D-Link Wireless Internet Camera, Home Security, 802.11b, 11Mbps
This camera was easy to set up just like the DCS-900's I own. I want to note that you can run this camera via ethernet cable if you want. In fact I do this because the wireless comes and goes for no reason and it is only 20 feet away from the router with no obstruction. The video is choppy like the DCS-900 but the quality is livable for those who can't afford the higher end ip camera's (like Axis who actually deliver 30 fps). Low lighting situations are horrible on this camera and making out faces is not easy to do unless you are in a well lit room.
Tech support by D-Link is present but be prepared to be dealt with "aggressively" if you email them about the frames per second not performing as advertised.
Have realistic expectations and if you can, go for the higher end cameras and be happier with your decision. Btw, I use this camera with SecuritySpy for the Mac.
I picked this unit up about a year and a half ago. I needed to have this unit serviced after 7 months because I could not connect to the unit anymore. Soft Reboot, Hard Reboot did not solve it, DLink was nice enough to send me another unit. Took about 2 weeks turn around. That was about 9 months ago, I have had this camera mounted on top of my house over looking the front yard. In the day time the image is very crisp at 640x480, I only hope one day a 1280x1024 resolution would come out so I can view my entire yard just instead of my front porch. I have a piece of saramic taped on it, so the water will not get absorbed into the unit. It has survived the cold winters and also the rainy season as well. It holds up well outside, you just need to cover the unit.
Nite time viewing is not soo great, it is very grainy but what can you expect w/o a builtin night vision modular. I use webcamxp with this software to broadcast it over the web and also to send me email alerts triggered by the motion senor. I like to check up on my UPS and Post Man every once in a while to see what they are up to. :) I recommend using WeBCamXP with this unit because it has a lot of nice features which the DLink software does not have. The interface can be a lot better, but I just use it for its camera feature and nothing else, so it does not bother me.
I highly recommend this unit if you want to look over your new puppy inside the house or view your property. I currently have two of these units, one for the inside of the house with a Linksys POE connected to it. (Power Over Ethernet), so I can mount it anywhere without trying to struggle to find an OUTLET.
Being tech. stupid, I read all the directions and got it up and running wirelessly in a few min.
Still can't view it outside my network. The only thing I can figure out is that there is a block on my server side to reduce bandwidth but the instructions cover that too. I have yet to try it but in the mean time, I use it to spy on my dogs in the livingroon while I'm working in another room. Good picture, average wireless range. I like it so far.
The device is GREAT. The concept is GREAT. The software is HORRIBLE! The documentation is even WORSE!!!
I hate it when a manufacturer goes through all the trouble to create a magnificent product, but then skimps on the software/drivers/documentation/etc. This is a perfect example. The device is rock-solid -- could not ask for a sturdier product without going to industrial quality (and price). The software looks like it was written to entertain children! The developers focused SO MUCH on creating pretty icons (that are actually ugly), that they completely forgot about usability -- and worse, they forgot to document!!! There are no pop-up tips over any icons, nor is there any sort of Help feature anywhere. There is a PDF owners manual, but it seems like it was written by a 10-year-old. Half of the features are not even mentioned in the document. It's extremely frustrating to know that the functionality is there, but I will have to poke around at the stupid software for days before I discover it! Basically, a developer spent days coding each feature, but could not spend 2 minutes to put a label and description on it. Features that nobody knows about or how to use are USELESS!
If this device had even half-way decent software and documentation, it would get 5 stars -- but the software and documentation is so poor that it gets only 3 stars (maybe even just 2).
As for the hardware, here's my review..
SPEED: This device uses 802.11b, so it is limited to 11 Mbps, which can be too slow for video with moderate/high frame rates. However, for security purposes, 5 frames per second is sufficient (slightly choppy video, but better than most VCR-based security systems). I haven't tried recording at higher frame rates. I imagine that if compression is set to high, fairly high frame rates can be achieved.
IMAGE: This device can record up to 640x480 pixel video. However, the software only supports 320x240. In daylight, video seems relatively crisp, even at high compression. At night, the camera doesn't fare as well. D-Link makes other cameras that have much better night vision than this one. If you're looking for a night-time camera, consider a different model. The camera has a rotary focus dial on the lens, which can be set from close-up (20cm) through infinity.
CHASIS: The camera housing is sturdy and the base is actually made of cast metal (I expected cheap plastic, but was pleasantly surprised). The most-delicate part of the unit is the screw-on antenna. It's not poorly made, but just not as rugged as the rest of the camera. The camera is NOT intended for outdoor use. I have it temporarily mounted on a window sill, pointed towards the front of my house. Eventually, I will actually attach it to the window frame. The base can be screwed into either the top or bottom of the camera, so it can be mounted on a ceiling, wall, bookshelf, or wherever you'd like -- nicely done.
