Home security, cameras etc recommendations

[bikemutt]

My wife and I have been talking the talk for too long now about getting some sort of a home security system.

Since I'm close to retirement I'm generally reluctant to add any new monthly charges.

I live in a good neighborhood with trustworthy neighbors, I'd prefer to be notified and call one of them, and the cops, than having a SWAT team show up because a squirrel chewed on a wire.

Recommendations gladly accepted

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[vadgru]

As far as security systems I have no experience with those. I have played around with enough home camera systems to have a personal opinion on those. If your looking for simple setup with best quality and recording protection and easy plug and play. NEST cameras come to mind BUT they are expensive to run monthly. The best benefit from them is 24/7 recording to the cloud and you can review everything that happened that day not just what the camera decided was worth saving. Truly wireless systems like Arlo have bad video quality and have a delay between when the motion sensor triggers record and by the actual recording starts (camera needs time to wakeup from sleeping mode). Too slow in my opinion.

The best would be a stand alone camera system with NVR at your home that records 24/7 with high quality Ethernet POE cameras. No monthly charges, highest camera quality with all the phone app support.
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[Oregonhunter5]

German Sheperd

 

[NW Backpacker]

Investigate Simplisafe systems. All wireless, easy to install yourself. If you want monitoring, cost is reasonable.

SimpliSafe Home Security Systems | Wireless Home Security Alarms

Shop award-winning home security systems from SimpliSafe. Professional monitoring, protection from break-ins and hazards, and no contracts.

simplisafe.com

 

[E4mafia]

I use a RING camera, not much bigger than a soda can and is under $200 working off your wifi. Can even be sent to your phone.

Built in night vision, motion alerts, microphone and records when not viewing. Stores it to the cloud system. The app with it allows you monitor crimes up to a 25 mile radius of where you live based on others using the RING to upload to something akin to twitter but for security reasons.

$3 a month gives you access to unlimited recordings otherwise you can just do the free 3 month trial. I'd say avoid the pro option if you decide to buy in since it allows someone to monitor it besides you. (professionally they claim)

You could also do the classic and time your lights to go on an off at random through the night and put pad locks on things you want left closed.

 

[oa98pistol512]

For at home nothing beats a dog. as a alarm

 

[CoastRange57]

I had Simpli Safe in our house in the valley and was very happy with that. About $ 500 total hardware and $ 25.99 a month for monitoring. Remote control and all. They have upgraded a lot since I discontinued it when we moved to Central Oregon 6 months ago. I will probably reinstall it in our new house, but we really are reasonably remote in an area that only has 2 ways in or out of it, and very little crime.

I do want some cameras and a driveway alarm, but the 6 point buck mule deer keep setting my sons off. Right now, at my sons place where we are living while our house is finished we have 4 legged protection in the form of a pit bull who is as loveable as they come to family and friends, but she don't care much for strangers. Other grand dog is around a lot, GSD. Not going to have intruder problems with either of them around.

 

[vadgru]

I seem to remember someone selling some pretty healthy looking Doberman puppies here on this site.. great dogs. Couple of my friends have them. Very friendly and playful with family and friends. Cautious around strangers but just the looks of one is very intimidating. I know I'd think twice before wanting to confront even a friendly looking one

 

[bikemutt]

We have a couple dogs, they are unbeatable alarms as long as we are home, they are friendly enough though they'd probably show the crooks where the good stuff is

All good ideas so far, thanks!

 

[Member 34319]

Simplisafe has everything for low prices. As does ring. Ring is only $10 a month or $100 a year currently which I want to say is the current cheapest for monitored alarm and unlimited cloud based recording of video.

Arlo is probably the best free cloud based video recording camera system.

 

[Member 34319]

Hit me up if you are interested in a self monitored alarm. I have all the components for one I no longer use. I tried selling it with zero interest so I'll cut you a hell of a deal.

iSmartAlarm - The Leader in DIY Smart Home Security

iSmartAlarm home security system features easy DIY installation with no monthly fees or contracts.

www.ismartalarm.com

I have a iSmart Alarm system that is self monitored so it has zero monthly or annual fees. It only makes a electronic generated call to a set up phone number letting you know something was tripped. I have one camera that starts recording once tripped, a motion sensor, bunch of door/window sensors and various do dads for it.

 

[titsonritz]

 

[Alexx1401]

Another vote for Simplisafe. I had thought about it many years. We had a family member who was disables living with us so place was never alone. When they passed I kept thinking about it. Bought a camera system that can be set to alert me by phone was only $100 and nothing monthly. Then co worker got hit one night while at work. Made me order one up. The name is on the money. I don't know how it could be easier. Plug in the base and it tells you what to do step by step. I opted for the full boat of $25 a month. Monitoring and I can see and control it all from our phones. Nice parts are we can change any of it at any time. If we move the whole works just moved with us. As soon as I did it I thought I should have done this years ago. I can even set it to not use the motion detectors, just doors, so when I am at work and Wife is alone we can arm it. If someone comes in it will go off. No one could do so without the dogs going off but still nice to have it for her when I am away all night.

 

[CoastRange57]

My whole Simpli Safe set up is in a plastic tub ready to install at our new place. I too also used to delete the motion aspect of it because the German Shepards tail would set it off when she jumped up on the couch when we were gone.

I even had it in my shop which was about 50 feet away outside the house and it worked fine even through the walls.

