I need help picking a surveillance system for my home

[CrazeD 0]

So I found this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16881523001

 

I basically just need a system that can livestream over my home network to multiple PC's. It also must be able to be accessible via the internet, which I suppose wouldn't be that big of a deal (if worse comes to worse I could just use VNC as long as it works over the network). I'm not really sure how these things work on a network though. Do I just plug it into my router and then all other PC's can access it? Or does it work as its own router and I have to plug the PC directly into it to view it?

 

Also, I'm not sure how the recording works. If I use continuous mode, and the hard drive fills up, does it just delete the oldest data and continue writing endlessly? Or does it stop once the hard drive is full?

 

I couldn't really find any reviews on this brand or particular system, so if anyone has any input about whether this is a good buy or not I'm open to suggestions.

 

Hopefully I posted this in the right place.

[dahomes555 0]

Steer clear of Zmodo. I used to sell their stuff because it was cheap (trying to maximize profits and save a few bucks.) After having mediocre image quality and less than mediocre build quality, I switched away.

 

Almost all DVRs nowadays are networkable. They are easy to setup and don't require any additional equipment besides the current network you already have. They are just an IP appliance. You plug them into your router and can either manually assign an IP address or auto-assign one using DHCP. From there, you can type in the IP address from any computer on the network and access the DVR.

 

Setting up remote viewing is very easy as well. There are typically 2 different ports that your DVR will use for remote access. You just need to enable port forwarding in your router for those two ports and you will then be able to access your DVR remotely from a PC or from a smartphone.

 

Most DVRs will remove the oldest video when the HDD is full. That allows you to keep the most recent video stored.

 

Let me know if you have further questions and I'll be happy to assist.