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Wi-Fi jamming to knock out cameras suspected in nine Minnesota burglaries -- smart security systems vulnerable as tech becomes cheaper and easier to acquire (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 203 points 2 years ago (33 children)

If you have to run power to it, you might as well run some data as well. Never really the best idea to have mission critical equipment at the mercy of a congested wifi network.

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  • [–] 137 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Save some trouble and go with POE. A little more expense to setup, but you only have to run one wire and everything is permanently hardwired.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Heck yeah. In addition to POE, I’ve got a power line adapter setup to the NVR so that the cams are all hardwired to the modem/router combo. It’s fast enough for remote viewing in HD.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    What system do you have and how many cameras. We are moving north and I wanted to get a POE system and am looking for recommendations. Obviously Costco has some options but they are going to be pretty basic and have iffy reviews.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    These are 3 outdoor cameras I helped setup for my bestie. I’m pretty sure she went with a no name brand. The UI is the same UI you see in other basic NVR’s out there. It was likely an Amazon or Costco purchase. This was a few years ago, the details are a bit hazy. I helped setup the software on a non-PoE system and it looked exactly the same. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of much help…

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  • [–] 37 points 2 years ago (15 children)

    A lot of the new systems can use battery powered cameras that are motion activated - they can last for a month+ on battery because they only turn fully on when they detect motion.

    You're right though - if it's mission critical don't rely on wireless.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Some of them even have solar panels as well. It's very useful if you want to DYI installation without having to run cables all over the place (data and/or power).

    This Wi-Fi jamming stuff does seem like a huge issue. I was actually considering wireless down the line, but maybe a system with proper wired connections would be better.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Power over Ethernet (PoE) requires one wire for both data and power. You also need a PoE network switch, or a “PoE injector” which is basically a power brick that adds power to the network cord.

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  • [+] -7 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    Have wireless setup, works really well. If they want it that bad they can have it while I'm gone or risk their life while I'm there.

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    If you don't care about your stuff, why would your risk your life to risk their lives? Lol

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    If it were me, I wouldn’t be as worried if I wasn’t there to lose stuff. If I was there I would be concerned with violence against me or my family. Not concerned with stuff but very concerned with safety.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Entering my house without permission while I'm there is a threat.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Yeah, if someone is nutty enough to come inside, they're getting shot. I don't live in a fortress, but you have to make the effort, and anyone making that effort probably doesn't have my family's well-being in mind.

    I also had a bear wander in my giant dog door, so there's that as well.

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  • [–] 18 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Electricity is already wired throughout, you just need to get to the closest plug. You have to run ethernet the whole length and it has length limitations. It's not trivial.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    I mean ethernet has a range of 100 meters in one run (including with POE), which is probably going to be longer than the WiFi range assuming the WiFi access point is at the switch and it's a relatively straight run. If you need more range a small 4 port POE switch is hardly likely to break the bank if you have a property big enough to need over 100 meters of ethernet in one run.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Isn't there ethernet over power or something like that?

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    There is indeed ethernet over power and I have been using it for almost 2 decades to connect a desktop PC in a room to the router in a different room in the various places I lived in over the years.

    It used to be only 20Mb/s way back in the beginning but nowadays (last I checked) 500Mb/s was common.

    I keep expecting this stuff to just come integrated in devices that are supposed to be wired to mains and also need network access to move around lots of data but I have yet to found such option built-in on auch devices: ethernet over power support usually comes in as a just a wall socket plug that also has an ethernet socket.

    That said, it works better if all plugs are on the same mains network with now breaker boxes in between since the high frequency signals needed to transport data at high speeds don't travel through inductors that well. I'm not quite sure how big houses in the US are wired, but this might be a problem if the device is trying to send lots if data across and the device and the router are in different mains subnetworks.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    If you’re in an apartment, is this like putting everything on the same switch? Could you snoop your neighbors traffic? How is that secured?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Those things need to be paired to be able to see each other's data stream so I assume it's encrypted.

    Also there are almost certainly TWO big breaker boxes (one for each appartment) plus meters - all of which with coils, which filter out high frequency signals - between your network and your neighbours', so your bandwidth is not going to be suffering from neighbours that are using a similar system, unlike with anything radio-based like Wi-Fi.

    I actually suspect this is even better suited for appartments than for standalone dwellings when your objective is bandwidth, because the signal will basically stop at the breaker box so you don't really interfere with each other whilst with Wi-Fi what stops interference is distance (and big thick walls or large metal surfaces) so appartment buildings are pretty nightmarish for it because everybody is so near everybody else.

    My own personal experience with this is all in appartment buildings and I actually first tried it back in the day when everybody and their dog started getting Wi-Fi and routers had become smart enough to automatically search for a less constrained Wi-Fi channel on setup (before that they all just used a default channel, so for a few years manually reconfiguring my router to use a different channel other than default would put me in a clean area of the spectrum few neighbours used) because Wi-Fi bandwidth by then had become was so bad whenliving in an appartment because of ther being so many people with their own networks in such close proximity.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Doorbell cameras are tricky there. They're designed for the lowest common denominator and expect you to use the existing wiring for power, but nothing else. No PoE connections for that.

    My other cameras are PoE, though. Madness not to.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    I use a reolink poe doorbell camera. It's a bitch to replace your doorbell wire with Ethernet but it's really worth it for the zero lag and camera still working during a power outage because my server is on a UPS. plus the wires can be used for a traditional doorbell if I sell the house, I just pick a pair and power them.

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