Dahua, Hikvision alternatives

[lacibaci]

Are there any reliable alternatives for above brands? Seems like the US government is at it again and may ban them (like Huawei)
Trying to plan ahead as my hiks are approaching 6 years...

 

[kamkar]

So they will ban them all together ?
I know they are a big no - no on government buildings and institutions.

Its also been in the news here lately, example used my birth town of Aarhus where they ( the municipality ) have a couple of 1000 cameras up, and a few 100 or those are hikvision cameras.
I would assume the Americans would still retain their freedom potentially choose who they expose them self too, i will gladly admit that i would never aim a camera at the inside of my apartment / house, no matter the brand.
They would at least have to be on a separate none internet connected network for me to even consider such a thing.

I do think if you was knowledgeable in networking things, it would not take a master degree in detecting if a camera send video or for that matter just pictures to a suspect IP address ?

 

[lacibaci]

I like my hiks, I would buy another set in a heart beat. It is very difficult to find another manufacturer (unless money is no problem) that provides the same quality, reliability and software flexibility. I am not worried about spying, it's easy to isolate the cameras to my internal network.

 

[kamkar]

My friends hik PTZ camera, it barely leave color mode this time of the year, my dahua PTZ do that for a much longer period every night.
Of course he live out in the sticks with his camera aimed at a field, i live in a apartment block in a down with my camera aimed down into a back yard.

 

[Mozzie]

I think they are worried about China spying and having CCTV access. These days most have chips made in China and they may have allowed backdoor access to themselves. Most brands may have risks.

 

[SawMaster]

The solution is and always has been that if you don't want a chance that someone else will access something, then you do not have any connection to the places where you don't want the info to go. The ONLY secure systems are those which are not connected to anything else and do not broadcast anything wirelessly. Even then you have to continuously guard the perimeter against physical invasion. It is lunacy to expect true security otherwise, for whatever defenses yo can imagine and implerment, someone else can discover and find a way to circumvent.

Almost everything (and perhaps more) made or ran in the US has backdoor access to the US government in it so even without anything Chinese being directly involved all they need to do is sneak in those doors or monitor when the US does that. As the Hell's Angels say "Two can keep a secret if one is dead", and there is truth in that

Phil

 

[kamkar]

Yeah this backdoor stuff do not worry me right now in the current political / geopolitical environment, but if missiles start to fly then i would personally cut any and all fiber optic cables that go any country involved, possible take my country off the grid so to say to not get caught in the digital crossfire.

Not least since i feel my country is pretty inept and gullible when it come to just about anything digital, so this actually worry me a lot more than it should.

Even if i personally made my CCTV cameras i would not aim them at any place where i am regularly, so i would not mind a camera aimed at my garden, where you could then see me mow the lawn now and then or other stuff like that.
But aim a camera at the inside of my house, that is only going to happen on a system that is not able to be accessed from the internet, and mind you i would prefer if my house was a big Faraday cage where WiFi signals could not get in or out.
So i would have no cellphone coverage in my house,,,, at least not my dream house i would design myself, but i am not putting tin foil on all walls and sealing + floors of my apartment,,,, i am not that paranoid.

 

[pearlpower]

Many cameras do share your credentials offshore. They hide this under the context of security, or cloud access. I recently returned a Loryta camera due to fact it did not come with a default password. I had to create an account, send them the QR code (which never worked), and they would send me a password. I suppose I could change that password after, but because my cameras (22) are on a separate subnet, the camera could not allow me to change the IP address unless I sent the QR code, of which I could not unless I changed my router’s ip. But, I run Hikvision 8mp cameras, Reolink 5mp and 8mp cameras. For a few remote areas (pool, back fence, track car area) I have 4 SV3C 5mp wireless cameras which do not skip a beat. I recently purchased an Annke 8mp (4k) camera and testing it. I can flash a Hikvision firmware on it to provide more abilities which I may later today.