Security/surveillance camera & compatible software

[D800]

I want to get a couple of security cameras to monitor my home and connect them to my MX Linux 17 box.
I am open to wired or wireless connections (however, I prefer the most secure connection). Is a Linux security cam easy to hack??

With that said, I'd like some advice/suggestions on security camera's with good image quality?
Also, which software would you recommend for such equipment which is compatible with MX Linux?
I would like to hear about your success stories and know if it is difficult to configure the software.

Thank you for all of your input and have a good day!

[Richard]

https://zoneminder.com/
is one of the most often mentioned.
also
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/awesome-d ... nts-linux/

[richb]

I have four Arlo/Netgear cameras, 2 outside and 2 inside. They have motion detection and night vision and quite good resolution. They are easy to configure with many features. But they are configured and viewed on a computer via their website and on a smart phone with their app. This may not meet some people's security issues.

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/default.aspx

[antiX-Dave]

I have had some luck with cctv systems 16 channel running bluecherry's software and card. They do not have their own cell phone app, but it works with other apps (one is recommended) and you can always view via the web address. I have not tried any network cameras with it though.

They have a demo for the software
http://www.bluecherrydvr.com/30daydemo/

And the hardware is usable in any software as far as I know as it is v4l2 compatible. (which from what I have tried, allows it to work with obs/vlc/zoneminder)

[eltuno]

Richard, richb ...

mmm looks like that topic really matters for some kind of people

just sayin...

[richb]

Richard, richb ...

mmm looks like that topic really matters for some kind of people

just sayin...

You mean security of your system? For sure. Just saying what I have found useful. Is someone looking in on me? Not something I am predisposed to worry about. But I recognize others rationally are and some fewer irrationally.

[Caesar2]

I just looked and Zoneminder is not in the repo. I have read on other sites that it can be a beast to package and some won't bother with it. (I'm not asking for it to be packaged). Anyway, when and if the time comes, I will see what I can find.

I also bought a very long usb cable for my web cam. It was made offshore somewhere and would not work with the cam. I have a Logitech HD Pro C920. It worked well with Skype.

[MX-16_fan]

@D800:

I want to get a couple of security cameras to monitor my home and connect them to my MX Linux 17 box.
I am open to wired or wireless connections (however, I prefer the most secure connection).
(...)

We had an interesting discussion on what type of camera might be preferable from a dogmatic security point of view: https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php ... 2&p=460032. The bottom line of the discussion was that one might consider USB cameras to be first choice, Firewire cameras to be second choice and "Power over Ethernet" (PoE) / Wi-Fi cameras to be no real choice at all.

By the way, I've never seen any truly "open source software on open hardware" cameras except for one or two industrial, very expensive ones.


Hope that helps.


Greetings, Joe

[MX-16_fan]

@D800:

(...)
Also, which software would you recommend for such equipment which is compatible with MX Linux?

In order to make it easier for you to choose an application, here's a list of qualities and features you'd probably want to find in the software you use:

• Easy configuration and maintenance.
• Can record streams locally.
• Can do live streaming.
• Streams are protected (e.g. by SSL) (required by regulations in many countries).
• High stability and high general reliability.
• High standard of intrusion safety. This is especially important because of the permanent connection to the internet. If your software solution is unsafe, you obviously don't increase your overall safety, but you decrease it.

Greetings, Joe

[MX-16_fan]

@Caesar2:

I just looked and Zoneminder is not in the repo. I have read on other sites that it can be a beast to package and some won't bother with it. (...)

While currently no Zoneminder (homepage: https://zoneminder.com/) package is available at all in MX-17.1 yet, installation on Debian 9 is possible (cf. https://wiki.zoneminder.com/Debian_9_64 ... e_Easy_Way) "the easy way", so there might be some not so difficult way of packaging it.

The only non-commercial Linux-based Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) alternative to Zoneminder seems to be "Motion" (Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_%2 ... oftware%29). There's some outdated version provided in MX-17.1 (Debian). Debian Sid offers the latest 4.1.1 version.

Configuration of Motion seems to be difficult (cf. https://motion-project.github.io/motion_config.html) unless you use an additional GUI. There seem to be two GUIs available for Motion (apparently web-frontends, to be precise). One is named "MotionEye" (https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneye/wiki). The second one is named "Motion-GUI" (https://github.com/sepro/Motion-GUI).

MotionEye installation on Debian seems to be rather simple (cf. https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneye/wi ... -On-Debian), so I guess it wouldn't be too difficult to package for MX-17.1.

I don't know which of the two GUIs is better. Nor do I know whether Motion offers as many features as Zoneminder.


@all:

Does anyone happen to have experiences with Zoneminder and/or Motion, and could give a statement as to which of the two would be preferable (while having an eye at the qualities and features listed here: https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php ... 33#p460133)?


Greetings, Joe