Hitch

I tend to agree. I keep going back and forth on whether I should buy the P3364 or the P3367. Sometimes I think having one 5MP would be nice - just for the front yard. However, my mood on the topic tends to shift with the shifting price differential between the two.

Good question. That's part of what I am trying to figure out. My curiosity for the 5MP cam is largely based on what I have read on here. I've seen where some people are recommending 5MP for outside. Here is what Cam1 (P3364-ve) shows on my screen here at work. For some reason, I get a larger field of view from home, but not a lot more.

Thanks Kawboy! My diagram is a bit misleading. The part of the house that is to the right of the garage is two stories high. Although the roof line from the left side (the garage side) starts at two stories, when it reaches the front of the garage it is only a single story high. As a result, the roof over the garage only obscures about 5 or 6 feet of the driveway in front of the garage. I'l try to post of pic of what Cam1 shows.

Any thoughts, comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

One other thing that I should have mentioned is lighting. As of now, I have one camera in the front of the house and one in the back. In the back of the house, I removed two regular light fixtures and replaced them with motion sensing lights (maybe halogens). I bought them from Home Depot - they weren't very expensive. From a security point of view, I wanted lights back there but I didn't want them on all of the time. The Axis camera certainly looks better in color, in the light of day, but I can still see what is going on out there with no lighting. Also, if the motion sensing lights turn on, it's plenty of light to see well through the camera. In the front of my house, I always leave on two 60 watt equivalent bulbs. There are two more, near the garage, that I often leave on during weekend nights as well. Again, they provide enough light in the front of my house. I am not running any external IR illuminators. Would it be better if I did? Sure. However, I am happy with what I have. Obviously, it is a subjective thing. The two cameras that I am running are P3364-VE's. Doing the install yourself also allows you to spend your money over time. I bought the first two cameras over the first several months of this year. I am to the point where I am considering buying the third. I will likely end up with 4 (or 5, if I decide to put one in the garage).

Cam - As you noted in the other thread, I was in a somewhat similar situation as you several months ago. We had some issues in our neighborhood (including the house across the street being robbed while the owners were asleep), so I decided to purchase some cameras. I did some research, narrowed down to a few manufacturers and came here for some help. I ended up choosing Axis. Several things, including the thoughts and comments from here, went into that decision. One was the experience of my parents. They decided to install security cameras at their place. Their experience was not very good - largely because of the installer. I'm certainly not going to claim that all are bad. They just got a bad one. As you, I had trouble trying to find someone to do it for me. Also, hiring someone brings additional cost. That's fair, but I needed to watch the money as my wife is not much of a spender. So, I decided that I would install them myself. Equipment - Fortunately, I already own a windows based home theatre pc. Other than that, I have all Mac computers. I also own a Synology, which is a small desktop server. The one that I have holds 4 drives (which you buy separately). The Synology is set up in a RAID format. I use it to store our family photos, videos, etc. I use the Synology as the storage location for recorded video for both of my cameras. With the exception of one issue, it works great. I have plenty of space on the Synology for all of this stuff. The one issue that I am having is that older recordings are not being deleted. I've seen some posts on Axis' forum about other people having the same issue. Frankly, I really haven't spent much time looking into it. I am not sure how much the NVR's that you are looking at cost. However, it might be easier to "stomach" buying a Synology which will give you many other options than just a storage location for security cam video. Synology also has a software app called Surveillance Station. I didn't go that route, as Synology charges a license fee per camera (after the first). I just use the Synology to store the data. As far as installation, if you are fairly handy, you can do it yourself after some research. I mounted my cameras under the eve of my house. It took me a while to figure out how to remove the soffit without damaging it. From there, I cut a hole in the soffit (noting where the roofing beams came into that area). I then installed some wood in between the roofing beams - to mount the camera to. After installing the camera mounts and the camera, I ran the networking cable through the attic and down into the room where I installed the PoE switch. Each camera took me around 6 hours to install and run the networking cable. This includes many, many, many trips up and down the ladder. My legs were sore.... I did have some issues with getting the first camera setup for internet access. Long story short, I never added the address for the router into the software. I have some previous experience with port forwarding (just around the house), so that helped. There are websites that will tell you how to do port forwarding - even for your specific router. If you go this route, I am certainly willing to do what I can to lead you through the entries that you need to make in the Axis software. I did use the Axis software to get the cameras set up. Since then, however, I log into the cameras just using Safari or Chrome on my Mac. It's the same interface that the Axis software takes you to on a PC. Heck, I can use Safari on my iPad to access the "Settings" option on the cameras. On my iPhone and iPad, I use IP Camera Lite. I just downloaded it a week or two ago. Before that, I would just access the cams via safari. I have no complaints with IP Camera Lite. It is basic - but it does what I want it to do, which is let me see what my cameras see. If I found a good installer, I would have a cleaner install (I had to add some expanding foam between the edge of the camera body and the soffitt - to keep bugs out). Also, the cameras would quite likely be "tuned" better. I really didn't mess with the factory settings much. I very much like the fact that the Axis cameras are well made and have strong support. I like that they include a heater and a fan. They are well made. As far as a PC, you could buy a cheap one from Dell, Costco, BJ's, etc. Since the Axis cameras do the "heavy hitting" internally, with regards to things like motion sensing, you don't need a powerful PC. Or maybe you can borrow a friend's for the install? So, obviously, you can add me to the camp that would suggest you do the install yourself. Obviously, certain things worked out for me - already having the Synology, the HTPC, having access to an attic to run wire, etc.

