Signal jamming ?? home security camera?

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allywild

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#319179 31-Mar-2025 09:17

Not sure where to post this, but wanted to ask if potentially a signal jammer has been used on our security cameras, or if there's any other logical explanation for the tech issue?

When viewing camera footage simultaneously from two cameras, there are periods where one camera 'freezes' while other keeps clicking over. The frozen camera then catches up to the other one some time later.

(Not sure if you can make it out, but left camera says 9.34 and right says 9.29)

This has happened at different times on each camera, funnily enough at times when we wanted to check the footage in the last week

My car was broken into it seems a few days ago, and there is periods of time where no footage is recorded on the closest camera.

I went to neighbours across the road, as one camera directly faces my car but they too have periods of missing footage.

We've also had issues with cellphone signal, not being able to make or receive calls, among other things,Is there potentially something dodgy going on or all just major coincidence?

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Hammered
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#3358859 31-Mar-2025 09:32

Moved to a more appropriate sub-forum.

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

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Gordy7

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#3358864 31-Mar-2025 09:51

Muphy's law at play!

What make and model are the cameras?

Where do the cameras record their video and snapshots?

Perhasps you need to add an extra camera for redundancy for your car.

Have you searched the internet regarding the reliability and the possibility of attacks of your cameras?

Gordy

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freitasm

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#3358869 31-Mar-2025 10:03

Could be that the camera is in a bad Wi-Fi spot?

richms

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#3358874 31-Mar-2025 10:17

Wireless is best effort, and IME with wireless cameras they put in minimal effort to them. Hell, so many of them are still just single band 2.4GHz so lucky to work at the best of times.

Richard rich.ms

olivernz

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#3358877 31-Mar-2025 10:19

So most likely cause is bad WiFi coverage and/or crowded Wifi channel. But outages that long are not really what you'd expect.

If I was a criminal I would definitely use a jammer. Hence my cameras are all PoE. But most crims I have seen so far lack the deeper insights to life to do that.

As for cell phone reception, that is totally different bands and likely unrelated.

Tinkerisk

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#3358878 31-Mar-2025 10:19

Security cameras should not use WiFi, ever.

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nitro

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#3358880 31-Mar-2025 10:23

freitasm:

Could be that the camera is in a bad Wi-Fi spot?

The description "The frozen camera then catches up to the other one some time later." does suggest connectivity issue for that camera. Maybe check that first, if only to get it out of the way of debugging your issue.

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olivernz

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#3358882 31-Mar-2025 10:35

Tinkerisk:

Security cameras should not use WiFi, ever.

Tell that to the manufacturers that do things like motion triggered, battery operated Wifi cameras! 24/7 FTW!

richms

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#3358890 31-Mar-2025 10:46

The issue is that there may be a small glitch on the wifi - perhaps if you have extenders it is moving between the 2 networks and the NVR loses its connection to it, then the ARP has to time out before it will reconnect etc if it has moved to a repeater. Or the camera is rebooting because its lost connection. There really is not much to diagnose on this.

But a deauther is an easy to make thing that will affect 2.4GHz devices - just need an ESP module and some easy to find software, it will kick off things it finds. Management frames are sent at a low speed so the range can be good that they can hit things from, particually as the camera is outside and can probably see devices 100m away. The cheap ESP deauth only works on 2.4GHz, there is another board that will do 5GHz but the feedback I have had is that its pretty bad.

WPA3 brings protected frames as a requirement, but good luck finding a camera that implements it.

One solution to that is to use a proprietary wireless camera that is not wifi, but then you are just at the mercy of obscurity stopping it from happening.

Or just installed wired PoE or coax HD cameras that are not subject to wireless interference.

Richard rich.ms

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#3358891 31-Mar-2025 10:48

olivernz:

Tell that to the manufacturers that do things like motion triggered, battery operated Wifi cameras! 24/7 FTW!

You mean the ones that have to wake up and start recording so miss the most important parts? Yeah, those are great.

Richard rich.ms

allywild

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#3359048 31-Mar-2025 14:22

Gordy7:

Muphy's law at play!

What make and model are the cameras?

Where do the cameras record their video and snapshots?

Perhasps you need to add an extra camera for redundancy for your car.

Have you searched the internet regarding the reliability and the possibility of attacks of your cameras?

Hikvision cameras, hardwired I thought, record to a dedicated PC/drive with monitor.

I'd done a little research after someone had suggested jamming, just weird it's never happened before and had the system in place couple of years

allywild

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#3359049 31-Mar-2025 14:24

freitasm:

Could be that the camera is in a bad Wi-Fi spot?

Sorry, I'm pretty sure they are hard wired, it's Hikvision.

nitro

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#3359056 31-Mar-2025 14:28

Tinkerisk:

Security cameras should not use WiFi, ever.

i have to disagree with the "ever" part. while it is certainly ideal from a reliability point of view, most of us aren't securing Fort Knox.

in fact, for residential purposes it's more of a (hope to be a) deterrent, or something to present as evidence. and wifi can be made reliable - radio jammers are illegal in NZ. there are also options with built-in batteries that'll keep recording even on a wifi interruption and/or power outage.

all i'm saying is that it's better to have a wifi one, than none at all.

freitasm

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#3359057 31-Mar-2025 14:28

If they are hardwired then jamming would not work on them.

allywild

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#3359058 31-Mar-2025 14:30

olivernz:

So most likely cause is bad WiFi coverage and/or crowded Wifi channel. But outages that long are not really what you'd expect.

If I was a criminal I would definitely use a jammer. Hence my cameras are all PoE. But most crims I have seen so far lack the deeper insights to life to do that.

As for cell phone reception, that is totally different bands and likely unrelated.

Apologies, I am pretty sure they are hardwired, there's a dedicated drive and monitor in the office. hikvision is the brand.

Not happened before until this week that I'm aware of, and as mentioned at times that we wanted to check something.

Some weird stuff going on in the neighborhood recently so who knows.

Cellphone issue yes probably unrelated, thought id mention anyway

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