D-Link Securicam Network DCS-950G Wireless Internet Camera

I just received this security camera for my business and went to install the software (installation wizard) and it errors out. The installation CD is MISSING key files required for the installation to complete. I called D-Link tech support twice and was obviously speaking to Indians half way across the world who could only direct me to the support website and "keep dowloading files and installing them until it works". They have no clue! I can't believe D-Link would ship a product where you can't even install the damn software to get past STEP 1.

I got this camera to watch my new puppy at home while I was at work (see customer images). The manual was short on details, the installation CD lacked workable software (download from the website), and the "24 hour help" was no help at all. But after six or so hours of setup, the camera is self-sufficient and works well wirelessly, despite my router being 100+ feet away from the camera.

Warning, if your remote computer accessing the camera blocks 5000 and 5001 ports (streaming video/audio), you won't be able to use the camera.

The camera drops off occasionally throughout the day, especially in the morning, when it is not accessible at all. The quality is good for still images and fair for moving images - a little choppy but it serves its purpose, to see if my dog is eating my cats!


I'm not into writing reviews, but this product is bad enough that I felt I had to. I'm an electrical engineer by trade.

So, I bought the item, and tossed the CD in. THE DAMNED CD SYNTAX ERRORS OUT. I know a few other people have mentioned this as well, but come on, D-Link... that is just lame. The software won't install.

I went to their website to download things, and the software they have is out of sync with the manual. I cannot get my computer to see my webcam, so I am stuck at step 1. (Okay, step 2, step one is "power the thing on")

D-link has lost my business. This is just sad. Releasing a product that they didn't even bother to test. They should be ashamed of themselves.


This wireless web cam works well for the price. The only thing that needs improvement is the motion sensor using e-mail notification. It send many false motion detection.

I've had my DCS-950G camera for more than a year, and it's been a love/hate relationship. The initial camera had a wiring fault, that prevented it from operating wirelessly. The replacement camera worked, has a great picture, but wouldn't stay on-line. D-Link recently released a firmware update (1.07) that seems to have solved all the problems I've experienced. If you're having problems, update to this latest version. If this camera continues to operate as it does now, I'd rate it a "5". Good luck.

I just purchased this camera and noticed upon install that new firmware is now available. Many others had posted that bugs existed in old firmware. I immediately updated the firmware with no problems - please note only to update firmware when the camera is connected to a hard wired network - do not update firmware over wireless. Since updating the firmware, I've found the camera to be very reliable, sharp image with manual focus lens, and easy to set up with dynamic dns for viewing via a regular web address via the internet. I have seen no other wireless color cameras on the market in this price range that also include audio. This is a great buy for home security, baby monitoring, remote vacation home monitoring, and other uses. Enjoy!

The first DCS-950G camera that I received would not connect to the wired network for configuration. I had already thrown the packaging away, so the return became a real headache. The Amazon re-seller made me purchase a new camera (at a higher price) and then I sent back the old camera in that packaging (at the lower price), so I got hit with a $40 mark-up.

The replacement camera worked for a couple of weeks, but is now no longer connecting to my wireless network. I have it screwed to a wall and mounted up high, so working on the camera is a real hassle. If I had to do it over again I would not purchase this camera. When it does work, the picture is nice, and the motion detection features are cool, but only when the camera is working!


and insert the installation CD: Errors about missing files on installation CD! Unbelievable!

Got on the phone with support, endless waiting for an offshore operator which are useless. First call was dropped, second redirected 3 times to different department and back in line every time, third of no help whatsoever, i got cut short and redirected to some inexistent web site.

After more than 4 hours of troubleshooting (computers are my job) i finally made it work with my LAN. It only works with Explorer which crashes every time any of the options are changed!

That is only half of the troubles. The other half starts after you try to connect through internet! Trying 2 days in the row now from different computers, systems and all i can access is a login screen. When i try to login i get several error messages and nothing else.

Nothing from on-line support from d-link so far.

Stay away from this POS or from any D-LINK product or forget about their support, you're on your own!

Sending my back tomorrow...


