Camera/Surveillance Systems

[secpar]

Any of the locals here have for themselves a camera system for home surveillance?

I've got a Dahua camera system setup in my home with, presently, 21 cameras installed. Some are wireless, such as doorbell cameras or floodlight/camera combo units.

Anybody else? And, what Pros/Cons do you notice?

 

[Madeleine Takam]

21 Cameras? That’s a lot of cameras. Must admit no experience whatsoever. When I lived in République du Cameroun, I obviously had a guard leopard. But now sleepy Alderley Edge, just standard patrol kittens. They fill in a report once per week.

 

[secpar]

Nice kits ya got there.

I'm a camera enthusiast. It serves multiple purposes, of which one reason is I am able to enjoy the outside of my house from the inside of my house. Also, I can always check out what's going on at home and view remotely anytime my home/sanctuary. I have pulled more video for family videos on the camera system than any other reason. Lots of funny moments caught on camera with my kids.

I don't really expect trouble, but on occasion it has happened. In September of 2023, had a police chase that ended with an abandoned vehicle in my drive way. I don't know if the perps were caught though.

It's not all about security, but it definitely is a hobby. Also, I work now in the security industry for camera systems and card access controls.

 

[Martingonn]

Nice kits ya got there.

I'm a camera enthusiast. It serves multiple purposes, of which one reason is I am able to enjoy the outside of my house from the inside of my house. Also, I can always check out what's going on at home and view remotely anytime my home/sanctuary. I have pulled more video for family videos on the camera system than any other reason. Lots of funny moments caught on camera with my kids.

I don't really expect trouble, but on occasion it has happened. In September of 2023, had a police chase that ended with an abandoned vehicle in my drive way. I don't know if the perps were caught though.

It's not all about security, but it definitely is a hobby. Also, I work now in the security industry for camera systems and card access controls.

The risk of today's cameras is that they can and will spy on you. Also replying to this exactly one year later!

 

[secpar]

The risk of today's cameras is that they can and will spy on you. Also replying to this exactly one year later!

If one knows how to setup firewall rules to block traffic going out, and know how to setup SSH or VPN tunnels, do you suppose they're still spying then?

I'm not a networking expert, but I know enough to make a lot of sense of a lot of the work I do.

 

[Martingonn]

If one knows how to setup firewall rules to block traffic going out, and know how to setup SSH or VPN tunnels, do you suppose they're still spying then?

I'm not a networking expert, but I know enough to make a lot of sense of a lot of the work I do.

The average user won't even know that they can do such things. They will still be spying even if you make the tunnels, but the comapny might just not receive the data. The best way would be to remove the spyware features from the firmware, but that would be hard or even impossible.

 

[secpar]

The average user won't even know that they can do such things. They will still be spying even if you make the tunnels, but the comapny might just not receive the data. The best way would be to remove the spyware features from the firmware, but that would be hard or even impossible.

How can that be so when outgoing traffic is blocked? I can tunnel into my own network to view my cameras remotely, but the cameras themselves cannot access the internet no matter how hard they "may" try. Not that any of the cameras try, as they all point to the NVR as the "gateway" and the NVR itself also cannot reach the internet.

I have, however, had an LG smart TV somehow reach the internet when the gateway was blanked out but the DNS was pointing to a local DNS server. I haven't figured that one out. I set up its network config via DHCP by way of DNSMasq.

 

[Mr Siamese Cat]

The average user won't even know that they can do such things. They will still be spying even if you make the tunnels, but the comapny might just not receive the data. The best way would be to remove the spyware features from the firmware, but that would be hard or even impossible.

If I published my IP Address, I seriously doubt that anyone could hack into my system. They would need to use advanced MAC spoofing. Last year I had a phone call from Madeleine because she couldn’t log in. She had changed her router (Different MAC Address). I have to manually set the MAC number of any system before it can log in on my hardware firewalls, or the system won’t let you in. My firewalls are old and I seriously doubt as expensive as Secpar’s. One would also need to know the correct MAC number to use.

I am not a corporation and don’t need to let anyone I don’t personally know in. Anyone in the same situation just sets up MAC addresses allowed access - of the Routers, Network Cards, firewalls and phones individually. Difficult and expensive for a large company, but dead easy if only one, or two people are allowed access.

