Home security cameras and alarms

Supersonos

We have security cameras that can't be viewed online and a Banham alarm, but I'm wondering if there's a more modern solution to home security.

If our alarm is triggered, it makes a noise and someone at Banham calls me to tell me the alarm has been activated. They can't tell me how or why, so the two times it has happened, you just panic that something's going on but you don't know what. And all for £350 per year.

Does anyone make a good home security system that can connect to my phone? I know you can get online cameras, but they're not the best for knowing that someone has tried to break in or is sitting in your lounge.

markin

Thats the point of them, they detect motion and send you an alert, when home you turn the alert off on the app.

Disjoint

I fitted the Yale Home Security System.
It came with two motion sensors and one sensor to check if the door gets broken into - then a nice alarm to put on the facade. I control everything from my phone. It works well as one motion detector at the back + one motion detector at the front room and then for the front door. I get the entire ground floor covered.

Their instructions to install it are really sh.t however, I went on youtube and some guy was fitting it on his house and I just followed what he was doing.

It cost me GBP 300.00 and the key thing was that I did not want any stupid contract with Banham locking me in - that's the one: https://www.screwfix.com/p/yale-smart-home-alarm-kit/9070r

Apparently their customer service is appalling, so make sure you know how to do basic DIY. But honestly, it was really easy to install following the youtube video, as long as you know how to make a hole in the wall you should be fine.

You can add cameras and all sorts of other bells and whistles to the system and supposedly it's easy to install. I didn't really care, but you could add a camera to your front door so that you know what's up.

For me instead of calling Banham it warns me straight on my phone and I decide what to do with it. I am really happy with the system, the app has been updated and is a bit more intuitive as well.

Chanes

We fitted Blink cameras which work fine and are subscription free! And then we put a Ring on the front which has a small subscription fee. People who have seen the set up have bought Blink camera's, they set up easy and we have had them installed for more than two years and haven't had to change any batteries!

neilmcl

Blink XT or Arlo Pro.

Supersonos

I still don't feel comfortable about just using cameras - they detect motion but, unlike a security system, there's no way (I believe) of telling them you're supposed to be home. So every time my wife walks in the lounge, I'd get a notification saying movement has been detected.

Is that correct?

neilmcl

Supersonos wrote: »

I still don't feel comfortable about just using cameras - they detect motion but, unlike a security system, there's no way (I believe) of telling them you're supposed to be home. So every time my wife walks in the lounge, I'd get a notification saying movement has been detected.

Is that correct?

You/your wife can arm/disarm motion detection as required from your phone.

You should go and look at the user guides for these various camera systems to ses what they do and if they satisfy your requirements.

ashe

We have two Nest security cameras, the outdoor IQ ones. One covers our driveway which come sfrm back of the house up to our double garage, and one covers the front garden and front door. At some point we will add one for the back garden too.

Image quality is very good, we get alerts when movements or people are detected, sounds we turned off else you get every car or gust of wind. It has facial recognition so you get told who it has seen when its someone it recognises. we can talk to them two-way via the mobile app, great for deliveries etc.

If you have indoor cameras, you can disable them when you are home as it will know if your phones are on the network/geofenced. we leave outdoors ones on all the time.

GarethSutherland

Be cautious of moving to a new WiFi security camera, especially indoor ones. Every week there's a new story about them being vulnerable to hackers. There was one today about a computer scientist who found security flaws in Nest, Ring and Simplisafes' cameras, as well as other brands'.

My recommendation: get outdoor security cameras and a sensor-based alarm for the inside. Your privacy is protected, and your home's still a fortress.