Buyers beware - LOOK ELSEWHERE AS THIS SYSTEM IS A COMPLETE LOSS OF MONEY SPENT

@captain11​   As you seem to be the local chairman and expert on these issues, let me reiterate a review of my 12 posts placed over the past five years, all of which have been to document my troubleshooting and testing methodology on their flawed outdoor cam firmare, yet SS refuses to admit a  problem exists with their outdoor cameras.     First, I recognize that you have experience installing these  systems successfully, but also please recognize that I have over 40 years of experience as a network and telecom systems engineer, including 15 years designing instrusion detection systems (IDS) for military bases.  I agree, and have stated publicly that  SS indoor cameras and sensors  function reasonably well, and the response system center has been exceptional. The outdoor cameras however are a distaster, they fail to recover from sleep mode fast enough, and often lose connection to mesh type AP devices which are becoming the norm.   I appeased the SS technicians by hard wiring all my cameras to dedicated clean power drops using SS certified power supplies and cabling, the problem persists.  I also tried isolating cameras on a dedicated vlan on a dedicated AP, while it resolved some of mesh delay it failed to resolve the wake up times which can exceed 45 seconds. A software friend and myself determined that the low power and sleep mode in the cameras is responsible for much of the delay, the inability to set the firmware sleep bit when on dedicated power in not user changeable. Additional, the firmware tcp and session settings are incapable of adapting to different APs, the video session is stuck requiring a soft or hard reset by the user ( which is why the first words out of support is to “reset” the camera.  Camera placement is another red herring, yes there are users that do dumb thing like mount a wireless camera in a metal box, but the vast majority follow the instructions. I mounted my test cameras within 20ft in clear line of site to an AP, there were no RFI issues or RF overpower issues  (verified by an rfi test set), and I used AP software to ensure no channel conflicts with other AP’s, yet the problem continues.  The software developer and myself posted lengthy responses to  SS posting in detail the exact firmware code and tcp/session modifications that would fix the problem, we almost begged the for help, and SS promised to pass the info to the engineers, yet two years and dozens of updates have occurred without a fix. I finally gave up and installed my own ip cam system using the inexpensive BLUE IRIS windows based software package, it works flawlessly and activates cameras using AI technology within  milliseconds, notifications are sent directly to my cell phone or iPad anywhere in the world. Unfortunately the SS camera are proprietary and do no use the industry standard ONVIF protocol, they could not be reused, so I had to toss $1500 of SS cams in the junk box.   This post is not meant to insult you or be condescending, and  I’ve gone into extensive  technical detail as one professional to another. My point is that many consumers on this forum are having valid complaints; perhaps they go over the top a bit with incendiary verbiage, but in many cases they are as frustrated as I am with their lost investment.     Part of the problem is SS purchased the cams from a third party company  that originally designed the outdoor cameras, as such they likely lost the original software programmer expertise and code documentation in the process.  I think they have now refocused on selling the indoor cameras ( a great product by the way), but I find in extremely irresponsible to continue to market and sell the flawed outdoor cameras. Just my opinion.   One more tidbit about to SS, my system has over 70 sensors, there are some small problems that develop, the water sensors cause false alarms in high humidity, and the door lock battery life on main doors are atrocious  (have u guys heard of LiPo batteries, stop using cheap alkalines). Also, develop a better sensor adhesion, I had the cops deploy to my house after a sensor fell off a window sill, and I was located in Korea at the time.  So with the outdoor camera atrocity aside, they do a reasonably well job, especially with smaller installations such as in apartments.    There are other security companies available as mentioned, but these days they use the same basic technology, and will nickel and dime you to death with fees and contracts. 

@Brianb​ My apologies for the late reply, as I just found your post now.  Not insulted, and do agree, to a point, on  your post.  Upfront, I am not an angineer but do know a few, including a network security engineer that works for a large, national enterprise.  He was one of the 30+ systems I recommended over the years. While all but 2 are still in place and all are happy campers (yes, I do hear when something goes south) my IT friend did have major issues with the doorbell pro. Again, very technical and experienced, the short story was an issue with a bell strike unit in his old house that after 3 replacements, 4 calls with the last at the engineering level, the cause was found and now works fine.

Either with the luck of the Irish (doubtfull since I am of Italian decent) my two OD cameras are working fine but, and this is key, was not the case when they were first released.  As far as sensors falling off the wall, my 30+ sensor system have none falling off, either screwed in or securely in place with stick on velcro for crooked corners and all checked monthly as part of my maintenance routine.  Yes, above and beyond what SS officially states but I do tell my small group of placed users to do the same. And I agree with you the SA cameras are vastly supperior to the outdoor cams.

One thing I will never deviate from, if you do leave SS, whatever  you do, avoid ADT at all costs.

Have a good week.