I stopped using any anti-virus, or software firewalls across all my machines in about 2005 if I remember correctly, as so far I have not had a frontal lobotomy, know how control alt delete works, know what a network cable looks like and how to unplug it. 3 times in the last 20 years just after full system backups I have loaded anti-virus and other investigatory software to see if I have been mistaken in my thinking. My original suspicions have been confirmed, that all they do is detect ripped software. I have then reinstalled back ups and carried along on my merry way.

I do however understand that Anti-virus and other protection software is useful, if one has young children, trophy wives, that didn’t take STEM at university, or runs a business, with staff.

In the end Hardware Firewalls are cheap and they work.

 

[Martingonn]

If I published my IP Address, I seriously doubt that anyone could hack into my system. They would need to use advanced MAC spoofing. Last year I had a phone call from Madeleine because she couldn’t log in. She had changed her router (Different MAC Address). I have to manually set the MAC number of any system before it can log in on my hardware firewalls, or the system won’t let you in. My firewalls are old and I seriously doubt as expensive as Secpar’s. One would also need to know the correct MAC number to use.

I am not a corporation and don’t need to let anyone I don’t personally know in. Anyone in the same situation just sets up MAC addresses allowed access - of the Routers, Network Cards, firewalls and phones individually. Difficult and expensive for a large company, but dead easy if only one, or two people are allowed access.

I stopped using any anti-virus, or software firewalls across all my machines in about 2005 if I remember correctly, as so far I have not had a frontal lobotomy, know how control alt delete works, know what a network cable looks like and how to unplug it. 3 times in the last 20 years just after full system backups I have loaded anti-virus and other investigatory software to see if I have been mistaken in my thinking. My original suspicions have been confirmed, that all they do is detect ripped software. I have then reinstalled back ups and carried along on my merry way.

I do however understand that Anti-virus and other protection software is useful, if one has young children, trophy wives, that didn’t take STEM at university, or runs a business, with staff.

In the end Hardware Firewalls are cheap and they work.

Or a school full of students installing different crap. Then you need both antivirus and a DNS blocker. Glad it worked for you!
Also, one could bruteforce MAC spoofing, but would it be worth the hassle for just two people's data?

 

[Mr Siamese Cat]

Or a school full of students installing different crap. Then you need both antivirus and a DNS blocker. Glad it worked for you!
Also, one could bruteforce MAC spoofing, but would it be worth the hassle for just two people's data?

Hi Martin

I would be really interested to know how even an Intelligence agency funded hacker would be able to “brute force” MAC spoofing, even if they were more devious than a sneaky Fox who has just been made head of ‘The Department of Dirty Tricks and Dirty Deeds’ in the Ministry of Misinformation in His Majesties Government?

A genuine question.

My firewall blocks all traffic after 5 failed attempts at logging in. It effectively shuts down, nothing in, nothing out. That means someone has 5 shots at trying to emulate a 12-digit hexadecimal MAC number! Plus, the 20-digit password.

On the first attempt my Syslog Server emails me, no matter where I am in the world.

In the last 20 years since I have had a Static IP Address and had a (Real VPN) there has been exactly 2 attempts of inbound traffic trying to access my system. 1 of those attempts was Madeleine. The other one was from a commercial internet VPN, maybe someone trying to hide their IP address, or more likely my daughter, not realising she was trying to log on while going through nordVPN.

You and your brother are gamers, possibly online? So, I understand that you may need open ports. And your need for security software.

I use three firewalls after the router.

Behind the first Firewall I have a NAS with 16TB that can be accessed from external source. 8 ports open outbound only and 1 open for inbound.

Behind the second and third Firewall I have all my computers and important personal stuff. Probably 80TB in total. 7 ports open inbound only. Zero outbound.

My system can’t be pinged.

Below is one of 3 Hardware Firewalls blocking “inbound interrogation requests” from my router. Along with other Outbound requests that I have set up rules for and denied. Basically, how to lockdown Windows 10 and 11.

Below is my Sys Server reporting on what that particular Firewall has been doing.

I Real VPN can only be used with a Static IP address. The reason I pay extra. The number of private citizens with Static IP address’s is infinitesimally small. Simply because of common sense. Why pay extra for no reason. But then most people have absolutely no need whatsoever for an open inbound port. The reason most people ever have problems is through “social engineering” They can’t help themselves clicking on stuff.

