Getting ready for the Zombie Apocalypse is sexy to preppers. However, the complete collapse of all society is not the most likely disaster we will face. More likely, our own personal prepping scenario will be a more personal one. For that reason, it’s important that we keep our minds on what is most likely and not the most expansive.
Computer nerd information coming:
So I spent the morning cobbling together an interesting little project to increase security here. I setup my main server to put together a stream of the four cameras covering the most likely approaches to the house, and combine them into a 2×2 stream that it makes available at a certain IP address on the home’s internal network.
Then I attached an Odriod N2+ that I had lying around to one of the HDMI ports on the main TV. Now when anyone watching TV selects that HDMI input, they see a live stream of the main approaches to the house. Security has been increased, as I can do an instant live view of the home’s outside, thus allowing me to see my security perimeter without having to expose myself to the view of anyone outside.
It was a simple project that cost me nothing, as I already had the Odroid lying around. I bought this four years ago at a cost of $165 to do another project that never panned out, so it was lying in one of my tubs full of leftover stuff that I might use someday.
I installed Linux on an old 32gb Micro SD, then installed the appropriate software on it. On the server, I set up a Docker Container and had it pull the streams from the appropriate cameras and create a composite stream. Now I can sit here and watch the four cameras from my television.
Now I have to get back to the honey-do list item of installing a closet system in the bedroom we converted to a gym. I’m almost done with that, and I have procrastinated enough.
We officially got our first hurricane of 2026’s season at 2330 Eastern Time on October 7. 23:30 EDT on October 7 is 03:30 UTC on October 8, which is the time NHC confirms it upgraded Isaias to a hurricane. Hurricane records use UTC, so its official date is October 8. That means 2026 ties 1905 for the latest first Atlantic hurricane on record by calendar date, matching a mark that stood for 121 years, making it the latest first hurricane in the Atlantic basin since we began spotting them with satellites.
While we here at Sector Ocho always monitor Hurricanes that are near Florida, this one is forecast to strike LA (Lower Alabama), which is what we here in Florida call the Panhandle. For us here on the Florida Peninsula, it will be a rain event only. We aren’t even forecast to get any wind from it. There is nothing to get excited about unless you are in the central path of a storm that’s a CAT 3 or higher when it makes landfall. For that reason, our daily routine here at Sector Ocho will remain as normal. I will not be activating any of my storm checklists or plans at this time.
What *has* happened this week is a cold front has been stalled over the central part of the state, and my rain gauge says we have received a steady rain for the past three days- four inches of rain. Since the area has been in a rain deficit for the year, this is going to nearly completely erase that problem. We were nearly 7 inches of rain below normal for the year, and the combination of stalled cold front and tropical moisture from the hurricane will erase nearly all of that deficit.
On a side note, this is a fall more like the one from my Florida childhood: lots of rain. I remember one year, we had a cold front stalled over us for over a week, and it completely ruined our Thanksgiving break from school. A week off of school, and stuck inside watching it rain.
Prepping is more than just staying alive, it’s about thriving and preserving your life to the greatest extent possible. Many of the other things that we rely on for survival rely upon energy. We use it for a lot of things- heating, cooling, light, communications, all sorts of the things that we use rely upon energy. In some parts of the country, heat is important. Here in Florida, not so much. What we need is energy for cooking, light, air conditioning (summer heat will kill you more than our mild winters), communications, and other things. It’s on the prepping pyramid.
If you have read this blog for long, you know that two years ago, I added a backup power supply for the house. That supply consists of solar panels and a pair of Powerwall3’s to run the house when we aren’t making enough solar energy. One of the biggest limitations is battery capacity. Now that the tax refunds are no longer available for solar and battery installations, we need to make the ones we have last as long as possible. Adding more battery power in the form of another Powerwall would be great, but it’s a fairly expensive option. So we need to stretch what we have. That is, we need to match the loads being drawn to the energy provided, and do what we can to stretch battery charge to last as long as possible.
I have a Synology server that’s already running Home Assistant, and this seemed like the way to go. I tasked Home Assistant with shedding loads. A home battery can keep the lights on during an outage, but its useful runtime depends heavily on what the house asks it to power. Instead of treating every circuit equally, this project gives Home Assistant a clear set of priorities: preserve essential comfort, shed discretionary loads in stages, and put daytime solar energy to work whenever it is available.
The system uses live Tesla Powerwall data and watches whether the house is connected to the grid or operating as an island. It also monitors battery charge, solar production, household demand, and real-time battery flow. The guiding principle is reliability: each Home Assistant automation has a focused job: important decisions require stable sensor readings, and loads are restored gradually rather than all at once.
