Support / The cameras play at the site and show nothing from home
Watching from outside the building
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By design
ViewTile talks to your cameras directly, over the network they are on. There is no ViewTile server in the middle that could carry the picture to you elsewhere — that is what keeps the cameras yours, and it is also why the app shows nothing from the other side of town. This is not a fault to fix; it is the trade.
What does not help
Opening the cameras to the internet on the router (“port forwarding”) makes them reachable from anywhere, including by people who scan the internet for exactly that. Camera makers’ own clouds do it more safely, but through their servers, under their terms. ViewTile does neither and does not recommend the first.
The one way that keeps the promise
A VPN into the building’s router makes your phone part of that network wherever it is. Many routers offer one built in — the setting is usually called VPN server, WireGuard or OpenVPN — and the phone connects with the router’s own app or the system’s VPN settings. Once connected, ViewTile reaches the cameras the way it does on site, with nothing opened to the internet but the VPN itself.
Two things to know:
- The scan does not work across a VPN, because it only listens on the network the phone is directly on. Add the cameras by their IP address instead; once added, they play.
- We have not measured ViewTile over a VPN ourselves. It should behave like a weak Wi-Fi: expect the wall to use the smaller stream, and a longer Video delay to help. If you try it, write and tell us what you saw.