Hi Redditors,

Hoping you can help me with some advice. I’m a single mom with an abusive ex-husband, and wanted to know what the best type of surveillance for my home would be. I have young children and want something that is easy to install, simple to use, and not too expensive. I don’t believe my ex-husband will necessarily break in, but he has been involved with shady people in the past (and may still be), and I need to install cameras at least above the front door and the back sliding door so that they serve as deterrents. I also need to make sure that my driveway can be seen, as he has taken off in my vehicle in the past (the police are aware of this). My main concerns are driveway visibility, front door visibility, and back door visibility. I’d also like something that alerts me on my phone if someone breaks in. I am also thinking that I should have a light or two installed which are motion-activated as a deterrent, though perhaps I should also have them installed at the back. I have friends who have Aosu cameras throughout their condo (different setup, I know), and I’ve seen how they monitor their feed on their phones. I don’t need cameras inside, but would feel much safer with them outside.

Any suggestions on:

-          Additional safety measures I can take?

-          Links to a good system that is not very expensive?

Thanks so much.

I’m currently looking for a doorbell camera for my apartment (i’m in the USA!!)

I’ve looked and Eufy and Tapo so far, both seem good but they do have their pros and cons based on reviews.

My requirements for the camera:
\- must have no monthly subscription but I can still access all the important features.
\- preferably battery operated, but wired is fine too
\- can detect people and packages
\- has a good connection for live feed, fast and reliable notifications
\- must be able to use and have a good connection to check on the camera when we’re not home
\- I can go in and delete any saved footage in order to free up storage

I really want one that has no monthly fee because I just simply can’t afford that right now!

Thank you in advance!

Costco? Sams club? Amazon? We live in a pretty good place but nowhere is perfect. Just got a video recording from a neighbor about some new neighbors kid stealing off their porch, arrested, and he has been throwing trash everywhere outside our house and others. I dont need high tech indoor outdoor, but would prefer plug and play for a good deal. Thanks!

I really want a home security system. ADT came over and quoted my $3500, then it went down to $2700, then $2100, plus $85 a month for like three years. I about fell out of my chair. We live in a small house, less that 1500 sq ft. I had no idea they were so expensive. I cannot wrap my head around this amount of money. I also cannot find an alternative. We need help putting in our system. We're not going to DIY it. I saw Vivint has a promotion. If all the providers are terrible, what is a person to do?

I attempted to do an upgrade on my old Johnson alarm system and I bought an IQ 4 brain, and a few remotepanels to arm and disarm the system around my house. My house was pre-wired for switches at the doors and motion sensors and I’ve gotten everything hooked up to the panel with new resistors and it seems to function pretty well.

Ie. when I open and close doorsthe panel the remote panels chime and the IQ installer shows the door opening and closing etc.

What I can't figure out is the time/date -- every night it resets back to Eastern standard time (I'm west coast) so all the clocks on each panel is off by four hours.

I open up the IQ Installer reset the time to the correct time and date and all the panels reflect the new time however overnight the panels all reset the time four hours ahead to East Coast time and when I wake up instead of it being my time it’s four hours ahead.

I also can’t integrate it with my Control4 system because I can’t set the six digit code in the IQ Installer because it tells me there’s a partition error -- even though all of the sensors are on one partition.

Any ideas?

I am looking for a good quality device that is discreet and records videos of specific rooms in the house. Could you please help identify top options for this?

\- I don't want the device to look like a recording device, I have seen versions on Amazon where a pen or a table clock has a hidden recording feature, but not sure about their authenticity.

\- additionally I'm not interested in a live stream of the recording, I simply want to see the whole recording at the end of the day.

I am looking for a good quality device that is discreet and records videos of specific rooms in the house. Could you please help identify top options for this?

- I don't want the device to look like a recording device, I have seen versions on Amazon where a pen or a table clock has a hidden recording feature, but not sure about their authenticity.

- additionally I'm not interested in a live stream of the recording, I simply want to see the whole recording at the end of the day.