At 80% battery, the upstairs air conditioner turns off. At 70%, the electric water heater is shed. At 50%, the main-floor air conditioner moves to a 80°F setpoint, and at 35% it shuts down. This preserves the 10 kWh of power for network and security services, lighting, and refrigeration. A critical warning is sent out as a push notification at 15%.
The most interesting part happens when the sun is shining during an outage. Loads are not restored merely because the battery percentage rises. The system first confirms sustained battery charging, then adds one load at a time with a stabilization period between each step. The main-floor HVAC returns first, initially at a conservative setting. Normal main-floor comfort follows when more energy is available, then the water heater, and finally the upstairs HVAC.
The 4,500-watt water heater stores hot water when a storm likely to cause a power outage is approaching. When the Tesla Powerwalls activate Storm Watch and the home is occupied, grid energy preheats the water in the tank even if the normal schedule would have it off. During an outage, strong solar surplus can also heat water instead of allowing energy to go unused. This function is controlled by a Aeotec smart switch that allows both switching and monitoring of the energy delivered to the water heater.
Near a full battery, Tesla may curtail rooftop solar because the Powerwalls cannot accept additional charge. That makes ordinary surplus measurements misleading—the panels may be capable of producing more, but they have been told not to. To capture that energy, the automation can briefly test the water heater at 95% charge. It keeps the heater running only if measured battery flow shows that solar can support it; otherwise, it shuts the heater down and waits before trying again.
Grid restoration receives the same cautious treatment. Utility power and normal Powerwall status must remain stable for 10 minutes. The main-floor HVAC returns first, the water heater is reconciled with its schedule, and the upstairs HVAC follows later. Staggering the sequence avoids a sudden surge and reduces the chance that unstable utility service will cause equipment to cycle repeatedly.
I also have a “vacation mode” that is initiated by a simple virtual switch on the HA dashboard. Activating that turns off the water heater and sets both HVAC units to 79 degF. That level allows the HVAC units to maintain a relative humidity of less than 55%, which is a good way to minimize mold growth.
We recently spent 5 days in Maine shutting down the BOL, and the house only averaged 31 kwh per day while we were gone. Normal power usage in the summer is about 70kwh per day. Since we generate about 47 kwh per day from solar, I think this is a doable system, but I will have to add some panels in the future so we can have a little more breathing room for cloudy days.
When we are in routine operation, the system turns the water heater off from 11pm to 5am, then Monday through Friday, again from 9am to 2pm.
The result of all of this is not simply a collection of “if battery is low, turn something off” rules. It is a small energy-management system built around priorities, measured power flow, and graceful recovery. In this way, I maximize the power and battery capacity I have available.
The hardware of the entire new network is in place. Some of you asked for a system diagram. Here is the wiring diagram for the new network:
Now that that is finished, we needed to install the ACL’s and rules. The VLANs are:
Trusted 10
IoT Devices 30
Servers 40
Guest 50
Cameras 60
Network Infrastructure 90
So the rules are simple. This controller handles rules higher in the list as being higher priority. For that reason, you list exceptions first, and general rules second. With that being said:
Permit Guest network clients to contact the printer
Allow my Zigbee hub to contact the server (TCP only)
Allow Trusted Devices to contact Infrastructure
Allow Cameras to contact Server
Allow Trusted Devices to call Server
Deny Guest network to all other networks
Dent IoT network to all other networks
Deny Cameras to other networks
Deny Cameras to Internet
Deny other networks to Infrastructure
That is the network. I set the network up like this, and everything seems to have been working well for the past week. I am sure that I will add other rules as things go on, but that is what I have for now. Once a week, the entire contents of the server are encrypted and sent to a backup server that’s stored in the house of a friend. That way, I have a copy of everything important in the event I lose access to all of my data here. Since it’s the Internet, that person and my backup data can literally be anywhere.
Then I installed AdGuard, which is my own private DNS running on the server. It allows me to control which clients on the network can interact with my network. It lets me block malware, spyware, and all sorts of advertising. About 30% of the DNS requests originating from my house are things I don’t want phoning home.
There is a VPN built into the system that allows me to hide my traffic from as many people who don’t have reason to see it as possible.
Then the surveillance software went in. The software was Surveillance Station and is running on the Synology rack server. It is recording a single PTZ and several fixed cameras, all in 8mp. It’s been running for ten days and I haven’t even used 2tb of my 7.8tb of storage so far. I think I have plenty of recording time. My goal was for 30 days’ retention, but it looks like I will get more than 60 days out of it.
