Why does this blog even exist?

I purchased a Defender DVR from BJ's online a few months ago to help keep an eye on some vacation property. 

I consider myself very technical, but setting up this 4 camera system and getting it to meet my needs has not been easy. 

Fortunately, this unit does have web access, via an ActiveX control (hence IE only), and I found I could start adding some basic additional capabilities via some JavaScript. 

So this blog is to make my work/results available to others, and, maybe, encourage Defender USA  to open up the ActiveX interface and also to make their software/product better.