I want to secure my home and have a way to see if anyone has been snooping on my property, but I also don't want to have to pay someone to come in and install some professional system. Don't say get a dog, because I hate them and the one I am waiting for one to die that is totally useless for picking up on when people stop outside my house. I already own:
2 X little sensors that you put on doors or windows so when they open they make a high pitched wail
1 X web cam
a heap of computers
plenty of wire/cables
a heap of hard drives for saving video or pictures on
technical know how to put other things together and stuff

Using these things and other things i can pick up cheap, how can I:
detect entry in 3 rooms (each has a door leading to the outside)
watch my driveway for cars, get photos of plates/people getting out of them (it's about 40m long)
watch anyone in my backyard/getting into my outside shed

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I once was in a similar position when I decided to outfit my fortress in preparation for Z-Day. Keep in mind that it doesn't matter how many high tech cameras and shit you have if you don't have shit inside your base. Let me repeat the age old maxim: "A good defense is only as good as its offense."

You will need:

2 Handguns — Something small, light, and simple. My recommendation is the Beretta PX4 9MM pistol because its ammunition is ubiquitous.
8 Handgun Clips — (1) Bedside nightstand (2) Study/Panic Room (see below) (2) Shed (1) Garage/Porch (2) Car.
1 Shotgun — To be placed in your shed.
1 Hunting Rifle — Located in your study/panic room (see below). I recommend a Kimber 22.
Rifle Ammunition — Located in your study/panic room (see below) and shed. Perhaps scatter some cartridges in the terrain surrounding your yard for emergency escapes.

Security Systems:

You're going to build a panic room out of your study where your computer must be located. This room can only have one entrance, but must have windows which should be reinforced and secured (with bars if necessary) from the inside. Generally, a triple monitor display is desired, the monitors running, in sequence, (1)Your desktop (2) Audio/visual recording programs, system controls, (3) webcam feeds. Even though Panoramtech got liquidated, I believe you can still find some of their awesome computer hardware and monitors floating around the internet. They are ideal for this sort of work; search PanoramTech PV230 DSK. You'll probably want to follow Bosch security design, since they're the best, despite what ADT nerds tell you. You can actually copy their setup from their website (surf the pages and you'll find schematics if you look hard enough) and it'll give you ideas for your IPnet video setup. It's not that hard to setup and most local cable guys even know how to do it. I'm guessing you already have something like a PIR detector, but opt for some ceiling detectors. Go the extra mile with glass break detectors (inexpensive). Also I know there's a way to make photoelectric beams in your house but I can't remember for the life of me how and I'm too lazy to look it up. Always make sure your panic room has a land line, a mini fridge, and a PS3.

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Hahaha. I wish I could do this, but at the moment I share this house with someone that wouldn't exactly be down with me creating a panic room out of my study. Besides, I'm more about just detecting these cunts I know are getting around on my property when I'm out, not fighting off the zombie hoards… for now… Still the idea of setting up a dedicated multi-screen system to record camera feeds is good. Do you know any software that is good for managing web cam video streams? Maybe even someway to have the computer set off an alarm or send me an SMS if someone parks a car outside my house? Also, how would I make a rig for saving all that video I record? Like, how do I set up my hard drives for maximum efficiency and how much video should I keep at any one time?

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Absolutely. If you can get Visec, you'll be set. Pirate if not in the mood to wipe your ass with a few hundred dollar bills. It will support virtually any camera feed, from webcams to the IP Camera setup I mentioned earlier. It will send notifications to your SMS/PDA/Mobile Device when motion sensors or alarms are tripped. I usually recommend silent proximity censors which gives you time to react, get your shit together, prepare to kick ass before your main house alarms start wailing. Visec will monitor all your feeds and send you screenshots when motion is detected. Subsequently, it will let you use your IP cameras take screenshots of license plates like you mentioned in your first post. Have a look at the following and tell me if that's something like what you're looking for?

You can route Visec to save video feeds on any hard drive, even external, by the way.

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http://www.visec.net/

Scroll down to the information about the NVR software hooked up to the Arecont camera.

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