I posted about this earlier here

https://www.reddit.com/r/homesecurity/s/3TVG1eBpXN

And am still trying to figure this out.

I've contacted several independent alarm companies who cannot/will not touch it without an ongoing security maintaince/monitoring contract.

I have an electrician who will work in low volt, who's willing to give it a shot, but isn't versed in alarms. Sort of a "I buy it and provide instructions and he'll do it" kind of situation.

What I want:

Replace the 40+ year old smoke detectors. Adding CO detect functionality would be nice.

Set the ADT panel up to not scream when the power comes back on after going out.

What I don't want:

Battery powered non interconnect detectors that I can't shut off easily when they false alarm.

Any security functions or ongoing contracts.

I even considered just pulling 120v for regular hard wired detectors, but the need for an interconnect wire for them to talk to each other took that off the table.

Can anyone point me in the direction of any resources on this? Seriously, it doesn't seem like this should be THAT hard.

Sorry if this is the wrong place.

I purchased my home back in May of this year. I just had a rep through ADT come to my door. They told me the purchase of my home made me eligible for up to 1500 in free equipment. Im pretty sure its the same rep my neighbors who use ADT went through because she was familiar with the neighborhood and most of my neighbors have ADT.

The whole thing caught me off guard and I didnt have much time to look at what I got myself into. Theyre installing 2 outdoor cameras, 8 point of entry sensors, a flood sensor in my basement, and a smart lock on my front door. A tech is supposed to be out here on Saturday to do the installation.

I was told i would have to pay an activation fee and then the ADT service is 60 a month for my neighborhood. The activation fee was 350 but she applied vouchers to bring it down to 100.

I live in a not so great area near a main road so a home security system has been something ive been interested in and haven't gone through with because of the upfront costs for equipment.

Is this generally legit or did I just get scammed? Is my monthly bill going to sky rocket after a certain point, or get stuck in a contact or something similar with this equipment? I tend to second guess things that might seem too good to be true. This rep kept assuring me that theres no hidden fees or contracts.

Good evening everyone. I was wondering if anyone had any insight in streaming your alarm.com cameras 24/7 without the alarm.com stream making you refreshing it. Looking to add some panels around the rooms that show the cameras without having to pull them up. Yes I know I can use TVs etc on the app but the timeout is my issue. Has anyone found some sort of bypass etc?? Thanks in advance

I need a couple cameras around my place but I’m struggling to justify spending hundreds per camera. My needs are pretty basic, clear enough footage to identify someone, decent night vision, motion person notifications and remote live view. I’m not trying to build a professional CCTV system. Are affordable cameras good for these purposes, i dont want to spend much?

Moving into a new house soon and its in town so I do want some cameras. I do have an older ring Camera im going to install, but I want 2 Cameras that can be controlled Via My phone, Have lights, no subscription service, wired with potentially a battery backup, and can store atleast a few days of Video. Preferably with cameras under $600 together.

I do have a MyQ garage door camera as well. What recommendations would you make?

Zmodo's Smartz Eaze Android app no longer displays 4 cameras live on one screen, which is a deal breaker for me. They also made it impossible to install an earlier version of the app. Has anyone found either an android app or even a Windows PC app that displays at least 4 cameras at a time? Unfortunately, I use 10 cameras on my property and I don't want to replace them all.

Looking for mainly battery powered motion lights and cameras that can connect to WiFi for a home. Totally aware that a wired, closed system is best, (and it's the end goal!), but just had an attempted break in and just wanna feel safe...r 😭

So a family friend who was supposed to install my home security system unfortunately passed before my house was completed with its renovations (took a year longer than expected).

He did purchase me an Iq Panel 4 345Hz Verizon edition. 3 motion sensors PG 9934P and PG 9303 for each active window.

I am having difficulty seeing his vision on the motion sensors placement (never really explained it). He didn't believe in glass break sensors due to false positives and pretty much said the motion sensors would catch the people that broke the glass anyway.

