Dropbox as a CCTV storage solution

Time and again, I keep hearing about burglaries taking place in my old neighborhood. Most of them occur during the daytime when the house is empty, and security companies tend to show up long after the burglars have fled the scene, often with at least a half hour’s head start. This feels very wrong, considering people actually pay for vigilance and rapid response.

I decided to post up a blueprint which I would like to share with all of you of how to capture images of such an event and react in good time.

Such a solution requires the following:

·         An Internet connection with a decent uplink speed (>1Mbps).

·         A (physically) small computer to act as a server, hidden out of sight.

·         Ideally, the server ought to be encrypted (system + storage partitions). Use TrueCrypt for that. It’s a good idea in case the server gets stolen.

·         FTP Server software running on the server.

·         Dropbox running on the server. The standard 2GB offered by the free account should be enough. I love Dropbox, so I pay the $100/year for 50GB, and now boast 137GB of storage space on their servers.

·         Install TeamViewer on the server, so you can log into it from remote. TeamViewer penetrates every firewall you can think of, is feature-rich and bandwidth friendly.

·         Webcams with motion-detection and IR (InfraRed). Try to use Ethernet cabling wherever you can as opposed to WiFi/WLAN as the 2400MHz range can easily be jammed. There are so many decent sub-$100 webcams on Ebay. Just type in “network webcam”, and you’ll find yourself scrolling for hours.

So, the goal of this setup is to capture any movement and upload the image straight to Dropbox. If you’re at work or out-and-about, your Dropbox client will reveal the new images directly.

Instructions:

·    Make sure that all the cameras have their internal clocks synchronized with an NTP server somewhere out on the Internet. Their outputted files will be sorted chronologically. You can follow someone walking from one room to the next.

·    If available, see if the camera has an OSD (On-Screen Display) which can contain a timestamp for each image. More importantly, make sure if the outputted image file has a timestamp in its filename. This will allow you to quickly locate and review all images in a chronological order.

·   Configure the FTP client on the webcams to upload all captured images to your local FTP server. Do NOT have them upload directly to an FTP server outside your network (via the Internet) because that will very likely up with incomplete image files in many cases.

·    With Dropbox installed on the server, make sure that your FTP server’s default folder is the actual Dropbox folder! After all, this is where the magic happens! Dropbox will CRC-check, compress and upload the files straight to the Internet. From there, it’ll land on your computer/phone/tablet wherever you are in the world. A copy will be saved on Dropbox’s servers.

·    Right-click the Dropbox icon down to the bottom-right of the screen, click on Preferences->Bandwidth, and select “Upload rate: Don’t Limit”. Push OK.

Waste no time! This will put full priority on the uplink transmission of this file to Dropbox's servers.

·    Fiddle with the camera’s motion detection sensitivity. Test each camera to see what little it takes to set off an alarm. Some cameras have a 1-100 scale for sensitivity. See what works best for each camera. Avoid aiming the camera at things that will constantly trigger a snapshot, such as a garden. Wind and insects are the two constant nuisances for motion detection. Bugs love IR, and trees love wind. Do what you can to avoid both. Best to place the cameras in the corner of a room, facing doors and windows as opposed to raising too much attention from the outside. If you have any pets, then keep them out of rooms they don’t need to be in during the daytime. You will quickly learn that they are a motion detection nuisance too, but have fun learning their patterns from a bird’s eye view.

Outdoor surveillance is super-sensitive to insects, leaves, cobweb, wind and sudden bursts of sunlight.

So, all this will result in a series of images being taken by your cameras, then being uploaded  to Dropbox. If you’re sitting behind a computer at the office, you’ll get an instant notification of a new image. If you’re away from home, you can log into your Dropbox (via mobile/desktop app) and review all the activity during the course of the day.

You don’t have to worry about the server being stolen or damaged, because by then the images are already up in the Dropbox cloud as well as all your other computers.

Here’s a small shopping list of recommended products, in case you want to set up something like this: 

• Server: I like the tiny size and low power consumption of the Aleutia Computers brand. No moving parts, and takes incredibly little space.  If you get the right model, it can even run on a 12V battery!

Aleutia Computers: Small footprint, low power consumption and versatile in use.

• UPDATE! Webcam: For its unbeatable price, this is a very good camera. The picture quality is better than the previous 480p model. It has IR, motion detection (1-100 sensitivity scale), FTP client, Pan & Tilt (PTZ-without the zoom), and images come out as 720p. Only drawback is that IR is dynamic, and your daytime images will risk looking worse than your nighttime ones. Nonetheless, the IR reach is up to 15m. It also offers 802.11n WLAN as well as an Ethernet port. However, if you got the bucks to burn, then go for cameras with 1080p and optical zoom. Do not rely on digital zoom unless you fancy big fat pixels!

• NetcamViewer app for your iOS. It works great on the iPhone and iPad, and you can monitor up to 4 cameras (paid version) at the same time in each group; from anywhere in the world.

When I have the time, I'll post up another article on how to store and view videos (from an iPhone) as well, so you can make most of this solution.

PS: If you're planning on buying a bunch of low-priced cameras, make sure to order a spare. You never know...

Enjoy!