Smart Home device data usage

 
Home security cameras can be data hogs.  My advice is to stay away from those that demand to use the Internet just to work.  If you must connect to a server somewhere to enable your camera, your data limit will be reached quickly. I have many cameras here and they are all accessible to me over the Internet but with one vital difference from the one's that demand to stream through a 3rd party server like Amazon Cloud services or similar, even if you are at home.  Mine work, Internet or not, and do not stream over the Internet until I access them and log-in to see what they're looking at.  They give me alerts via a Push notification if motion is detected, then I look at the camera sending me the notice.  I am fortunate to have above-excellent service from ViaSat enabling me to stream at 1080P, 12 Fps, but only one camera at a time, (grid view drops frames like crazy).  Watching just one camera when I'm in town totally taps-out my upload capability (5Mbps). My cameras? Reolink.
Your camera should only use Internet data when you want it to.
I don't sell them (Reolink) and have no affiliation with them, I just recommend them.

Deku has the URL to one of them so she will be able to see a special little something whenever she wants.  Maybe she'll chime in on how the picture quality is. I have no idea how good or bad it is for her.  It's hard to contact her through the YouTube comments at her gaming videos.

I have been meaning to try this and just haven't remembered when I had the time.

I just now ran a cable from VS2 modem to the POE for my driveway reolink camera.
(usually connected to my cable connection)

Opened the app on my phone and it is working fine.
Although it is displaying a snivel at bottom asking me to lower the camera's resolution setting.

At highest setting (where it is now) it shows it is uses about 5-6 meg upload on cable.
On VS it is using .5 -.7 meg and whining about it

The camera has excellent picture quality 2560x1440

I have a few connected devices but, I've got them on a router that doesn't have internet access. I can access them with my phone and, the ones that need to can talk to each other but, those things don't need to be online. I am getting an IoT refrigerator soon and, that one will be online because my husband has a bad habit of asking me if we have something AFTER we get to the bigger stores, 45 miles from home and, I'm horrible at remembering how much of what is in the refrigerator without going and looking. LOL

I also need a pantry camera and, a camera in each freezer to totally solve that problem. xD

Maybe those engineers over there could build me a Viasat Freezer that's connected and will hold .25 acre of produce, 12 whole deer (average 70 lbs meat per deer) 4 whole hogs (100 lbs meat each) 52 chickens, 20 rabbits, 300 TV dinners (I make them at home but that's the size.) about 200 pan sized fish and, 12 gallons of frozen soup stock. (Kidding guys but, I'd love it if such a freezer existed. XD )