Buying guides
Which one, for the job you actually have
A hub compares everything in a family. A guide answers one question — a budget, a first camera for someone who has never owned one, a system that will still work when the internet is down — with a ranked shortlist and a reason for the order.
- Getting started
A first security setup: four things, in this order
The four purchases that change the most for a house with nothing, in the order they are worth making — and why a camera is not the first of them.
- Buying
Outdoor cameras that record without a monthly plan
Four outdoor cameras that record to a card or a drive you own, with the three-year arithmetic that usually decides the purchase.
- Budget
Under a hundred euros: five things that actually change something
Five purchases under a hundred euros in total, chosen because each one prevents or reports something rather than because it is cheap.
- Choosing
Wired or wireless: the honest comparison
What each arrangement genuinely costs and gives, with four systems that show the ends of the range — from a card in a battery camera to a recorder that works with the internet down.
- Situations
A rented flat: five things you are allowed to fit
Five products that improve a rented flat without drilling, altering the door, or leaving anything behind when the tenancy ends.
- Buying
Smart locks for renters: three that change nothing permanent
Three retrofit smart locks that mount over an existing thumbturn without drilling or changing the cylinder — and a clear statement of what they do not improve.
- Choosing
After dark: four cameras and what makes their image
Four cameras compared on the thing that actually produces a night image — the illuminator — and on the trade between colour and discretion.
- Advice
False alarms: four fixes, three of them free
Why sensors and cameras cry wolf, what placement fixes that settings cannot, and the four products that address the causes rather than the symptoms.
- Situations
A holiday absence: five things worth doing first
Five devices for a fortnight away, chosen on what an empty house actually needs — including the water sensor that guards the damage nobody expects.
- Choosing
Local recording: four cameras and where the footage lives
Four cameras that write to a card, a recorder or a server you own — including the only arrangement where taking the camera does not take the evidence.
- Situations
After a break-in: five things, in this order
What to change first after a forced entry, ordered by effect rather than by urgency — and a note on the things it is tempting to buy and should not be first.