After doing some more research last night, I thought of another option for the cameras in the front of the house. As referenced above, Cam 1 is currently a P3364-VE. I was thinking about buying a P3367 for Cam 4. If I buy the P3367, would it make sense to install it in the Cam 1 position and move the P3364 to the Cam 4 position? My goal is to have Cam 4 zoomed in close to the front of the house. I am not sure which camera would be better for that. Any thoughts/comments on the selection and placement of Cam4 would be much appreciated. Also, suggestions on a cam for the garage would also be appreciated.

Thought I would provide an update about my progress and ask for some more help/suggestions on my next purchase. As of now, I am running two Axis cameras. They are both the P3364-VE (6mm). I am also using a ZyXel PoE switch. Both of the cameras are saving the recordings to my Synology server. Although I have a time limit (or, day limit?) set to delete older recordings, none of the recordings are being deleted. I'll have to research that issue some more, but I've seen some posts on the Axis forum where others are experiencing the same issue. Now that I think about it, one of the cameras is reporting an error. One of these days I'll need to get home from work while Axis is still open and get some help from them on that. The error, however, hasn't seemed to alter my use of the camera. Other than those minor issues, I am very happy with these cameras. They each took me a long time to install but have worked very well. I am quite happy with them. I've uploaded an updated diagram of my house. The two cameras that I have installed are Cam 1 and Cam 2. I'd like to add two or three more. I got lucky by being able to grab the two that I do have at decent prices. I've been watching (and hoping) to pick up a couple more on a price dip. No luck for a few months now. Cam 1 does a nice job of generally watching the front of my house. Having watched that cam for a while, though, I am more convinced that I would like to add another cam to the front (where I labeled possible Cam 4). I would like it to watch closer to the house - by the front door. Unfortunately, it will have to be mounted high - up under the eave where the roof starts above the second floor. The front of my house is flat, with brick, so there is no good place to mount a camera closer to the ground. From reading on here, I am thinking about the P3367-VE. We always leave two lights on in the front of the house - I think they are 60W equivalents. Sometimes we leave four lights on. Any comments on the P3367-VE for that application? I was also thinking about installing a camera inside the garage - and facing out to the driveway. I would like to stick with Axis, but would prefer to not spend $900 for a camera that is placed inside the garage. I have read about the M3024-LVE and the M2035-VE cameras. I hear they are due out in July and may be in the mid-$500 range. These new cameras seem to have many of the features of the P-XXXX series. It appears that they don't have Lightfinder. Any thoughts on those cameras? Or, others that I should consider? Thanks, as always, for the help!

Voip - I just saw this post over on the Synology forum. The person who posted this claims to have received this from a Synology representative: Hope that's true, as it would address a significant issue with Synology. It looks like the Amazon seller used a different shipper this time. Hopefully the new camera will arrive faster than the first one did.

Well, I went ahead and bought another camera - from the same Amazon seller. Hopefully this one won't have to be traced by the shipper... I think I'll put this one in the back yard. I suspect it won't be the last one I buy. I still haven't bought/tried any iOS software. Whenever I want to check it, I just use a web browser. I'll probably get one some day, but paying for apps that aren't rated all that high isn't all that appealing to me. This weekend, I was able to get back up on the ladder and get the existing camera directed better. I also used some of that low expanding foam to seal up the space between the camera and the soffit (should keep the bee's out). Anyway, the camera was sort of pushed to one side of my yard and the horizon was off. It's now better directed. The only issue that I've had so far is that the motion recording was somehow turned off. I wanted to show my wife how it records after sensing motion and it hadn't recorded in a few days. Turning it on again was no big deal, but I'm not sure how/why it was turned off.

