I had an interesting conversation with the cable guy yesterday.

Though I am strictly a satellite user, there is a stub in my back yard that they visit fairly often. (One of the reasons I have satellite and DSL!)

It's all direct burial cable here, somewhere between a little over 1/2" to a little under 1" cable that our little individual lines tap into. (It varries according to what they were laying at the time of installation... translation, what they could buy cheap!)

They've had all kinds of problems with the direct burial cable. Things like rocks and tree roots take a serious toll over time and those cables cause them a lot of trouble.

He was also telling me about another subdivision where they did run their wires in conduit (underground) where they never have any trouble. He tells me that all their new undergound cable is being run in conduit for that reason. He claims it's a little more expensive up front but ends up paying for itself in much increased longevity.

I don't have any reason to doubt him as he's been with the cable company for over 20 years and there was no reason to lie about that as I have no axe to grind either way.

FWIW...

Brian

You can run direct burial cable in conduit ok. It is use to water. But if you run regular cable that is not use to water it will still be under it soon.

You ought to talk with Verizon regarding their 5 gig limit. They told me it is to discourage constant streaming such as you describe. I understand it gets pretty expensive once you pass the thresh hold.

Good Luck - Kevin

quote:

Originally posted by Kevin H:
You ought to talk with Verizon regarding their 5 gig limit. They told me it is to discourage constant streaming such as you describe. I understand it gets pretty expensive once you pass the thresh hold.

Good Luck - Kevin

I'm not looking for 24/7 streaming, just a few times per day or week depending on the time of the year. I have a local friend who is looking into a digital recorder that can hold several days of info on it and is remotely accessible. The benefit to something like this is, if I log on regularly and notice there is suddenly something missing or broken into, I can call up the recordings by each hour until I find the change that took place. I realize this will allow the risk of someone to steal the recording equipment, but I plan to have the security system completely isolated from anything else. Having the cameras on a wifi connection to the router makes searching for wires to lead back to the base station a little harder to do. (signal strength meters could locate it I guess, but few if anyone in our area is really that ambitious about things like this in the first place).

I'm planning for direct burial wire inside of conduit if I go with a wired system, water tight seals with electrical grease packs at the connections. Trenching lines in the rocky soil we have is not something I'm looking forward to in some areas, so wifi may be my main solution if I can find a solar panel/ backup battery box to power the cameras in a few trees. That will likely be a last resort solution.

dave, i have also thought of monitoring remote property. however, even though you would be made aware of any violation of your property, it would be after the fact when there is not much you could do about it. i wonder if it might not be more effective and MUCH cheaper to create a deterrence by installing several fake cameras and a bunch of prominent signs saying, "WARNING -- YOU ARE BEING VIDEO TAPED!"

barry

Empty threats of catching someone are not nearly as effective as having video or photos to submit to police. It's not just about scaring people off, it's about knowing if there is any damage to our place that needs attention, acts of god/nature and vandalism end up leaving me with the same result if I don't know to have things fixed like windows, weather proofing etc.

I'm working with an IT friend currently to see what he can put together for me where we're at, I'll probably install the stuff next time I'm home if anything tests out reliable enough to leave untouched here.

I want one of these, love the video even if I don't read Korean!

http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=762

Are you feeling a little defensive tonight Stan?...

Thankfully, our property is closer to a more friendly border than you are.

I've seen a few setups like this that are built solely for video recording. They are a little bit pricey for watching the grass grow around our house though.