Security camera and long range wifi

[james6546]

Hi,

I know this has been asked before, but this is a bit different.

My dad passed away on Saturday (a bit early to talk about that yet).

It was unexpected and we are making plans with the farm at the moment.

Unfortunately there is a horrible trend of farms being burgled after the farmer has passed away so I'd like to sort cameras out.

We are after the fastest and least hassle way of installing cameras around the farm yard. Ideally I don't want to have to run a network cable as it goes across a drive but can if we need to.

So far I'm thinking a long range WiFi booster to get WiFi to the yard from the house (about 200m), then either a mesh network or cameras that can mesh together if they exist.

It's a big farm yard so I've no idea how this will work.

Any experience or recommendations appreciated.

[james6546]

Oh, and there isn't enough phone signal, before someone says just use 4G

[BobToc]

Sorry for your loss.

I fear you’ll struggle with 200m range, even with line of sight. When I did some research on this a few weeks ago it looked like 100m was about the reasonable limit. Are they on the same circuit, such that Powerline adapters might work?

[dundarach]

If it's not for too long, just get some CAT5 and run it outdoors if it's your land, you'll need to split it at 100m, is it 200m from router to last camera?

What's the distance from last block to route etc?

Point the cameras towards the entrances and at least it'll catch them if and should they cut the wires?

[ffc]

Unifi Mesh may do the job. http://dl.ui.com/datasheets/unifi/UniFi_AC_Mesh_DS...

[james6546]

Thanks for the replies.

I've tried to draw the sheds, on the right is the house.

We could do with a camera in the yard.

For scale, I think from the house to the first shed is 100m, I think it has power.

I can get a cable to there as there is a tensioned cable over the drive I could run it along I think.

[james6546]

I'm thinking at the moment that we will just have to wire everything. What kind of repeaters do I need?

[rxe]

I’m running Unifi mesh at a distance of 150m, clear line of sight. We use it for an Owl box….

It’s not a cheap solution, but in theory you could get 2 hops of 150m.

The first AP sits on your house with the internet connection. You may need to add a big aerial on it. AP2 sits 150 meters away, has a small switch (that you plug the cameras into), and other APs that project out (say) from the other side of the shed.

However, you could throw a lot of money at it, and then the scrotes just wear balaclavas. Could you not get someone to say in the house for a while so the place looks occupied?

[random_username]

A pair of proper point to point wireless units (not a wifi booster or mesh) will do well in excess of 100m line of sight, eg. UI Nanostation, or the similar products from TP Link / Mikrotik etc :

https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/store/wifi-links/wi...

I have heard that well prepared robbers will bring wifi jammers if they know wifi cameras are in use, so cabling would be the best bet if possible.

[CAPP0]

rxe said:

However, you could throw a lot of money at it, and then the scrotes just wear balaclavas. Could you not get someone to say in the house for a while so the place looks occupied?

Sorry that you have to add this concern to your current situation.

If you have internet there one option might be to use a smart device (Echo etc) to run some lighting on a routine so that it switches on/off etc, and perhaps have some convincing fake CCTV given RXE's comment above?

[james6546]

random_username said:

A pair of proper point to point wireless units (not a wifi booster or mesh) will do well in excess of 100m line of sight, eg. UI Nanostation, or the similar products from TP Link / Mikrotik etc :

https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/store/wifi-links/wi...

I have heard that well prepared robbers will bring wifi jammers if they know wifi cameras are in use, so cabling would be the best bet if possible.

Thanks, those look like they might be a good solution.

I might just get a big roll of cat 5 cable, probably the most reliable solution.

We are actually staying in the house with my mum, but the entrance to the farm yard is quite a long way away and not shared with the house. At the moment we have parked our pickup across the entrance and have brought anything stealable to the house.

[Murph7355]

I use a couple of ubiquiti NanoStations to give me a link to my workshop (also farm type territory) and they work really well. You have to spend a few minutes lining them up broadly to get the best signal (easy to do) , but they work.

You could then use unifi APs in wireless uplink mode.... It slows the network down, but security cameras will be fine. You'll need a network switch on the farm building NanoStation - ubiquiti do decent value ones of these too.

You could also trail a bit of cable around the farm buildings rather than use APs in wireless uplink mode.

You will, of course, need power wherever you have an AP.

