SV3C camera calls china!

[smp]

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I decided to log the SV3C camera's network traffic, and to my horror I saw it calling home:

DST=47.94.5.121

FG7HtPxrJo00bs3g.png (157.84 KiB) Viewed 1749 times

POE cameras seem to be much better than managing analog equipment, at least for me.
I cannot afford commercial equipment, so I'm stuck with the china stuff.

My proposed solution:

• Use dedicated Ubuntu box running Zoneminder

• Attach POE switch to its NIC

• Use old nvidia board attached to 65" tv via HDMI for local display thru local web-browser

• No connection to the internet

Question:
Eventually I would like to be able to view cameras on other local devices, phone, etc. Could I safely place a second NIC in the box and use existing Ubuntu/linux SW to firewall off this 2nd NIC so that it CAN NOT be accessed by anything on the 1st NIC, ie. the cameras?

[ILikeCelery67]

You can block outgoing web traffic from your cams through the router firewall. This makes it so that your IP Cam cannot initiate communication with a remote IP, it will only respond to incoming traffic, which should only be the apps you are using to connect to the cams remotely. I had the same issue with a couple of my cameras. They don't "call home" anymore

[smp]

You can block outgoing web traffic from your cams through the router firewall. This makes it so that your IP Cam cannot initiate communication with a remote IP, it will only respond to incoming traffic, which should only be the apps you are using to connect to the cams remotely. I had the same issue with a couple of my cameras. They don't "call home" anymore

I did that first thing. Problem is that both IP addresses and MAC addresses can be spoofed. I'm going for total isolation!

[VARN]

Question:
Eventually I would like to be able to view cameras on other local devices, phone, etc. Could I safely place a second NIC in the box and use existing Ubuntu/linux SW to firewall off this 2nd NIC so that it CAN NOT be accessed by anything on the 1st NIC, ie. the cameras?

This is pretty much how I have mine setup, my motherboard has a second NIC built in. I changed one of them to a different network, then changed the switch and cameras to match. I didn't bother configuring a firewall since if the camera did attempt to call home I doubt Ubuntu would bridge the networks on it's own. I've never actually monitored the traffic for the Amcrest cameras though.