I bought this cam with the purpose of sending snapshots to me during a day for security reasons. It would nopt work. I changed the settings and modified it to try to trigger better but even if I walked in front of the cam it would not send an email. It would send me emails of "green screens" and an occasional actual picture of what I was pointing it at but never did it actually catch motion as far as I am was able to see. After I was having these issues I started looking around at reviews and anyone whom bought this wrote a horrible review. I should have read the reviews before I bought it. I have sent the cam back to Amazon. This camera does not work as advertised at all. Stay away from this camera if you want to do snapshots sent to your email.

This is one of the crappiest products I have ever bought. It freezes constantly. Is a pain to setup for wireless and the firmware/software seems to have several bugs.

When it does work, the picture is acceptable, but the zone "trip wire" options are too sensitive and will flood your e-mail with useless pictures/videos of nothing moving. It seems to activate even when the camera shows some pixelization.................in short save your money and buy a more expensive camera.

This camera had some nice features like the ability to write to a network storage device, smart motion detection, etc. The recorded videos have their own codec so you can use it or d-vix. Some videos are unreadable and if you dig deep enough, d-link has a utility to make them readable.

I upgraded the latest firmware 1.06, tried using the ability to write to a storage device and found it very hard to manage. Motion triggering is touchy but works once you set it up. The wireless caused 90% of my communication problems. Ran a wire and things were fine. Clock could not keep time for anything. Set USA EDT and it was fine and shortly after it feel back one hour. D-Link knows of this and the only solution was to use Atlantic time. It has all the right features and image is great but I have to vote thumbs down on this unit.

One more thing, D-Link hard codes an IP address so if you try and factory reset remotely or of you happen to be using a different network addressing scheme, you're done. Why for the life of me they don't use DHCP by default is beyond me.

The first one bricked during setup using the CD. The second one setup fine just using a browser, and I installed latest firmware immediately. Also, whenever I have recording started, the unit will lock up after a few hours and require a hard reset, which entails dragging a 100 ft. CAT5 cable across the house. I keep hoping a newer firmware will fix the issues eventually.

The 950 does have a good picture, and all the features are great when it's working correctly. Hope this helps.

camera works great! the first one I ordered did not function correctly but Amazon promptly replaced it. resolution is good and audio is a great bonus that works very well. a great feature for me that I found was not available on all other devices was the ability to have video stored on a network folder. additionally, there is no software required to run this.

This camera requires frequent restarts (unplug and plug in again) so it is virtually useless for a security camera.

I spent a lot of time configuring the camera. Uploaded and installed the newest firmware (1.06) and viewing software (IPView SE) and the camera still froze and dropped of my network frequently.

When it was working, I thought the image quality was good and low light feature very good. I never bothered to set up for Internet viewing and email notification.

I returned the camera

The DCS-950G has problems. I bought several hundred dollars worth of this camera and didn't find out until it was too late that the things freeze up or crash just about every other day. I've sent cameras back and had new ones returned to me and they all continue to freeze and don't work very good at all. I highly recommend that you stay far away from this product and not buy it at all. You will regret it. I've been through all the technical steps and even upgraded to the latest firmware 1.06 and now it won't even work with the included IPViewLite software after the firmware upgrade. The DCS-950G should be recalled by Dlink.

Camera will not stay up on wireless network with Dlink router! Firmware has some serious issues. Dlink support was worthless. I returned the camera and bought a Panasonic and never looked back!

After reading the other reviews I was prepared for the worst. I use a Linksys Wireless Router, had all my settings ready to go, followed the directions, set the camera configuration with Routers SSID,channel,WEP encryption etc.The whole process from out of the box to seeing an image was less than 20 minutes. Tested it in the wireless mode, had to click the search button to get the IP & then logged on with no problem. Pulled out my laptop, typed in the IP, and it connected. I haven't run it for an extended period of time but for the hour+ I was testing it, it didn't lock up or disconnect. Overall all,pleasantly surpised with ease of setup and the quality of the picture. Use Windows XP Pro, 2.4 GH processor, 1 gig of ram. The next part of the review is a follow up to the ealier review. Now that I have a chance to use this camera for extended periods of time, it does lock up too often. Upgraded the firmware but that didn't solve the issue. It has a good picture but once you access it from a remote location, you may want to keep it going. 05/10/2007 Follow-up review. After upgrading to the latest firmware, 1.07, I have been able to access the camera from my office without a lockup. Access has been multiple times each day. Picture quality is excellent. It's still a challenge to set up offsite internet access but with the Port Fowarding Settings set correctly and using DHCP for both the Router & Camera it should work. 06/09/2007, one last review comment. The new firmware version is working. Have accessed the Camera multiple time every day for over a month and it has always connected.