Initial setup (getting it onto the network and seeing video) is somewhat straight forward, but the poor software and documentation become apparent right away. Advanced setup (video surveillance, motion detection, recording, etc.) is EXTREMELY frustrating. I'm searching for 3rd party video surveillance software to use with it because I hate the packaged software so much.
The webcam comes with its own built-in webserver, so it can host its own website (nice feature). The built-in browser-based setup screen (kind of like configuring a LinkSys or D-Link router) does have a Help menu! However, the only thing it has is the following text: "For Help on Web Configuration settings, please refer to the Manual included with your Internet Camera." =-P
Good luck!!!
I really like the setup and picture from this camera. I ended up putting it outside my firewall so I could spy on my daughter from work during her naptime. With the hard-wired internal webserver, it has been remarkably safe from hackers. It seems to do a good job when it is connected to the network by a cable, but it flaked out a lot when I tried to use its Wifi connection.
If your wireless router is a D-link router, I bet that this will be very easy to set up. But, if you own another brand, you may have problems with your IP subnet setup and your DNS address. For example, I have a Linksys WRT54G which is probably the most popular wireless router in the world. The Linksys router by default uses IP addresses of the form 192.168.1.XXX. This causes problems because this camera expects the router to be using addresses like 192.168.0.XXX. The installation manual does not mention this problem at all. I had to call D-Link support to solve this problem.
I actually ended up talking to two D-Link support people and both of them were very knowledgable and pretty polite. The phone call was toll-free; I was on hold for about five minutes before I got through to the support person. They walk you through the solution over the phone step-by-step. They assume that you know absolutely nothing about computers.
After we got it set up, it worked as advertised, and we haven't had any problems (we have had the product for about three weeks).
I have yet to get this product to work with my wireless router and the call to the company's customer support seemed like an imposition on the operator. It is now sitting in a drawer... I should have returned it right away. I am a LONGTIME AMAZON customer and am sorry I made the choice to buy something OTHER THAN BOOKS from them.
I purchased several of these cameras and I am very pleased with their performance. They are easy to setup and sturdy. Shhh! Don't tell D-link, but I did test their durability on ceramic tile.
For the price <$100> you can't beat them. I am amazed by their update times over the web. These cameras will act as independent web servers, if you set up your router correctly. Each camera needs to have its IP and port associated correctly, after that it's cake.
As I mentioned, these cameras do update quite fast. A fact I did not appreciate until I experienced the Toshiba IK-WB01. I only use the highest resolution setting (640x400). At this resolution, you will be able to capture moving cars fairly clearly. Meaning, you can recognize make, model, color and driver hair color.
If you want to capture images a night, the DCS-900w is not for you. You should consider purchasing the DCS-950g. The DCS-900w is good to 2 Lux, making it useless at night.
Bottom-line:
1-Relatively low cost
2-Easy to setup
3-Good updates at high resolution
4-Very stable - occasional power blips confuse it like all my other wireless gear. If power blips are a problem for you, use a UPS or a timer like the guy above.
5-Software IPView light is useful
6-NOT for low light
It took 45 minutes and two different tech support guys to set the camera up to talk with our Linksys router, and then it turned out that if the camera is more than 15 feet from the router, it can't pick up the signal. In afternoon light, and close to the router, the picture is quite good. However, it's useless to us!
I'm running this camera on a mac. The specs for this camera quote it as being mac compatible with reduced functionality. I'm afraid that's a huge understatement. The camera arrived with no mention of how to configure the camera on a mac and no software that works with a mac and it was not intuitive on how to get up and running.
I called up D-link and was obvious that they had no clue. The configuration routine that they tried to get me to run through made no sense until I took charge and told him how to get the camera talking to an Apple network. At that point I got him to guide me through the browser based configuration tool. When we got the camera working I was basically left with a camera that was streaming live footage that I could see on a browser, but had no software that was able to capture live feeds or still images.
The only saving grace was that we already had two hard wired cameras capturing images to our website and that has given us some proficiency in capturing images and getting them to a web page. Unfortuately, even armed with that knowledge would would have been left high and dry if it were not for my wife being able to hack the server on the camera to find the still images that it was streaming. From there we were able to use automator software to capture and upload to our website.
Basically, unless you have a lot of patience and experience in java and webcams I would not touch this camera. We have it up and running, but the support and functionality is pityful. There are better (more expensive) options out there, use them.
I have 5 cameras which I can access from the Web anywhere in the world. These are great for monitoring the cottage when we are away. I used EasyDNS and configured the cameras to work without the computer at the cottage turned on.
Only problem is that occassionally one will stop responding. To avoid this I put them on timers and shut them down during the night and turn them on in the am. This gets around the problem.
I purchased the DCS-900W for a few key functions (1) wireless ability (2) motion detection (3) viewing over the web. I bought it to monitor my home.
