How to Record IP Cameras

[BigJug]

Hello all, sorry if this is posted in the wrong group.

I have some basic IP cameras that I was able to install. These cameras are the same type provided by the cable company and used with their home monitoring service, however I do NOT have that service, I was able to manually set up the camera for private use.

They work great, I was able to configure them manually, and connect to my wifi, set up port forwarding and through an app, I am able to view my camera REAL time through the internet, anywhere. All works great in that regard.

The only thing I haven't been able to do is figure out how to record the feed. I would love to set up a seperate hard drive and have the cameras record 24/7 to that drive. i have tried using iSpy, but it is very cumbersome and records multiple small files. After 24 hours, I had something like 150+ movie files which were just clips. It recorded every time there was movement. I wouldn't mind setting that function up again, or having it record constantly like a regular security system.

Hoping someone can help.

 

[thiggins]

Unless your cameras specifically support recording to a network share, you're likely out of luck. Same goes if you're trying to do local recording from a "cloud" camera like Nest, NETGEAR Arlo, etc.

 

[BigJug]

Thank you for your reply. How would I know if the camera supports recording to a network share - I don't even know what that is!

The camera I'm using is an iCamera 2 made by Sercomm. There isn't much info about it on the web, but its the same camera that Xfinity uses I believe, as well as many other Service providers.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Thank you for your reply. How would I know if the camera supports recording to a network share - I don't even know what that is!

The camera I'm using is an iCamera 2 made by Sercomm. There isn't much info about it on the web, but its the same camera that Xfinity uses I believe, as well as many other Service providers.

2nd hit in Google shows this. Is that your device?

There appears to be an option to connect to an FTP server when an event (motion or audio) is triggered. It doesn't say what it uploads, presumably a video clip. No suggestion that it can record continuously, only stream.

EDIT: This looks more interesting. In particular the bit that says "Samba The cameras can upload images and videos to local network shares." It'll take a bit of hacking though.

 

[BigJug]

That is my device.

I have seen the email alert function in the menu, which asks for an email address etc... but have NEVER gotten it to work! I've set up all the required info, but it never emailed anything.... I don't know much about FTP servers so I will have to look into that more closely. I'm looking into your other link -- Thank You... will update if I learn more and figure things out -- or have more questions! lol.

 

[BigJug]

This is still looking VERY tricky.... I've armed my camera, and in the "email notification" area I've inserted all relevant info including the SMTP server (used google and yahoo) and set the port and yet it does not send a notification. I'm still looking at the Samba section....

 

[coxhaus]

There is a good chance your ISP is blocking port 25 your mail port so you cannot run a mail server. If that is the case then you would need a mail server on your local network.

 

[cory_booth]

A bit pricey for me, but... SENSR.NET is perfectly tailored for these scenarios...

 

[colecaz]

Look up BlueIris security software from blueirissoftware.com. Their program is reasonably priced and will monitor a huge variety of IP cameras in addition to having generic settings for non-listed cameras. It can record locally or remotely, motion detect, and many other features.

 

[Peek]

BigJug have you been able to figure you the email portion (snapshot) of configuration yet? I have it working on all mine so can help you. Who is your ISP? You can message me if you want.

 

[Alldayi420]

So you can use software called Ivideon .. I just set up the server on my Linux machine.. open source .. detects all my different cameras as well ..

 

[sfx2000]

Figure out which ports the camera's are using, and redirect the traffic via IP tables...

Here's an example for NTP, adjust for port/proto as needed

# Redirect NTP requests to go through router 
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i br-lan -p udp --dport 123 -j DNAT --to 192.168.1.1 
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i br-guest -p udp --dport 123 -j DNAT --to 192.168.1.1

 

[Brad Knowles]

Look up BlueIris security software from blueirissoftware.com. Their program is reasonably priced and will monitor a huge variety of IP cameras in addition to having generic settings for non-listed cameras. It can record locally or remotely, motion detect, and many other features.

That’s good higher end software, but iSpy is pretty good itself. I’m sure there are configuration options that can be applied that would get the OP what they want, but the appropriate place for that discussion would be on the iSpy forums and not here.

Myself, I’m looking long and hard at Shinobi (see https://shinobi.video/).


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[dosborne]

Although the original thread is old, I'll throw my $0.02 in.....

Some devices, such as many QNAP NAS units, have an application called Surveillance Station. This app allows you to reord and perform a variety of other functions. I have a number of ancient cams and pulled one out one day to play around with and Surveillance Station seemed to detect and use it without any difficulty. It wasn't something I cared about really so I don't use it, but it did seem possible (and is part of the NAS i.e. no additional cost).

 

[Brad Knowles]

On synology NAS devices, that software has to be licensed for each camera you are monitoring, and those licenses ain’t cheap.

Besides, they’re not very good.

IMO, iSpy, Shinobi, etc... are MUCH better at monitoring the cameras, and just need hardware to run on. Shinobi is open source, as well. But I’d be happy to pay a commercial license for good software. So long as its actually good, and not whatever crap the NAS vendor wants to throw at you.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[dosborne]

The QNAP unit gives you at least 2 free licences. Can't comment on options or quality of the software since it was a year ago and I didn't use it for very long.

The next thing I would look for is a Raspberry Pi solution.