I want to setup a home camera system (2-3 units) so I can watch what’s happening with my two cats when I’m out of the apartment for a longer period. There’s a lot out of the box solutions on Amazon like [this Eufy camera](https://www.amazon.de/Security-surveillance-detection-assistant-required-White/dp/B086LBCQJL) but it forces you to use their proprietary software with an account which gives me the creeps.<p>Any other more privacy friendly solution out there? I have a home server which I access using a VPN.
My security system is pretty basic but super reliable and isolated/safe overall.<p>I use BlueIris for the NVR software (it is cheap) and I buy various cheap IP cameras that support OnVIF (almost all try to phone home, some directly to china IPs). But what I do is I put all the cameras on an isolated LAN that does not have access to the internet. My BlueIris server has two NIC's one for the video lan and the other for my data network. BlueIris has a static IP and is locked down as well to what it can access externally.<p>Two ways you can make BlueIris work outside your home, use a VPN on your mobile device (absolute safest), or use their free DDNS to point to your box. Their system seems fairly decent, and I've done both methods. I also log all the requests on both LANs and check them every so often to see what is happening.<p>It seriously doesn't cost much to set this up, especially for just a couple of cameras.
Eufy doesn’t force you to use their software — well, after setup. I have a bunch of Eufy C24 cameras deployed in RTSP mode.<p>I have them blocked from the Internet with logging turned on. I’ve never noticed them attempt to reach out.<p>Same with a bunch of Annke cameras, which are rebadged Hikvision cameras. Annke are cheap but pretty good quality cameras that do RTSP and all the other usual stuff. They never require their own app.
Home Assistant is a great self-hosted tool for smart home things. They have a list of compatible devices that may be useful. Would require setting up a home assistant server somewhere, but that seems like a small price to pay for managing your own data.<p><a href="https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/#camera" rel="nofollow">https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/#camera</a>
Like mentioned before, get any IP camera and make sure it has ONVIF. On software side, ZoneMinder is a popular OSS NVR/DVR for Linux. That way, all the recording remains on my self-hosted solution or on my home server and not to a 3rd party cloud service. I bought my cheap security camera from Amazon with ONVIF and they've been better than expected.