How to Observe the House (Office) Via The Internet

I don’t know much about video surveillance. But, there are simple, excellent, cloud IP-cameras on the market, thanks to which, almost everyone can organize surveillance of their house, apartment, office, store, etc. You can say that video surveillance can be done with your own hands. You will only have to buy a cloud IP-camera.

In this article I will talk about how you can watch the apartment, house, and anything at all just through the Internet from a mobile device (if necessary, you can also from a computer). This means that having installed a cloud camera in your house, for example, you can access it from any corner of the planet from your smartphone, tablet, or computer browser. I think that’s what you need.

This is not an instruction manual for setting up a complex surveillance scheme of multiple cameras, DVR, etc. I think that should be handled by professionals.

But we can easily buy several cloud cameras (as many as you need), configure them, and at any time, via the Internet to access them from your mobile device.

In this way, you can monitor anything. First of all, it is the surveillance of a house, or an apartment. Or, for the person who is there (the elderly, for example). Further, if you have a business: store, cafe, office, etc., then with this method, you can always see what is happening there. Wherever you are. All you need is an internet connection on your phone or tablet. That’s not a problem anymore.

Observe the apartment, house, office through a cloud IP-camera

It is the cloud IP-camera gives us this opportunity. And the main word here is “cloud”. What it means: the camera is connected to our Wi-Fi network. We set it up, register on the manufacturer’s website, and add the camera to the application on the phone (tablet). The camera transmits the video to the manufacturer’s server via the Internet, and the application on the smartphone receives the video from the server. That is, everything goes through the cloud. Therefore, it gives on the possibility to conduct video surveillance via the Internet, and from any place wherever we are. Simply put, everything goes through a special site from the manufacturer’s company. And at any time, in an application on your mobile device you can start recording video, or take a photo.

I’ll be honest, I’m only familiar with TP-Link’s cloud cameras so far. I used to have a TP-Link NC250. Now I’m using TP-Link NC220. The company has a total of 6 cloud IP-cameras. All of them work on the same principle, that is, the process of setting up is the same. As a rule, they differ in the quality of the matrix itself (video quality), and other characteristics. There is a model NC450, its feature is that it can rotate and tilt.

As for the installation and setup process, it is very simple. If we consider the example of TP-Link cameras. It looks like this:

Connect power to the IP-camera.
Register on the site tplinkcloud.com.
Install the tpCamera application on your mobile device.
Log in to the application under your data from tplinkcloud.com.
Set up the camera through the tpCamera app. Add the camera.

The camera itself connects to your router via Wi-Fi network. I came with a TP-Link NC220 with an extension cord for the power cable, and double-sided tape that can be used to attach the camera to the wall, or ceiling.

How video surveillance via the Internet works

We bought a camera, installed, configured according to the instructions, the link to which I gave above.

Through the Internet, using the application tpCamera, or through the site tplinkcloud.com get access to the camera. Can watch live video, record video, take photos. Also, you can see information on the camera, and make some settings. For example, disable LED indicators.

Thus, you can connect to your account on tplinkcloud.com a large number of cameras, in different places, and all of them will be available on your mobile device, in the application.

All you need is a camera, a Wi-Fi router, and a little time to set it up.

Other features of these cloud cameras:

Apart from just video surveillance, there are many different, useful chips in these cameras. For example:

The camera can act as a repeater. That is, amplify the Wi-Fi network it is connected to.
Night vision function. Moreover, the camera goes into night vision mode automatically. In the article on customization (the link I gave above), I showed how these cameras “see” at night.
A very useful feature is sound detection, or motion detection. If the camera on which this feature is configured detects any motion or sound, it will immediately send you a notification to your email. Or, it will notify you via FTP. I plan to write a separate instruction on how to configure this function in the near future.
Possibility to control cameras from a computer via TP-LINK Camera Control program.

Now IP-cameras are produced by different manufacturers: Xiaomi, Edimax, Alfa, etc. I do not know how they have it all organized there, I mean monitoring via the Internet, but here are cameras from TP-Link I liked.

It turns out that almost everyone can organize video surveillance in their home, apartment, or office. At the same time, get access to cameras via the Internet, and do not understand the different IP-addresses, complex settings, etc. And all this is thanks to the cloud. And TP-Link, which gives you this opportunity.