I'm very happy with the camera! I really need to get up on a ladder and get the camera better directed. It not only needs to be leveled (horizon?), but it needs to be moved a bit to the left. Unfortunately, between work and the weather I haven't been able to get up on a ladder to work with it. I was hoping to get it done tonight, but it's snowing. I'm happy with the motion recording that it is doing and it seems like everything is saving correctly on the Syno. I looked today and I have a bit over 80 Gigs of recordings over 10 days. I am saving in H.264. I didn't count the total number of recordings - or total time - but it is set to record when anything moves on the driveway or front yard. So it gets the cars coming and going, the dog running around the front yard, etc. There's a good number of recordings. I have two sets of lights in the front of my house (four bulbs total) with 5 watt CFL's. They are supposedly the equivalent of 25 watt regular bulbs. Overnight, I leave just two bulbs on. The camera has plenty of light from just two of those bulbs. Pretty amazing! At work, I have not been able to get IE 8 to work with the camera (we have XP Pro computers). For some reason, it won't take my password. I tried to work on it today, but didn't have any luck. Fortunately, Chrome works fine for Live View. I haven't been able to figure out a way to watch recordings remotely. Axis has a program that is supposed to work with IE, but since I can't get IE to accept my password, I can't try it out. For iOS, I have just been using Safari to migrate to the webpage. Setting Live Stream to MJPEG works fine. I do intend to try out the Apps. I've researched some, but haven't tried any yet. I would like to hook the camera into the Syno Surveillance Station. However, I'm a bit gun shy at the moment. Spending as many hours as I did trying to get the Axis software working correctly.....well, it's still a bit too recent. To the extent that I have a complaint, it's that the ZyXEL PoE switch makes a good bit more noise than I anticipated. Course, it's really just a fan running but it's not very quiet. It's currently on my desk. I'll see how I feel about it going forward, but I may end up moving it. The problem is where I would move it to. The bad news is that I seem to be coming down with a bit of the "I-need-another-camera-itis." I find myself checking Amazon for prices.....everyday.

That's exactly what I needed. Thanks again!

Well, Voip, you are an awfully good guy for following through all of this with me. I appreciate it. The good news is that it is now fixed. The bad news is that I had to pay my local ISP a few bucks to do it. When I called Axis for support yesterday morning, the guy tried to remote into my PC. The problem was that he wanted to check the router - he thought that I hadn't properly set up port forwarding. However, I had the Airport Utility installed on my Mac and the Mac OS is not friendly with the Java program - or part thereof - that he wanted to use to connect to it. Connecting to my PC would not have enabled him to check the router settings. The evening, it hit me that I could install the Airport Utility on my PC. So I did that and called Axis. I ended up with a less enthusiastic rep. and all he did was confirm that it wasn't working and told me to call my ISP. He said I needed to ask them why the port was not open, which I didn't really understand. If he would have remoted in, he probably would have seen the issue pretty quickly. So, to make a long story longer, I called my ISP and after a few CSR's that didn't know how to check ports, I found out that they would assist me for a few bucks. I ended up on the phone with a tech and he looked at the port forwarding configuration and said it looked fine. So, I showed him the IP Utility were you can go into the TCP/IP settings and he immediately saw that I had not filled in the "Default Router" under the "IP4 Address Configuration." Ugh!!!!!!!!!! Oh well, it's now working and my (limited) knowledge of this stuff has been dusted off and improved. " title="Applause" /> " title="Applause" /> " title="Applause" /> " title="Applause" /> " title="Applause" /> Now I need to figure out what app to use on my iPhone. Also, how do you change the "horizon" of the video from the camera? Instead of being from, say 9:00 to 3:00, it's more like 8:00 to 2:00. Is there a way to change that? Again, Voip, thanks for hanging with me.

I spent some lunch time researching this issue on the internet. I can't figure out what the problem is. First off, in the Axis software, I set the port for the camera as 7000 and I set the address for the router as 10.X.X.X. Then, I went to the router. Setting up port forwarding on the router (Time Capsule) is very straight forward. The program you use is called Airport Utility. Below is a picture. The first picture below is the first screen which you see when you click on "Network". My router mode is "DHCP and NAT" just like in the picture. I have a few DCHP reservations, one of which is the Axis Camera. I have a few entries in "Port Settings", two of which are the Syno and one of which is the Axis. The last picture shows what the port forwarding actually looks like within Airport Utility, when you hit the "+" button under "Port Settings". I added a description for the camera and then added the port number (which was set as noted above) in the TCP blanks. For the "Private IP Address:" I put the IP address which I reserved for the Axis camera. Per Axis, the camera ports are TCP. So, once I just entered "7000" into the 2 spaces for TCP ports. For kicks, I tried it another time by adding 7000 in all 4 spaces (both TCP and UDP). I know that I am using the correct IP address and port, as the Axis Utility software confirms the IP address and if I enter the IP address and port directly into a browser, it takes me to the camera. For example, 10.X.X.X:7000 takes me to the camera.