Then there is physical security provided by Home Assistant. That includes sensors for motion, doors and windows, as well as a link to my smoke detectors. Different events cause different actions. Motion in a give area causes Home Assistant to take a snapshot of the area through the nearest security camera and send it to my cell phone as a text message. It can remind me that I forgot to close the door on the way out, other things like that.
The best part is that all of it, every piece, is owned by me. Amazon doesn’t decide to send my camera video to the cops. My ISP and their DNS server doesn’t need to know what websites I frequent. My devices don’t need to be reporting to data brokers what happens in my house.
Is it foolproof? Nope. Will it stop nearly all of the bullschnozzle? probably. Will it stop a determined, talented electronic wizard? Probably not.
It’s still far better than what I had three months ago. Now you know why I did all of the posts about data mining.
The closet organizer is done. I secured 3 pieces of 3/4 inch plywood to the wall, spanning 6 studs. They are attached with 52 two and a half inch screws- one screw every 16 inches whenever the plywood crosses a stud.
This is a rail mounted closet organizer. There is a screw through the rail whenever it crosses a stud, and a 1/4×20 elevator screw in between those screws, so that no section of rail is unsupported for more than a foot. Then the system is hung on the rail. I’m fairly certain that will hold it. I painted the plywood to match the wall, and now it looks great. One project complete. Including waiting for parts, it took just over a week.
The camera system should be done tomorrow. That project took 4 days of solid work during the day.
For those asking what cameras I chose, there are two types.
For fixed cameras, I bought five Lorex E842CD cameras. They are 8mp cameras that I placed in the central room of the house, the pool, the rear lanai, over the driveway, and at the front door. I am moving away from smart doorbells because it would have to connect via WiFi, and I want a wired setup.
I also added a PTZ camera. I wanted one with a good optical zoom, so I can see things at distance with clarity. I chose the Amcrest IP8M-2899EW. Like the fixed cameras, it’s also 8mp. It has a full 25x optical and 16x digital zoom. Using this camera, I can read license plates at 200 yards and the expiration sticker on them at 100 yards. It has built in AI that performs facial recognition. Don’t ask me how that works, because I haven’t played with it yet.
All of the cameras are attached to a RAID comprised of three 10tb HDDs inside of a Synology RS1221+ running the Surveillance Station software. That RAID gives me at least 60 days’ recording capacity.
At this point, I will be making minor adjustments to settings and things like that. I also need to learn to use the software, so I will be playing with that some. All in all, I have a good system that allows me to control my data and I won’t have to pay subscription fees to anyone.
The firewall keeps the cameras from connecting to the Internet. The VLAN rules only permit the cameras to talk to the disk station. That protects me from cameras that can be hacked or used to spy on my data.
Installing it required a couple of network changes, but I will lay out my final network in a post coming soon.
As any of you who are regular readers here know, whenever I undertake a major project, I always debate, design, and document the dog doo-doo out of it. (Sorry, I just liked the alliteration in that sentence) Remember the solar project?
I had a cheap camera system in my old house. One of those where you run cables to the cameras and they save to a hard drive in a dedicated DVR. When I moved to this house two and a half years ago, we transitioned to Ring cameras. I regret that decision for the following reasons:
The cameras send their video to the cloud
The cloud is just a word meaning “someone else’s computer”
This means you don’t own the data, and Amazon does all sorts of stuff with it.
The quality of the pictures is only slightly better than filming with a potato
Even though none of the cameras were inside the house (when we went on vacation, we temporarily put cameras in the house), I still don’t like other people having my data or pictures of my house. Since I installed an entire network worthy of a small office building. Why not use that to increase surveillance?
Infrastructure
For those reasons, I wanted to get a new camera system that overcame these deficiencies. I wanted this system to have:
4k video
Enough storage for 30 days of video retention
Wired cameras, no wifi
What I decided on:
Ethernet cameras
recorded on the Synology RS1221+ that’s my network storage. That server holds 8 HDDs. I have it set up with a pair of RAIDs, one for my data, and one for recording camera video.
The camera RAID is composed of three 10 TB HDDs giving me about 18TB of storage space
That 18tb of space is enough for six 4k cameras recording 24/7 for about 60 days
Software is Surveillance Station, which allows 2 cameras before licenses need to be purchased for more
My plan is to have six cameras covering the property.
general surveillance camera covering the front of the house
another on the back porch
one viewing the back of the house and the pool
one that views the kitchen/living room
a PTZ camera on the front of the house. This camera will have a 25 or greater optical zoom to allow distance viewing without losing too much resolution.
