What a nightmare
Goal: A video surveilance system for my home that would be adequate for a small business.
Requirements: Capture events and record snapshots at set times. Feed live video to my website.
1. (LINK) 2. Setup HHTS System and feed I spent about $600(wholesale) on a PC board and 4 cameras $550 on a bare-bones PC with Windows XP Pro
1st discovery: I needed motion sensing lights so that I would be able to record at night.
$200 bucks needed and worth it but unplanned
2nd Discovery: The PC board was 'best suited' for Intel, my bare-bones AMD worked but needed a few tweaks. "Hello Tech Support"
3rd Discovery: The PC board software was crapware. Just my opinion that if I'm logged in to the PC and logged in to the CCTV Software, I shouldn't have to log in to every screen I faced as I configure the system...
4th Discovery: The crapware strikes again, Unless I partitioned my hard drive, said crapware would consume 100% of my drive space (a subsequent version fixed this issue) so I added a 40 GB drive and dedicated it exclusively to Video Storage.
5th Discovery: Crapware was rebooting my PC at odd times but I didn't know it was the CCTV software. Ya, I should have suspected it but that loggin to every screen made it tedious to set it up.
6th: Two of the cameras were putting out awful feeds, moisture was leaking in => Replaced under warranty
7th: Getting the feed to go to my website proved to be another nightmare. Suffice to say that getting the correct ports open and your firewall setup corrrectly is a must.
8th: After all that, I have a surveilance system. NOT A SECURITY SYSTEMI'm looking at better cameras and have another PC Board to try...
Please stay tuned...
