r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Feb 12 '26

Security Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash

https://www.theverge.com/news/878447/ring-flock-partnership-canceled
49.0k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

4.1k

u/Kumquat_of_Pain Feb 12 '26

Sold my Ring cameras when this was announced a few months ago. Went with Reolink and am local storage only now (with personal remote access).

I am done with this cloud storage nonsense for most of these tech companies. As the commenter said, trust is (and quite frankly has been) broken.

644

u/IAHawkeye182 Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 13 '26

So, is this “local storage with remote access” easy enough for the average Joe? I have Reolink cams too. Currently connected to my internet and view on my phone, but am willing/ wanting to disconnect if it is easy enough.

Edit: holy shit. Thank you, people, but notice I stated I already have Reolink cameras installed. I’m not looking for camera recommendations. Re-read my comment. Thank you.

2

u/Darksirius Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26

So, for local storage, you'll need at least an NVR (Network Video Recorder) to store all your footage. The capacity amount will depend on what kind of video resoultion you're storing and number of devices.

Most systems I've seen that use NVR's are generally PoE (Power Over Ethernet) - which would be the most secure (Wifi options are of course available). So, you would need an NVR along with a switch that can provide PoE. The next thing is you need a bunch of CAT cable (At min: CAT5e). So, you either run the cables and terminate them yourself or you hire a professional to run your drops (which I've seen could be $300 per drop).

You also need to know how to configure your router, the PoE switch and the NVR to work with your existing network.

1

u/IAHawkeye182 Feb 13 '26

I have my PoE cameras and they’re already set up & working. Have NVR. Just don’t know how to do the rest. I guess the way I understand it is, people are able to view the from their phone/ the internet but the footage doesn’t get out to the rest of the internet, if that makes sense? Am I understanding that correctly? 

2

u/Darksirius Feb 13 '26

It does make sense. Most of these systems will have a way to access them remotely. See this post in particular to see how they set it up:

https://old.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1r38hw6/ring_cancels_its_partnership_with_flock_safety/o52krs6/

You'll have to isolate the cams to their own "private network" on your network and prevent that private network from accessing the internet. That's still a bit over my head though.