Is there such a thing as an app-free IP camera any more?

[makdaam@chaos.social]

@sebastian @mwl just make sure to block them explicitly from accessing the Internet. A lot of the cheap chinese cameras stream directly to Alibaba cloud from the moment they turn on, sometimes over HTTP (without S).

[sebastian@social.itu.dk]

@makdaam @mwl
yes, it is always a good idea to look at what packets the cam is trying to send (tcpdump, wireshark, ..)

[tallsimon@mstdn.ca]

@mwl Yes, but I bought it about 12 years ago.

[jaalsa@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

@mwl I do that with Dahua stuff

[brouhaha@mastodon.social]

@mwl
The search keyword is "RTSP".

[bjc@tines.spork.org]

@mwl flock cameras seem to be pretty wide open…

[mwl@io.mwl.io]

@brouhaha ty!

[auspiciousllama@pdx.social]

@viq @mwl I've been using Reolink cameras for several years, and while they do need the app to do initial configuration, you can enable RTMP, HTTP, HTTPS, and RTSP servers from the config. Be aware that they are cloud connected by default (and thus can be accessed externally), but that can be disabled.

[kurtm@bsd.network]

@mwl Antiques store?

[grumpybozo@toad.social]

@mwl I have an Amcrest which is entirely accessible via Safari. The HTML/JS/CSS is slow to load and provides a quirky UI, but it works.

I can also point VLC at the right port and watch the stream without authentication. That's why it sits behind a no-UPNP router.

[ams@infosec.exchange]

@mwl Anything onvif-compliant.

[drscriptt@oldbytes.space]

@mwl yes (mostly?) maybe?

Does video LAN client (VLC) count as an app in this case? It’s not vendor proprietary app.

I have some low end cameras off of Amazon in the last year that I can point VLC at and watch videos.

I may have needed the bender app to prime things. And I’m not even sure about that.
Let me know if you want to know more or have links.

[sebastian@social.itu.dk]

@makdaam @mwl
That said, I know of no evidence or reports that TP-Link cams should be trying to send anything to Alibaba (or other Chinese servers).