I have a question about using the app on your local network. When viewing the live feed on your local network, does the stream stay only on the local network, or does it go out to a server and then back to the device you are viewing it on? I have Comcast (yeah, I know,but it is all that is available where I live), and have a data cap on my account. I would like this information so that I can make a better decision about buying more WyzeCam 3 devices. Thanks!
So long as your phone and the Wyze camera are on the same local WiFi network, no video stream data should cross the Internet. Disable your phone’s 3G/4G mobile data to be sure.
By the way, even when that’s not the case and it thinks it has to use the Internet, there is no video stream hitting a server - there are P2P setup servers but the video itself travels out the Internet and directly back to the viewing machine (your phone on whatever network it’s sitting on). Meaning that yes it then occupies your ISP bandwidth caps but the video is relatively safe.
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Welcome to the WYZE forum and Happy New Year.
You should be able to test this yourself by simply unplugging or disconnecting the COAX cable from your cable modem. Leave everything else in place as is. I would truly be shocked if you can live stream your cams without internet connectivity.
My environment:
I use Comcast business class and love their service. No data caps and if anything goes wrong they are here the same day more times than not.
I have my personally owned DOCsys 3.0 cable modem plugged into a SonicWall firewall, which is plugged into a CISCO PoE switch. My WiFi (v6) access point is then plugged into the PoE switch. All of my cameras are setup to talk to one of the SSIDs on my WiFi access point. The SSID for my WYZE cams are setup to get their IP address from the SonicWall firewall.
With my android phone connected to a different SSID on my access point (which also gets IP address from the SonicWall), as soon as I unplug the power to my cable modem I am not able to live stream any of my WYZE cams or connect to them whatsoever.
Full disclosure:
This could be due to the fact that my phone is on a different SSID than my cameras. This could also be due to the fact that I have communication from one SSID to another blocked. I also have the SSIDs in question setup such that devices on the same SSID cannot talk to each other.
Yes, that’s why I said “same local WiFi network”.
Your setup is slightly unusual and I believe @NoNoBadDog will not have the same issue.
It’s simple networking. Your two SSIDs likely have different subnets and therefore different default gateways.
Yup, completely different subnets. Yes, my setup is very unique and super secure. Like I first mentioned in my post, the OP can test things in their environment by simply unplugging the COAX from the cable modem.