I really think, as this is an XP site dedicated to Windows XP that the system overheads for protection software are large. My XP System 32bit only has 2 CPUs with four cores. And a choice between 4GB to 12GB ram.

One of my Windows 10 64bit machines has 2 CPUs with 48 cores and 256GB ram. So, overheads for protection software are minimal.

I think Martin that it is an interesting debate. And I would not tell people not to have antivirus software, but I would certainly tell them to get a Hardware Firewall. They are so easy to configure. Plus most people do not actually own the routers they get from their ISP’s. Sometimes one can’t even disable TELNET on these routers provided. I would say in that case, a Hardware Firewall is essential.

Below is some old junk I have thrown together on my breakfast bar, to show how to set up a nearly impossible system to break into. The router is one of those sent out by an ISP and the 2 Firewalls are bought off ebay for £15 each. The old NAS can be used to allow access to files externally, but this could be replaced with a gaming computer, that NO important confidential information is on.

The switch represents total security. Turn the router off when you aren’t using it. The clockwork timer represents a nightmare for someone trying a brute force attack on a partially secured system.

The Jack Daniels is my early morning wake up dram. Along with the cigarettes and 2 pints of coffee. I was drinking my coffee when I took photo.

In the end people’s computers are hacked, infected, or messed up, because they download silly stuff.

 

[cleverscreenname]

I have, however, had an LG smart TV somehow reach the internet when the gateway was blanked out but the DNS was pointing to a local DNS server. I haven't figured that one out. I set up its network config via DHCP by way of DNSMasq.

I just bought a Spectre non-smart TV for this reason. If I want to add streaming to it, I'll plug in a Roku.

 

[Martingonn]

Hi Martin

I would be really interested to know how even an Intelligence agency funded hacker would be able to “brute force” MAC spoofing, even if they were more devious than a sneaky Fox who has just been made head of ‘The Department of Dirty Tricks and Dirty Deeds’ in the Ministry of Misinformation in His Majesties Government?

A genuine question.

My firewall blocks all traffic after 5 failed attempts at logging in. It effectively shuts down, nothing in, nothing out. That means someone has 5 shots at trying to emulate a 12-digit hexadecimal MAC number! Plus, the 20-digit password.

On the first attempt my Syslog Server emails me, no matter where I am in the world.

In the last 20 years since I have had a Static IP Address and had a (Real VPN) there has been exactly 2 attempts of inbound traffic trying to access my system. 1 of those attempts was Madeleine. The other one was from a commercial internet VPN, maybe someone trying to hide their IP address, or more likely my daughter, not realising she was trying to log on while going through nordVPN.

You and your brother are gamers, possibly online? So, I understand that you may need open ports. And your need for security software.

I use three firewalls after the router.

Behind the first Firewall I have a NAS with 16TB that can be accessed from external source. 8 ports open outbound only and 1 open for inbound.

Behind the second and third Firewall I have all my computers and important personal stuff. Probably 80TB in total. 7 ports open inbound only. Zero outbound.

My system can’t be pinged.

Below is one of 3 Hardware Firewalls blocking “inbound interrogation requests” from my router. Along with other Outbound requests that I have set up rules for and denied. Basically, how to lockdown Windows 10 and 11.

View attachment 1602

Below is my Sys Server reporting on what that particular Firewall has been doing.

View attachment 1603

I Real VPN can only be used with a Static IP address. The reason I pay extra. The number of private citizens with Static IP address’s is infinitesimally small. Simply because of common sense. Why pay extra for no reason. But then most people have absolutely no need whatsoever for an open inbound port. The reason most people ever have problems is through “social engineering” They can’t help themselves clicking on stuff.

I really think, as this is an XP site dedicated to Windows XP that the system overheads for protection software are large. My XP System 32bit only has 2 CPUs with four cores. And a choice between 4GB to 12GB ram.

View attachment 1604

One of my Windows 10 64bit machines has 2 CPUs with 48 cores and 256GB ram. So, overheads for protection software are minimal.

I think Martin that it is an interesting debate. And I would not tell people not to have antivirus software, but I would certainly tell them to get a Hardware Firewall. They are so easy to configure. Plus most people do not actually own the routers they get from their ISP’s. Sometimes one can’t even disable TELNET on these routers provided. I would say in that case, a Hardware Firewall is essential.

