Last summer, we have heard so many burglaries in Stockholm including in our friends's houses and also in our neighborhood.
We didn't know what to do? Initially, we thought of opting SectorAlarm or Securitas or similar home security systems. We asked one of the company to visit our home and provide the quote. They visited and provided the quote. However, we felt that one time set-up cost and monthly recurring amounts were huge (or at least we felt so :-) ).
We didn't want to spend so much money but at the same time, we were worried about home whenever we go away from home for full day or more than a day.
Then, one day, we got an idea of setting up CCTV ourselves but that was not effective as that's not sufficient enough to send us notifications when we are away and we didn't know how to configure it to access camera over the internet.
Hence, we googled "DIY home security systems". After some comparisons and reading reviews, we finalized on D-Link security cameras. Here are the benefits of D-Link cameras
* Easy to set-up, very simple steps to be followed for end to end set-up
* Android and iOS app to view your home remotely using internet.
* 360 degrees view of home, easy navigation or control of camera remotely via app
* Very crystal clear image and video processing even when lights are switched off (Night vision).
* Automated push notifications based on Motion detection and/or Sound Detection
* No monthly recurring expenses, only one-time purchase cost.
* Numerous online forums to help, to debug issues when there are issues with product
* Portable (easy to unplug and take to new home, if you relocate)
We have bought D-Link DCS-5000L from Kjell & Company. Here is the LINK . We had purchased it for 799 SEK but we found it was just 499 during special sales like Mid-season sale or Black Friday sale as well. Same camera model is now available for less price in other retailer shops. Also, there are other D-link cameras with almost similar features. For e.g. DCS-8000LH is now available for 499 SEK here .
What are the challenges we faced?
* Even though steps were quite easy to follow, we couldn't make it to work with Wifi initially but when we re-did all the steps, it started working with Wifi without any issues.
* Once, all of sudden, D-link app stopped sending notifications and it couldn't be connected to home camera to view what's happening. After we came home, app started working fine via Wifi. The problem was to due to the mobile network change(from one provider to another provider). We had to reset APN settings of mobile internet, then app started working fine. We know, it's very weird way to solve but that solution worked :-)
Why did we write this post?
We felt like there would be people with similar situations but might not know cost effective solution. Hence, just thought of sharing this idea. Hope it will be helpful for you.
Please note that we are not supporting Kjell & Co or D-Link product via this post. We are just sharing our experience through, which can benefit others as well. Hence, read and research well before you buy any product. Good Luck :-)
D-Link DCS-5000L camera picture
Package with contents
1 comment:
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience! I was doing some similar research post an unfortunate incident. Everything you mentioned is quite right and a one-time solution is much better than the security rental packages from companies. The only catch is: most of the security cameras keep the video recordings in their own private clouds. We would not have any insights on the level of security, privacy or parties who have access to it. I'm not sure if DLink also has a private cloud but I assume the same. Since google and Facebook clouds also have faced breaches in the past, no-cloud is safe. The idea of your private space's recordings in an unknown cloud is often more insecure that the security it's expected to provide. Just sharing my perspective that's worth a thought.
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