Doorbell camera (this one will have to be WiFi)
Two of the cameras already had Ethernet wires running to them: the one on the back porch went in quickly with no issues. The one covering the front of the house did as well, but even though it was receiving POE power, no connection. I thought it was a faulty cable. It turns out the construction workers who installed the wire got the RJ45 jacks installed wrong. That was quickly taken care of. That gave me two cameras right away.
I went into the attic to run more ethernet cables and discovered that isn’t going to be possible. The header for the wall where the server is just isn’t accessible from up there. I do have an Ethernet cable run to both the front and back of the house that was put there when the house was built. I realized the best way to do this is to use those cables as a trunk that feeds a managed switch. These two switches will allow me to branch those trunk lines into an AP and a camera.
That’s exactly what I did.
This involved expanding my network. My network became a server cabinet that carries most of the Internet, but also required several edge switches to serve other clients. It looks like this:
From there, it is easy. Wire the cameras in, and instruct the local (edge) switch to place the camera in the surveillance VLAN, the AP in the management VLAN, etc.
The entire project of Internet and cameras has gotten larger and more expensive than I planned on. I’m going to sit here on just the two cameras until next month, then install the doorbell and pool cameras. The PTZ camera will be last, simply because it’s the most expensive of them. That means I am on sort of a hybrid system at the moment, with two of my own camera and several Ring cameras.
Work in progress.
EDITED TO ADD
In case you haven’t caught on, I try to do a major project each year to improve my position. The first summer we were in this house, we added solar and Powerwalls so we would have backup power. The second summer was the pool, screened in lanai, and hurricane hardening. This summer is a two-fer. One of the projects is the network/camera project, the other is one that makes me far less happy. More on that later.
In 2015, I began stocking a cabin in Maine as a BOL. I had cached weapons, a boat, and a buttload of supplies there. All we had to do was get there, and we had enough supplies to get by. That is no longer the case. The caretaker of the facility passed away last year, and his wife has remarried. The new husband is not nearly as reliable, and is also a liberal. I no longer consider that location to be viable as a BOL.
I am making plans to head up there to retrieve most of our supplies, and we have decided to sell the boat, rather than drive up there to haul it all the way back. It’s more economical to sell it there and perhaps purchase a replacement down here.
Who had a Florida earthquake on their 2026 BINGO card? I know I didn’t, but we had a bit of earth shaking yesterday just after 1400, as a 6.1 Richter earthquake struck off the coast of Cuba. I was working at the time and the doctor, who was sitting next to me, said “Was that an earthquake? Did you feel that? I even saw the water in your cup shaking.” I didn’t notice, but I was preoccupied at the time. Sure enough, it was.
Damage
I don’t know if it was related or not, but I returned home to find my closet system had fallen off the wall. It looks like one of the screws pulled out of the wall, and this caused a cascading failure of the other screws, which caused an entire wall of the system to fall to the ground. There was some damage to it, forcing me to order $500 worth of parts. I am going to reinstall a 3/4″ plywood backer board this time. That way, I can use more screws when I secure it to the wall. The parts won’t be here until next Monday, so I will spend the day today taking the old one apart and reclaiming any undamaged parts I can find.
Network Upgrades
The network hardware is installed. I setup a few VLANs, which allows me to split the home network into segments:
Infrastructure
IOT devices
Servers
Guests
Surveillance
Once that was done, I created rules that allow me to control traffic. As an example, the guest network can’t do anything but access the Internet and a printer. The cameras are in the surveillance network, and they can only contact the server that’s running the surveillance software. IOT devices can’t do anything but contact the Internet.
As time goes on, I will tighten up the rules to make things as secure as possible. For now, the system works and I have tested it to make sure the rules are operating as intended. Starting later this week, I will begin installing security cameras. There will be a post on that.
For those of you who are IT nerds, some of this stuff will seem basic- my apologies, I am still learning, and I assume that a good number of the people who read this blog are as well.
IoT devices are notoriously insecure because manufacturers frequently prioritize low costs and rapid production over robust security. These devices often suffer from weak default credentials, a lack of encryption, and limited hardware capacity for security software, making them easy targets for hackers to hijack and form botnets or even to spy on you and sell your information to others.
Using VLANs can help with that. A virtual network, or VLAN, allows you to maintain separate, distinct networks within your physical network. These virtual networks are like tiny virtual containers that cannot talk to or even see each other, but can be configured to communicate as much or as little information between each other as you desire. That’s where the security comes in.
