# Thief with WiFi Jammer killed my cameras - Switching to Wired cams



## Austinite

Recently my vehicle was in the driveway overnight and it was broken into. I have Nest cameras that run on Wifi. I believe the thief recognized the nest cameras and knew they ran on Wifi. At any rate, there was a 40 second block where all my cameras and wifi went down; and that's when the truck was broken into.

I decided to switch over to wired cameras. So this weekend will be my project of running Ethernet cables inside and out. I am going with Ubiquiti Unifi equipment since I already use all their switchers and access points. Very excited to use the PTZ camera that can follow people around and zooms like crazy. Hoping I can get it all done in 2 days.


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## driver_7

Sorry to hear about your truck. I am interested to see what you think about the Ubiquiti cameras when you have them up and running. Good luck pulling wire!


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## jayhawk

That sucks.... How hard would it be for a degenerate to snip your cable to the house? (What I'd do here given the sloppy infrastructure)

I'm waiting for them to restock cameras. Just installed dmc pro, lite 8, and lr-6 AP ....mastering cat6 terminations


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## Jacks_Designs

Austinite said:


> Recently my vehicle was in the driveway overnight and it was broken into. I have Nest cameras that run on Wifi. I believe the thief recognized the nest cameras and knew they ran on Wifi. At any rate, there was a 40 second block where all my cameras and wifi went down; and that's when the truck was broken into.
> 
> I decided to switch over to wired cameras. So this weekend will be my project of running Ethernet cables inside and out. I am going with Ubiquiti Unifi equipment since I already use all their switchers and access points. Very excited to use the PTZ camera that can follow people around and zooms like crazy. Hoping I can get it all done in 2 days.


Sorry to hear that happen to you. What so many people don't realize is how easy it is to do this.


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## Theycallmemrr

Unifi makes very good cameras but they are spendy. They also make good network equipment and probably overkill for a home. I have been pretty happy with it.

If you want a cheaper alternative look into Reolink with an NVR and 4K cameras or roll your own NVR with BlueIris. Do not get any camera system BNC connectors. Reolink is not the best but really good value.


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## Austinite

Thanks everyone. @717driver, I will be sure to post pictures and updates once the work is done. Ended up doing a bunch of lawn leveling so I am just starting today on the cameras.

@jayhawk, yes they certainly can do that. I do have my cables coming into the house hidden behind panels, so they would have a hard time finding them. My thought is they likely won't take the time to go through all that. A WiFi jammer seems like something they can use on the fly so they can get in and out quick. I still suck at terminating Cat6 cables. I hate it, even with all the "right" tools I struggle still.

@Theycallmemrr, Agreed that Ubiquiti is overkill for homeowners and there are lots of less expensive alternatives. I started with ubiquiti when my IT director started using them for my stores. Really love the interface and the detail/control it provides. As you know, someone can knock down a camera with a baseball bat and suddenly they have an Ethernet cable with your internet live running to it. I didn't see much out there that can keep hackers out and dedicate an IP to specific tasks/products where even if they plugged into my network, I can keep them out of the important stuff.

At this point I'm a little "extra" paranoid, but having Ubiquiti's Dream Machine Pro and their Switches inside and outdoors, I feel it's best to stick with the same brand for easy pairing/adopting of products and management. The 8TB drives they sell are expensive! Would love to know if you know of any alternatives, it looks like a normal blank internal hardrive, I don't see why another brand wouldn't work.


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## Boy_meets_lawn

So I'm sure you know but the unify cams are a closed system. That was a deal breaker for me at the price they have them. If they were priced similarly to other Poe cams I could justify buying them.

As for hard drives, some of the older wd element external drives used to have reds in them. I cracked 4 open to use the red drives when I built my NAS. They may have changed them now to other drives but that was the cheapest way to get NAS drives.


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## jayhawk

$1800 camera (clearly not tripping over pennies) .....and the other is a g4 bullet? I'm leaning to get the g4 dome for outfront, under an overhang?

