How to Do a Factory Reset on a Nest Cam or DropCam Pro

Ever reach a point where there’s no hope in terms of your home security camera ever working properly?  Perhaps you received a used camera that someone else owned.  Recently reaching the point of despair on a DropCam Pro, it was time to do a factory reset.  Since documentation is sparse, we thought an article on how to do a factory reset on a Nest Cam or DropCam Pro would be worthwhile.  The same procedure also applies to the first generation DropCam and Nest Cam Outdoor. Background One of our DropCam Pro home security cameras stopped functioning.  Not sure why and … Read more

A New Way to Attach a Nest Cam to a Window or Wall

Installing an outdoor camera can be a lot of work.  That’s why a lot of people purchase an indoor home security camera for outdoor monitoring.  They’re in for a surprise when they do this as it’s not as simple as pointing it out a window and leaving it there. Window Mounting Basics First, you need a good place to put it.  We look at a good solution for which is a window shelf for an indoor home security camera.  It’s a rather innovative way to attach a camera to a window. We have written extensively on the subject of using … Read more

Using a Nest Cam Through a Window

A Nest Cam is not made to be used outdoors, yet a lot of people buy one to monitor the action outside their home.  Most will find quickly enough that using the typical settings aren’t likely to work out too well, especially at night.  Let’s look at what you need to know to use your Nest Cam through a window. By the way, this article applies to a good old DropCam Pro or DropCam as well.  When Nest purchased DropCam, they renamed the product line.  The Nest Cam is the third generation of DropCam.  The same smartphone and web apps … Read more

How to Attach a Siren to a Nest Cam or DropCam Camera

A siren on a home security camera is a nice feature to have.  It’s unexpected and useful for scaring an intruder.  They generally won’t take the time to figure out why it’s going off or where it is coming from.  The popular Nest Cam and DropCam do not have this feature integrated into the camera.  So today, we discuss how to attach a siren to a Nest Cam or DropCam camera. Ideally you want the automated and manual abilities for turning on the siren.  Manual provides the ability to turn it on or off whenever you like.  Automated results in the siren going … Read more

How to Remotely Reboot a Modem or Router When You’re Away

It happens to everyone.  You’re on vacation or simply not at home for an extended period and all of a sudden, your home security cameras aren’t accessible.  Turns out your modem or router needs to be restarted.  Problem is, you aren’t there, and won’t be for days or months.  So, that’s our topic for today.  How to remotely reboot a modem or router. The Scenario You’re a thousand miles away from home an want to check the action on your security cameras.  Open the Nest app, or the Arlo app.  It says camera is unavailable.  Well, if you followed some … Read more

How to Hide a Nest Cam Home Security Camera

There are a lot of reasons to hide a Nest Cam.  Most notable is that you don’t want an intruder to see it.  If a bad guy sees the camera, and knows he’s on it, there is a good chance it will get broken or stolen.  Hopefully, if this happens, you subscribed to the cloud plans offered by Nest so you can at least get a good idea of what the person looks like. Fortunately, there are some good methods to hide a Nest Cam and we will cover them in this article.  Most of the methods apply to the … Read more