The Axis started out with 80. I was concerned that it conflicted with a Syno port, so I changed it to 8000. I even tried changing the (local) IP address for the Axis. As of now, I only have two ports forwarding for the Syno and one for the Axis. I mentioned this before, but one other thing that I might look into is this error message: Attempting to configure NAT traversal. If your AXIS P3364 Network Camera is located on an intranet, you might need to manually configure your NAT router to allow access from the other side. I see that message under Networking > Advanced. I know my Apple router uses NAT, but my camera is not located on an intranet - at least as far as I understand that term. Hhhmmmm. My limited brain power keeps ticking on this issue. I find these types of things about 2 parts fascinating and 1 part frustration.

Well, tonight's project was a failure. I did a factory restore on the Time Capsule and manually set the port forwarding for both the Synology and the Axis. For some reason, I can't get it to work for the Axis camera. From my conversations with Axis and Synology, they were both pointing at the Time Capsule as the problem. For some reason, the Time Capsule is very robust in directing traffic to the Synology. I guess that's a good thing for the Syno. I use the exact same steps to set up port forwarding for the Axis as I use for the Synology. No luck. I've tried all sorts of things. I think I did a factory restore 4 times on the Time Capsule. I tried leaving on the port forwarding for the Syno, deleting the port forwarding for the Syno (including powering the Syno down and trying to connect to the Axis while it is off). I can't get anything to work. I just can't get the Axis to be able to register. I remoted into work and typed in my home IP address. From there, I could access the Syno. However, I couldn't access the Axis. I suppose that's consistent with not being able to register the Axis to enable access from the internet. Ugh! My Time Capsule is over a year old, so support from Apple is long over. I wonder if I can pay for some limited support, just to see if Apple support can get the port forwarding set up. It doesn't seem like rocket science, though. I just don't get it. The other option is to just use Surveillance Station, which I am not thrilled about. I suppose there is a third option of just not using remote access. I think that may be worse than using Surveillance Station (even though I agree that Synology really needs to work on it - particularly in the Mac OS environment). Thinking this through, I guess another option is to see if I can hire someone locally to fix this. Maybe Surveillance Station is the best of the bad options?

Yes, that will be tonight's project.

Thanks. Something is definitely off. I believe I used one of the two programs that came with the Synology - either EZ-Internet or just the Router Configuration. They both use UPnP to send the port forwarding information to the router. When I look at the port forwarding settings in the Apple Time Capsule, there is no indication of the port forwarding which was sent by the Synology. However, it is clearly working as I can access my Syno from work. Interestingly, the port forward that I had set up before I got the Syno is still there, but the all of the numbers except the IP address are blank. For kicks, I deleted it when I was working with the Axis guy. However, I am now at work and I can still access that device from work. The guy I spoke with from Synology said that I should just manually configure the port forwarding on the Time Capsule. I will need to figure out how to delete all of the current settings and then re-configure all of it. I wonder if the Syno app put the Syno in the DMZ?

Update: I spent a while this morning with the Axis Chat and then on the telephone with them. For some reason, everything incoming goes directly to my Synology. No matter what they entered from there side, the incoming connection went to the Synology. I seem to recall that there was some option on the Synology to do the port forwarding. While trouble shooting with Axis, they had me delete another port-forwarding setup/rule that I had. Despite that, it's still working. Hmm, maybe I'm on to something. Or, maybe I'm crazy.

Still trying to figure this out.... I noticed that "NAT traversal (port mapping) for IPv4" says: Attempting to configure NAT traversal. If your AXIS P3364 Network Camera is located on an intranet, you might need to manually configure your NAT router to allow access from the other side. I tried to use the option "Use manually selected NAT router: (LAN IP address)" but that didn't work - the message still read "Attempting to configure..." Could that be my issue?

Oh yea, VOIP, the reason for the "Connect" sticker is quite obvious now that I have gone through the install process. During the install, as you know, you can remove the camera from the unit casing. When you do so, you need to disconnect the wire. Once you snap the camera back in, you need to "Connect" the wire. The sticker is a good reminder.

