P2P IP Camera Viewer for Smartphones

[COcatman]

I run a pet boarding facility and have a bunch of Foscam cameras that allow customers to watch their pets while they are away. Currently, I use DDNS & Port Forwarding to allow my customers to view their cameras using the free IP Camera Viewer software. However, I'm wondering if I should drop all the port forwarding stuff since my cameras support P2P. The simpler it is for my employees to set up customer's phones to view their pet's cameras the better.

Is there a good free android and Apple app that supports P2P camera viewing? I've seen some in the Play Store but it's hard to tell from the reviews if they are any good. The Foscam app would work except it requires every user (i.e. customer) to set up Foscam account. I've even considered replacing my Foscam cameras with Reolink cameras since the Foscams frequently lose their wireless connections. The problem is the Reolink app does not allow User Accounts to use the camera PTZ functions - only Administrator Accounts can use PTZ and I'm not giving customers administrator privileges.

Any ideas would be welcome.

 

[looney2ns]

Wifi cameras in general are problematic.
There are much better choices in cameras than Foscam or Reolink. Reolink definitely should be avoided.
I would stick with Amcrest, Dahua or Hikvision cameras.

Do you also use these cams for security surveillance?
You definitely need to do away with port forwarding, you are putting your entire network at risk.
How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) | IP Cam Talk

 

[COcatman]

Keep in mind that these cameras are accessed by the current group of customers who are boarding pets with us. A group that is constantly changing. It is simply is not practical to install a VPN client on every customer's phone.

I looked at the Amcrest ASH41 4MP wifi camera, but the spec sheet doesn't indicate that it supports P2P. If correct, that wouldn't avoid port forwarding.

I looked at the Dahua, but the only affordable wifi camera was the N41BL13-W 4MP WiFi Network Dome Camera which again doesn't seem to support P2P and lacks PTZ (which I can probably do without).

I looked at the Hikvision cameras, but they don't support wifi. Half my cameras are fixed & wired, the rest are wifi and moved from room to room.

Thanks for trying to help, but it seems my circumstances make a good solution hard to find.

 

[TonyR]

A camera recommendation would be easier if we knew where you really were instead of the "moon" (product availability).
U.S.?
Europe?
Canada?
S.A.?

 

[COcatman]

I'm located in the USA. I'm not specifically looking for a camera recommendation, however that might part of the solution. I'm looking to see it there is a better approach for providing my customers access to cameras so they can watch their pets while they are boarding with us. Specifically my requirements are...

1. Simple setup of customer's phones to allow remote access to the camera in their pet's room
2. 12 cameras are hardwired & 8 are wifi so they can be moved from room to room
3. Customers come and go regularly so a camera my be accessed by one person one week and another the next
4. Any app installed on the customer's phones must be free
5. PTZ is a nice to have, but not strictly required
6. Currently use Foscam cameras, but those on wifi have been a constant nightmare as they keep losing their wifi connection. Wired cameras have been fine.
7. Currently use IP Camera Viewer app on customer's phones to access cameras using DDNS and port forwarding
8. Since Foscam cameras support P2P, I'm wondering if this would be a better approach, and if so is there a better app that supports P2P camera viewing since the Foscam app would require a Foscam account for each customer.
9. I would consider replacing my Foscam cameras if there was an affordable and more elegant solution for allowing an ever-changing group of customers to access their camera.

Basically I've got a group of cameras that need to be remotely accessed by an ever-changing group of customers. What I'm doing today works (except for the wifi connections problems), but I think P2P may be a better solution?

 

[Alaska Country]

Another possibility would be to use a website much like those used for traffic cams. Upload a static image once every 10 to 15 minutes depending on your available bandwidth. Or even limit new image uploads from 8 am to 8 pm as an example.

Let customers access all of the pets via a web URL without the need to install additional software. One could also password protect the site or specific parts if necessary.

 

[TonyR]

A few years ago I ran across an animal boarding and daycare in southern California that had all their cams connected to a Blue Iris server (VMS software on a PC).
Clients could log in and view the various areas and see their pets.

You can create a username and password, restrict their privileges, set the hours of access, set a time and/or bandwidth limit and of course, prohibit them from viewing clips if you so desire and limit them to viewing only live cams. You can limit their viewing to specific cameras and/or camera groups.

I'm not sure how many users you can create but you can re-assign a username to another person but change that user's password and therefore dis-allowing the previous client.

 

[COcatman]

A few years ago I ran across an animal boarding and daycare in southern California that had all their cams connected to a Blue Iris server (VMS software on a PC).
Clients could log in an view the various areas and see their pets.

You can create a username and password, restrict their privileges, set the hours of access, set a time and/or bandwidth limit and of course, prohibit them from viewing clips if you so desire and limit them to viewing only live cams. You can limit their viewing to specific cameras and/or camera groups.

I'm not sure how many users you can create but you can re-assign a username to another person but change that user's password and therefore dis-allowing the previous client.

Thanks. I didn't know Blue Iris had that kind of functionality. I'm going to research it!