Boogieman

You are not setting the camera correctly...to compensate for the shadows enable WDR but keep it low, 10-15 or else the night image will be affected. It looks like you have smart IR enabled, disable it..that camera should produce more IR than that. Also it woudnt hurt if you turned on some exterior lighting. I get much better images than that, everyone here does. You have something set wrong. The new 4mp hikvisions have better night/low light sensitivity

I dont think you understand static ip or dmz...if they are blocking the ports then nothing will help you.

You might need more cable depending on the distances... Storage capacity is dependent on the bitrate set in the cameras. Using motion detection, the 3tb will be plenty...if you want to use 4mp cameras they are still at a premium but will come down soon..you should be able to use any dahua camera with that system..

Those look like substream images....turn off smart IR...return camera to defaul and start again..you are doing something wrong.

the toss, those statistics are for the US..societies are different, we have open borders with guns that are easily obtainable by criminals. Disarming the citizenry is not the solution, they will simply be sitting ducks. This have been proven over and over again. Even if you can prove it a successful model, its is in direct conflict with the the second amendment. This is a right given to me by the founding fathers. We dont advocate taking cars off the road because 40,000 people a year die in auto accidents. Legal gun ownership is not the issue, the need to focus on the illegal weapons and the criminals. Did you know that FBI statistics show that about 2/3 of gun related deaths involve criminals shooting at other criminals? If you look at the statistics in Australia, murders actually went up after the 1996 buyback..they peaked in 1999, then dropped a bit. In fact, 1993 numbers were about the same as 2006. The numbers in austrailia are very low to start. About 400. We are on pace to 400 in Baltimore, a small city in Maryland, this year. Americans have a right to own firearms and if the politicians are too weak minded to secure borders, get the national guard to inner cities to stomp out murders gangs, thats not my problem. Confiscating weapons from legal gun owners will not solve the problem it will only make legal gun owners sitting ducks. I find it outrageous that politicians have the gall to contemplate confiscation, yet fail to implement common sense measures to mitigate violence.

That is a rebranded dahua NVR...not all NVR are fully compatible with all cams...you will have to play with the settings and see if you can get it to work...if the cameras have a vca settings try playing with that.

Ownership is not unrestricted - do you know how difficult it is to get a carry permit in NY/NJ?. The problem is not with the law abiding citizen owning a weapon. This has been proven over and over again. The locals with the most restrictive gun laws have the most gun crimes. The problem is with the felons who have access to them - including this POS who murdered those precious worshipers. I urge you to watch some of the armed robberies on youtube - many with machete like knives and tell me that I should not be allowed to own a weapon to protect myself. I happen to no own a firearm, but I believe its my constitutional right to, if I feel the need to protect myself, my family, my fellow citizen or my property. Most of the anti-gun folks tout the virtuosity from the comfort of their picket fence suburban neighborhoods..how dare they.

You can use non poe switches in the middle, however, the last switch before the camera must be a poe switch or you will have to power the camera locally. Also http://www.veracityglobal.com/products/ethernet-and-poe-devices.aspx

http://www.costco.com/Q-See-16-Channel-HD-NVR-Security-System-with-3TB-HDD-and-8-4MP-HD-IP-Cameras.product.100213199.html 4mp system..on sale for 1300...its a rebranded dahua system..

You will have to look in the manual..probably only the media port.. What router do you have? you can usually set a distinct external port so you DONT have to change the port on the camera...there is NO NEED to change the port on the camera..zero benefit, if you router support a distinct external port, which most do.

Great. Couple of things, if you are using an NVR, then dont forward each camera..only the NVR itself. What router are you using? As indicated earlier, you can simply change the external port and leave all your cams at 80 for the internal port, because they have unique ip addresses. http://oversea-download.hikvision.com/uploadfile/doc/20140512/UPnP%20vs%20PortForwarding.pdf

Are there? Yes. PS. Thats all you are going to get with your passive aggressive answers. Do you even read what you wrote? "I'd asked a legitimate question here hoping for an informative and helpful response from people that I thought were knowledgeable in that particular area. Perhaps I was wrong." PPS You wont get any help if you keep acting like a jerk.

Thanks for the reply, but similar to the previous responder you didn't offer any type of a 'yes or no' answer in your post... so it appears that you don't know either. Regarding firmware security... I agree with your point about the fact that some firmware being poorly secured presents a security vulnerability, yet you've offered nothing regarding systems with very secure firmware such as NAME-BRANDS. No need for your attitude - that wont get you any help at all. Swann is not all rebranded hikvision....that was your first mistake. I guess its buy now ask questions later...I guess you've stumped us with your very difficult question....it will go unanswered from me..hate these posters with attitudes...as if they are owed something....

That is a rebranded hikvision 2032 camera. Disable upnp and port mapping. You dont need to change the http port..most routers allow you to have a distinct external port..so for example port 8484 can be sent to your cameras IP address at port 80.. Remember that to remote view this camera with the mobile app you dont need to forward the http port, only the media port though in your image, the firmware is not listing a media port which by default is 8000 on the hikvisions..

Everything you asked is covered in detail.....I understand, you dont want to take the time or effort to do the proper research....Fine...hire a professional. Otherwise start researching then ask specific questions. You are not trying to learn, but rather have free personal consultant. Big difference.

If the firmware is poorly secured, you can have 1000 character passwords and be as secure as using "password" as your password..

While I too prefer the turret, note that the 2132F domes (with F in the model number are 3 axis and therefore can be wall mounted without a mount)..

Start reading the ip/megapixel section of the forum...

What is your budget? If you are going to be displaying these cams for parents to watch, I would suggest HD cameras....

"Supports 1080p/720p HD MPX cameras and standard analog cameras"

What is your budget? If you have 500 to spare, consider this HD-CVI system..the quality will be night and day... http://www.costco.com/Lorex-8-Channel-HD-1080p-Security-System-with-2TB-HDD-and-8-1080p-Cameras-.product.100218592.html You can use your old wiring.... Plus its costco so you can return anytime!

Im not understanding..do you simply want to replace this dvr and use the analog cameras? You say you have HD cameras? what models? where are they recording? The cameras you listed are not HD cameras.

what cameras do you have?

What dvr?

You should not need tons of power as they are 720p cameras...but consider power consumption as the pc will be on 24/7...running an old quad core will be more expensive than buying a haswell i5 off the dell outlet.. for 300 or so.. Also not that ISPY is not free..they charge for remote access and alerts...http://www.ispyconnect.com/pricing.aspx Thanks for the reply. These cameras are theoretically capable of sending email alerts, still working on getting that working. But just in case...is there a better free alternative to iSpy? As regards the machine, I'll probably build one up to test the system and then move over to something better later on. At the moment I'm still playing around with testing and getting to know how these things work. Well if you want free you are limiting yourself... You can do better than those cameras as well..wifi will never be stable... If you went with hikvision cameras you can use their free vms... Axxonnext is another option.. if you dont need more than 5 days of recording go with xprotect by milestone..there is a free version with 5 day limit on recording.