5 ingenious ways to wirelessly monitor your home

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It’s not possible to always have an eye on home — and you may not be ready yet to invest a fully decked-out home security system.

Luckily, people on the internet have come up with some pretty ingenious ways to monitor your home, with or without a fancy smart home security system. Here are 5 ways that you can wirelessly monitor your home.

With Your Laptop’s Webcam

With the right software, you can turn your laptop’s webcam into a DIY home security camera. To start, install a piece of webcam software, like Yawcam or iSpy, that allows you to stream your webcam’s feed and has motion detection features.

Then, you set up your webcam software of choice to automatically alert you whenever your laptop’s webcam detects motion. Point your webcam at the area you want monitored — a front hallway, a main living room or a back door — and once you’ve activated the software, you’ll receive an alert any time your webcam detects movement.

This solution won’t work perfectly in every situation — if you have a pet at home, expect a few false positives from the motion detection alert. If you don’t want to invest in a home security camera or security system, however, your webcam can be a great way to monitor your home.

With an Old Phone’s Camera

You can also monitor your home with an old phone’s camera. This is the same principle as the previous method, but with different hardware and different software.

The phone will need to be smart and able to connect to the internet via WiFi, Bluetooth or 4G — a recent-ish Android or iPhone will probably be the best candidate.

To begin, you’ll need to download a security-camera app that provides features like video streaming, feed storage, motion detection, and automated alerts. Alfred, a security-camera app compatible with both Android and iPhone, will work great for this.

Install the app, follow the set-up, find where you want to position your smart-phone camera and you’ll be good to go. Also, be sure to find a way to keep your phone charged while you’re gone. Otherwise, it can run out of battery fairly quickly.

With Remote Sensors

Security sensors using motion detection can also be an extremely useful tool for security. An alert from a gadget that detects motion can help you tell how active a family member is while you’re away, or if an intruder is in your home. If you need an affordable solution, Wyze Sense is a cheap solution to get you started.

Smart cameras are ideal for visual notifications, but with some creative thinking, you can also use other remote sensors for security. For instance, temperature monitoring systems are specially designed to send an alert when the temperature has changed. You can use this to detect when a door or window is opened, specifically if an entrance has been broken into.

With an Indoor Security Camera

Purchasing an indoor security camera is probably the simplest option when it comes to remote home monitoring. Setting up one of these cameras . . . as simple as finding where you want to put it, plugging it in, and connecting it to WiFi. From there, you’ll be able to remotely monitor the camera’s feed — usually over a web page or app.

There has been a proliferation of wireless security cameras in the past few years, so you’ll have a number of decent-to-high quality options to choose from.

Different cameras have different features — like smart motion detection, cloud storage of your camera’s feed and weatherproof design — so picking the right camera for you may take some research.

With a Complete Smart Home Security System

You can also go all-out and invest in a fully-functional smart home security system. These systems will probably provide the most complete monitoring coverage, along with all the other benefits of keeping your home monitored.

These systems are also usually built to hook up to other popular smart devices — like an Amazon Echo or Google Home. If you’re already in the process of creating your smart home, a smart security system should integrate pretty easily.

Keeping Your Home Monitored

When it comes to keeping your home monitored, you have options. A laptop webcam or iPhone camera can easily be turned into a security camera with the right app and placement. Smart home sensors, or a full smart home security system, can provide even better home monitoring.

Have any thoughts or suggestions you’d like to share? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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