Key set-up notes:
For a computer novice it will be confusing as much of the terminology is not straightforward. If you have set-up and played around with other computing devices, then you will have no big problems.
The manual is weak! Go to, and bookmark, the Knowledge base on the D-Link website - most of my questions were answered there. In fact, going there before your purchase may give you some valuable insight.
The physical installation was easy. The mounting bracket and swivel-head make orientating the camera simple.
Setting up the camera using a regular network connecting cable was straightforward.
To set-up wireless functionality ensure that you are able to configure your router. That is, use the router's web administration utility to view and change some of its settings. The `Network Name SSID' required in the camera admin utility requires the name of your router (my router's default name was the brand name). This was not obvious to me. The manual was not at all helpful here. I found my answer in my router manual.
Download and install the latest install program, firmware (software that gets installed on the camera itself, not your PC) and IPView Lite application from the D-Link website. I actually had to use a separate FTP utility as a web browser was unable to download the files - I tried several. Also, the Canadian website only seemed to allow downloads during business hours.
Operation:
The camera seems to run well so far - 2 weeks. The IPView Lite utility is simple and effective to manage the camera.
The IPView Lite software is required to use the Motion Sensing ability, to update the firmware and a few other settings. I have found that even on the lowest setting, the motion detector is too sensitive. I had to place the camera in several places before things like a tree's slightly swaying shadow would not set it off, even on its lowest setting - the wider the view, the more things that will set it off.
If you wish to view your camera outside of your home via the web, you will have to configure your router even more. If you do not have static IP address, you would probably need to get a free dynamic domain address (they are free - I set-up mine at www.dyndns.org). All of this requires a little `detective work' to put it all together.
I found the Amazon feedback section and the D-Link knowledge base very helpful in solving all of my little problems.
Overall:
The camera was what I expected for the money. I did not anticipate the sensitivity issue with the motion sensing ability, but in all other respects it works as advertised. I would make the purchase again.
This is a wireless internet camera, which means that it can send images, without a direct wired connection, live over the internet using a built-in web browser. It's about half the price of the Toshiba IK-WB01A, and that's about right. I own both. The DCS-900W has far better wireless range, which is what you would expect from D-Link. But the visual quality is very poor in anything less than direct sunlight (it requires 2.5 lux!), even in bright light it's not very good or vibrant, there's no remote pan-and-scan, no audio, and the camera CPU seems quite slow. The software is fine though, perhaps better than Toshibas, except that you must load a CD to set it up initially.
So for the money it's fantastic. Since I bought it to aim at the puppy's kennel, it will be fine. We'll be able to see him in there. But you really do get what you pay for.
I like this camera for the price, but it's not perfect. It is very noisy in low light and did crash on me once so far. But I do like the IPLite software. However, I wish you could view the video feed in a resizeable window instead of full screen. I do like the fact that you can get an image using http://camaddress/image.jpg. No super fancy features keep this camera simple and more reliable than some of the "more advanced" (and more unreliable) ones. But I did not use the wireless feature, a feature that could be prone to problems. Mine is hardwired, even though I have the wireless enabled version. I did buy two more of these cameras because I liked them enough, so that says something.
I enjoyed the ease of which this camera can be setup with. Basically I followed the setup guide and everything went smoothly. I also recommend the latest version of IPView from D-Link's website as it has good features.
The quality is fine for what I need it for, but don't take that as in the quality is bad, but do-able. I can see where this camera would be called mid quality since it doesn't have the *best* quality in picture, but it sure does beat most webcams.
I had quite a lot of trouble with this camera at the beginning. The range of the camera seemed ridiculously limited and the camera seemed to fritz out on a regular basis for no apparent reason.
After downloading the firmware update for this camera and installing it, the flakiness disappeared, but the limited range remained a problem. Basically it could not be more than a couple of feet from the wireless access point and still work. After much frustration with this, I finally decided to CAREFULLY open up the camera to see if I could find anything that was obviously wrong with the electronics inside.
I'm glad that I did! I found that the wire from the antenna had become disconnected from the circuit board (or never was connected at the factory). The snap-on connector at the end of the antenna lead is extremely small and weak and the cable from the antenna is fairly rigid, so any amount of jarring of the camera could cause the connector to pop-off of the circuit board.
D-Link should have used something to tie-down the cable to the circuit board to prevent the connector from popping off.
Well, I carefully popped the snap-on connector for the antenna lead back on the circuit board and VERY carefully reassembled the camera.
Voila! The camera now has excellent WiFI range!
The IPView Lite software that comes with the camera and that you can get an upgrade for from the D-Link web site is not reliable on Windows 2000. It crashes all of the time. It seems to be more reliable on Windows XP. I suggested to the developers that they release the IPView Lite to Open Source so that people could work on it to improve its reliability. No response.
Now that I've worked out all of the glitches, I can recommend this camera. Be aware that some after purchase tweaking may be required.
