Five years ago my wife and I purchased our first mydlink camera and were thrilled to use it as a remote security camera and also as a baby monitor. We bought several, and started checking in on our house remotely, and also watching our kids with them in their cribs, etc. We loved them. I'm also a computer vision researcher and software developer, I started loving the fact I could interact with the cameras over RTSP, etc.
Fast forward to today, and I bought a DCS-8600LH-US. Perhaps I didn't read the advertisements very well, but what I discovered is I basically bought a paperweight when compared to the cameras of the past. I seem unable to connect to it away from home to see a live stream. Watching the network traffic, it seems that it's trying to access the camera's home IP? Does that mean I no longer can use this camera via the app when I'm away? Also -- I have no access to it via the web, or via RTSP, which is extremely disappointing.
I noticed they are trafficking everything over port 443, and so I imagine it wouldn't take much for me to hack the camera and get at what I needed (I've done this before with other devices via man in the middle attack), but I'd rather get what I paid for as opposed to salvaging this unit. Before returning it, am I missing something, or is this camera really this feature-deficient? And if so, where does it say anywhere other than in forums that these features have been removed from the camera?
Likewise, is this the direction D-Link is heading? Is there a camera out there I can use outside that will work for what I need? I want something my wife can access via the mydlink app, remotely, and can be outside, and I can access over the web/RTSP. I feel with this new, weird little app they're using and all they're possibly moving towards a much more locked down solution?
Perhaps I'm missing something. Please educate me.