Bottom line, don't buy it unless you want to reboot the thing several times a day. It just will not stay connected to the network more than a few hours at a time. My other camera (a Panasonic BL-C30A) stays connected non-stop without a problem (but it has no audio). I'm retuning the Dlink tomorrow.

Why does this camera have to be so difficult to set up and use? All it is, is a camera and some firmware!
My experience has been terrible with this thing. Sometimes I see its IP on the network, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I can get access to the setup page, most times I get an IP error. This would be ok if I was a novice, but I run our network at work, so know exactly how this thing should work.. and one word sums it up: FLAKEY! The wireless is sometimes up sometimes down. And don't get me started on the motion-detection (the main reason for buything it). I put it to 1 (out of 100),. point the camera to the wall, or some other very still vista, and it constantly gets tripped, and starts to record. I will look into this more, maybe there is something I am missing.
But why should I have to!? This thing should work out of the box. Simple buttons which say 'start camera', 'stop camera', 'engage motion detection' etc.
It's only due to my geeky persevering nature that I am continuing to try to beat this damn thing into working properly. I pity a civilian buying this thing and trying to use it.
If you can find another similarly-priced & featured camera, buy it instead.

After reading mostly bad reviews, I took a chance and bought this product. True to the majority of reviews, the camera is subject to locking up regulary. When it worked, the picture quality was good. Tried to work with DLINK and they were no help. They acted as they were not aware of this problem, but they must be since everyone returns these camera's. I saw similiar reviews for their other models as well. My guess is they have a serious firmware problem they need to fix. With so many models to choose from, you would think they have enough invested in this product line to fix the software. I am going to try the "4xem Corp. IPCAMWLPTG 4XEM Wlptg 802.11G Wireless"

Not a bad camera. I got it so I could watch my newborn nephews on the opposite coast. It works well enough. The image is pretty grainy, and movements are a bit choppy. And the image blanks out once in a while for about 5 seconds. But, I only had to power-cycle it once in the last week, and I think it was because I tried to use https and that somehow screwed something up with the built-in webserver.

Installation and setup was easy and straight forward. All the problems I had were with the wireless router.

I just use IE to access it. I used IPView for a little bit, but didn't see any benefit with it. And I think IPView only takes IP addresses. I couldn't enter a name to be resolved.

Overall, pretty good. It's probably only going to be used for another year. Once the kids become mobile, a stationary camera just won't do.

Do NOT get this product. It takes forever to set up and then in cuts off every 10 mintutes. It's impossible to view or use with anything other than IE.6 and even then it's more trouble than it's worth. You have to go to the thing and physically push this little reset button for 10 seconds every hour or so to keep it working. What's the point of a REMOTE web cam if you have to keep running over to it to keep it working? Even when it's working the setup and feature menus are plagued with bugs.

THIS IS A COMPLETELY WORTHLESS POS! I wasted almost $200 and a whole day finding out it was not a user problem. They had no business ever putting this on the market the way it is. CLASS ACTION SUIT is warranted here!

I have had nothing but problems with this camera. Every change I make using its IPView
Light program locks the camera up, and I have to cycle power in order to connect again. Secondly the auto record function does not work. I have spent hours on the phone with 4 different tech support agents, 3 of which spoke very good Indian, and could not resolve the problem. Over all the camera is useless to me without the recording function.


The motion detection is not too good, it is difficult to calibrate, the notification only send pieces of video, I need to take snap shot to send by email when detect motion.

Great camera but it is a bit slow to set-up.
My main issue was that I use Firefox, but the camera will only log in using the Inernet Explorer window. They don't tell you this on the instructions and it still gives you the login panel - but it just says done and won't connect you to the camera.

When you iron out these problems its a great camera a little tricky to focus and the view angle is quite small but it is easy to move to any location and you get a great image.

This camera needs to go back to the drawing board. The motion sensing does not work when I used the IPview Lite program. I upgraded the firmware and used the latest version of the IPview Lite program(version 5). The ipview lite constantly freezes up after I activate the motion sensing. The quality of the picture is no better than the DCS 900W. I wasted my money and the camera is in storage with the rest of my junk.