New Home Network

[WrathofKhan]

Hello All,

I'm moving to a new house that comes equipped with Quantum Fiber. The fiber comes into the house in the garage. There's a fiber to copper converter/modem in the garage too. I want to setup some cameras inside the house (including baby monitors) to keep an eye on the kids and a camera doorbell. I'm using Ring right now, but I would prefer a PoE solution for reliability and not pay for a subscription. I've looked into using Ubiquiti, but they're expensive. Tplink Omada looks like a good solution, for the network, but it doesn't seem to integrate with their Tapo cameras as nicely. Any suggestions? I'm trying to find a balance between cost and having to DIY everything.

[Electronics Wizardy]

How much is Ubiquiti? There price generally is pretty good on their lower end units. 

 

Maybe make a network diagram to see better what your planning on doing here?

[WrathofKhan]

I've seen ubiquity setups start around $500 to $600 for just the network gear, not including cameras. 

 

 

[ieleja]

Ubiquity switch with 16 PoE looks bit expensive:

https://store.ui.com/us/en/search?search=USW-24-POE

 

but TP-Link for me don't look as great alternative

[whispous]

Something to keep in mind is - if you want no subscription for cameras, you'll be needing some form of central control and storage for the cameras, not just the cameras themselves.

[WrathofKhan]

That is one of the appeals of something like the Dream Machine from Ubiquiti. It has a built-in NVME slot to handle video storage.

[LIGISTX]

The real question is how do it yourself-er are you?

 

I run a full UniFi network, but for cameras I do it all on the cheap. I run hikvision, amcrest, and reolink PoE cameras (figured I’d try a few different things since they are all cheap), and the NVR is frigate. Frigate is free, and it’s awesome. But this isn’t a plug it in and it just work solution. It isn’t difficult, and LOTS of online guides, but that is my solution and it works well. I store the video feeds to an NFS mount within my TrueNAS array and host fridge on its own little Intel NUC. All of the camera stuff is on its own very walled off subnet (set up via vlans). 

[Falcon1986]

Ubiquiti is having a sale on some of their products for Black Friday. Can check out to see if something you're interested in is on discount.

 

FWIW, I use Eufy cameras and have found them to be adequate for just basic home monitoring without subscription fees. I think they have PoE versions but in all-in-one NVR packages.

[WrathofKhan]

I'm traditionally a DIYer, but these days I have less time, so I wouldn't mind some DIY, but I don't think I have the time to do a completely DIY solution.

 

Is it worth setting up a DIY NAS or NVR for just a doorbell camera? I want to add outside cameras eventually. The interior cameras don't need to record. I would like baby cameras as part of the setup, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.

[LIGISTX]

10 hours ago, WrathofKhan said:

I'm traditionally a DIYer, but these days I have less time, so I wouldn't mind some DIY, but I don't think I have the time to do a completely DIY solution.

 

Is it worth setting up a DIY NAS or NVR for just a doorbell camera? I want to add outside cameras eventually. The interior cameras don't need to record. I would like baby cameras as part of the setup, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.

UniFi is a great option imo. It’ll solve both the networking and the NVR all in one, and it’d genuinely a great piece of kit. 
 

For years ran a pfsense firewall (which is also the router) and it was great from a security, segmentation, and tinkering perspective; I learned lots. I used unifi gear for all my networking such as switches and AP’s. But now that uniti’s gateways are solid I have fully switched, and not just myself…. My family now all runs unifi since I admin all their tech stuff anyways, multiple friends who used to run pfsense have also made the switch to unifi as well. Their stuff is genuinely great, and I am quite happy with it. I don’t run their NVR since I do my own DIY thing, but I have 0 reason to believe their stuff wouldn’t be worth it. 

[WrathofKhan]

https://store.ui.com/us/en/category/cloud-gateways-compact/collections/cloud-gateway-max/products/ucg-max

 

I think this is just what the doctor ordered. Thanks everyone! Thank you Falcon1986 for the link to the Black Friday deals!

19 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

Ubiquiti is having a sale on some of their products for Black Friday. Can check out to see if something you're interested in is on discount.

 

FWIW, I use Eufy cameras and have found them to be adequate for just basic home monitoring without subscription fees. I think they have PoE versions but in all-in-one NVR packages.