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What is the killer feature of these cams over a local camera setup that lets you check on your home from an app, but without uploading your data to a cloud serv

What is the killer feature of these cams over a local camera setup that lets you check on your home from an app, but without uploading your data to a cloud service?

OJFord 7y ago
Not having to be a HN reader to set it up?
- dessant 7y ago
  Aren't there any businesses that offer such a privacy conscious solution in a convenient form?
  - marceldegraaf 7y ago
    UniFi NVR[1] and the newer UniFi Protect are pretty easy to set up and allow you to store all camera recordings on premises – even on your own hardware if desired. 1: https://www.ui.com/unifi-video/unifi-nvr/ https://www.ui.com/unifi-video/unifi-nvr/
maccard 7y ago
What local camera setups will let me check on my home from an app without uploading the video somewhere?
- reportgunner 7y ago
  What do you mean "without uploading the video somewhere" ? If you are viewing it while not physically present it must be uploaded somewhere - otherwise it couldn't be on your phone right ?
- alexanderdmitri 7y ago
  Maybe a service that on event would proxy a stream from the camera and push a notification to your phone (or whatever you're using as a client). On notification you could choose whether or not to record the stream and save it as a file on the client. Said service could provide a guarantee that all data passing through its servers will not be recorded, persisted or even decrypted.
- berbec 7y ago
  MotionEye. Runs on anything from Raspberry Pis to regular computer. Handles multiple cameras, store locally/Dropbox/gdrive etc.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- mikestew 7y ago
  A Synology NAS with its built-in/free camera software, and cameras of your choice. Recordings live on the local NAS, you figure out how to get Synology's DS Cam app access to the local network. (I just use Synology's dynamic DNS service.)
michaelt 7y ago
Compared to an Axis-style network webcam with recording to SD card, the Ring doorbell offers the following: 1. The Ring doorbell costs less. In my country, £89 for a basic Ring vs £203 for a basic Axis webcam. 2. The Ring is battery powered, which is only possible because it doesn't have to run its radio and CPU all the time in order to be a web server. Being battery-powered makes allows self-installation by a much wider audience. 3. If someone steals your webcam with microsd recording, they steal the video of themselves doing it at the same time; with the Ring that is not the case. 4. IoT devices are famously insecure, and network webcams famous for being inadvertently made public. The Ring doorbell doesn't need you to open a port in your firewall (exposing it to the public internet) to be remotely monitored. With that said, personally I still wouldn't buy a Ring doorbell.
- LinuxBender 7y ago
  One could always send video files to their own cloud. Nextcloud instance, sftp, rsync, etc. Rsyncd supports write-only. SFTP could write to an append-only directory (via xattrs) so even if they figure out how to use the ssh key, it won't matter. I also would never use the ring doorbell. Not only is that a security risk, but it also provides eyes on neighbors across the street. Legal, sure, but dodgy.
NedIsakoff 7y ago
I run a NEST Hello and Nest Cam Indoor/Outdoor IQ system. Everything is streamed to the cloud. I was able to catch the local criminal breaking into homes. One of the neighbours has an 12 camera setup with a NVR. They just took the NVR.
- smn1234 7y ago
  the NVR had stream/data replication to the Cloud ?

What is the killer feature of these cams over a local camera setup that lets you check on your home from an app, but without uploading your data to a cloud service?

OJFord 7y ago

Not having to be a HN reader to set it up?

dessant 7y ago
Aren't there any businesses that offer such a privacy conscious solution in a convenient form?
- marceldegraaf 7y ago
  UniFi NVR[1] and the newer UniFi Protect are pretty easy to set up and allow you to store all camera recordings on premises – even on your own hardware if desired. 1: https://www.ui.com/unifi-video/unifi-nvr/ https://www.ui.com/unifi-video/unifi-nvr/

maccard 7y ago

What local camera setups will let me check on my home from an app without uploading the video somewhere?

reportgunner 7y ago
What do you mean "without uploading the video somewhere" ? If you are viewing it while not physically present it must be uploaded somewhere - otherwise it couldn't be on your phone right ?
alexanderdmitri 7y ago
Maybe a service that on event would proxy a stream from the camera and push a notification to your phone (or whatever you're using as a client). On notification you could choose whether or not to record the stream and save it as a file on the client. Said service could provide a guarantee that all data passing through its servers will not be recorded, persisted or even decrypted.
berbec 7y ago
MotionEye. Runs on anything from Raspberry Pis to regular computer. Handles multiple cameras, store locally/Dropbox/gdrive etc.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
mikestew 7y ago
A Synology NAS with its built-in/free camera software, and cameras of your choice. Recordings live on the local NAS, you figure out how to get Synology's DS Cam app access to the local network. (I just use Synology's dynamic DNS service.)

michaelt 7y ago

Compared to an Axis-style network webcam with recording to SD card, the Ring doorbell offers the following: 1. The Ring doorbell costs less. In my country, £89 for a basic Ring vs £203 for a basic Axis webcam. 2. The Ring is battery powered, which is only possible because it doesn't have to run its radio and CPU all the time in order to be a web server. Being battery-powered makes allows self-installation by a much wider audience. 3. If someone steals your webcam with microsd recording, they steal the video of themselves doing it at the same time; with the Ring that is not the case. 4. IoT devices are famously insecure, and network webcams famous for being inadvertently made public. The Ring doorbell doesn't need you to open a port in your firewall (exposing it to the public internet) to be remotely monitored. With that said, personally I still wouldn't buy a Ring doorbell.

LinuxBender 7y ago
One could always send video files to their own cloud. Nextcloud instance, sftp, rsync, etc. Rsyncd supports write-only. SFTP could write to an append-only directory (via xattrs) so even if they figure out how to use the ssh key, it won't matter. I also would never use the ring doorbell. Not only is that a security risk, but it also provides eyes on neighbors across the street. Legal, sure, but dodgy.

NedIsakoff 7y ago

I run a NEST Hello and Nest Cam Indoor/Outdoor IQ system. Everything is streamed to the cloud. I was able to catch the local criminal breaking into homes. One of the neighbours has an 12 camera setup with a NVR. They just took the NVR.

smn1234 7y ago
the NVR had stream/data replication to the Cloud ?