My DMP drive bay is empty.....can't imagine anything more than commodity drive. My hope anyway


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## soupy01833

I have a unify dream machine(not pro). What i don't get with the dream machine pro is why the ports are not POE.
it is a nice product but having it come with POE would be better


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## Theycallmemrr

@Austinite 
As @Boy_meets_lawn you are going to want WD red drives.


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## Boy_meets_lawn

soupy01833 said:


> I have a unify dream machine(not pro). What i don't get with the dream machine pro is why the ports are not POE.
> it is a nice product but having it come with POE would be better


There's a new udmp se in early access that has Poe but if they haven't updated the backplane then I don't really see the point.


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## mobiledynamics

WiFi Jammer - that's quite the stretch or not ?
Any chance he might have disconnected your [email protected] Demarc on however it enters the house ?
That might be the most logical IMO


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## Boy_meets_lawn

mobiledynamics said:


> WiFi Jammer - that's quite the stretch or not ?
> Any chance he might have disconnected your [email protected] Demarc on however it enters the house ?
> That might be the most logical IMO


The tech is out there and it's cheap and portable . But as you said just a service disconnect will render wireless cameras useless.

That's why a multilayered approach is best. Some wired cameras even have storage built in so if the cloud is down, and the nvr is taken you still have footage.


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## jayhawk

How u liking that ? Since u didn't feed the ducks here does that mean u arent done?@Austinite


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## Austinite

jayhawk said:


> How u liking that ? Since u didn't feed the ducks here does that mean u arent [email protected]


Love it. Amazing image quality, even at night. Pretty impressive system. That big camera can read license plates at night. The zoom is out of this world.


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## krusej23

Wouldn't a Nest cam record locally to it it's built in storage and then upload when the wifi comes back on? Also, a simple sd card recording camera would be a much simpler solution. I have a $20 wyze cam v3 that can record to an sd card continuously even when wifi is out.


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## wingless

When I setup my property I was not interested in the long term ongoing security camera service charge, so I selected wired cameras / microphones (composite video / analog audio) and my own Tigersecu DVR.

This has been working fine for many years. On more than one instance I was able to use photos and images as part of a problem resolution.

My system w/ the smallest hard drive, two cameras/microphones store 2½ weeks of history before overwriting.

It has acceptable iPhone and desktop computer interfaces.


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## Deltahedge

I recently purchased the Ubiquiti G4 Pro cameras. I don't have enough use yet to give a review of them, but if they're like anything else I've bought from Ubuiti, I'm sure it will be great.


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## Austinite

Deltahedge said:


> I recently purchased the Ubiquiti G4 Pro cameras. I don't have enough use yet to give a review of them, but if they're like anything else I've bought from Ubuiti, I'm sure it will be great.


I am loving ubiquiti. Since then, I have added several cameras. I also use their ViewPort to display cameras on TV's throughout the house. The only thing I am working on now is the cameras recognizing when I am home and eliminating some of the alerts. I have an open ticket with support on that.

The camera quality is superb compared to other cameras I have used in the past. And the options are quite amazing. My biggest gripe was my Giant PTZ camera does not have a microphone. I couldnt believe that I missed that in the specs. $1800 PTZ cam with no mic. I jjust can't see the reason being space or price. Plenty of space and plenty of retail price to get a mic in there.


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## Deltahedge

Austinite said:


> I am loving ubiquiti. Since then, I have added several cameras. I also use their ViewPort to display cameras on TV's throughout the house. The only thing I am working on now is the cameras recognizing when I am home and eliminating some of the alerts. I have an open ticket with support on that.
> 
> The camera quality is superb compared to other cameras I have used in the past. And the options are quite amazing. My biggest gripe was my Giant PTZ camera does not have a microphone. I couldnt believe that I missed that in the specs. $1800 PTZ cam with no mic. I jjust can't see the reason being space or price. Plenty of space and plenty of retail price to get a mic in there.


Yeah, they should be covered on both fronts to throw a $4 mic in the housing somewhere.


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