I’m researching my options and about to pull the trigger on something like a Reolink or Eufy system with a NVR for local storage. I want the privacy of local storage, BUT, I want to be able access video and receive notifications remotely. One idea is to restrict outside connections to the cameras and NVR and get a router with a VPN so that when we’re away from our house, we can access it from our phones which would also be on the VPN.
The problem I can see arising is running a VPN on our phones while connected to our home network, which is also running that same VPN. Having to sign in and out of the VPN when coming and going would be an inconvenient non-starter.
Would a double VPN running on our phones be an issue? Is there a better solution I’m missing here?
I’m running an InvizBox and some times run into issues running a double VPN.
Does your current router have any VPN support? I would just test it first, typically double VPN works fine but if you’re running two VPN’s locally on the device you will ruin into problems, in my own experience with openvpn it just won’t work, or you’ll have insane packet drop before the gateway. My personal move would be something like home assistance for the cameras devices and configure push notifications over something like discord. That way I am not punching holes into my firewall for cameras that aren’t segmented properly. You could also use Tail Scale for an overlay networking solution.
Edit: I misread, thought you had a router configured with VPN at first.
Thanks for the input! I’m thinking another option might be to put the cameras and NVR on their own VLAN and only allow connections to the Apple push server.