Physical Security
Emphasis:
IP Security Cameras
And Remote Access of same
Security can mean many things
• 1. Securing a building – better quality doors, windows with bars or
shutters, hard to pick locks, higher security in certain rooms (i.e. a
“panic room.”)
• 2. Securing a premise – Perimeter fences, night-time illumination,
cameras with motion detection.
• 3. Securing a computer – Hardened Operating System, camera or
fingerprint reader, anti-virus software, anti-malware software,
network firewalls.
• 4. What happens when security is breached? Contact the appropriate
agency (police, fire department, etc) – self-protection (weapons)
Our focus is on Security Camera Systems
• A security camera system can be quite simple, quite complex, or
anywhere in-between.
• Two basic differentiators: Indoors or Outdoors
• Another basic differentiator: Rented as part of a Security Company’s
Protection Plan, or self-provided.
• There are many variations, many companies producing items, and a
very considerable range in both initial cost and recurring costs.
• This presentation will attempt to help one decide whether to selfinstall or to go with a company such as ADT or SuddenLink.
Do-it-yourself or call in the pros?
• Different scenarios will lead to different choices.
• Example 1: Setting up a camera system to monitor a specific place (or
two) when it is expected that someone will be available at all times in
the event that some form of alarm is created. An example that will be
explored in some detail is my setting up of a camera in my shop that
is monitored inside the home using a piece of software designed not
only to operate the camera remotely, but to set off an alarm (time of
day controlled) in the event of motion, and to perform either in
normal light or by infrared illumination. This example lends itself well
to do-it-yourself (or one-time hire the install).
Call in the pros example
• One lives in the New Bern area, but has a vacation home several
hundred miles away at a beach location.
• While it is quite possible to set up cameras to monitor outside and
inside various rooms, and to provide for remote monitoring over the
Internet – what happens if someone breaks in?
• As a general rule, police departments do not provide a way for
automatic contact by a person’s motion-sensitive cameras (partly
because of the potential volume, and partly due to false alarms)
• This is a case where a monthly paid subscription to a Security Service
such as ADT or SuddenLink may well be the better choice.
If the choice is “do-it-yourself”
• In some instances, the camera can be quite simple. An example is a
baby monitor. In this example, the camera and microphone are in the
baby’s room, and a video/audio monitor (which may be either analog
video or digital through a computer) is in another room with the
parents or other adult who is watching over the little one.
• A variation is the so-called “nanny-cam” which adds recording
capability, and is frequently designed so as to be unnoticed. (See how
the nanny/babysitter actually treats the baby, and whether or not
they do non-authorized, potentially harmful activities).
• The next step up in abilities and complexity is adding the ability to
process the camera images (and sound) in some manner, such as
motion sensor.
• Also, frequently, the user wants to be able to access the camera from
multiple locations, both inside their own network and from other
locations through the Internet.
• The majority of this presentation will deal with such a scenario, where
the camera(s) can be simply viewed, processed with motion detection
and alarm capability, pan, tilt, and zoom (if available) can be changed
remotely, and the camera can send alerts by phone connection,
texting, and/or email.
• The example presently has a single camera, HD resolution, infrared
capability, remote pan/tilt, monitor/alarm software that supports up
to 8 cameras, and remote monitoring through an Internet browser.
• The Foscam FI9821W Wireless IP Camera is Foscam's latest HD 720p
Megapixel IP camera. The FI9821W improves on the FI9820W in the
following respects:
•
• Improved low light & night vision performance
• Wider viewing angle by 20° (even wider than FI8910W)
• Updated web interface
• Enhanced MAC as well as Safari/Chrome/Firefox compatibility
• Multi-device viewing compatible with FI8910W and all other
Foscam MJPEG cameras
• Free bounded DDNS service via MyFoscam.org
• Improved and amplified audio quality
Foscam F19821W Indoor HD Camera
Indoor or Outdoor?