Well, the install went pretty well. Having more guts than brains, it was an interesting experience. I have several photographs on my phone, which I will try to upload later. Anyway, I was hoping that I could access the soffit from the attic. I'm not the biggest guy, at 6'1" and 210, but I just couldn't get my body close enough to do the work. I ended up using a ladder and doing the work from the outside. Some thoughts... I have never messed with the soffit before, so it took me some time just to figure out how to be able to move it. I ended up pulling a piece of the plastic soffit away from a roofing nail. Not a big deal. At that point, I was able to pull the soffit away enough to see behind it. I marked where the roof joists were and then attached the drill template. I really appreciated the fact that the drilling template was sticky on the one saide. In hindsight, I should have removed the soffit and cut it down on the ground. My cut was pretty ugly. I need to clean that up a bit - as I don't want bees getting into my attic. I think I will use some non-expanding foam. Any suggestions would be appreciated. After cutting the hole, I finally figured out how to remove a section of the soffit, which was probably only 8 or 10 inches wide. I ended up removing 2 sections. From there, I was able to mount a piece of wood that was about 1" thick. Away from the front of the house, there was a horizontal (header??) piece of wood which I laid the (new) board on. I put several screws through the 1" thick board into that horizontal piece. Closer to the front of the house, I connected the board to another piece of wood that ran vertical. For that attachment, I used two steel "L" brackets. It was probably over-kill when considering the weight of the camera, but it was solid and the last thing I need is for it to fall. From there, I attached the drill guide again and cut the hole for the networking cable. I then attached the mounting bracket and removed the existing network gasket and replaced it with the gasket which was already on the networking cable provided (5 meter long cable). I then attached the unit casing, the camera and then the dome cover. I guessed at the positioning/angle for the camera and it worked out pretty well. After fishing the wire around the attic and down to my office, I plugged in the PoE switch and fired it up. I then fired up the PC to set up the camera. I was able to assign a static IP for the camera. I also set my router (an Apple Time Capsule) to reserve an IP for the camera. Using the IP Utility, I was able to see that the camera worked. YES! " title="Applause" /> I then flipped the video 180* (it was upside down) and messed with the digitial zoom. I played with a couple other settings, but nothing seemed to improve the picture, so I went back to the defaults. The picture is great! Since it got dark even before I finished the install, I have yet to see the camera in the day time. I can't wait! Returing to the install, I was able to format the SD card and connect the camera to my Synology server. I have no formal IT training, so that took a little trial and error. No big deal. On camera/software setup side of things, I ended up spending the a fair amount of time trying to get port forwarding setup on my router and trying to get the AXIS Internet Dynamic DNS Service setup. No luck there. I couldn't get it done. I installed Axis Camera Companion and it looks great. I think it was from there - not sure - that I first tried to setup the AXIS Internet Dynamic DNS Service. I pushed the Control Button and I could not get the AXIS Internet Dynamic DNS Service setup, so I tried to use IP Utility (which the help information said is the back-up). However, whenever I click "Register" next to "Register or update current domain name registration." I get a message which says "Failed to register domain name." I'm not sure what I have done wrong/failed to do, so any help would be appreciated. Does anyone have experience setting up port forwarding on an Apple Time Capsule? When you go into "Port Settings" you can add a new setting. There are places to fill in a description (I used "AxisFront"). The "Private IP Address:" is set to the address which I assigned to the camera in the IP Utility (and which I confirmed it correct). Then, there are options for the following: Public UDP Ports: Public TCP Ports: Private UDP Ports: Private TCP Ports: I understand that I should be forwarding port "80" but I wasn't sure which of the places above should have "80" added. I assume I never got it right as I think this is the reason that I could never get the AXIS Internet Dynamic DNS Service to register. Help??? I'll have more thoughts tomorrow. Kinda beat after climbing the ladder and stairs so many times.... I hope you pro's have an assistant.

Voip - I have a question for you. Inside the camera, near where the networking cable plugs in, there is a wire with a red tag on it which says "Connect". It looks to already be connected and I don't see anything in the manual indicating that I need to do anything along those lines. It's on one of the two bunches of wires shows in the picture below. I don't remember which one, but can check later and upload a photo if need be. Thanks!

Well, the camera showed up yesterday. Have to work today, but hope to start the install later today and finish tomorrow. Course, it's only 19* right now.

I'm a noob, so I could very well not know what I am taking about, but see if you can use your Synology just as a storage location for your video. I don't think you have to pay the license fee unless you are using the Synology in connection with their Surveillance Station software. If not, maybe you spend a few more bucks and buy cameras that will (and not buy the DVR)?