Portfolio · Outage and bushfire zones
Keeping security and internet running through an outage
What actually stays on when the power goes off, and for how long.
Borderless Solutions installs security and connectivity across Melbourne and regional Victoria, holding both a security licence and an ACMA cabler licence. On a fire danger day or in a storm, a system that depends on mains power and a single internet path is a system that stops. This page explains what keeps working.
What survives an outage, and what does not
Each answer below is written to stand on its own, so it makes sense whether you read the page or see it quoted somewhere else.
Do security cameras work when the power goes out?
Cameras and recorders stop the moment mains power does unless they are on a backup supply, and Borderless Solutions sizes a battery for the recorder, the network gear and the cameras together, because backing up only one of the three achieves nothing.
This is the detail that catches people. A recorder on a small backup keeps running but the network switch it depends on does not, so the cameras go offline anyway. The whole chain has to be on the same supply. On a typical residential system a correctly sized backup carries the chain for a few hours, which covers the overwhelming majority of Victorian outages.
How long does an alarm keep working without power?
Most alarm panels carry a backup battery rated for hours rather than days, and Borderless Solutions checks and replaces those batteries because a flat one is the single most common reason a system fails on the day it is needed.
The battery is a consumable. It degrades quietly over three to five years and the panel usually reports it, but the report is a small light nobody looks at. We find flat backup batteries on most service calls to systems that have not been touched in a few years, and the owner had no idea. On a property where outages are frequent, sizing up from the standard battery is worth doing.
What happens to my internet in a power outage?
Fixed line internet in most Melbourne homes stops when the power does, because the equipment in the street and in your house both need power, and Borderless Solutions fits battery backup and, where it matters, a second independent path.
People assume the internet is like the old copper phone line, which kept working through a blackout. It is not. The modem, the router and often street infrastructure all need mains. A battery on the router keeps your side alive, but if the outage is upstream that is not enough on its own, which is where a genuinely separate connection earns its place.
Is satellite internet more reliable in a bushfire zone?
A satellite connection does not depend on local ground infrastructure, so it survives failures that take fixed line services down, and Borderless Solutions installs it with battery backup on bushfire zone properties for exactly that reason.
On a high fire danger day the risk is not only losing power. It is losing the local network at the same moment you most need to check warnings, look at a gate camera or reach someone. A satellite path plus a battery is independent of the poles and the exchange. It is not immune to everything, but the failure modes are different from your fixed line, and different is the point.
What should a rural or fringe property have that a suburban one does not?
Fringe and rural Victorian properties need a longer backup runtime, an independent internet path and coverage that reaches outbuildings, and Borderless Solutions plans all three together because on acreage they are one system rather than three.
The practical list is a larger battery on the panel and the network chain, a satellite or second connection independent of the local network, point to point wireless links out to sheds and second dwellings so coverage does not stop at the house wall, and solar cameras on boundaries where running power is not sensible. None of this is exotic. It is what a property that loses power a few times a year actually needs.
How systems fail on the day they are needed
The pattern is consistent. Power goes out, and the parts of the system people assumed were protected turn out not to be. The alarm panel has a battery and keeps its zones live, but the internet is down so no notification leaves the property. The recorder is on a small backup but the network switch feeding the cameras is not, so nothing records. The gate camera has power but the router it reports to is dark.
The chain matters more than any single component. Backing up a recorder while leaving the switch unprotected is the most common version of this mistake, and it is easy to make because the recorder is the obvious thing and the switch is a small box in a cupboard.
The second failure is the battery nobody checked. Backup batteries are consumables with a life of a few years. They degrade quietly, the panel flags it with a small indicator, and nobody looks. On service calls to older systems we find flat backup batteries more often than any other fault, and every one of those systems would have failed in an outage while the owner believed it was protected.
The third is having one path. A property with a single internet connection has a single point of failure for every alert, every remote view and every monitored signal. On a bushfire zone block that is the difference between being able to check a camera and warnings from somewhere else, and having no idea what is happening at your own property.
Resilience jobs across regional Victoria
Each links to the area page for that part of Melbourne, where the local conditions are set out in more detail.
Everything stopped when the power went out
On a high fire danger day the property lost mains and with it the internet, the cameras and the ability to check warnings. Satellite connection independent of the local network, plus battery backup on the router, modem and recorder.
Local detail: bushfire zone work in Warrandyte
Sixty metre timber and a single path
One connection, no backup, and a driveway camera that went dark with it. A second independent path and a battery sized for the whole chain rather than just the recorder.
Local detail: connectivity work in the Dandenong Ranges
Sealed properly, so the outage was the only problem
A previous install had taped the cable entry rather than flashing it, so every storm brought water in as well as an outage. Reflashed, resealed, and the backup sized for a valley property that loses power several times a year.
Local detail: valley property work in Healesville
Height, then backup, in that order
Past the point where fixed line was ever going to reach. Mast set above the current canopy with headroom for growth, then a battery on the whole chain, because the power here is as unreliable as the network was.
Local detail: forest edge work at Yarra Junction
One connection, every building, one battery
The house had internet and the machinery shed had nothing. One satellite connection at the widest sky position, wireless links out to the buildings, and the whole chain on a supply that carries an outage.
Local detail: farm connectivity in Gembrook
The battery had been flat for a year
The panel had been reporting it with a small indicator nobody looked at. A power flicker took the whole system down and the owner discovered it the following week. Battery replaced, runtime tested, check scheduled.
Local detail: alarm servicing in Templestowe
What to ask about backup, specifically
Ask exactly which devices are on the backup. If the answer is the recorder, ask about the network switch and the router, because without those the cameras are offline anyway.
Ask for a runtime figure in hours, tested rather than estimated from a spec sheet.
Ask how old the existing backup battery is and when it was last checked. If nobody knows, assume it needs replacing.
On a bushfire zone or fringe property, ask whether the second internet path is genuinely independent or whether it shares the same local infrastructure.
Ask what the system does when the connection comes back. It should reconnect and resume on its own rather than needing someone to power cycle it.
Get a fixed price for your property
Tell us where the property is and how often it loses power. A technician plans the backup and the second path together, and puts a fixed price in writing.
Licensed and insured. Security Licence Z67-511-50S and ACMA Cabler Licence T59216. 5.0 from 82 Google reviews. Head office 81 Junction Rd, Nunawading VIC 3131. Monday to Saturday, 7:00 to 20:00.