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The term 'DIY home security system' probably, for most people, calls to mind the image of a young McCaulay Culkin, beating the heck of the marauding crooks in Home Alone I and II. Of course, Home Alone was an early 90's phenomenon, popular in a time when auto-detection, visual and information technology were, despite decades of concerted effort, in their infancy, and something only qualified systems engineers or genius geeks could really do with as they pleased.

But right now, we're in an age where hardware crashes are rarer things. Computers are tougher, and are used as control hubs for countless robotic technologies, of which detection, recording and media-storage are some of the least logistically challenging. Setting up a DIY home security system is really not something to be intimidated by - home security camera systems can be constructed from the simple webcams people use to chat online, and, for a little more money, infrared security cameras can conquer issues of lighting and motion detection in the gloomier parts of your home.

You should keep in mind, before you get too caught up in building a DIY home security system that turns your home into a hi-tech fortress, that the most effective form of crime prevention is really simple common sense. More than half of all burglaries occur as the result of negligence - someone leaving a door or window open, or forgetting to put the alarm on. Make sure that your spouse, children, and any other residents of your home are set in the ritual of locking doors whenever they leave, even if it's only to run a quick errand.

Building on this, you'll need to think about installing contact sensors at all of your access points - your doors, windows and so forth. These are paired electromagnetic pads which, once separated, trip a switch which in turn activates your alarm siren and brings the cops running. You secure one of them to the door or window, and one to the frame, and run a cable from the contact to a powerpoint. They're truly ideal for building DIY home security systems because they're cheap, easy to install, and are readily available in hardware stores.

If you've decided to rig up a full-fledge home security camera system as part of your DIY effort, you could arrange your contacts in such a way that they'll activate your security cameras, setting them to record as soon as the circuit is broken. For DIY home security systems, there's no reason to get anything more sophisticated than a webcam to act as your security camera. These can be had for under $20, and are widely available in department stores and through computer supply chains.

Infrared security cameras present an opportunity to take your DIY home security system to the next level, leaving it immune from changes in lighting conditions, and ensuring that you find out what happened in your home entirely regardless of whether a bulb blew. The flip side of this coin is the fact that buying one may leave you feeling like you've been robbed - while infrared security cameras have become a lot cheaper in recent years, decent ones are still priced in the $2000 area. The question is really one of need - if your home is adequately lit by streetlights from the outside, then your home security camera system probably won't be much improve by the purchase. Keep in mind, however, when doing your cost-risk calculations, that infrared security cameras can double as fire detectors, eliminating the need to install smoke detectors.