Two sites connected, allowing remote access.

[sbwright]

This is an area that I am not experienced in and I am looking for others to confirm or correct my understanding.

Currently we live in one city and are building a new home in another, the garage has been completed. We wish to access the security system, ip cameras, and synology diskstation located at the new garage from our current home or on our cell phones, as well as have the M1 send rules based emails/text messages.

The facilities at the new location consist of:
Synology diskstation for recorded video and pics from cameras, and future services.
Elk M1 with M1XEP.
IP cameras.
There is currently no internet/phone service connected although it is available.
Cell phone service is currently not the best and sometimes it drops to no service. I have a cell booster, yet to be installed.

Have been checking out available options as far as internet access and it is either high speed via phoneline, or cell service. Cost will likely dictate which options are selected.

From what I have read here I will require the following to access the Elk, Cameras and the Synology. Security is important.
High speed internet access at new site, landline or cell ----- Leaning towards landline, strictly cost basis.
Static IP address or a DDNS service such as DynDNS ----- Leaning towards static Ip address, residential acct + cost of DDNS = approx. business static ip account.
VPN service, or router supporting VPN ----- Leaning towards VPN router(IPSEC/SSL), just prefer hardware at reasonable cost vs software.

Am I missing any hardware, software, or services that will be required. Just want to be sure of the costs and capabilities before picking a direction? Hate going down a road and running into a dead-end.

 

[tmbrown97]

Sounds like you're basically there; Your biggest bandwidth-eater will be viewing the cameras remotely, so hardwired internet is generally the best for performance and low latency. DDNS can easily be had for free if you want to save a few bucks - there are several providers. That said, a static IP is nice to have. You don't "need" VPN but it's often recommended. I think this is an area where a lot of people get into DDWRT to add it to a low cost router. The other advantage I'm sure you've noticed is that, by keeping it in the router, that's less equipment to have in that location.

For remote access to the Elk, the smartphone app of your preference should work great, or there's the new free and secure app Elk just released for Windows which is pretty nice. You may also check the mobile apps that are compatible with your cameras - those are the only other costs I can really think of off hand.

 

[sbwright]

Work2Play, thanks for confirmation on the plan, and tips on the new software will give it a shot.