Amcrest AD110 - Can I do better than this?

[beatmag0]

I'm looking for a video door bell with 2 way audio, that I can use with NO Internet.
Can the AD110 be used with no internet, after the initial set up?

I've been trying to figure out whether 2 way audio is possible via OpenVPN locally?
Is it possible to use VPN with iDMSS and access 2 way audio when ad110 has no internet??

I just want a doorbell that I can integrate into Home Assistant for button press, then I want to be able to 2 way audio.... via VPN.
With the device being blocked off the internet.

 

[mrvelous01]

I tried to isolate my AD110 to my home network (blocking it from phoning home to China via firewall rules) and only letting it talk to Blueiris, and I believe it simply would not work otherwise. Since I had other BI controlled cameras in the vicinity I gave up on it and ended up putting it on a separate isolated IOT/wifi network. I probably went through more trouble than necessary but I just couldn't figure out how to get it connected to BI, use wifi, and keep from trying to phone home. I've ran across other products like the Caseta Lutron lighting system that simply quit working if they cannot "phone home". That went on the IOT network, too.

 

[GaryOkie]

I tried to isolate my AD110 to my home network (blocking it from phoning home to China via firewall rules)

I believe one advantage of purchasing the Amcrest doorbell cam vs the Dahua/Lorex it is based on is that the Chinese-developed firmware has been modified by Houston-based Amcrest to use Amazon AWS-hosted servers in the US. Are you able to provide any evidence that there are still connections to China?

I have carefully resolved each and every active TCP/UDP connection as well as all the hardcoded hostnames and IPs configured in the doorbell to check this. I found that all connections for streaming. push notifications and 2-way talk were to US AWS servers. The only exceptions were NTP servers hosted in Brazil and a config reference to a DNSProxy server in China which isn't used.

I do not question the security concerns with any camera/IoT device, regardless if it connects to China or AWS. Blocking them from the Internet whenever possible is certainly wise. But when it is impossible to do so, knowing which devices actually do connect to China and those that do not helps us make a more informed decision about what to buy and how they are connected.