No local live view? Are you joking?!

#1

I’ve spent $1000 on a 4 camera kit. After stuffing around with it for approx 1 hour trying to get the Homebase2 to connect to the internet, I discover that there is no local live view from what I can see. I need to log into Eufy’s website and there I can see a live view - providing I’m happy with about a 10-15+ second delay!

I find it extremely hard to believe that although the homebase is connected to my local network, along with all the cameras, there is no possible way to log in and view those cameras locally. I’m absolutely shocked!

Surely I’m missing something?

Can anyone clarify and shed some light on this for me?

Thank you!

#2

You could publish your question at :
https://communitysecurity.eufylife.com/

#3

@ray44 Have you installed the Eufy app, which provides live view and all administrative features?

3 Likes
#4

Hmm that seems like such an important feature to be overlooked by Eufy… Maybe user error??

1 Like
#5

I have installed the app… which is great if I’m away and just want to check up on things.

But there is no way for me to login to this thing via a web browser (locally eg. 192.168.1.100) and live stream (locally). I must go through Eufy’s website - which poses concerns.

What if all of a sudden Eufy decides to no longer support system? What if all of a sudden Eufy decides that hey, you can use our web based interface, but you have to pay for it now. I refuse to believe that will never happen either, because Tech companies are doing this shifty stuff everyday - the most recent is LastPass.

@ikari04warrior I don’t believe it’s user error. Unless I’m completely overlooking something, there is absolutely no way to log into this thing locally via a web browser. More then happy to stand corrected - in fact, I would love to be corrected! :slight_smile:

#6

Sir, you’ve put the finger on why I never bought Eufy. They do not have a server-less architecture.

They could, easily.

They chose not to, deliberately.

I’ve written in the past some small changes they could make to make it server-less. Search for Eufy outages.

1 Like
#7

Thats correct and by design. The Eufy app is the best method for checking.

I agree but its a gamble most people take when services are based online, AppleTV / Movies, Amazon Prime movies etc

Perhaps @AnkerOfficial can provide some information as to why a non-intranet access method is allowed?

#8

Ha indeed.
So what can we do?
I know!
We all know!

#9

One of the reasons why I’m hesitant to invest in eufy security cam system. As much I like the system and the people I know who use the system and love it, I just can’t do it right now. I want to give it another year before investing in their system.

You mentioned LastPass, we are having that issue as well. Plus you got Google Photos is moving into a paid program and I use it as a free extra backup for my photography work.

I have a couple of cheaper cameras that offered free services such as face detection which limits the amount of false alarms. But a year ago they switched to a premium service. You can still use the free services but you loose person detection and you get a only few seconds of motion recordings stored on their cloud, and you have a 5 minute cool down. But with their service (per camera) the cool down is less, face detection is added, and you get 30 seconds of recordings. We just set our cameras to 24/7 record with SD cards and use the app to view each camera feed live and check the timeline when a review is needed.

We decided that for our needs we just need to invest in a DVR System that offers Desktop support and remote access (if we want it) and use the cheaper cameras to give access to areas of the property that I can’t get my wired/wireless camera system to.

#10

I have two sources of skepticism, commercial and technical.

  • Anything free fails. Without a monthy fee, the costs being offset by the margin on the original product sale will grow, with Cloud its a monthly cost and climbs typically. Eventually a business has to cut the free service, so means the products fail / lose functionaity, or switches to a paid-for service. For this reason I avoid anything free I rely on. A server-less architecture I can fall back to no support free, server-dependent I cannot. Anything with a monthly fee, there is profit to the business to keep going.

  • power. Some of these asks demand more electrical load, which drains battery or overheats a physically small non-fan appliance, so anything not included at time of sale has technical challenges being added.

Not necessarily here in this thread, but in others related to Eufy, there are clearly non-useful venting and non-commercially minded folks. I also suspect from some replies timing they are competitors chiming with alternatives pretending to be consumers.

#11

You can use RTSP for most of the devices to view your feeds and clips locally. Tinycam offers another alternative. So, there are alternatives.

Most people buying a consumer grade security system want remote access as a primary requirement. That’s why Eufy set up their infrastructure the way they have. Your data stays local, but you need to authenticate by hooking up to Eufy’s AWS servers to allow the app and/or their portal to see the decrypted video. Its a reasonable solution that doesn’t require port forwarding and tickering around at the router.

#12

I agree with some of that. Correct if the local appliance opens an outgoing port, then through that outgoing port an external incoming access can occur. However, that then makes it utterly reliant on the server, which when down then makes no service.

They could have written it similar:

  • cache the token local to device so does not have to auth each time
  • cache the WAN IP
  • fallback to LAN IP when on the LAN
1 Like
#13

I’ve done some testing by powering down my modem and leaving the router and homebase up. I found that all my detections got recorded to homebase and sent to the notifications server. I just couldn’t see them until my connection was restored. Once I got connected, all the alerts, clips and notifications came through. So, its not totally messed up.

I do like your approach to caching the tokens and Wan IP. That would make the system a little more fail-safe. Seems to me that 6 months or so ago, when I was first testing my system, I could still use Live View for a time on the Lan after I lost connectivity to the app. I don’t think it does that anymore. I’ll have to put it on my list to test and see if it still does that.