How is Reolink App cellular access possible?

[fcsteve]

I have just plugged a Reolink camera into my router and downloaded the Reolink app to my Android device. As expected I can access the camera from the app while my device is connected to the same LAN as the camera. But to my surprise the camera is also accessable over Cellular, with Wifi disabled on me device.

How is this possible? I thought the router would block access unless port forwarding was setup?

 

[TVille]

The camera establishes a connection out, through your router, and the app basically follows it back in. It can be blocked with a real firewall, but that takes a fair bit more knowledge/skill, although very doable, depending on what equipment you have. .

 

[wittaj]

It has P2P enabled which means the phone is connected to a server who knows where. That nice little QR code you probably scanned makes your camera visible to any hacker out there. And they do not care about your video feed, they want to use your internet for a bot attack.

That is a feature designed into consumer grade cameras because that is what the unsuspecting consumer wants - quick and easy ability to see their cameras anywhere. But it comes at a significant risk of being hacked.

In addition to that, the camera is poor quality. If you care at all about good video quality at night with motion, do yourself a favor and return it...

Reolink: Deconstruction of a dangerous misleading youtube review "Finding the BEST 4K Security Camera NVR Package (Reolink vs Amcrest vs Swann)"

Executive Summary: DO NOT be a sheep. Ask what a reviewer can be missing, ask if a reviewer is using hype words to sell the cheapest product. Test your cameras and kits right away. Just do a bench test. Test real world conditions. Test moving suspects. Test at night, test at day. Use a test rig...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[fcsteve]

Thanks to TVille and wittaj for clearing that up.

The quality of the camera is not an issue for me. I'm after an upgrade from an ESP32cam for remote monitoring of equipment.

The security aspect bothers me. I had complete programmatic control over the networking of the ESP32cam. Now I learn my Reolink is making outgoing connections that I can't control. Do all cameras behave this way? If anyone can suggest a better option I would be grateful.

 

[wittaj]

Most cameras operate that way as that is what the consumer wants - ease of access. The big consumer names like Ring, Nest, Arlo, etc. are cloud based, as are many no name cameras, so not much you can do about that. Reolink is an odd bird in that they can be isolated from the internet, but there isn't a VMS program that the reolinks play nice with other than their own app and NVR. For example, many people here use Blue Iris, but reos and BI don't work well together and motion is missed entirely in some instances.

The Dahua and Hikvision of the camera world have that same ability, but most of us here completely isolate them from the internet.