I know that this question may not make any sense at first but I have a friend that live in very rural America and do not have internet. He would love to use the devices to monitor his home and property. My question is, can the Wyze Cam be used and controlled locally without an internet connection.
Thank you in advance for your helpful responses.
Yes and no. Internet is definitely required to set it up. After setup, it will run locally without internet for long periods, but if the connection drops, may require internet to get it re-established.
Can I just connect it to a dumb wireless router and locally access it through the local wireless LAN?
Not for setup. For local streaming, a wifi router would definitely be required, but my comment about needing internet for reconnection still applies.
I just purchased one, based on another discussion on this forum. And quickly learned that this camera demands regular access to the internet. S, I see now that I have misunderstood that thread.
I am puzzled why all the IP camera manufacturers demand this. I am not an expert, but there doesn’t seem to be a technical need to require this. I guess the manufacturer really wants you tied to them. And if they go out of business, or simply decide they don’t want to provide the service anymore for that product, your devices become useless.
Are there ANY security camera systems that can be used with your cell phone as a monitor, that don’t demand regular access to the manufaturer’s servers? Ideally, one that can even be set-up without using their servers. Then, using them on a trailer, or a home without internet access, is viable.
[mrturnerphoto], no you cannot. You must use the internet to both set it up, and to reestablish the link after loosing it for any reason. It will work for a time with a router that is not connected to the internet. But, when there is a power interruption, the camera will reset and must log-back on via. the internet.
don’t think there is a technical reason they demand that this is how it works, but this seems to be the normal way IP Cameras are setup. Perhaps the vendors want to tie you to themselves.
Cadcoke5, I agree with you. I would love to put a couple of these in my vehicles with a micro sd card or in a home without internet. I know a lot of people here who want this but because they are so far away from internet access that it’s not an option for them. Satalite internet is costly and cellular is spotty for them. I even know some businesses where internet is an option and the only use would be for the cameras whereas the cost is outrageous!
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I finally came across a WiFi camera that claims to be able to work without the internet.
UnionCam models Q2, Q3, Q5 or C2. They seem to start at around $36 USD/each on Amazon. It also seems to be able to work without a router, and communicates directly with the phone.
I also found a Youtube video from one person who stated, “Yoosee Wi-FI cameras are able to support AP/standalone mode,” Use Wi-FI security camera without Internet/router, how to use yoosee AP/standalone mode? - YouTube. I found some Yoosee cameras as low as $20. But, I the description didn’t mention that “AP/Standalone” mode.
But, the bottom line is that there are some low-cost WiFi cameras out there, that don’t require using the internet.
-Joe
So here’s a question. At a glance I see they tout RTSP connections. To those that have set up RTSP on a Wyze cam: Does that mean Wyze cams running RTSP don’t require an Internet connection?
NOTE: Moved to a new thread, below
I have no experience with RTSP, so I can’t personally say. It is possible fact that they have RTSP means that the camera complies to a standard that allows the proper hardware/software device to communicate with them, without using the internet. But, it may also mean that the Wyse server converts the camera’s data that it gost over the internet, into a RTSP format, and then forwards that over the internet.
I tried one of the free RTSP viewers for android, and it first wanted me to enter the brand of the camera. The Wyse had no listings.
-Joe
Well, we are probably getting off-topic here, so I will post this as a new thread. 
RTSP does NOT require internet connection, so that is the only way to do LAN only. It makes no sense that the non-RTSP mode requries internet connection, this is one of the reasons i don’t like this camera, it phones home to china and you can’t do nothing about it. Even with a firewall if you enable it then the camera can’t connect to “initiate” the connection.
RTSP is an option, but the problem is that is capped @ 10 fps and the lag is significant, about 5 seconds.
I am about to return these cameras back to Amazon, As i dont see a path with such a poor FPS in LAN only mode. It is a shame that you can’t run the app in LAN only mode with the native app
The cams DO NOT phone home to China. The security hounds would have a fit if they thought anyone could view the stream, so the reason for requiring Internet is to verify authorization to view the live stream. That is the choice Wyze made.
Other cameras may suit you better, as you say. This is an inexpensive camera, however. Most of the others are not.
Sorry the camera didn’t work out for you.
they have constant requests for Google DNS, AWS and other “random” IP addresses. Help me understand why the “authorization” needs to go to the cloud and back? why risk it? just do local LAN authentication if no cloud is available, like you do with RTSP. The day the wyze cam servers which who knows where they are become hacked or are down for some reason everyone will be screwed.
I am really interested to hear on the technical reason on why they need to authenticate on the cloud. Is it data harvesting?
Please read this link, it has actual responses from actual Wyze Team employees:
thanks for pointing that out. i replied there. If you have more information on your “SECURITY REASONS” statement please share as that will help the community earn trust in this product.
Unfortunately, a lot of people are not technical savvy enough and fall for this, when the camera is constantly connected to the internet doing something and giving away their privacy and selling giving away all the data harvested by the wyzecams for $20. When in reality who knows what data is being collected from users.
As you can see in this picture, there was a total of 75MB of data uploaded to a server in AZ when no one was connected to my camera and i had object detection and all features OFF. So why is 75MB of data from my camera uploaded to their servers when no user was watching?
either pictures or live video was uploaded for sure… so this is not authentication only. and that is the data to prove it
Hey, folks. I’m going to see about getting someone from the dev side in here. We aren’t selling data and we’ve limited our server use to North America but some of the specifics here are beyond my knowledge.
Thanks, appreciate the follow up
You’re welcome. 
Newshound said "The cams DO NOT phone home to China. "
But if there are updates to the firmware, that does permit them to make the change in the future to permit such data collection. It may even be possible to target a firmware update to a specific user.
But, of course, all that is probably available to the U.S. government via cell phones, and PCs. In fact the U.S. government was exposed by Snowden, to be tracking call information for every American. It was approve by a judge, but was blatantly unconstitutional. So, I don’t know if it mattes if the company is owned by a Chinese company or not.
It is also typical for most smart appliances to require the use of the internet even when it really isn’t necessary for most usages. This certainly a way to give up one’s privacy, but I think most Americans are OK with this now.
Remember most are OK with having their pictures taken of them naked via airport scanners, or to have their genitals touched while being searched at the airports. All blatant violations of the Constitution, but again, people just don’t care.
