Linksys (WVC54G) INTERNET IP WEBCAM WIRELESS
1 Network Nightmare
The camera is plagued by frequent lock-ups. It is unable to renew IP addresses when in DHCP mode and does not acknowlege static IP address changes. I had to reset the camera 3 times to default. After reset it is accessible by the .115 address. I was able to get the device working on a couple of occasions, including port forwarding features through a linux firewall. However, if you do get this camera up and running, I don't recommend shutting it off. Technical support was very helpful in telling me how to open the box.
2 Unable to connect wirelessly
I was unable to connect the wireless camera to my wireless network. I was on the phone with tech. support for almost an hour and tried many things but it wouldn't connect. It did connect through a wire but that's not what I bought it for.
I also found the setup process difficult and would not have been able to complete it without tech support. I had hoped it would be as easy to connect as connecting a laptop to a wireless network. But that was not the case.
3 Good Hardware, Terrible Software
Was able to install and get the camera up and running on my wireless network, without any WEP (encryption)
It took a call to tech support, and about 40 minutes to get it connected WITH encryption.
The Viewer Utility that comes with the camera works fine when you're in network (LAN), forget about using WAN.
Even though the literature boasts the connectivity and features over the internet- the software doesn't work!
After spending about 2 hours on the phone with various tech support- most of it on hold- the tech comes back and says "this software doesn't work over the internet"
to which i reply "that's not what your bragging rights on the box says... there's a tab within the program for LAN, and a tab for INTERNET.. why does it ask me for the IP address and PORT if it doesn't support AN INTERNET CONNECTION?"
...dead silence...
to which the heavily accented tech support gentleman responds "well, thats what they're telling me"
thanks for wasting my time.
At any rate, that's not to say you can't connect to the camera over the internet- you can- you simply can't use the included viewer utility over the internet. (taking snapshots, video, scheduling pixs and vid)
pros:
great picture quality
high frame rate capability
audio
adjustable arm and stand
cons:
viewer/recorder utility doesn't work over internet
expensive
4 now it always works
I left my baby at home with nanny. Amount thousands $ we spent on electronics, nothing worth more than this web cam, simply because it let me see my child while I am working. I wanted something that i don't need to turn on my PC all the time. The wireless feature and microphone is definitely a must. I am happy with the video image quality eventhough it's not impressive at all. All I need is knowing what's happening around my baby. Although the problem I have is some time I can connect to this camera at work, some time I simply can't. I say I usally get 10% of success rate. It's truely frastrating when I need to connect but can't. I guess it might have something to do with firewall of my company. Does anyone know how to fix this problem? Called linksys help. They seams know nothing more than a regular customer does and they can't tell more than what menu says already.
Another problem is the microphone stops working after two weeks. I had to replace it with another unit with my own shipping expense. I just want to have this product working because I can't find another product had the same feature (wireless and microphone).
update:
After talking with linksys a few times, and asking technical advice from my friend. The problems I had might been two: I use a router to get access to DSL. This router was set up a while ago, and apparently it'll only stay idle for 30minutes. So I need to set it to be "always active". 2nd issue might been this cam needs to use channel 1024. After these two things were done, I can connect to the web cam without any more failures. Hope this help in case you had the similar issue I had.
5 Good, but not good enough for surveillance
Let me begin by offering my overall experience with this camera. I had no difficulty at all setting it up for either wired or wireless operation. The included software worked flawlessly allowing me to record sessions.
For my purposes, my intention was to supplement a surveillance system I currently have in operation using two high resolution Toshiba network cameras. I was hoping to be able to get half-decent quality from a camera costing 1/3 of the cost of the Toshibas. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for.
In general 640x480 does not provide sufficient resolution for surveillance as you cannot make out features in any detail. For example, you may be able to see someone entering your home, but you'll never be able to identify that person, especially with this Linksys. Overall clarity was so poor that I still can't really determine whether or not this is a color camera (and if it's B&W, I guess that's why). Also, this camera is fairly useless in low light situations. For example, if you had only a single 40W lamp on in a room, this camera displays mostly noise (white static).
Finally, this camera is not supported by the surveillance software that I use. The camera does ship with software, however, for surveillance use I need the software to not simply fill up the harddrive, but to make room by deleting old files and continuing to record. The included software does not include any such functionality.
All in all, for the price, it does what it advertises. However, I've found no camera in this price range to be able to work as a true surveillance camera.
6 All the wrong technology and bad networking
This webcam ONLY works on PCs with IE. Remote viewers must download and install an active X plugin. When it emails you video, the format is .asf. Heard of that? It's so old school, you have to tell Windows Media Player that it knows how to play it. The quality of the emailed video is terrible. If you set it to record 5 seconds and you get about 1 second at 2 frames per second.
And then it gets bad. I gave the camera my networks SSID. Then I moved the camera to the back of the appartment and it jumped onto my neighboors network. That renders the camera completely useless.
7 Learning Your Mother Falls - Priceless
Update: 28 March 2005: Comparing two web cameras. I originally bought the Linksys WVC54G and now have the Hawkings NC320W. Both are very good for senior monitoring purposes. I now prefer web cameras which use Java applets (NC320W) instead of ActiveX (WVC54G). There are situations and browsers that simply can't use ActiveX and thus can't display images. The quality of both web cams is suitable for senior monitoring. Expect image quality to fall off in low light. The WVC54G has a wider field of view. This can be important in situations where you'll have to buy two NC320W to see everything whereas only one WVC54G is needed. I am now using three NC320W and viewing using Firefox browser. Warning: setting up a router to handle multiple web cameras needs a near router expert. The NC320W may soon become obsoleted by the newer and cheaper HNC230G (not released as of this date). I recommend setting up the cameras using static IP addresses so power outages won't cause new addresses to be reassigned.