By creating different ‘trust’ levels within your home network, you can create a system whereby those who are inside of your guest VLAN can only communicate with the Internet or your printer, but nothing else. This prevents a guest from snooping through your files, accessing your router controls, or other mistakes. Placing all of your IoT devices in another VLAN will keep them isolated from other parts of your network and allow you to control where and how much information they can send or receive. Trusted devices such as your cell phone or laptop can be configured to have no restrictions.
In short, it increases security by giving devices “need to know” access without giving them access to things they shouldn’t be accessing. That’s what this new system I am installing does. I setup a few different VLANs:
Trusted. Devices within this VLAN will have IP addresses ending in 20.xx
IoT devices. Devices within this VLAN will have IP addresses ending in 30.xx
Storage. Devices within this VLAN will have IP addresses ending in 40.xx
Guest. Devices within this VLAN will have IP addresses ending in 50.xx
Cameras. Devices within this VLAN will have IP addresses ending in 60.xx
Each IP range can then be assigned any number of permissions. For example, IP addresses ending in 50.xx are setup to only be able to access the Internet and a printer. Guests will therefore be allowed to print or surf the Internet, but that is all.
So that is the plan for our network security here at the Ocho. Will it stand up to determined hacking or the NSA peeping at my stuff? Of course not. Is it better and more robust than what I have had in the past? Certainly. Perhaps it will cause those devices and people with nefarious intent to look elsewhere for lower hanging fruit.
Now if you will excuse me, today is going to be a pleasant, breezy 84 degrees, so I am going to go mow the lawn.
I am not an IT expert by any stretch of the imagination. Still, I am doing OK with this server upgrade. Some of these concepts are new, some not so new. Still, I am doing alright with the upgrades. I spent the day installing some upgrades.
Mounting
I first tried to mount the cabinet, but it was designed for studs that are 16 inches on center, and my walls have 24 inch stud spacing. I cut me two 1×6″ Spruce boards 26 inches long. I drilled them for screws to attach to the studs, and also drilled 5/16 holes 16 inches apart, then I drilled a countersink centered on those holes. Those holes fit a 5/16 bolt and washer. I painted the boards to match the wall, then attached them to the studs with 4 #8x 3″ wood screws at each end of the board.
Now I had two boards spanning the studs with 5/16″ bolts sticking out that matched the mounting holes on the cabinet that allowed me to bolt the cabinet to them.
If you look below the cabinet, you can see the old onQ panel this cabinet is replacing. Once all is done, I will remove it and drywall over the hole. Yeah, the reflections in the glass show the toilet paper and paper town reserves I keep on top of the laundry room cabinets.
Installing Equipment
I put a thermostat in the cabinet that will control the exhaust fan. Then I attached my devices to the racks:
12U Omada SG3218XP-M2 POE managed switch. This is the main switch for my network.
10U Keystone 24 pin patch panel. Ports1-5 are reserved for Infrastructure connections like modem, UPS, Moca, 6-15 are for POE devices like AP’s, 16-18 are for non powered devices, and 19 thru 24 are for cameras
9U is a SG2210XMP, currently an unused switch but I plan on having it be the switch for my future IP security cameras
8U, 7U, 6U are open.
5U is a shelf with a Moca unit, the modem, and a switch that cycles power to the gateway and modem in the event it cannot access the Internet
4U is a power distribution unit
3U and 2U are currently vacant, but will have a Synology RS1221+ as a storage drive and for future cameras
1U is a 500 watt UPS. I know it’s small for what I am powering, but I am only using it to bridge the second or two that it takes my Powerwalls to take over when grid power fails.
I got everything wired and labeled. The network is fully functional and stable, and the entire thing went as smoothly as I could have hoped. It took me longer to mount the cabinet on the wall than it did to get the network up and running. I now no longer have a home level network. This is bordering on prosumer level stuff.
You will note the empty slots for the second switch and the double drive server. Im waiting on parts for those. I will also neaten up the wires a bit.
Setting Up Virtual Networks
The last thing I did today was set up several VLANs:
Management, VLAN 10
VLAN 30 for IOT devices.
Servers, VLAN 40
Guest Network VLAN 50
Security Cameras, VLAN 60
To verify that it works, I logged in to the guest network SSID and was assigned an IP of 192.xx.50.x. I haven’t created rules yet, just wanted to make sure I did it correctly.
Moving Forward
Tomorrow, I will install the disk server, a Synology RS1221+. I don’t have disk drives for it yet, but that’s coming. Once that is installed, I will begin to place devices and clients into the various VLANs. Once that is sorted, I will begin assigning rules. One step at a time.
I am not planning on working on or installing cameras until the weather cools enough for me to get in the attic and run more Ethernet cables, so not until at least October or November.
