this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2025
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Partly because of your help, I now have a pretty decent HA set-up with lights and motion sensors. I was wondering if I could again pick your brain/ experience with the next step I need to take: add a camera.

A few days ago I bought a TAPO camera, and to my disappointment it was practically impossible to get it working without an app + account. Luckily I could return it.

I now want to avoid making the same mistake ๐Ÿ˜ฌ And I would love to hear how you approached this.

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[โ€“] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

What model did you buy/return?

I'm using multiple Tapo cameras and although I had to set up an account initially for configuration, that account is only used when I want to actually change camera configuration. Unless I need to do that the cameras are completely blocked from the Internet.

They work fairly well with RSTP on Frigate & Home Assistant although they do lock up once in a while, but they were only $15. If I remember correctly not all TP-Link's cameras support RSTP and the company is terrible at documentation, so making sure you buy a camera that supports the protocol isn't all that easy.

I also have Foscam and Dahua cameras and they have been bulletproof.