Installing surveillance camera at home or at your business is one of the most important decision. Be it for protection of your asset or security of your personnel, you should get the best CCTV system.
Which IP Camera NAS Recording should you choose?
It will depend on how you use your CCTV system. How big is the area you are planning to cover. Other factors to consider include your budget, time and needs. Do you need to cover a big coverage area? If so, you might need a bigger NAS enclosure and install higher capacity hard disks.
Take into consideration also how long you plan to have your recording footage duration before it gets erased and replaced with new footage.
It is not advisable to get the cheapest and save cost in the beginning. This may seem cheap but in the long run, it may become more expensive because you might need to replace the unreliable systems that crash easily.
Always go for reliable brands such as Synology and QNAP for example for tested reliability and further support. If you choose open source network attached storage (NAS) system such as TrueNAS or FreeNAS, you will need a lot of expertise to set up your system. You will need to manually set up your NAS and upgrade may be a difficulty. However, it all depends on your needs. If you are a DIY person and knows how to handle administrative, maintenance and network security, using open-source NAS system might be a choice for you.
However if you value time and rely on professional support, getting the most reliable brands in the market makes more sense. After all, if you run a business, time lost can mean massive lost in opportunity cost, which may cost you more money than save you a little money. There is a saying, penny wise, pound foolish.
One of the best NAS storage device for CCTV camera
Look no further, there are many network attached storage devices (NAS) built specifically for CCTV surveillance. It is easy to use and everything is done by professionals. There are regular updates available that can be set to automatically run. That way, if there are vulnerabilities found that may compromise your CCTV system, you can rest assured you do not get hacked.
As technology advances, hackers too get more and more sophisticated tools that can exploit on CCTV loopholes. You definitely do not want to compromise on security. There has been cases of hackers without authorized access hack into surveillance systems and do illegal things.
If you realize, old CCTV systems connected to the internet are not secured at all. They can be accessed in the open internet without even needing a password. This is because security was not a concern previously when CCTVs were designed. They did not anticipate hackers to scan for open IP addresses and ports for CCTV systems. It can cost you a lot of damage if a hacker is able to spy on you using your own CCTV to break into your home or office.
Look no further for this 2 brands, Synology NAS and QNAP NAS for your CCTV camera solution.
QNAP CCTV Compatibility
Yes. QNAP is built with softwares available specifically for CCTV usage. They are reliable and you can set up your system easily.
Some of the things to consider when building your CCTV NAS system is, how many cameras do you plan to install. How long of a footage do you plan to record before it gets recycled. 1 month? or more? It will depend on how much storage you install. What kind of quality do you plan to record. Higher resolution or lower resolution? If you choose a higher resolution recording, you will need bigger hard disk storage size. Your recording resolution also depend on your frame rate and video format. Is it a raw recording or compressed recording.
Also you will need to set it up to allow access through the internet so that you can monitor your CCTV from remote. And security is upmost importance if you need to view your CCTV via the internet.
Synology NAS CCTV camera
Synology NAS systems is one of the best designed specifically for CCTV cameras. They will guide you which settings to choose when you install your NAS system. If for example you are using it for CCTV purpose, Synology will give recommended settings such as deciding on the partition drive and RAID settings. Choosing the optimal setting is very important. Otherwise, your system will encounter frequent crash and you will experience frequent hard disk drive failures. This can be a costly mistake to make because you will need to fork out additional money to replace damaged hard disk drives (HDD) that otherwise should not be the case in the first place.
Having a 2 bay or 4 bay Synology enclosure NAS system might be a good choice in the beginning. You can add on additional storage if you feel that storage is inadequate in the future. It is really easy to upgrade extra storage in a Synology NAS with extra bays. Just open the slot and install your new hard disk drive and you are good to go. It will be set up automatically by the Synology system with minimal to no input from you.
Even in the event of 1 hard disk drive failure, you can easily replace it and you are good to go. Synology will automatically run and set it up for you. You do not have to waste your precious time to debug and encounter countless headaches to solve a problem that has been already solved by professionals at Synology.
TrueNAS CCTV | FreeNAS CCTV
Feeling adventurous? Then building your own network attached system (NAS) might be for you. You will need the technical know-how and time to research on how to program and run your own open-source NAS. You will need to decide what type of system do you need. Maybe a low powered system like a raspberry pi? Or using your old computer system to experiment with NAS? Well, if you are willing to experiment and risk losing sensitive data and losing time debugging problems on-the-go, then you can try TrueNAS.
You will need to figure out the electricity cost if you are using an old or obsolete PC as your NAS. Yes, it might be able to run as a server, but is it worth it to run long term? Older computer systems are less power efficient and can rake up your electricity bill in no time.
Consider also changing the LAN or ethernet card or upgrading the RAM or storage space for higher efficiency. It might not be powerful enough to run a fully operational 24/7 system without encountering down times.
Or maybe you are running a business and have a dedicated IT professional fully equipped with NAS system maintenance, then TrueNAS might be a choice for you.
In a nutshell, we recommend either Synology or QNAP for ease of use and peace of mind. However, it all depends on how you plan to use your NAS system and your needs.
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