Had to pick between WiFi and wired for my backyard cam setup

I spent last weekend debating whether to go with a wireless Ring cam or run a PoE cable to a cheap Dahua bullet cam for my back fence. Picked the wired option because my neighbor's WiFi is spotty and I got a 50 foot Cat6 for $12 on Amazon. The Dahua gives me clear 1080p even at night but I spent 3 hours crawling through the attic to route the cable. Anyone else regret going wireless for outdoor cams?

3 comments

3 Comments

kai_webb918d ago

Wait did your buddy just give up on the wifi after one bad night? My friend Mike had the exact same setup with a Ring cam in his backyard and after a month of watching his neighbor's cat turn into a blurry blob every time it moved, he finally climbed up into his attic. He told me he spent like 45 minutes just trying to find where the main power cable ran because he's not exactly handy. But once he got that Cat6 plugged in, he said it was like going from watching a VHS tape to 4k instant replay - the raccoons actually have faces now instead of just fuzzy shadows. He still complains about the dust in his lungs but at least he can actually see who's digging through his trash cans at 2am.

the_jamie8d ago

Wait, what kind of attic are we talking here? I did the same thing for a cam over my garage door, but I ended up using an old Powerline adapter from 2015 because I couldn't find my crimping tool lol. It works okay during the day but at night the picture gets all blocky and laggy. Now I'm looking at that 50 foot Cat6 you mentioned and thinking maybe I should just suck it up and crawl through my dusty attic this weekend. My neighbor's WiFi reaches my yard sometimes but it drops out right when a raccoon starts digging through my trash bin.

sanchez.mary8d agoOG Member

@the_jamie just run the Cat6 and save yourself the headache. Powerline adapters never hold up with outdoor cams, especially at night when the IR kicks in. Crawling through dust for an hour beats watching a raccoon pixelate on your feed.