• Outdoor cameras are typically more expensive, for at least the
following reasons:
• They need to be weather-proof, including temperature variations,
rainfall, snow, sleet, ice.
• They usually need to be protected from vandals (mounted beyond
reach, with heavy metal covers so that thrown rocks and so forth
don’t damage them.
• Installation costs are higher (such as having a pole set and the
climbing for installation, running power and signal cables
underground, etc.
• Illuminating large outdoor areas for the camera at night (either visible
light or infrared) is costly.
Why I went with the specific model
• The company has generally gotten positive reviews on their products,
and the product seems well made.
• They offered a HD model (720 resolution) at an attractive price. The
added resolution means sharper images – which can be important if
the camera pictures are to be used as evidence in capture and
prosecution of miscreants.
• Foscam provides a free DDNS (Dynamic Domain Name Service)
system for their cameras (explained next slide).
• They offer a wide variety of models, so the system can be expanded
(I’m thinking of front and back door of the home).
DDNS – what it means
• If one wants to be able to access the camera from remote locations
over the Internet, the browser has to be given the proper URL
(Universal Resource Locator) http tag to reach the camera. Most
residential Internet service does not provide a fixed IP address.
• DDNS ties to the specific URL that is provided for each camera
(example: abc477e@myfoscam.org). The camera sends periodic
information to the myfoscam.org site, which stores the sending IP
address information. When the user wants to reach the camera, this
numeric IP address information is provided (example:
abc477e@myfoscam.org resolves to http://74.64.199.202)
• If you choose to get a camera from a company that does not provide
DDNS, you have to contract it (i.e. pay for it on a recurring basis)
yourself.
• Note that it is also necessary to add rules to your firewall (not the
individual computer’s firewall, but the firewall built into the user’s
wireless router) so that incoming requests from the outside world will
be routed to the camera. I recommend that the camera be given a
fixed IP address in the internal network, rather than DHCP assignment
(although it will work that way fine for internal use, Foscam includes a
little application that finds their cameras on a local network).
• I also recommend not using the default port and video transfer port
(makes it a bit harder to hack – the hacker has to get the admin
password, port, and video port all three to get into the camera).
• I’ll go into these things in detail as I show the setup of the camera.
• The camera also includes a simple mount that allows such things as
fastening to a wall. More complex mounts are available from Foscam
and others.
• This particular camera is NOT one of the ones that are designed to be
difficult to locate. For my application, by the time miscreants could
reach the camera and damage it, it would have already sent jpg
images and video movies to the separate computer located in the
hoe. It can also be programmed to use the internal SD card slot with
a SD memory card to record video and audio information.
• The camera is sensitive enough with audio to hear birds chirping
outside the shop’s frame building.
What’s supplied with the camera
• The camera itself.
• A mounting bracket that provides both vertical and horizontal
adjustment for mounting the camera to something like a wall.
• A CD with a PDF copy of the manual and software to locate the
camera on a local network.
• Wireless antenna to operate the camera with wireless connection
(note that a wired power connection is still required). The wireless is
compatible with 2.4gHz wi-fi and with current encryption systems,
and is automatically shut off if a wired connection is used.
The “IP Camera” software
Software connection to the camera
The “picture view” through the software
Setup of the Camera - #1
Setup of the Camera - #2
Setup of the Camera - #3
Setup of the Camera - #4
Setup of the Camera - #5
Setup of the Camera - #6
Setup of the Camera - #7
Setup of the Camera - #8
Setup of the Camera - #9
Setup of the Camera - #10
Setup of the Camera - #11
Setup of the Camera - #12
Setup of the Camera - #13
Setup of the Camera - #14
Setup of the Camera - #15
Setup of the Camera - #16
Setup of the Camera - #17
Setup of the Camera - #18
Setup of the Camera - #19
Setup of the Camera - #20
Using a separate program – Blue Iris
• The software provided with the camera provided a certain amount of
utility, but not sufficient for my monitoring/alarm use in my shop.
