A Wi-Fi camera for security usage is a new upgrade over the traditional wired & offline ones. While you must be in a hurry to put your hands on them, there are some crucial things that need to be addressed.
This article is to let you know some key points before you consider buying your Wi-Fi camera setup.
They are Data suckers – Don’t believe us? The Wi-Fi Cameras need to be connected to cloud in order to record video footages & they eat up your data pretty fast. The Nest Cam IQ Wi-Fi camera can easily take up 4Mbps upload bandwidth at max video resolution round the clock. It means be ready to give up as high as 400GB net data per month from single camera. Obviously one can do some shortcuts such as putting it to low video resolution recording mode or apparently switching off when not in need. Some users may not find it a big deal but the same is a deal for limited bandwidth/data users.
Cumbersome Installation – Setting up the camera is easy indoors but the same is not easy when installing outdoors due to limited power outlets required for the process. Also the mounting of camera is equally unwieldy because you need to figure out how to install the camera within all power limits. There are alternative options in the market like Arlo Pro or the Ring Stick-up Cam which is wireless & need not be plugged around making the process a bit accessible. But majority of them needs to be plugged in around somewhere so keep drilling and trying.
External Cams can get distorted signals –
Things are not same everywhere & when it comes to installing the same on exterior wall can be difficult. If it’s a thick wall then the difficulty rises on getting some decent signals in the vicinity. Also, a great signals indoor doesn’t guarantee equally great outside. A remedy could be meshing Wi-Fi system in which you can cover your house in tiny sets of mini-routers & placing them strategically closer to outdoor Wi-Fi cams can help.
Security leaks – Since the product is cloud based, a risk of security breach always prevails no matter what. That means in case your server is to ever compromised (0.01% chances but still), it would be a terrible time for both you & camera. Also is someone hacks into the system your data can be used for malicious intent. Any cloud based product is prone to such security & privacy breaches leading to another topic of debate. So if you are worried of the possible intent you can quickly hit an override button to better go for wired security cameras which are still plain offline.
Wi-Fi cameras from the likes of Nest Cam, Arlo Q & Canary are highly convenient as you just need to plug ‘N’ play. But the simple convenience comes at a good cost with the above said things in mind it is a fair par above experience provided you don’t worry about possible security breaches or data issues.
Thanks for reading