This is why you should never trust some other company with your own surveillance needs. There are plenty of camera + software combinations that can do TCP/IP stuff and you can tinker with it yourself and set it up on your own apache server.
I am sure someone will post with OSS software solutions.
Aside from that, how many people really need web-enabled surveillance? Just record it to HD or have it monitored live in closed-circuit fashion.
I work with IP video surveillance (among other things) for a living.
This is a good example of why you SHOULD trust some other company. Chances are that company knows more than you do about setting up a system. Choosing the right people to work with is obviously important. I wouldn't trust myself to set up an alarm system for my offices, I would hire someone who knew what they were doing.
Most of the good cameras out there have built-in webservers. Sending motion JPEG over a network from the embedded webs
Funny thing about that though. When other people start knowing your work, they also know what you miss. The company you choose may leave one seemingly insignificant hole open all the time, and someone like me will come through and exploit it in every one of their customers installations..
That's annoying for Internet stuff. That's costly for alarm systems. We'll use your office alarm system as an example. I may know that an installer doesn't thing twice about maintaince closets, bathrooms, or drop ceiling crawl spaces. So I enter one business through the bathroom, get into the crawlspace, disable the alarm from the wires very nicely run up into the ceiling, and away goes the alarm. Then I do it to another business. And another..
Or, I've installed the alarm myself. Because it's my business I'm securing, I go all out putting motion sensors in every room and space. Anywhere there's a potential hole in the concrete. I put sensors on every door and window. I give it a cell phone notification backup. I get it hooked up with a 24 hour response company, plus have it page me.
Who's place is going to be harder to break into? Yours, where a company did it, or mine?
Yours is one of the pre-built boxes or cameras that are now being featured in the parent story. Mine is running quietly in my office, and the cameras haven't been slashdotted.
But you're making the huge assumption that you know more than a security company does about installing an alarm. If that's the case, then by all means doing it yourself is the way to go. Most people don't.
Obviously if you can do a better job yourself than another company can, you should. But it's just hubris to think that doing anything yourself will result in a better system than something professional.
I'm saying that it's security through obscurity. If they find a flaw the company does on every installation, then that same flaw will be present in my house. For example, a common passcode that disables the alarm system, or like I used in my previous example, the fact that they always skip a particular room or area. That wouldn't be present in my own installation. Home security isn't rocket science. I won't say anyone can do it, but if you really think about it, it's not very hard. What are the po
Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code.
-- Dave Olson
Run your own surveillance (Score:2, Interesting)
I am sure someone will post with OSS software solutions.
Aside from that, how many people really need web-enabled surveillance? Just record it to HD or have it monitored live in closed-circuit fashion.
Brushfireb
Re:Run your own surveillance (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a good example of why you SHOULD trust some other company. Chances are that company knows more than you do about setting up a system. Choosing the right people to work with is obviously important. I wouldn't trust myself to set up an alarm system for my offices, I would hire someone who knew what they were doing.
Most of the good cameras out there have built-in webservers. Sending motion JPEG over a network from the embedded webs
Re:Run your own surveillance (Score:2)
Funny thing about that though. When other people start knowing your work, they also know what you miss. The company you choose may leave one seemingly insignificant hole open all the time, and someone like me will come through and exploit it in every one of their customers installations..
That's annoying for Internet stuff. That's costly for alarm systems. We'll use your office alarm system as an example. I may know that an installer doesn't thing twice about maintaince closets, bathrooms, or drop ceiling crawl spaces. So I enter one business through the bathroom, get into the crawlspace, disable the alarm from the wires very nicely run up into the ceiling, and away goes the alarm. Then I do it to another business. And another..
Or, I've installed the alarm myself. Because it's my business I'm securing, I go all out putting motion sensors in every room and space. Anywhere there's a potential hole in the concrete. I put sensors on every door and window. I give it a cell phone notification backup. I get it hooked up with a 24 hour response company, plus have it page me.
Who's place is going to be harder to break into? Yours, where a company did it, or mine?
Yours is one of the pre-built boxes or cameras that are now being featured in the parent story. Mine is running quietly in my office, and the cameras haven't been slashdotted.
Re:Run your own surveillance (Score:2)
Obviously if you can do a better job yourself than another company can, you should. But it's just hubris to think that doing anything yourself will result in a better system than something professional.
Re:Run your own surveillance (Score:2)
I'm saying that it's security through obscurity. If they find a flaw the company does on every installation, then that same flaw will be present in my house. For example, a common passcode that disables the alarm system, or like I used in my previous example, the fact that they always skip a particular room or area. That wouldn't be present in my own installation. Home security isn't rocket science. I won't say anyone can do it, but if you really think about it, it's not very hard. What are the po