Below is some old junk I have thrown together on my breakfast bar, to show how to set up a nearly impossible system to break into. The router is one of those sent out by an ISP and the 2 Firewalls are bought off ebay for £15 each. The old NAS can be used to allow access to files externally, but this could be replaced with a gaming computer, that NO important confidential information is on.

View attachment 1605



The switch represents total security. Turn the router off when you aren’t using it. The clockwork timer represents a nightmare for someone trying a brute force attack on a partially secured system.

The Jack Daniels is my early morning wake up dram. Along with the cigarettes and 2 pints of coffee. I was drinking my coffee when I took photo.

In the end people’s computers are hacked, infected, or messed up, because they download silly stuff.

That is a really long essay outlining your safety! Also, you are right! Most systems get hacked because people download the virus and ignore all of the warnings. I played around with hacking VMs (with open ports of course) and most of the payloads you get in tools like MSFExploit need to be clicked by the victim.
Turning off the router is pretty smart, will only lose up to 30 seconds of your time, yet prevents ANY potential hackers to hack in the night, without your knowledge.
About the MAC spoofing - I imagine a person on this forum runs on old hardware by default, that is why I thought you have an old TPLink or MicroTik router. A few years ago, at school, I was cleaning the server room and the teacher said we could take anything except the servers. The school did not need things like old hard disks or TV remotes, so they just did a giveaway. There was a lot of stuff from the Windows XP era, from mice and keyboards to harddrives. Most importantly, however, there was an old TPLink router. I play around with it to this day, but it is whitelisted so malware like TheMoon won't land on it and make it a proxy for illegal stuff. The router itself has really short "block" times (after incorrect password), so a Python script saving tried passwords to a list and coming back 30 seconds later was the way.

You and your brother are gamers, possibly online? So, I understand that you may need open ports. And your need for security software.

Seems you found our channel. I have a seperate PC for games like Hell Let Loose with an EXTREMELY intrusive anticheat that won't allow you to run any scripts, cmd commands and 2/3rds of other apps. On Kodachi Linux (USB), I have Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME and XP Virtual Machines for old games. You never know if the games from Internet Archive don't have a really sneaky virus in there, most of them are singleplayer and offline anyway.
Once again, thank you for your post! I am making an antivirus for Windows XP as a project for fun. Here it is: https://github.com/Martingonn/SentinelXP/
I can also add you to the message group on this forum if you're interested in updates.

Have a good day!

Martingonn

 

[Chiron]

I'm a camera enthusiast. It serves multiple purposes, of which one reason is I am able to enjoy the outside of my house from the inside of my house. Also, I can always check out what's going on at home and view remotely anytime my home/sanctuary. I have pulled more video for family videos on the camera system than any other reason. Lots of funny moments caught on camera with my kids.

I'm a staunch cameraphobe who sticks a piece of black tape on laptops built-in cameras even if they are nominally off (you never know...).
Not that I have much to conceal but I'd rather decide myself with whom I'm sharing my privacy - and the notion of a 100% airtight firewall is a pathetic joke in a world where the most efficient spyware is your own OS.

To enjoy the outside of my house from the inside of my house I use a comparatively old invention called "non-microsoft windows", basically a set of two sheets of amorphous silicate separated by inert gas that transmits the whole visible spectrum, featuring a resolution much higher than any commercial camera. It still poses some minor privacy problems as the system is intrinsically bidirectional, but another old invention called "courtains & blinds" takes good care of that

 

[Martingonn]

I'm a staunch cameraphobe who sticks a piece of black tape on laptops built-in cameras even if they are nominally off (you never know...).
Not that I have much to conceal but I'd rather decide myself with whom I'm sharing my privacy - and the notion of a 100% airtight firewall is a pathetic joke in a world where the most efficient spyware is your own OS.

To enjoy the outside of my house from the inside of my house I use a comparatively old invention called "non-microsoft windows", basically a set of two sheets of amorphous silicate separated by inert gas that transmits the whole visible spectrum, featuring a resolution much higher than any commercial camera. It still poses some minor privacy problems as the system is intrinsically bidirectional, but another old invention called "courtains & blinds" takes good care of that

I also cover cameras in laptops because I never use them and don't want spyware to be able to access it. If you use XP/Linux fresh, you won't have spyware on it. About Windows 10 and 11 though...

 

[Madeleine Takam]

Behind the second and third Firewall I have all my computers and important personal stuff. Probably 80TB in total. 7 ports open inbound only. Zero outbound.