[LotusMartin]

Murph7355 said:

You will, of course, need power wherever you have an AP.

Not necessarily, if you’re using wired ubiquity kit, a lot of it supports POE. (Power Over Ethernet)

[james6546]

PoE is a good shout, we have a few plugs around I can use.

Potentially I'd need to take ethernet to the first shed as it's on a separate link to the house and then PoE everywhere else.

[biggiles]

The easy answer is to put in a pair of Ubiquii nanoStations to jump the 200m (trivial distance for them). I'd personally put in TP-Link Deco mesh wifi at each end to save on running wires around a tricky farmyard. Wires are better, but mesh will give you a good solution in 24 hours.

[Brother D]

james6546 said:

random_username said:

A pair of proper point to point wireless units (not a wifi booster or mesh) will do well in excess of 100m line of sight, eg. UI Nanostation, or the similar products from TP Link / Mikrotik etc :

https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/store/wifi-links/wi...

I have heard that well prepared robbers will bring wifi jammers if they know wifi cameras are in use, so cabling would be the best bet if possible.

Thanks, those look like they might be a good solution.

I might just get a big roll of cat 5 cable, probably the most reliable solution.

We are actually staying in the house with my mum, but the entrance to the farm yard is quite a long way away and not shared with the house. At the moment we have parked our pickup across the entrance and have brought anything stealable to the house.

Wired beats wifi all the time. I had a client/friend who needed a quick solution for basically exactly this. I just got some direct-bury cable and using a couple of shovels we buried it a few inches deep.

https://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/cat5e-cable/20-ccs-c...

Couple of points:

1. Make sure it's pure copper, not CCA
2. If you must run it to a switch, use a pass thru POE switch like - https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-network-swi... plus this gives you other ports if you want to run more than one camera off it, and you don't have to worry about different reference voltages/earthing between buildings.
3. You can buy armoured, the one we buried has been in the ground for 10 years.
4. While 100m is given as the max distance for ethernet there is quite a bit of wiggle room (have done 200m @ 10mbps).
5. If you want an easy way to terminate the CAT5 (or don't do it very often - try using the push thru jacks with this https://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/cat6-rj45-easy-plugs...


If you do need to go much further than 100m, and want to have a powered switch at the other end, then use fiber with fiber to ethernet converters

https://www.fs.com/uk/products/101473.html (cheaper than switches with SFPs) Also eliminates issues with lightening strikes frying equipment at either end when using CAT5

Edited by Brother D on Tuesday 14th December 21:39

[quinny100]

If you don’t want to cable you can do point-to-multipoint solutions fairly inexpensively with Ubiquiti kit.

An Airmax Rocket 5AC Lite plus antenna can act as the base station, then put a Nanostation Loco 5 at each camera, pointing back to the Airmax.

Most municipal CCTV systems make some use 5GHz P2P or P2MP links and they’re generally fine.

Personally I’d keep away from anything involving mesh WiFi or Ethernet media converters for reliability reasons. Ideally you should run fibre between buildings rather than copper, especially if they’re metal, as your network cable might well become the best path to earth.

[Wombat3]

Very sorry for your loss.

Before you spend a lot of time & money on working CCTV, a load of signage & some dummy cameras may have just as much of an effect as a deterrent.

Those that are not deterred by them are more than likely just going to hide their faces with hoodies/hats/motorcycle helmets etc anyway & stick false plates on cars & vans. So the chances of CCTV actually helping to catch any of them are not that high IMO

In a lot of cases unfortunately it just means you just get to watch the crims at work on TV afterwards.

[jpringle819]

james6546 said:

I might just get a big roll of cat 5 cable, probably the most reliable solution.

Cable won't do more than about 95 metres unfortunately without something like a switch to repeat the signal

[Captain_Morgan]

Also very sorry for your loss.

As others have said you can use those point to point radio links to get to the challenging buildings or if you want a cabled connection beyond 100m then you can use Ethernet to fibre converters and run a fibre line but ensure it’s protected from the elements.

Though I can’t help but wonder if this is to be a long term solution then perhaps it’s time to involve some professionals to ensure the system provides what is required of it and has some support.

Multiple cameras, switches, fibre and/or point to point links the cost and complexity is mounting and this might not be the time to undertake this as a personal project.