Access your local RTSP cameras from anywhere - no port forwarding, no VPN

T

TheRelay

n3wb
Mar 6, 2026
3
0
Oradea
Hey everyone,

We've been working on a tool called TheRelay and wanted to share it here since this community knows the pain better than anyone.
The problem it solves: getting RTSP streams out of your LAN without touching your router, opening ports, or setting up a VPN. The agent runs on a machine inside your network, reads RTSP directly from your cameras, and opens a single outbound encrypted SRT connection to the cloud. Nothing inbound. No firewall rules. No dynamic IP headaches.

How it works in practice:
  1. Install the agent on a Windows, Linux, or macOS machine on the same LAN as your cameras
  2. Paste your local RTSP URL - works with standard formats out of the box:
    • Hikvision: rtsp:/USER@CAMERA_IP:554/Streaming/Channels/101
    • Dahua: rtsp:/USER@CAMERA_IP:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0
    • Axis: rtsp:/USER@CAMERA_IP:554/axis-media/media.amp
    • Any generic RTSP URL
  3. Get a stable cloud endpoint you can use from anywhere
Protocols available on the cloud endpoint: RTSP, WebRTC, SRT, HLS, RTMP - plugs into whatever you're already using.
On security - since I know this community cares about it:
  • Camera credentials (username/password) never leave your LAN. Stored locally by the agent, never transmitted to the cloud
  • Ingest uses SRT with AES encryption from your LAN to the cloud
  • Access controlled via tokens scoped per camera or per host - revoke instantly without touching your camera or router
  • No public RTSP ports exposed anywhere
There's also ONVIF auto-discovery - scans your network, finds compatible cameras, you just select and add without typing URLs manually.
For more advanced setups there's a WireGuard overlay mode that links two networks with a private encrypted tunnel - useful if you're connecting a remote site to a production environment with zero public exposure.

Still in early access, actively building. Happy to answer any questions.

→ TheRelay - Your Cameras. Anywhere. Instantly.
 
Likely a drug dealer business model.

Kananga’s business plan from Live and Let Die, 1973

Give the product away for free until there is a sufficient number of “users”, then start charging “users” who have become addicted to the product.

 
Last edited:
We’re still finalizing official pricing tiers, but to give you a ballpark:
For individual users / small setups we’re targeting something very accessible, think a few dollars per camera per month. For integrators or larger deployments, we’ll have volume pricing that gets significantly cheaper per camera.
Right now we’re in early access and onboarding users for free while we collect feedback. If you want to try it out, happy to set you up - no strings attached.
We’ll publish transparent pricing on the site soon.
 
TheRelay said:
Hey everyone,

We've been working on a tool called TheRelay and wanted to share it here since this community knows the pain better than anyone.
The problem it solves: getting RTSP streams out of your LAN without touching your router, opening ports, or setting up a VPN. The agent runs on a machine inside your network, reads RTSP directly from your cameras, and opens a single outbound encrypted SRT connection to the cloud. Nothing inbound. No firewall rules. No dynamic IP headaches.

How it works in practice:
  1. Install the agent on a Windows, Linux, or macOS machine on the same LAN as your cameras
  2. Paste your local RTSP URL - works with standard formats out of the box:
    • Hikvision: rtsp:/USER@CAMERA_IP:554/Streaming/Channels/101
    • Dahua: rtsp:/USER@CAMERA_IP:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0
    • Axis: rtsp:/USER@CAMERA_IP:554/axis-media/media.amp
    • Any generic RTSP URL
  3. Get a stable cloud endpoint you can use from anywhere
Protocols available on the cloud endpoint: RTSP, WebRTC, SRT, HLS, RTMP - plugs into whatever you're already using.
On security - since I know this community cares about it:
  • Camera credentials (username/password) never leave your LAN. Stored locally by the agent, never transmitted to the cloud
  • Ingest uses SRT with AES encryption from your LAN to the cloud
  • Access controlled via tokens scoped per camera or per host - revoke instantly without touching your camera or router
  • No public RTSP ports exposed anywhere
There's also ONVIF auto-discovery - scans your network, finds compatible cameras, you just select and add without typing URLs manually.
For more advanced setups there's a WireGuard overlay mode that links two networks with a private encrypted tunnel - useful if you're connecting a remote site to a production environment with zero public exposure.

Still in early access, actively building. Happy to answer any questions.

→ TheRelay - Your Cameras. Anywhere. Instantly.
Click to expand...

My questions would be:
1. How is that local credential stored and protected?
2. Where/whose Cloud picks up the stream to serve out to the viewing / recording location or appliance?

This project looks interesting. Happy to follow it.

- CCTVSee Guy
 
Another CCTV Guy said:
My questions would be:
1. How is that local credential stored and protected?
2. Where/whose Cloud picks up the stream to serve out to the viewing / recording location or appliance?

This project looks interesting. Happy to follow it.

- CCTVSee Guy
Click to expand...
Sorry for the wait! The platform is live now. You can create your account and test it with 1 free camera stream. There's also a tutorial to help you set up your first stream.
1. Camera credentials are stored locally on the machine running the agent, they're kept in the agent's local configuration and never leave your network. The agent uses them to connect to your cameras over RTSP on your LAN, but the credentials themselves are never transmitted to our cloud.
2. The stream goes from your agent to our cloud infrastructure via an outbound SRT connection with AES encryption. From there, we serve it out as RTSP, WebRTC, HLS, SRT, or RTMP endpoints accessible only through scoped access tokens that you control. You can revoke access per camera or per host at any time.
 
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