I am 100% sure you meant to write. Zero inbound, 8 Outbound having seen your system close up. I suggest you cut down on the Jack Daniels. Regarding your suggestion of employing ntkl64g.exe and hal64g.dll with the 3Gb switch on my system. I get the same results, as on your systems. Doesn’t work. Just falls over. I will stick with 3GB switch, as like you, I have low overheads. The Switch works far better, as it is the only reliable way over going over 2GB limit.

Only exception maybe running Acrobat Professional, Office, AutoCad, Revit, SolidWorks and Photoshop simultaneously across 2 or more monitors. Allocating 2GB to each.

Why are you getting interrogation block / bounce on the Draytek Vigor. Did you swap out for an SR102 for demo purposes for this forum specific. I am presuming a yes, looking through Loopback interface.

 

[secpar]

I just bought a Spectre non-smart TV for this reason. If I want to add streaming to it, I'll plug in a Roku.

I figured out how it connected to the internet. The DNS part made the TV think it was online and presented a dialog screen. The gateway was set to loopback on the device. I decided I didn't want the TV to access the local DNS anyway: didn't really need it.

 

[secpar]

I'm a staunch cameraphobe who sticks a piece of black tape on laptops built-in cameras even if they are nominally off (you never know...).
Not that I have much to conceal but I'd rather decide myself with whom I'm sharing my privacy - and the notion of a 100% airtight firewall is a pathetic joke in a world where the most efficient spyware is your own OS.

To enjoy the outside of my house from the inside of my house I use a comparatively old invention called "non-microsoft windows", basically a set of two sheets of amorphous silicate separated by inert gas that transmits the whole visible spectrum, featuring a resolution much higher than any commercial camera. It still poses some minor privacy problems as the system is intrinsically bidirectional, but another old invention called "courtains & blinds" takes good care of that

Glad you found something that works for you.

 

[cleverscreenname]

I'm a staunch cameraphobe who sticks a piece of black tape on laptops built-in cameras even if they are nominally off (you never know...).
Not that I have much to conceal but I'd rather decide myself with whom I'm sharing my privacy - and the notion of a 100% airtight firewall is a pathetic joke in a world where the most efficient spyware is your own OS.

To enjoy the outside of my house from the inside of my house I use a comparatively old invention called "non-microsoft windows", basically a set of two sheets of amorphous silicate separated by inert gas that transmits the whole visible spectrum, featuring a resolution much higher than any commercial camera. It still poses some minor privacy problems as the system is intrinsically bidirectional, but another old invention called "curtains & blinds" takes good care of that

So do I! I don't normally use laptops, but I definitely do this on tablets and phones as well.
There's also tint and one-way mirrors for windows! As a child, did you play with the blinds control strings? I did, broke some, boy does that piss the parents off LOL

 

[Mr Siamese Cat]

I am 100% sure you meant to write. Zero inbound, 8 Outbound having seen your system close up. I suggest you cut down on the Jack Daniels. Regarding your suggestion of employing ntkl64g.exe and hal64g.dll with the 3Gb switch on my system. I get the same results, as on your systems. Doesn’t work. Just falls over. I will stick with 3GB switch, as like you, I have low overheads. The Switch works far better, as it is the only reliable way over going over 2GB limit.

Only exception maybe running Acrobat Professional, Office, AutoCad, Revit, SolidWorks and Photoshop simultaneously across 2 or more monitors. Allocating 2GB to each.

Why are you getting interrogation block / bounce on the Draytek Vigor. Did you swap out for an SR102 for demo purposes for this forum specific. I am presuming a yes, looking through Loopback interface.

Yes, you correct. I did mean Zero. I have tried the 3gb switch on 4 different machines with PAE with no luck. Speaking to Steve a couple of weeks ago who wanted to try. So, I think with your testing, that knocks the nail on the head. Didn't use Draytek for obvious reasons. The audience won’t have Draytek's.

I have been forced to give up drinking and smoking by new girlfriend, so no more JD. Will see you guys on Sunday afternoon.

 

[Chiron]

As a child, did you play with the blinds control strings? I did, broke some, boy does that piss the parents off LOL

You bet I did - but just once. I didn't actually break anything but managed to jam the whole thing irrecoverably.
After the spanking it felt as if I was sitting on jalapeños