CALLING all Ring Doorbell owners: there are three hacks you need to know.
If you’re forked out for the home security camera, you might as well make good use of it.
Ensuring that crooks can’t get hold of your credentials is important for your and your family’s privacy.
That’s because your Ring device stores sensitive information about you that you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands.
Turn on 2FA
One way to shield your Ring device from attackers is to add an additional step to the login process.
This ensures that, even if your email address and password are exposed, cyber crooks cannot access your account.
One way to do this is to enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on your Ring account.
Once activated, you’ll have to go through a second authentication step after plugging in your password when you sign in.
This extra step involves Ring sending a verification code to your smartphone that you then enter on the login page.
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Anyone logging in to the account will need both the registered password and the code to access your Ring data.
To activate, open the Ring app and tap the three-line menu in the top-left corner.
Hit Account and tap Two-factor Authentication. Now tap Turn on Two-Factor, enter your password and hit Continue.
Enter your phone number and tap Continue. Enter the numbers sent to your phone and hit Verify.
Battery saving tip
If your Ring doorbell isn’t hardwired, it can burn through its battery pretty quickly with constant use.
The gadget’s pretty useless without any power so employing a battery-saving trick or two could save your blushes.
Turning on Motion Detection, for instance, is one way to ensure the device isn’t constantly running.
When activated, your doorbell only records video and audio when it senses movement within a certain range.
It can make your battery last much longer as clips are only recorded when there’s some action near your door.
This spares your battery life and has the added benefit of saving your cloud storage space.
- Open the Ring application, and select your Ring device.
- Tap Motion Settings.
- Tap Motion Zones.
- Move the slider on the Motion Zones screen to the spot named “MIN” and then make sure all zones are turned off on the next screen.
Add shared users
If multiple people live in your home, you may want each of them to have access to your Ring account.
This allows them to view alerts, and cameras and share videos, access to which can be granted or revoked by the owner.
Rather than share your login info with multiple people – which could jeopardise your account if the wrong person gets hold of your password – try adding them as shared or guest users.
This gives them access to the account while keeping your credentials secure.
It also prevents housemates from changing system settings or account information.
- Open the Device Settings page in the Ring App for one of your Ring devices.
- Tap Shared Users.
- Tap Add User.
- Enter the email address of the person you want to add as a Shared User.
- Select the devices you want to share with this person.
- Tap Send Invite.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk