Samsung SmartCam HD Pro

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

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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 Remotely Reboot a Nest Cam, Samsung SmartCam or Other Security Camera

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I learn things the hard way and readers of this site learns things my reading our articles.  That’s how the idea behind this article came up.  We’re going to discuss how to remotely reboot a Nest Cam, Samsung SmartCam and a few other models of home security camera.  The methods discussed within will work with almost any home security camera. So you might ask how this happened.  All home security cameras have computers in them.  Like practically any computer, for a variety of reasons, they get stuck.  Sometimes it’s a memory issue.  Other times, it’s a problem with the code. … Read more

Implementing Battery Backup for a Home Security Camera

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If the lights go out and nobody’s home, you can still use your home security camera.  I was always surprised that none of the mainstream home security camera manufacturers thought about this.  It’s a real concern when there’s a power outage.  You still want to be able to keep tabs or at least an archive of what’s going on when the power goes out.  That’s where a battery backup comes into play. Ideally, I want my home security camera to act like my home security alarm system.  When the power is out, my system alerts me and falls back to … Read more

How a Cloud Outage Effects Home Security Cameras

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Cloud is where it’s at these days.  Everything is going to cloud.  Sometimes that’s a good thing.  Sometimes not so much.  Especially when there is a cloud outage. I read about a recent massive cloud outage on the morning of February 28, 2017.  I really didn’t think much about it and went on my way. Within the next thirty minutes, I began to receive alerts on my phone from a few of my home security cameras.  The alerts said that the cameras were not available. I didn’t expect that to happen.  I knew certain camera manufacturers were storing video history in the … Read more

Fix for Samsung SmartCam not Recording Event History

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This article is for Samsung SmartCam owners although I suppose the lessons learned can be applied to other manufacturers as well.  We’re going to discuss the steps to take for a Samsung SmartCam not recording event history.  We will look at steps that can be taken when you’re physically in the same place as the camera, and steps to take when you are thousands of miles away. The photo that accompanies the article is one of the symptoms of a Samsung SmartCam not recording event history.  Note all the motion events.  The motion events are validly caused by someone walking … Read more

Samsung SmartCam HD Pro Security Camera Review

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The Samsung SmartCam HD Pro is a nice entry in a long SmartCam lineup. I had previously reviewed the Samsung SNH-6413BN SmartCam Security Camera and this is definitely an improved piece of hardware which uses the same app as all SmartCam cameras.  The Samsung SmartCam HD Pro competes well with the Nest Cam and I think that’s a good thing.  Like most Samsung cameras, the Samsung SmartCam HD Pro provides on-board storage and, unlike the Nest Cam, you don’t need to pay for a cloud subscription to see past history.  Nice. Software The Samsung SmartCam HD Pro uses the Samsung SmartCam app.  The Samsung SmartCam app may not have … Read more

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