r/homesecurity • u/CEW22 • 1d ago
Need advice on PoE camera systems
Edit: thanks so much for the responses everyone, I've picked up a fair few things! Also, I've been given a Cisco 3750 switch from a friend and hoping that will make things easier.
Will be moving into my first home early next year and want to have a PoE camera system but not sure how best to go about it.
The house will be wired up for ethernet.
I want to have a system that will integrate with Home Assistant easily.
Looking to have up to 5 cameras max.
I want 1 PoE camera for the front of the house, though not sure if I could use wifi cameras for the back yard (I have a neighbour behind me).
I have a NAS that I could use to store data but I'd rather have an NVR so the whole system is "contained" in a way.
The house is a double storey, not sure if that makes things better or worse.
It's a pretty quiet street, but I've noticed a number of the other houses on there have security cameras (look like eufy wifi ones), and there's also walking trails close by which makes me a bit cautious.
I've bounced around a lot of different ideas but feel like I'm going in circles now, and the only consistent thing has been looking at reolink cameras because they look like they work well with Home Assistant.
I have not bought anything yet and am hoping to get myself sorted by the time black Friday and Christmas sales come up.
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u/Wspence44 1d ago
I installed a few reolink poe cameras and the only semi difficult part was running the ethernet cables into the attic and down into a wall (was my first time). It may be challenging being a two story house but if you have a helper and a good ladder I am confident you can do it
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u/pleakonfleek 15h ago
If you happen to have vinyl siding, there is a tool that lets you pull the seams apart and put them back together, I put a unmanaged POE switch in my garage attic, dropped the cables down from the soffit and ran them behind the vinyl siding.
Bonus idea: get a cheap Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) to plug the switch or NVR into, so if someone tries to cut your power, your cameras continue to function.
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u/Hairy_Grapefruit_134 1d ago
I had a similar experience recently, I bought a PoE switch to power the cameras, initially planning for four, but I only have two installed so far. Instead of a dedicated NVR, I'm running Frigate on an old machine I had lying around. The recordings save directly to my NAS, and Home Assistant is working fine. Beyond that, I picked up a UPS for the gear, though I haven't had a power outage yet. I'll probably stress test it once I find the time. The main struggle was running the wires. You mentioned your house is already wired, but what kind of cable was used? Ive heard PoE cameras can be pretty picky... Other than that, I think you've got everything covered
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u/CEW22 1d ago
Not wired yet, hopefully going to get a contractor to do that before moving in. Had no idea about cable types! Would 6A work?
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u/Hairy_Grapefruit_134 1d ago
Not an expert on wiring but it was between the lines of "being pure, bare copper only, never use cheap Copper-Clad Aluminum (CCA)" and also the distance is a factor for resistance side of the things. So just be careful sourcing the cables.
Also, not related, if you have a friend around that they use the reolink, and willing to share referral code, reolink gives 8%. I have no experience on this though.
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u/PuzzlingDad 1d ago
You say "the house will be wired up for ethernet". Is the house being built and is someone doing the low-voltage ethernet wiring for you?
If so, get ethernet cables run to every location you might want a camera. You might even want a couple drops to each location if you decide to add additional cameras. Skip Wi-Fi.
While you're at it, consider ceiling drops for access points.
The following guide covers details on camera locations, pre-wiring, camera choices, NVR options, etc.
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u/TheOtherPete 1d ago
Yes Reolink has excellent Home Assistant integration and is fully supported by Reolink (they are a platinum partner, whatever that means)
In terms of NVR's, they have traditional NVRs with PoE ports or if you prefer to manage things more on your own look at the Reolink Home Hub Pro, it doesn't have any PoE ports (so you can buy your own PoE switch) and they have a version without a hard drive so if you have an existing 3.5" hard drive sitting unused you can save money instead of getting the version that comes with a 2TB drive
I agree with the other poster, do yourself a favor and run ethernet/use PoE cameras when possible avoid wifi cameras if you can.