 

[Member 52301]

German Shepherd dog. Female dog.

One or two dogs in your home. Female dogs.

GS - pure bred.

GS - almost all GS with a bit of Collie in it.

Samoyed - pure bred.

Cocker Spaniel - pure bred. (Solid black or solid red colors.)

Be sure that you know what you are getting IF you choose to adopt a pound puppy dog. The background of the puppy and especially what breed it is or what MIX it is if it is a combination dog. I have had a few dogs from the dog pound shelter in my former state but I knew their background and breed even if they were a mixed breed.

There are some dogs and specific BREEDS (Full or mixed!) that I would NEVER ever adopt! Period.

My late parents had German Shepherds, a GS with a bit of collie mix - pound puppy and during WW2 before I was born and right after I was born - a solid black Cocker Spaniel. My late Mom bred the female, black CS dog. One litter.

I am VERY biased when it comes to good, well bred, female dogs, their protection ability and INSTINCT.

My late husband had a large, beautiful, smart, male German Shepherd several years before I met him too.

Schutzhund!

That GS dog understood complete German and English commands.

My late husband was fluent in German - it was his first language, his second language was English - he learned it here - stateside in the summer of 1953 as a child when he came to the USA legally, he was fluent in French and Latin too.

My late husband was all over the world including Vietnam. USN Vietnam Veteran. (Later on, Air NG Fighter Wing and a non .gov job too.) When he came home from overseas and when I met his dog and last alive aka remaining OLD Aunt - that dog NEVER forgot him. The dog was okay with me, he obeyed ME, he was bigger than me, but he was ALWAYS my late husband's dog no matter how far apart they were or how long they lived apart!

When I moved to my late husband's home state with him after his USN time, after my late Mom died of cancer in MD, and after we built our house in farm/lake country, my late husband bred his male GS, Rex, to my GS, Dutchess. They had beautiful and smart puppies too!

I have only owned one male dog in my life. He was a surprise gift to me. Kelly was a pure bred, Virginia born, red haired, Cocker Spaniel puppy. He was VERY protective of me too.

My older brother in Maryland had a security system installed in his nice house in a nice neighborhood in the late 80's or early 90's. I believe that he used ADT. I am pretty sure that he still has a security system of some type in his home too. He and his wife travel out of the country on and off even though he is old (78 years old.) and has some health issues.

I personally called 2 places here in MT after I built this house (College town.) out of the blue and one LOCAL place told me that their call center was in NC! I called a LOCAL company and they used a NC call center! They did not have 1 call center in the entire state of Montana! I could not believe it and I have NO clue what that company uses now or if they still offer that deal.

Companies keep saying that they are all about MT or some other state, if you live there, but most of the time they do NOT offer a product that is HOME GROWN or HOME BASED or offers JOBS to the citizens of their state.
But they show pretty pictures of scenery and BOAST about MT or some other state, if you live there, while they OUTSOURCE their products and services!

German Shepherd Dog or dogs and a family that pays attention to their surroundings! Hopefully you will have a neighbor that keeps a look out for you too. Vice versa.

You can live in a very expensive area in a so called NICE AREA in town or in the boonies and still be a victim of a home invasion or robbery or murder while you are home.

You can be a victim of an ATTEMPTED robbery or home invasion while you are not home, broad daylight, but your GS dog will get the bad guy - criminal. Been there - done that while my late husband and I were at work in the city and when our VERY rural, newly built, large brick house with a large garage and our routine/work schedule was watched. GREAT LAKES REGION - 2.5 miles away from a tiny, safe village. We had a attempted break in, it happened in our breezeway but he never got INTO the house or garage because our female GS nailed his butt. He was caught down the road. OLD posts of mine here. He did the same thing to other people in our area - farms, homesteads, barns, new and older homes and in some rural businesses.

My GS dog alerted me at another time when my late husband was overseas. OLD posts here. I NEVER heard the car pull up and turn off their lights - 2 men inside - extremely close to my garage. I had my radio on in the house (Den.) and SHE ALERTED ME big time @ 1:15 AM.

Cate
Typos and added more.

 

[Certaindeaf]

I loaded up my squirrel feeder with wire and since then, no chewed wires.

 

[Member 34319]

All you folks recommending dog breeds for home security are funny.

The best home security dog available is a tiny Chihuahua.

 

[bikemutt]

All you folks recommending dog breeds for home security are funny.

The best home security dog available is a tiny Chihuahua.

At one point my sister had 6, count 'em 6, dachshunds

You couldn't get within half a mile of her place before those little suckers sounded off.

 

[Alexx1401]

All you folks recommending dog breeds for home security are funny.

The best home security dog available is a tiny Chihuahua.

If someone just wants the dog to sound the alarm when someone is there the one we have is sure great at that. She is Chihuahua and Pom. She seems to have amazing hearing. I have tried to sneak in and fool her and it's almost impossible. She is always the first one to catch me coming in. Those ears seem to work
Of course her being 4 pounds all she is good for is noise when it comes to protection

 

[TDH]

As an alternative to SimpliSafe check out Abode as well, goabode.com - they are having a black Friday sale right now. In addition to full time monitoring, you can 'self' monitor, and switch to real monitoring only when you need it. You can add sensors as needed, it was really easy to install, and has some nice automation features. Depending if you want wires or not for cameras, I've used Blink cameras in the past with good results. They are wifi, so no wires to run.

good luck!