I didn't buy this camera at Amazon. I was a little leery of any sub-$300 wireless cam, so I scored it at a local retail outlet at a 20% premium.
It doesn't have much in the way of features (via web interface): snapshot, Java video Applet, and some ActiveX atrocity that I'm not willing to test.
This camera is fantastic! It's small, easy enough to set up, and performance is fine and dandy. (...)
I'm setting up multiple WebCams for a Web site and like the idea of going wireless...no need to have long cables all over the place! This camera is relatively easy to set up and use and it works with the WebCam software I prefer. What's also nice is that although it doesn't come with Mac compatible software (and no Mac version of the software is available), I had very little trouble setting it up from my Mac. I'm pleased with the camera's image and think it's well worth the price.
No complaints on the functionality; I was able to get it to work after several hours of fooling around. The instructions are not too clear when you have other name brand routers. The camera works great once it is set up properly. But, it cannot be view from anywhere, it has it's limitation. Because of the software design being used, the video stream is viewed via an applet that is started up from where-ever you are viewing. If the computer you are using is behind a firewall and because of security reasons most ports are closed except http 8080, you are out of luck. First of all, I doubt if the administrator of the firewall will open the port you need to see the video stream since that would open other security issues for the administrator. Second, since the video is seen via a local Java applet that is initialized and it begins to look for the open port, this is not a welcomed design in most organizations with firewall administration. They may think you are trying to hack their firewall from within. Anyhow, they should have used an http video stream protocol that can be viewed via a window media player or some other popular media player so that a specific video transfer port is not necessary. The only way around this issue is to have the video stream displayed via that same applet on your personal website that you may have secure access to. Then you can go to your website and view the video there from where-ever you are. Bummer!
for the price, this is a great tool. if u need night time viewing, add a motion detector.
i found a 4x4x6 waterproof plastic box at Home Depot, begged them for a 3x3 glass scrap, and mounted this outside w/motion detector light (see above). we'll see how it handles Florida sun next summer.
bingo! i now have 5 of these running very nicely.
please note that i use free linux software instead of PC monitoring app (IP-View) that comes with it, but friends seem to have good luck w/that app. the linux app ('motion') allows me to mix USB, video, and network cams in one survelliance app.
newest firmware for cam (2.28) hasn't crashed since i booted it over a week ago fyi.
I bought 3 of these for my cafe and they seem to crash about once every 48 hours. I replaced one of them thinking that maybe I got 3 lemons, but it crashes too. Just a simple unplug and plug in again fixes the problem. I wish they'd come out with a better firmware that would reboot the cameras automatically. To be fair I have the webcams on my website that gets quite a few hits. So the cameras are streaming nearly all the time to 2-4 users. This is well within the capability of the camera, but they still crash for some reason. But they are ok for the price.
Setup is easy and the camera works well on the network. But the picture quality is very poor. The images are very grainy. I get a much sharper image from my logitech 4000 pro.
These cameras work great in well-lit conditions. However, these are worthless as "Securicams" as the package labels them, since they can't even see my front porch from my front window (3 feet away) with the porch light on at night. I bought two of these and I regret it. Look for at least one of them on eBay soon. Also, they don't support WPA.
I wanted to use this cam for monitoring an office, house or the street, however was unable to use it at any of these locations, except during the day. This camera seems to require minimum 5-10 lux. For example in the evening, even on a well lit street it is already very difficult to distinguish the shape of my car less than 10 feet away. Also indoors there is a lot of noise under any amount of artificial light, unless you put your face in front of the camera or the area is lit by natural sun light. Basically after 5 PM the quality gets pretty bad and after 6 PM the cam becomes unusable.
It might be OK for video conferencing if you sit next to your computer with a lamp pointed at your face, however this doesn't require a wireless network camera since many USB models under $50 can perform better.
The camera frame rate on my wireless network is less than 5 fps, though not sure if this is a performance problem with my wireless router (Microsoft), so I am not putting the full blame on the camera.
Generally the concept of wireless network camera is great, but it would need to be coupled with a decent camera. As a standard Webcam this camera wouldn't be worth more than $20.
I've had to do some research to discover that CCD cameras are much better than CMOS, especially in low-light, so I will be looking specifically for those now, even if they are USB-only. Learned my lesson.
I tried to set the camera up behind the router according to the instruction on the manual from the CD provided, it didn't work. After playing around for 3 hours, I finally figured out that the default port 80 and 8481 don't work, you have to open up the second port 81 and 8482. I IPView software provided in the CD does not have motion sensor, you can download the latest version of IPView with motion sensor for the DLINK website, and it works very well. It can detect a slightest movement.
PROS: price, good picture(can adjust brightness), motion sensor software(download latest IPView).
CONS: no audio, can not pan view(must manually pan camera), no email picture option.