True Story. Everyday I check on mom to make sure she's ok. While on vacation in Australia, I tuned in at the very moment she fell off the couch in Chicago. Using Skype, I called the senior home to have someone help her get up. Although she could have slid over to the phone and called for assistance, the important thing is that I learned she falls and can't get up by herself, and she hasn't been telling us. The WVC54G works well for this application. I can even see which DVD she's watching. I had to open port 1024 to get it working so it's not plug and play. Once running, it has never gone down, very important. My only complaint is that the auto white balance isn't true. Colors and lighting are somewhat off.
8 Not Impressed with the new version.
I've had the older version (11B) for over a year and have never had a problem. I bought the new one (54G) a month ago and have been unable to connect via the Internet. I've emailed Linksys support multiple times and they don't even respond. And just this week the built in mic stopped working. All I hear is static. I love the linksys wireless products and have spent a lot of money with them. I can only hope this is just a fluke and that Linksys will pony up to not only replacing mine, but fixing this problem for everyone.
9 Great and simple
I have found this camera to be easy to use, setup, etc. The quality of the picture is not superb, but it is an internet cam-- you can only expect so much. Works extremely well for security purposes.
10 No stars really
Camera cannot color balance, Linksys support blows, three hours on the phone with them they are clueless on how to really make the sololink DDNS srvice work, this item is a Bad choice for web cams, it also does not support regular codecs for usage on web cam fourms, systems etc.. its mainly point to point and only allows 4 users at a time to view.. I DO NOT RECOMEND THIS ITEM AND ITS BEING RETURNED TO AMAZON
11 Best Video Game in Town for your money!
Unlike the other reviewers comments, I have a positive experience with this camera. Linksys did their homework on this one. The 54g is ahead of the pack with it's technology and the price is affordable. I have been able to compare the two leading suppliers and for sure Linksys takes the cake. With their SoloLink partnership, this is a turn key operation and makes it easy for the user to view anywhere without the security hastles that one may encounter behind a firewall. Other suppliers display the video via an Applet that is looking for a video port to transfer the video information and this may be a security issue with some administrators. With Linksys, you do not have to worry about that since SoloLink will display the video stream at their secure site. This camera was easy to set up, of course I have a Linksys router too, but it was not complicated at all when compared to the competition.
12 Qucik and easy.
From the time I got my camera home and out of the box till I had it up and running was about an hour. This included the SoloLink DDNS service that came with the camera. The image is better than I expected for a wireless camera and the range is also far better than I had thought it would be.
13 Couldn't connect to the camera from outside my local network
I already have the previous version of this camera (model WVC11B) up and running on my network and like it a great deal. This model refused to allow me to connect unless I was on my network. From outside using my WAN address and port assigned to the camera the camera rejected the connection. I know I had everything set up correctly because I was replacing the WVC11B and knew what I was doing. I contacted LinkSys and they told me to return the unit. I have read that this issue has happened to others so I suspect there is a bug in the Firmware. There is a new firmware version available now (version 2.07) however LinkSys Support can't tell me what issues were resolved with this version and the release notes are too low level to be able to tell if my problem was resolved. Since I already returned the device I couldn't just install the new firmware and find out.
14 Major problems with the unit
I have had nothing but problems with this wireless camera. I purchased the unit from Amazon (great service and delivery within 1 day) and tried to set it up to connect to my Linksys Router (WRT54G) and have never been able to have it work through the wireless connection. The wireless camera connection to the router never was able to communicate, I spent over 4 hours with the Linksys technical support and went through 3 levels of support before they requested I return the unit to Amazon and get a replacement. I returned the unit to Amazon (once again, excellent service, an apology for the problem and a prompt replacement) and tried to set up the second unit. Once again the same problem on the connection through the wireless portion--after spending another 4 hours with Linksys (very helpful and good tech support center), they asked me to once again send back the unit--they were going to test with a similar setup to my system and figure out the problem. They were not sure if the units sent to Amazon might all be defective, certainly the two I recieved from Amazon have had problems. Amazon informed me they could not replace the unit once again --" As it seems that the problem with this item is more widespread than we originally thought, we are not able to send another replacement.
We will investigate and remedy the situation with the item" (Amazon Customer Service)
I am waiting Linksys to contact me once again and provide a solution as I really want this wireless camera.
Pramesh
15 It actually works and that's a surprise
With a long history of many failed attempts at IP wireless cams, Linksys creates what others could not; one that works.
Configuration with WEP was pretty easy. It's a little temperamental with distance compared to the tolerances of other G devices, but it works. It does not react well to low light levels and tries to compensate via its own gain. If you are using this in a home without AMPLE light, expect a grainy picture.
Frame rate is about 20FPS and is annoying. The security feature works. It senses movement and mails a captured video file. With only 4 seconds at the medium setting, the video images were over 500Kb. This is not for a dial-up AOL user.
There is a remote viewing option that lets you use their web servers to hit your cam from anywhere. Of course expect to pay about $40 for two years access.
