I wished I knew enough to tell you what to do. I dont.
That said, I can share with you what I considered as important, and maybe you can go from there.
so I guess I'll have to go with wifi.
Wifi is fine. One point I would like to make is Continuous VS Upon Access.
This is my terminology, so pls bear with me.
Continuous feeds is when for example the feed from the camera is being recorded constantly. I.E. the camera is sending a video feed to a recording device.
Upon Access feeds is for example is when you use an app to view the live video from office for 10 mins, or examine the recordings on the SD card.
For me, I was clear I wanted to be in wifi-AC cameras. So all the cameras I considered had to offer wifi AC only. This was because I knew eventually I wanted to have continuous recording. Also, as you already know the wifi g/n frequencies are cluttered beyond belief. Also when combined with resolution and FPS settings, the issue is compounded.
When you say DIY, what do you mean exactly? Mounting and installing?
DIY = Do It Yourself
or in Cantonese: "Ji Kei Lei" or in Malay: "Sendiri Bikin"
familiar with configuring virtual server, port forwarding, DDNS,
You would probably teach me when your done. I didnt even know the difference between a public and private IP Add when I started.
will 3M tape be good enough? Or will I need to drill holes?
I would say it depends on what cameras you pick and where you place them.
For example, the Dlink DCS 93xL series are all pretty light. I have used double sided tape on my DCS 935L to a wall before and it survived a few months before I went to drilling holes. My daughter found out she could yank it off the wall and made it a habit to do so every time she saw it up again.
Or if you go for the PTZ types, (for example DCS 5222L/Sineoji range) you can place them on a shelf or table. So there is no real need to mount, other than to ensure it does not fall off what ever it is sitting on.
A small note, from me on this is, because my toddler tends to walk close to walls, there was a high tendency for her to stand close to under my PTZ camera, mounted on a shelf. When she did, I could not see her, because she was under the shelf. So In this scenario, I had to change mounting to under the shelf (drilled holes), so that I could move the cam to see her.
So I guess in summary, placement location varies alot after you get the cam itself. Of course you will be limited to where your AC outlet is, or the vicinity of it. But the final placement, the more options for mounting is better. Hence tape or drilled holes... whichever. So dont rule it out completely, unless your willing to compromise.
Image REsolution
I was sure I did not want anything less than 720P, or badly labeled as "HD" in this industry. Some pple say that 640p is sufficient for home use. But for me, I was sure. If I could I would make 1080P as my minimum requirement, but cost became a factor.
Frames Per Second
Being a juvenile on this, I was so sure, 30FPS or nothing.
Over time, and at home, I run my recordings are 15 FPS over wifi. My wired cams are doing 20FPS. The tradeoff of course would be more images per second, but at the cost of recording space.
My bottom line is that I wanted to be sure, I could see for example, "my maid hitting my child", or "pinching my child" for example.
Alot of pple will tell you, 10FPS for home use is sufficient. It is. Just where you decide to draw the line. A quote I read a lot is for example 30fps is in casinos, where you need to see players cheating, whose hands are very quick, apparently.
Field of View (H x V x D)
Also pay attention to this when you select the cams. Especially if the cams are NON PTZ. Essentially it is how much you see in the image. The larger the values, the more you see.
Bear in mind, having a PTZ type of camera does not really solve the problem. Its a solution to a short coming.
Hope this helps, sorry for rambling.