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I bought a cheap Chinese video door bell
soldar:
Domestic consumers are not going to buy devices which require what to them is a complicated configuration. They want plug and play. They want to plug in the device, download the app and start playing. That is what the consumer market demands and that is what the suppliers offer. As the OP has found out.
I have a device which has stopped working because the central server no longer exists. The notion that I could modify the device and the app to work independently of the server is just not practical or realistic.
Any device which requires the user to be knowledgeable about network configurations is not going to sell to homeowners who want to DIY. It would be something directed to a pro market with totally different requirements, expectations and prices.
David Hess:
I actively block external access for devices such as cameras, and avoid anything which requires an external server. They go on a separate SSID and network which is blocked from both external access, and access to other internal networks and devices. Connections are limited to only incoming.
Since I determine their IP, access could be through just the IP number, but in practice I assign their IP through DHCP and my DNS resolver intercepts DNS requests to return their IP as needed. I do not consider this an "external server" since it just replaces static IP assignment which is more cumbersome.
Of course I am hardly a typical consumer and agree that domestic consumers are not going to put in this kind of effort.
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