[olex]

And this is why my setup will be using Reolink cameras integrated locally via HomeAssistant and Frigate. Detection runs locally on cameras and/or in Frigate, HA manages events and UI, and the only way to access any of it remotely is via VPN, no "cloud" anything.

If the authorities come knocking with a warrant, or frankly, even a nicely-worded sensible request, sure, have at it. But ain't nobody accessing the footage unnoticed and without my approval.

[sterwill]

I bought Reolink PoE cameras because they support standard RTSP and I could put them on their own VLAN where they can't get to the Internet. I can still use the Reolink app to view them when I'm on the LAN, or through Wireguard when I'm not. I use ffmpeg to save streams to a big disk. Works great.

[dhacks]

I do the same and it works well. But do you see the Reolink app hammering domains of the form p#p#.reolink.com? I have to kill the app between uses it it drains my phone's battery because of this.

[sterwill]

I've never looked at what the Android app is doing on the network, but maybe I should. I usually just keep it open for a few minutes when I'm waiting for a delivery or I hear someone ring the doorbell, so I'm not too worried about it piping lots of video to Reolink HQ. I haven't noticed much of a battery drain having used it earlier in the day.

[olex]

Yeah, this is my idea as well. Good to know that the Reolink app still works locally and via Wireguard, that means I'll have less UI to set up in HomeAssistant.

[Flere-Imsaho]

My reolink runs off power over Ethernet. Here in the uk, there have been reports of Amazon drivers using wifi deauth-ing devices to kill the ring cameras when they are near your property. My parents recently experienced this.

[olex]

Absolutely, I will be running PoE wherever possible, definitely for the doorbell. Not just because of Amazon drivers, I've read reports of burglars using WiFi jammers to make sure wireless cameras are useless during a break-in.

[beala]

Well this is disturbing. I guess my weekend project is running ethernet to my front door.

My problem is that the area around my front door where the doorbell is installed is solid timber, so it's not just a simple ethernet drop. I'm honestly not even sure how the builders ran the existing wire to that location. Maybe my only option is to add a second backup camera in a location where an ethernet install is easier.

[MSFT_Edging]

Cops will also go after your networking prior to busting down your door. Same applies regardless of a correct and valid warrant so do with that as you will.

I'm sure the cops who trashed Afroman's place would have loved that ability.

[olex]

I realize that if the authorities target me specifically, there's not much I can do. Even though I am not in the States and do not expect my local police to be quite as... forceful.

However, I do not intend to make it easy to just grab my footage along with any other that can be found, without at least asking.

[MSFT_Edging]

Yeah, this is more of a "If police screw up, they'll still make it a 'you' problem". IIRC the example I was thinking of was federal agents attempting to threaten an anti-ICE activist.

[runlaszlorun]

I'm not disputing this but I'm not sure if I understand what it is they're doing or why but am curious.

[nullwarp]

I've had better experience with Armcrest cameras but same setup. Moved from using Arlo to a completely local setup and do not regret it one bit.

Worst part was just running ethernet to the spots where the cameras needed to go (only crawlspace access) but nice not having to charge batteries and even nicer knowing i'm not sending video to netgear anymore.

[jamiecurle]

Same here, only I used Hikvision PoE cameras.

If I had of had a webcam on my front door a few weeks ago I would have been able to identify the thieves that broke into my car and stole a bunch of stuff whilst I was asleep.

Since then I have "cammed" up, but I use my own hard wired network and connected to a Pi5 with a Hailo8 chip running frigate.

No third party apps, just the fun of more stuff on the network. I do run a Cloudflare tunnel on the PI so that I can connect to Frigate from anywhere when I get alerts.

But basically, it's me and only me accessing the content of those cameras. However I do plan to configure Frigate to upload the alerts and detections into S3 with a three month lifecycle.

[beala]

Oops I initially posted this comment at the top level before I saw this thread:

I assume some of the concern around this is that folks don't want to live in a panopticon. If that's your objection, I can't really help with that. On the other hand, if your objection is that you don't want a backdoor built into your video doorbell (even one that you must opt into), I'm happy to report that there are good non-Ring options.

I switched to a Reolink video doorbell, and it has decent support for local-only operation. It has the ability to save footage to a local micro SD card, and if you're worried about someone stealing the entire doorbell and losing your footage, it also supports RTSP (a common IP camera protocol). You can even have it upload footage to a FTP server on a schedule. It also supports PoE if you're lucky enough to have ethernet at your doorbell, or don't mind doing the drop yourself.

Set up does require an app, but you don't need to use the app after that. Push notifs also require egress, but, iiuc, this is mostly because of how push notifications work. Push does NOT require a paid subscription.

I personally just use the app, but it's nice knowing that if Reolink tried to pull a fast one, I could just block egress on my VLAN and use it locally.

If you'd rather just go completely app-less, I imagine a dumb doorbell paired with an IP camera and a local ZoneMinder [1] install would provide most of the benefits of something like Ring. Of course, the tradeoff is you now have a second job being sys admin of your homelab. Pick your poison, I guess.

[1] https://zoneminder.com/

[muwtyhg]

This won't matter when all of your neighbors have a Ring doorbell, you will still be recorded every time you leave your house. You are just making yourself more noticeable and disagreeable to the surveillance apparatus.

[normie3000]

Don't Reolink cameras require the Reolink mobile app for setup?

[sterwill]

I have 2 Reolink PoE cameras, and they just hopped on the network with DHCP and I used a web browser to configure them. No app needed. I did install the app later, once the cameras were safely on their own VLAN, and I could connect to them by internal host name or IP address.

[olex]

Initially I believe so, but they can then be isolated via VLAN / firewall rules and cut off from internet access.

[red-iron-pine]

dude thinks reolink is more secure -- awful lot of 9.9 CVSS vulns for them

[wpm]

What are the nature of those vulnerabilities though? How many require physical access or network access to exploit?

If someone is in my house tapped into the network, cameras are the least of my problems.

[AlexandrB]

Who cares? If you're doing local-only cameras they're not internet accessible. Who's going to try to hack those vulns? The mailman?