out).
Depending on how many cameras you decide to add, you might consider a 10/100/1000 PoE switch. A decent rack-mount model will provide EITHER 10/100 ethernet+power, or 10/100/1000 Ethernet without power. The reason it doesn't do gigabit and power simultaneously is because gigabit requires all four of the twisted pairs for data... where 10/100 only requires two of the twisted pairs, leaving the other two to deliver power. What a good 10/100/1000 PoE switch WILL do, however, is gather together all those 10/100 camera streams and deliver them down a single gigabit port to your NVR. I wouldn't trust a cheapo consumer-grade switch to do that... you're going to need a good server-room grade rackmount switch to deliver that functionality. Look for the terms "switching fabric" or "backplane" to see how much data the switch bus will handle. A gigabit PoE switch should easily gather a half-dozen megabit+PoE streams and deliver them down a gigabit port at wire speed. |
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What a good 10/100/1000 PoE switch WILL do, however, is gather together all those 10/100 camera streams and deliver them down a single gigabit port to your NVR. I wouldn't trust a cheapo consumer-grade switch to do that... you're going to need a good server-room grade rackmount switch to deliver that functionality. +1 I wound up with a HP ProCurve J9137A ... cost about $300 a couple years ago. 8 100 mbit POE ports, and two gigabit uplinks. One gigabit port goes to the camera server and the other to the rest of the network. It does nicely. This is not an area where you want to cheap out with a $50 part. A cheap switch might say "8 10/100 POE port" on the box, but it might not have the guts to push data on all 8 ports at once, or power 8 POE devices at once. |
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Networks are designed to "flow" like water or electricity. It takes the shortest path (or least resistance). So your camera traffic shouldn't bog down or mess with your regular network traffic.
You can get a rack mount zyxel switch with poe for under $100. Dahua IP cameras come in 1.3, 2, and 3mp varieties. Dome and bullet, with or without IR. The 1.3mp bullet cams with IR can be had for ~$150 shipped, I've seen the 2mp at around $250. I'm pretty sure they all have multi-zone location sensing and privacy if you need it. Dahua's 8 channel NVR can be had for around $250, and you put in your own harddrive. The Dahua firmware can sometimes be flaky, but if you buy from a US reseller they'll usually give you the latest updates so you don't have issues. The web browser interface doesn't work that well, and pretty much only works in IE, but you can use other apps to access the camera streams. Using dyndns and port-forwarding in your router will give you access to the cameras externally. You can use an app like IP Cam Viewer. |
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