china camera update to china firmware and consequences

[lkaeupl]

Hi guy, new in monitoring here.

yes i know most of you don't like 50$ ali cameras, but try to understand people who live in poor countries

so the question is, china region dahua that is on aliexpress and has hacked english firmware,
why not to upgrade it to orginal china software?

I understand that nowdays dahua and others try to block everything, camera, nvr.

But If I have NVR from like hikvision or any other i should be able to use this china region camere by onvif without problem, like any other popular or not camera, nvr will not know the dif. Do I think wrong?

So why not to get hacked camera, get orginal fresh china firmware and use it on non dahua nvr by onvif?
Will this work? No one need to use Chinese language to make any big settings on camera, just download smartpss and use regional language of this desktop software to set camera right, no need to login by www to camera server.

Thanks

 

[tigerwillow1]

My answer is if you don't know chinese, don't do it. If you don't use the camera's web interface you will not have access to some of settings you may someday want to change. One example is control of the built in IR light. There are a few other items I don't recall. I have found changing the camera settings via smartPSS to be hit-and-miss, i.e. sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. If you decide to go with the hacked firmware I'd advise to just leave it alone.

 

[lkaeupl]

Thanks for reply

I don't know chinese but I can get screens in hacked english or use translator. The true question is is there any good reason to make that move, will is work by onvif with hikvision or other nvr.
Also as we know you can't trust this hacked software, never know where data goes, but even normal international version you never know where data flow, we can always block it from net and use only by nvr.

I try to read reviews on forum and I see that even expensive 4k international version camera has bad night quality even with starlight, every thing depends on environment and settings. 50$ ones is just too good.

I have got couple of original int hik from the same line from orginal big shop, they are cheap like 70$, one looks fantastic, close to starlight, one like 100x poorer that hacked dahua no setting can adjust night grain.

 

[catcamstar]

50$ ones is just too good.

Indeed, if it is too good to be true, it ain't. In the end, if you have to toss away 5 or 6 "cheap" ones because they "suck", you could have invested that money in better quality cams in the first place. Although you can "harden" your network to avoid unwanted data leakage.

My suggestion: make your bill of material (placement of cams, which lenses, PTZ/bullet/dome/intercom - do not forget to read our Cliff Notes in detail!), go to a trusted seller, like for example @EMPIRETECANDY - he is able to make you a very nice price with discount, and depending on your region, provide you tax free shipping which, in the end, saves you also a couple of $$$!

We wouldn't make advertisements for untrustworthy sellers or saleshops on aliexpress, but many, including myself, have already enjoyed a pleasant shopping experience with Andy!

Hope this helps!
CC

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Indeed, if it is too good to be true, it ain't. In the end, if you have to toss away 5 or 6 "cheap" ones because they "suck", you could have invested that money in better quality cams in the first place. Although you can "harden" your network to avoid unwanted data leakage.

My suggestion: make your bill of material (placement of cams, which lenses, PTZ/bullet/dome/intercom - do not forget to read our Cliff Notes in detail!), go to a trusted seller, like for example @EMPIRETECANDY - he is able to make you a very nice price with discount, and depending on your region, provide you tax free shipping which, in the end, saves you also a couple of $$$!

We wouldn't make advertisements for untrustworthy sellers or saleshops on aliexpress, but many, including myself, have already enjoyed a pleasant shopping experience with Andy!

Hope this helps!
CC

Price maybe not the best, but service and support can be best.

 

[lkaeupl]

yes I will in proper time get in touch with Andy and make buy something

as I say i read some posts and reviews from this forum

data leakage - just write fake gate IP/DNS and use any nvr and my installation is mainly self interest

there is no free tax Andy use DHL and DHL almost always take care of taxes

but for a newbie I can tell that day image from almost all cameras are similar, nigh images is the problem

look at this

made by one of forum member - original good cameras - for me that night shots are just awful, similar results i get from orignal 70$ hikvision basic camera without any light


another member - also good cameras - and now the night image is very good

 

[truglo]

Yes good call getting slightly more expensive quality cameras that you know can be manually adjusted to suit each location. The 5231 is popular on these forums because it is a proven workhorse for a broad range of lighting/locations:

Aliexpress.com : Buy IPC HDW5231R ZE 2MP WDR IR Eyeball Network Camera IPC HDW5231R ZE ,free DHL shipping from Reliable network camera suppliers on Empire Technology Co., Ltd

BTW, you mentioned fake ip/dns with regards to data leakage...what exactly do you mean?

I ask because securing ipcams is a bit technical, and entering a bogus dns in your cameras doesn't guarantee security. In fact the only way to know any device is not leaking data is to make it so that data cannot transfer to begin with. Typically this means using a managed switch with more than one subnet, blocking internet access to the cams+dvr via router software, or physically setting the cams+nvr on a separate network with no internet access.

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Yes good call getting slightly more expensive quality cameras that you know can be manually adjusted to suit each location. The 5231 is popular on these forums because it is a proven workhorse for a broad range of lighting/locations:

Aliexpress.com : Buy IPC HDW5231R ZE 2MP WDR IR Eyeball Network Camera IPC HDW5231R ZE ,free DHL shipping from Reliable network camera suppliers on Empire Technology Co., Ltd

BTW, you mentioned fake ip/dns with regards to data leakage...what exactly do you mean?

I ask because securing ipcams is a bit technical, and entering a bogus dns in your cameras doesn't guarantee security. In fact the only way to know any device is not leaking data is to make it so that data cannot transfer to begin with. Typically this means using a managed switch with more than one subnet, blocking internet access to the cams+dvr via router software, or physically setting the cams+nvr on a separate network with no internet access.

Here has many talking about how to protect your system from attacked, can make some research here. Evan Facebook has big problem for the data leakage.

 

[lkaeupl]

BTW, you mentioned fake ip/dns with regards to data leakage...what exactly do you mean?

This is the fastes and simplest way to protect ipcam in my opinion. Yes You are right in next sentences, protection is a process, but for fast solution, just change IP gateway address in camera and now the camera can't push signal to internet, it will only talk to nvr. The best way is to have good router, vpn, switch vlan, but as I say for fast and low cost i thing fake lan address to gateway is good idea, fake dns is just addon.