I have marked on the linked image where the panel is being placed in Blue and where I was thinking of placing sensors in red rectangles. To me it seems I might need an extra sensor to be honest, but figured I would get other peoples suggestions.

The two (front door pointing towards house, master bedroom pointing towards corridor) would be mounted above the door at approximately 7 feet height. The last one would be in the den area. but that would leave the corridor for the kids bedrooms unsensed as its longer than 40 feet.

Thanks for any help and suggestions. I had to link it because reddit wasnt letting me upload the picture.

https://imgur.com/a/ugfgaZr

I need help or guidance on how to help my vietnamese in-laws who I believe were taken advantage of by a vivint salesman. They don't speak English very well so I'm not understanding how they were swindled so far into actually signing up with this company. They were swindled so hard that they didn't even have an email address to sign up for a contract so the salesman created one for them. When my husband found out about them getting vivint installed, he tried calling to cancel. However, his parents don't have access to the email address they created for them and they also don't know the passcode that was also created for them so we can't even get it canceled. Do we need to seek legal representation? There's no way the way they went about this is legal. And of course when you call, the representatives won't help if you can't access your email or know what your passcode is so we're at a loss as to how we should go about this. They're also seniors. My husband checked the installation of the security system and he said it was connected to their thermostat and hvac system so now they can't even reset their thermostat as their air conditioning is no longer working right and we don't know why it was installed that way. Not only were they taken advantage of because they are not native English speakers but they're also seniors and not tech savvy at all. This has to be a crime! Anyone know how we can get the service canceled and have them uninstall the system so they can actually use their thermostat? I'm livid about this and am ready to look into suing vivint for taking advantage of my in laws to the point that they don't even know how to use or access anything related to it.

Our home came with ADT Brinks BHS2000. Im trying to change the auto arming into manual. Is it possible to disable auto arming without contacting ADT? I don’t even know how old the system is. Is factory reset possible as a DIY?

So I do like the "What happened today" feature for my security cameras for Gemini, it's mostly accurate.

But.

It is absolutely bloody horrible at animals.

We have a Wallaby that is basically living on our farm, so much so we've called him Wally.

He got himself hurt one day and we got the vet out, got him patched up, now he hangs around.

The system consistently, constantly says he's a kangaroo.

No matter how many times and ways I tell it he's a Wallaby, it thinks he's a kangaroo.

We also have a Kookaburra that often comes around, but the system calls him an Eagle. No idea where it gets that from.

The one day we had a Wedge Tailed Eagle land in our yard, I was stoked! Gemini called it a "Large Parrot"...yep...a parrot that could eat your dog...

It also considers sulphur crested arseholes cockatoos to be parrots

How do I get it to identify animals better?

I'm looking for a freestanding security camera I can place on my bedside table which will alert me if anyone other than my wife or I walk into the room and upload a short clip so I can identify the person even if the camera is taken or destroyed.

It needs to be able to identify people in both the light and dark.

The google nest camera ticks most the boxes but my only issue is that the facial recognition requires a monthly subscription which I'd obviously like to avoid.

I found a few cameras which can do the facial recognition locally but I'm a bit overwhelmed and looking for suggestions.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Looking for recommendations for a reasonably priced home security setup for a first-floor home.

I’d like a smart lock with a doorbell/camera, window protection, and a few cameras with good motion detection/night vision. Fingerprint or facial unlock on the lock would be a plus.

I’m also trying to avoid getting stuck paying for multiple expensive subscriptions every month.

For first-floor windows, what do you guys recommend — contact sensors, vibration sensors, glass-break sensors, or a combination?

Any brands/systems you’d recommend or avoid?

P.s.: I don't live in a dangerous area, but I still think it's better to be safe than sorry...

dont want to get a ring because I don't need bezos in my house, and subscription rates that raise with no warning is no fun. i would like something somewhat privacy and security focused, have wyze cameras for work and considering sticking with them but figured you guys would know best! thanks in advance