Did you stock up on Ring, Nest and other Smart Home doorbells and cameras this year? Amazon's 2019 Prime Day Smart Home deals were amazing, but now it's time to install everything!! Below are helpful installation tips:
Don't Hide Your Cameras
Unless there's a specific activity you want to catch, don't bother hiding your cameras. Burglars don't like security cameras and actively voice homes with obvious cams according to research from the University of North Carolina
Your front door sees a lot of deliveries, visitors and traffic + 80% of break-ins happen there. However, having other well placed prominent cameras and security measures help scare off unwanted visitors, monitor for intruders.
Consider covering less obvious places around your home. Back doors are also a common entry point for intruders (please also remember to lock your back doors!). Ground-floor windows on the sides or rear of your home also present oportunities for intruders.
Enable Motion Detection And Fine Tune Settings
Make sure you get a camera with motion detection and make sure you enable and fine tune the settings. By setting alerts up right you will get alerted when someone comes to your door, but not when a cat runs through your yard, etc.
Most smart home camera systems also require a subscription for advanced features so make sure you check out the cloud service settings and all other settings.
Consider Power and WiFi
Outdoor cameras will need a power source (a battery, solar panel or be plugged in to a nearby outlet). Battery and solar power mean not having to run and anchor a power cable into or on your home to plug into an outlet, but battery-powered Wi-Fi cameras tend to drain and need need to be charged every 3-6 months.
Make sure your WiFi reaches outside your home to where your cameras will be installed. Many people need to upgrade their existing router to a mesh WiFi network to get adequate coverage outside their home. The best way to check your WiFi out side is to hold your phone up to the desired location and try and play a high resolution YouTube video on your phone while connected to your network (turn cell data off). If the video is choppy or buffers you may need to run a speed test. If the WiFi speed test (free apps widely available) comes back vastly different from inside your home, a mesh router like Google WiFi almost always does the trick.