Camera Install and Parental Controls for a Single-Story Home
single-story home · Baywood Knolls, San Mateo
The situation
The homeowners wanted three things from one visit: camera coverage at the front door and inside the house, a guest network that stayed walled off from their own devices, and app-level restrictions on a child's iPad so services like Instagram and Snapchat could be blocked. They already had a Gateway Fiber system in place and wanted the new equipment to run on it rather than on a separate app or cloud service.
What we did
We installed three UniFi cameras — two indoor and one outdoor-rated at the front door — running cable through accessible attic pathways where the routing allowed. Before pulling anything, we checked switch port availability and the PoE power budget so the cameras could be powered over the same runs carrying their video.
We adopted the cameras into the existing Gateway Fiber system, installed a local storage drive, and set recording retention according to how the homeowners wanted each camera to behave — continuous on some, motion-triggered on others.
On the network side, we created a guest SSID isolated from the main network, so guest devices reach the internet but not the household's computers, cameras, or storage. We then went through the child's devices, applied traffic and app restrictions, and showed the homeowners how to edit those rules themselves.
The result
Three cameras are live and recording locally, with front-door coverage outside. Guests connect to their own network with no visibility into the main one, and the parental-control rules are in place with the homeowners able to adjust them. We walked through everything on site before leaving. No follow-up work was needed.
Questions about this kind of job
Can you set up a guest Wi-Fi network that can't see my other devices?
Yes. On this job we created a separate guest SSID with client isolation, so guest devices get internet access but cannot reach the household's computers, cameras, or storage.
Do security cameras have to record to the cloud?
No. Here we installed a local storage drive in the customer's existing gateway and configured retention per camera, some continuous and some motion-only, so footage stays in the house.
Can you block specific apps on a child's tablet?
We reviewed the child's devices, applied device-level traffic restrictions to block selected apps and sites, and showed the parents how to change those rules going forward.
Services: Security cameras, Troubleshooting & tune-up