Solved Help blocking incoming traffic

[ColinTaylor]

It's like it knows there's not internet access and it starts doing this.

That's a fairly common behaviour. I've seen lots of android phones and laptops do this. If the company server is using only one IP address try blocking that in Network Services Filter.

 

[PeterR]

Depending upon the model of camera you are using, you may be able to flash a different firmware. For example https://github.com/openmiko/openmiko supports some cameras marketed by Wyze.

 

[drinkingbird]

My concern is that this company called WYZE are known for dialing home (China). They say they don't do that anymore, but I just don't trust them.

So when I disable internet access, I can view them while inside my network, but every few minutes the screen says disconnected, but then it reconnects right away.. it does it all day every few minutes when internet access is disabled.

As soon as I enable internet access, it stops doing that

I want to make sure no rogue employee from that company is able to access the camera.
Until I can get a different brand, I am trying to circumvent whatever is trying to do when no internet is available.

It's like it knows there's not internet access and it starts doing this.

The Wyze cameras will not work with no internet access. They use a central server (AWS in the US, not China) to stream the video to your phone/app. You cannot stop or block that. There is no direct communications between the cameras an your phone/LAN. All is proxied via their AWS servers. Even rules (like turn on the spotlight at x time) are server-side rules and must have internet to work.

The phoning home to china thing was fixed years ago. Their firmware updates were coming from a server there and when people freaked out they changed it.

You have no choice really, this is how Wyze works, unless you're lucky enough to have a very old one with RTSP functionality then you can set up an NVR on your network. But pretty sure they disabled that with firmware even on the old cameras unless you blocked them from the internet in time.

My Wyze are on a dedicated isolated guest network and I've monitored the connectivity both from my phone and the cameras. All of it has been to AWS US. Mine are not in any place where I'd care if someone saw it anyway.

You also have to keep in mind that:
1. US employees can just as easily access cameras as Chinese ones. Why would you think we're so much more ethical? There have been several cases of AWS employees and employees of companies breaching stuff.
2. Much bigger US based ones like Blink and Ring have had much more severe cases of hacks than Wyze has.

If you want a totally isolated camera system that is not on the internet you need to invest in NVR and standard cameras, then set up the app with good security, possibly even use VPN to access the NVR instead of port forwarding.

Long story short, Wyze cameras do not have ANY incoming traffic. All communications are initiated by the camera outbound to AWS. It keeps this session open so that you can then view streams, control the cameras, etc remotely. Blocking internet will just result in the camera constantly trying to connect to re-establish that connection, that's totally normal and not a sign of spying.

 

[drinkingbird]

That's a fairly common behaviour. I've seen lots of android phones and laptops do this. If the company server is using only one IP address try blocking that in Network Services Filter.

Might as well just unplug the cameras at that point.