Picked this up last week
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/272268726125?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Won this at auction today in my town, they cost $3600 new so pretty damn happy to get it for $9
http://www.graysonline.com/lot/0070-7012507/computers-and-it-equipment/apc-server-communications-cabinet?redirect=0
Apart for that I've got a few over sized desktop's that I mainly use for screwing around with. A Thecus N7510 with 4 x Hitachi 3TB HDD's in RAID 5.
I hate wifi and both houses here are steel framed buildings so a while ago I went to the trouble of digging a trench and running parallel Cat6 cables between the two houses so the POE switch that powers the security cameras has it's own gigabit connection to my place with everything else connected through the other cable to the switch in my place, just a basic TPlink 24 port easy management switch so I can have my workshop and our home network on separate VLAN, maybe I can put the cameras on their own VLAN that lets me access them from the personal network but not let the cameras have internet access.
As for the cameras, the easiest to configure and set up camera software that I tested and decided to go with was Xeoma
http://felenasoft.com/xeoma/en/
I chose it because well, have a go at the 24 hour trial version and see, the visual way you set up and configure it is very nice and their support is also very responsive and pro active if you have any questions or issues. Supports Windows, Linux and OSX, and it's more than just a security camera software.
This screen shot shows how the camera module connects to the motion sensor module which connected to the record to archive module if you want the motion sensor module to trigger recording, there are also a lot of strange modules like, microphone, speaker, relay switch, button switch, vehicle and licence plate recognition, facial recognition, visitor counter, daylight detector, sound alarm, application runner, PTZ control.
Useful as a bit of a internet of things control centre, I'd love to have a replica terminator as my mail box and have it's head track movement, have the camera out the front trigger a not too obnoxious alarm inside for me if a car pulls up out the front etc. an external speaker that plays something if triggered is also a choice.
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I also test drove that software on Linux a couple years ago, I liked the ease of setup and the flexibility, and I'm sure it's even better now, but I can't remember why I ruled it out for my system and went with Zoneminder prolly was the cost but just can't remember now.
Good luck sounds like a nice system.
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Yeah when I realised i could do all kinds of weird things with it, and it was the easiest to configure thing i tested, I only got a 4 camera licence to start. The fact their whole licencing system is based on being able to just pay a little to upgrade your existing licence to 6 cameras or 8 rather than have to get a new one isn't too bad.
Not sure if i tried zoneminder, I see it's linux only, i think the stuff i mostly looked at were multi platform solutions. So i can run it on Linux or Windows if i get fed up with linux. The windows software that came with the cameras has no instructions and trying to configure it to record triggered my motion in certain areas just doesn't want to work, but it works well just to view them. For something to do the recording and be the main control system I went looking for stuff that runs on linux.
I'll install zoneminder when I'm stuffing around with it again and see what it's like because I'm pretty sure I haven't tried it.
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There are a couple issues using Zoneminder, the first being it requires a LAMP server to operate, the second being camera compatibility, not every IP based camera will work although in theory any camera that supports the ONVIF standard should be configurable but the reality is not every camera will work, there is a list on the hardware section of Zonminders wiki that lists known compatible cameras and the data stream that was used. Then the last issue comes into play when you want a PTZ camera and a script is needed to make the controls work.
But I've been running my system long enough to say it works, and since it's web based (interface) you can view and configure on any platform that supports a web browser, that's nice in a lot of ways because we can use a smart phone that is connected to our wifi to view any camera feed locally, it can be turned outward to the internet if you choose and you secure the server (as long as your ISP has no objections) so it can be viewed and accessed anywhere a internet connection exists.
I've tried a lot of different CCTV software and for me Zoneminder does everything I wanted, it's low overhead on the server (I have 9 cameras running right now) but it's not without it's faults, it is after all freeware, the interface is pretty sparse (no flashy stuff, drab looking) but I find the minimalist appearance ok since I normally have a montage view open, it's very utilitarian but works well with the right cameras.
Hope this helps.
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