Argus Eco on a tree

[Me-and-my-Cam_246374336004303]

Hello, i searched for my 2 questions but did not find any answer, so i count on this forum now
I need to protect a little garden house in an off-grid scenario, but without using the cellular cam because it is quite expensive and there is a chance of the cam being stolen. I envision 2 scenarios:
a) I install the Argus Eco (with solar panel) and an SD card where the videos are stored. My plan would be to download the videos from time to time, just by connecting my Phone by wifi to the cam. Question, is this possible somehow to create kind of peer-to-peer without a router and internal wifi network? Otherwise i would have to climb and physically access the SD card.
b) Second, i might have a chance to connect to a nearby hotel wifi. However, i will not have access to the router to configure it so that the cam would be externally available by accessing IP and port. But perhaps the cam posts its videos by http to the server of reolink and the app on my phone can get it from there? I have no idea.
Appreciate your help! Best regards, Willi

[Crimp On_62210811129]

a) Yes, you may be able to periodically connect to the camera as follows:
* Before mounting the camera permanently,
* Create a WiFi Hot Spot on your phone.
* Configure the camera to connect to the phone Hot Spot.
* Turn off the Hot Spot and wait a day.
* Leave the camera "waiting".
* Turn the Hot Spot back on and see if the camera connects.
The non-battery Reolink cameras (mine anyway) have an option to set
a "static" IP address. My Argus battery cameras do not.
I honestly have no idea how long a battery camera will wait for WiFi
to return.

b) Oh, yes. Battery cameras create their own hole through the router by connecting to the Reolink "cloud".
The Reolink app and Client software use the camera UID to learn where the camera can be found.
In this case, of course, you can do "live view", get alerts, and look at recordings without
going to the site. MUCH BETTER as long as the hotel allows you do to this. My experience with
hotel networks is they typically force users to grovel (Click "I understand") at least once every 24 hours.
The camera does not know how to do this. (Ha!)

[Me-and-my-Cam_246374336004303]

Thanks a lot @Crimp On!
This gives me enough confidence to buy one and tinker around with it
a) Good point regarding time-out of the cams wifi! I would assume they should try it from time to time at least.
b) This is my favorite option of course. There is a large hotel with different wifis for congresses, cafeteria, lounge etc. and i will ask them the favor against donation or piggybank etc. First as you mentioned, i will check if it connects without the 'click here' humiliation. And yet a tiny challenge, the hotel is located at a distance of 1.5 km, but clear view from the tree, so i will either attach a little reflector behind the dipole or buy a directional Yagi antenna.
Will see and report. So thanks again!

[Me-and-my-Cam_246374336004303]

Me again,
after purchasing the cam, i checked option a) with my iPhone and it does work - more or less.
Setting it up is a bit tricky due to the behavior of the iPhone hotspot.
And the performance is pretty poor, i assume the video data streams completely from the cam via the phones hotspot to Reolink server and back to the phone. If it really was peer to peer, this should work faster.
As a comparison, if both the cam and phone are connected to my home wifi, video is very fast. And my router shows zero traffic to or from the outer internet, so this is an evidence that devices share data directly within my wifi.
I will see if this is workable if the cam is on the tree.