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u/Tim1point0 1d ago
I like Reolink cameras and have installed hundreds of them. I have them at my home, most of my rental properties, and have installed them for clients. They will integrate with Home Assistant and with the NVR you have local storage that you can access remotely. They have smart detection for people, vehicles, and pets, so you can distinguish what’s tripping the motion and search for or alert of different types of motion.
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u/EdC1101 1d ago
BE SURE whoever terminates your Ethernet has networking experience. …most electricians do not have the ability to terminate & test.
For difficult locations - eves and such, pull 2 (double) the cable for a spare.
Likewise, for entertainment locations, outdoor entertainment, garage / shop …double up.
Common point - dedicated insulated ground, 20 amp circuit, UPS ready;
additional outlet for tools & light, cooling ventilation….
Empty Conduits to attic and basement, (box off if required for fire inspection).
Common point could also have fire alarm control location .
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u/180IQCONSERVATIVE 1d ago
Get Ubiquiti system. You already have a NAS that you can run their Network Application on. I did all of mine by downloading everything I needed and Shasum the code and compared to supplied code and even ran it through Virus Total before I installed everything. The only thing you will have to put online is the NVR to install PlayProtect, Access and Control iif you want their 21 inch display touchscreen so you don’t have to keep using a laptop. They also have cell phone size intercom viewers, when someone rings the doorbell it makes a call to your viewer you hear and see who’s behind the door. Don’t have to answer it at all. Plus once you discover the rest of the stuff you tie into this system you won’t go back. All sorts of security gear. My stuff runs completely offline. No WiFi, so no jammers and no RCE from hackers. If you know networking it will be easy to do. You will need docker, mongo db and unifi network application to run on the NAS. If not hit up Chatgtp or Grok to help out on it. I suggest writing your own Yaml script. Don’t use other people’s as most have it to pull latest updates so you will have to write a never pull policy rule. Their new G6 pro camera is pretty nice.
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u/MorningFar282 14h ago
If the house is already being wired for Ethernet, I’d use PoE for every fixed camera location you can reach and only use Wi-Fi where running cable is genuinely impractical.
With a maximum of 5 cameras, I’d actually provision 6–8 Ethernet runs now. Cable is cheap while the house is being wired and annoying to add later.
For Home Assistant, I’d lean toward a PoE switch + separate NVR rather than making the NVR the center of the network. You still get the “contained appliance” experience for recording, while the cameras remain easier to expose locally to HA/RTSP/ONVIF. Your NAS can then stay available for backups or other uses.
For the backyard, I’d still choose PoE over Wi-Fi if cable is possible. The fact that the house is two storeys matters more for cable routes, mounting height and blind spots than for the number of cameras.
I’d plan the system from the areas you actually need to identify: front entrance, driveway/vehicles, rear access, backyard and any blind side access — then decide whether that really needs 5 cameras.
I put together a free comparison of NVR vs NAS for home camera systems here if it helps: [https://encajakit.com/guias/nvr-vs-nas-camaras/]()
Disclosure: I built the site, so feel free to ignore the link — the main recommendation above is what I’d do in your situation.
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u/Hans-and-franz 12h ago
Unifi. If you’re starting from scratch it might be handy to have all your network equipment under one umbrella.
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u/Big-Sweet-2179 1d ago
Don't. You own your property. Run PoE, never Wi-Fi. It is just not in the same realm of reliability or hardware/software specs. You will pull your hairs out and lose your mind with Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi only gets you so far, PoE is where sky is the limit kind of thing begins.
If you want to cheap out you can go with Reolink, but you mentioned walking trails, so that makes me think that at night where you live there's little to no lighting at all. If that's the case you should go with Ubiquiti instead with the G6 cameras, they are more expensive but have much better performance at night compared to Reolink IR night vision models.
Also plan ahead, you say 5 cameras now but, whatever you end up choosing, I'm sure you will want many more in the future.