• BlueIris is a moderately priced software package (recommended by
Foscam) that extends the abilities in a security situation. It is
available in a one camera and up to eight camera version.
• NOTICE: Motion detection, particularly if a high frame rate is utilized,
requires considerable computing resources. On my older home
computer (AMD 4-core Opteron, Win 7 Pro, 4G RAM), the program
ALONE required 25 to 30% constant processor utilization.
• The computer I am using now has a quad-core Xeon, Win 7 Pro, and
32G of RAM. Processor utilization is 1 or 2%.
• If you need to use a lower-end computer for monitoring and motion
detection, the frame rate of the video can be reduced to lower the
utilization, and make it more friendly to other applications running at
the same time (i.e. your own use of the computer).
• If I were going to try to run 8 of these cameras, I would run them into
a Digital Video Recorder optimized for the specific purpose of Security
Monitor and Recorder.
• The streaming video/audio also produces considerable network
traffic. However, on a wired 100meg or gigabyte network, there
should be no problem. Low level wireless signals may not do the job
for motion detection.
BlueIris software in use
BlueIris shot at night with Infrared Lighting
A false alarm (at about 3 am)
Shop Lighting
• Daytime when in use: Three 8’ florescent fixtures each with two 60
watt lamps and two 4’ florescent fixtures each with one 40 watt lamp.
• Infrared – solely from the 12 Infrared LEDs mounted on the camera
(these do produce a small amount of visible light).
• Recently added – for nighttime and electric usage reduction. Four
LED fixtures mounted at various ceiling locations, each has 21 LEDs,
each draws 4 watts, plus one LED desk lamp near the front of the
shop in a darker corner that draws 5 watts, and is equivalent to a 40
watt incandescent lamp.
• Pictures are sharper and easier to recognize with visible light.
Rules added to the firewall:
• A rule to permit incoming TCP traffic on port XXX (HTTP port to access
the Foscam’s web generator), directed to the IP address of the
camera.
• A rule to permit incoming TCP traffic on port XXXX (Media port to
access the video/audio from the Foscam), directed to the IP address
of the camera.
• The specifics of how to do this will vary depending on the
manufacturer of the firewall. There are numerous videos on YouTube
on how to do this on many common wireless routers.
The various alarms
• The camera is setup so that it will email a couple of video stills to my
email address if it detects a motion alarm.
• BlueIris is setup so that it sounds a siren like sound (loud enough to
wake me up quickly) if the motion alarm is detected. This is set to
operate only between certain hours. I can also hear any sounds
inside the shop through the software (this can be turned off
manually).
• BlueIris will also record 30 seconds of video and store it on the
computer. This will continue in added segments if the alarm
condition persists.
Added methods of access
• One browser link that reaches the camera itself from inside my
network.
• A browser link (to the Foscam DDNS address of the camera) that
reaches the camera itself from the outside world (Internet)
• BlueIris usually runs 24 hours a day on the computer in the home.
• I do not at present have it configured to text me or call me (a voice
capable modem is required to have BlueIris make telephone voice
calls).
06 June – Foscam camera failed
• In mid-afternoon, the picture was distorted, I rebooted, and the
camera did not properly reboot.
• I installed an older Linksys camera close to the same location (this will
remain as a backup when the Linksys is back in service).
• Configuration both for the added camera and in BlueIris took less
than an hour.
• The picture quality is VGA grade, but it will be evident that it is
nowhere near the Foscam, particularly in low light levels (it does not
have built-in Infrared lighting).
Linksys WVC200 (older camera)
Linksys backup camera
Backup camera at night, with LEDs in shop
Configuration with Linksys utility
Linksys – DDNS supported but not provided
Linksys – setup email alerts
Linksys – setup pan/tilt and home position
Linksys – Monitor Utility program
If you want help in making a camera work
• Promised LAN Computing, Inc.
• Jim Cason
• (252) 636-0407
• jcason@promlancomp.com
• http://www.promlancomp.com
• Copyright Promised LAN Computing, Inc. 2013 – All rights reserved.