Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - monitoring a second home.

I'm probably getting in over my head hear as I am not a techie kinda guy.

I have a second home that I need to monitor. Cameras in selected places indoors and out, as well as controlling heat/ac. Asside from a computer and high speed connection at both home that I already have, what do I need to get going, software, hardware etc.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Really, for the CCTV, your best bet is to go with a stand alone DVR. You _can_ get a DVR input card for a PC, but the standalone units are more stable, and easier to integrate into a home network.

For the rest of the home automation/remote control and monitoring there are a number of software packages, and some of the better security controls have climate control integration to varying degrees.

Really, to get a meaningful answer, you will need to be much more specific in what you want to do.

Checkout the home automation forum, also.

Ok, the game plan has changed a little.

I'll only need cameras to monitor activity inside and outside the home. No recording capability is necessary. No controlling of heat or a/c is necessary. The only thing I'll need is to be able to monitor the cameras remotely. The second home is about 125 miles away, so I'll need something that can reliably reset itself after power failures with no assistance from a live person. For this reason, I'd like to leave using a pc out of the equation if possible.

I've looked at poe cameras. If I understand this correctly, I need cameras, a router, a poe switch and a high speed internet connection. It appears that the cameras come with the required software for remote monitoring. Running cat 5 cable is not a problem, as Ive done this before.

My questions

Am I on the right track with poe cameras or is there a better way.

How reliable are these poe cameras? I'll have 4 cameras and Ive read that there could be issues of power cutting in and out causing problems. Is this indeed an issue?

Any recommedations on cameras (2 interior, 2 exterior) routers and switches?

IP cameras are ideal for what you want to do. Each one will have it's own power brick, and your money is well spent to get a cheap UPS for them, if your area is prone to flakey power.

Thanks

Are the power over ethernet camera's ok or should I be looking at camera's that plug into outlets?

I've not had a chance to fiddle with any of those. The standard is sound and well tested, so you wouldn't be doing anything experimental.

You will probably pay a significant premium for this tech.

See this article, there are some significant caveats:

Axis Communications - Power over Ethernet (http://www.axis.com/products/video/about_networkvideo/poe.htm)

Thanks
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