Are Wired Security Cameras What I Need?

Yes.

If you trust our decades of installing security camera systems and supporting our customers, you can tick that question off as answered!

If you’re the type of person who likes to know why, please read on!

Ok, Why Do I Need Security Cameras Without Wifi?

Because it’s better.

Also it’s a bit of a misnomer to call them “security cameras without wifi” because in your day to day use of your CCTV you will use Wifi!

Why Are People Even Asking About Wired Security Cameras?

It seems to me that it’s because we’re living in a Wifi world in the mid 2020s.  If everything else is Wifi, why not security cameras?

Fair question.

The answer lies in understanding what the term means in this context.

Wired cctv camera or wired security cameras means the same thing -  the camera is connected to your network with a wire.

It has nothing to do with the internet.

It has nothing to do with your home Wifi.

It has nothing to do with your mobile, your tablet, your computer, your toaster, your smart TV or anything else.

It just means your camera is connected to your network with a wire.

What do you mean by network?

If you’re a business network probably means switches of some kind.  If the cameras are at your home network probably means your router.

A homeowner asked me:  Are you saying my camera is connected to my router by a wire? Yes.

What’s the alternative? No surprise.  Wireless security cameras which means your camera is connected to your network using a radio.

A radio?  Yes, it’s best to think of Wifi as a radio connection.  In this case it means there’s a radio in or next to your camera, and it “talks” to the radio in or near your router.

There’s nothing mysterious or special about Wifi.  It’s still two radios connecting using radio waves.

Now, because it’s two radios it’s an analog signal, like your voice or music.  It’s a wave, not digital 1s and 0s.  As such it’s prone to interference by all the other analog waves flying around your place.  That’s why it’s not as reliable as a wire.

It’s also nowhere near as fast as a wired connection.  Let me explain with a story that everyone with internet at home should read.

Why Is My Internet So Slow?

My wife asked me this question once.  She was having real problems with her internet speeds in the part of the house where she uses her computer the most.

We pay our ISP every month for “ultra fast broadband” speeds of up to 300. (Don’t worry about units, think of it as miles per hour if you like).

She was often getting pathetic speeds of about 10!

The 1st solution I thought about (and immediately dismissed) was to use a “Wifi extender”.  This is just a radio near her that connects wirelessly to the radio at the router. Might seem like a good idea, but did you know that every time you add one of these it halves the bandwidth of the connection! Yuk.

The 2nd solution I thought about (and installed) was to run a wire to a radio near her computer. That new radio’s wifi network then pops up on her computer’s Wifi list so she connects to this instead of the house’s main wifi (which is further away). Cool.

A definite improvement for her (happy wife happy life) but, does she get the full 300?

Not even close.  She typically gets a respectable 100 to 150.  Much better but (a little annoyingly) not what we pay for. Which is 300.

So, is there any way for her to get the full 300 even though she’s in a different part of the house to the internet router ?

Yes.

How?

You’ll never guess!

A wire.

The third solution, to get the full 300, she just plugs the wire into her computer, instead of into the radio near her computer.

As soon as she does this.  BOOM!! 300, or even more some days.

Ok, so how does this relate to security cameras?

Simply this.  The fastest and most reliable connection between two computers is always a wire. You may think the internet is a wifi system but it is not.  It’s all wires.  They happen to be pieces of glass string instead of copper, but they’re still wires, not radios.

Your security cameras are there to do an important job, 24/7/365.  They need the fastest, strongest connection to your network.

Wired Security Cameras Are Also More Secure

There’s a great book called the Zimmerman Telegram about the German plot to team up with Mexico and attack the US during World War 1.

It explains that within hours of War being declared, the Allies were pulling up undersea cables (wires) that the Germans used to communicate between continents.  This forced them to go wireless (radios) for almost all their comms.

As the author wryly observed :

“Nothing can stop an enemy from picking wireless messages out of the free air. And nothing did.“

But Wifi Is More Convenient

Not in this case.

The confusing thing is you still connect to your CCTV using Wifi. These days you’ll almost certainly be able to connect to your security cameras from anywhere on earth.

Remember “wired security cameras” has nothing to do with how you connect to them.  It just means how the camera connects to your network.

PS  Don’t feel bad if you don’t know what Wifi stands for.  Nobody knows!  It’s a meaningless term and it is not an acronym for anything.

PPS   Don’t worry about the wires being unsightly.  That’s our problem and we’re good at solving that problem!

PPPS   What is a POE security camera?  POE (power over ethernet) is really cool.  It means the only wire we run to your camera is an ethernet (network) cable.  It does everything, powers the camera and moves the video to the recorder, sends your queries and commands to the camera etc and etc  and etc.  It makes everything much neater and tidier and therefore far more robust and simple.