Linksys Compact Wireless-G Internet Video Camera

The image quality of this camera isn't great, and as the other reviewer states, it needs lots of light. The resolution of the video is fairly poor, comparable to a very cheap 4-year-old webcam. If you need to see detail in the image (e.g. for certain security-camera purposes), then it will not work.

Another thing to note is that this camera is much bigger than it looks--it is about the size of your hand. I was hoping to squeeze it into a tight space, but the camera's size took me by surprise. It will be difficult to hide this camera if you are hoping to use it for hidden security purposes.

In sum, if you need a cheap camera that can sit out in the open and take low-detail video of a well-lit room, then this is your product. Otherwise, you should look for more professional (or wired) cameras.

I received mine last Friday. Wireless works great, but it also has a wired jack, which you use to set it up, which worked my first try. Wireless works great. Power cord is about 6ft long which securely snaps onto the back of the camera. Unplug it move it another room and its back up in a few seconds.

It does need a lot of light. The exposures settings don't seem make a lot of difference. No audio. The streaming video is decent. You can change the size, and quality to affect bandwidth.

Built-in web server: This lets you view from anywhere just by typing in the ip address in your browser. You can also set it to send an email alert if it detects movement. The alert is sent via SMTP so you need an account that can do pop3. It can send just a text message or a video from 1-5 seconds, (about 700kb for 5sec in .asf format) no still images. Quality isn't bad, about the same as a cheap USB camera. You can create userid's/passwords or leave it wide open for the world to see. Time stamp and screen title are optional. It will let you snap stills from the camera while you're watching it in your browser. Built in sololink dynamic DNS service if you want it, with 90 day free trial included. Not sure of the cost after that.

The software included lets you view multiple cameras if you have them at the same time. Unlike the limited options on the built-in web server, you can schedule multiple recordings and schedule multiple motion detection time frames.

There is a led on the front of the camera that will tell you if it's on or blink if it's looking for the network. It doesn't indicate if someone is watching the camera.

Make no mistake, this is a kind of a low end camera, but I don't think you can't beat the features it has for the price. I give it 5 stars, based on the cost, features and ease of use.
So, if you want to keep an eye on your pet or have a simple security system, it's for you. If you looking for more (audio, pan/tilt/zoom, outdoor, high quality) spend more and get something better.


I have two cameras the WRVG54 and this one, the differences despite the size (this one is bigger than it looks) is taht this one doesnt have microphone and also the LED for the IP Adress as well as you will save space of the antenna, BUT the problem is that the image is very very poor, too dark!!, and I place it on the top of the wall on my kids room near a lamp, and I cannot see nothing if the lamp is on, its incredible!!!

Also the AC cable is very short you will need an extension for sure, I do really not recommend to buy this item, maybe you ca get a D-Link with a similar price but MUCH MUCH better view

One thing that I have to recognize from Linksys is their tech support it's amazin theyre 24/7 and the almost solve you everything

Gotta agree with the other reviewers on this one. The image is too dark and there is not much you can do about it. The firmware is lousy, it only supports Internet Explorer so you're out of luck if you can't run ActiveX apps with your browser. Many workplace PC's won't allow ActiveX controls to run or replace Internet Explorer with another browser for security, so you may not be able to view this camera's video from home.

The bundled software is also a joke. It would crash on startup more often than it would succesfully start. I usually have to try twice to get the software to run. The first attempt results in a buffer overrun error. If for some reason you have more than 4 of these cameras, you have to scroll up and down to see the other cameras. The software with non-standard borders and controls, will not allow you to maxize or re-size the window. Only 4 are visible at a time. Of course with the lousy picture these cameras provide, you may as well not see the picture anyway.

The Trendnet TV-IP100 (or TV-IP100W if you want wireless) is a much better value for a few dollars less (wired version). The picture is better, the firmware is better and so is the software.

Save your money. It's better spent on another product.

I bought this for security purposes. Sadly, I didn't read any reviews prior to purchasing. The idea is good, but the camera is just to dark to see anything. That's not even taking into account the poor resolution. It might be good if you had it in an office environment or aimed outside, but inside, you can't see much, and if you did, you wouldn't be able to get any features from a screenshot. You could tell there was a figure there, but that's about it. I can't really believe some project manager thought this was a good product. I can say the wireless setup was rather easy, but it just can't help the product.

My daughter's Barbie Webcam has a better picture than this piece of junk. It's big, hard to setup and the picture is blurry. Don't waste your money on this one!

This is a good product if you understand (and can live with) its limitations. As others have noted, it is not very high resolution and it does require a well-lit room, but I find that it works just fine for my application. I have it set up in my son's room so I can check in on him when he is napping, and for that purpose, it works great. I can log in from work and peek into his room.

The camera is very easy to set up, and I have it running on my wireless network with no problems. The power cord could (and should) be longer, but other than that I have no real complaints. I can unplug it and walk it over to the next room and plug it in and have it up and running almost immediately. In short, for the price I think the camera offers a solid feature set.

This camera works only (ONLY!!!) with Windows PC computers. It doesn't work with UNIX, Linux, Mac OSX. It works with IE 5.5 and up. This is the only web browser allowed to work with it. You can't use Safari, Opera, Firefox... nothing. Windows and IE and that's all. So, if you or your clients own a Mac better check other products, because this one in not going to help you.

Needed a wireless camera and was interested in better product than D-Link. From word of mouth, I heard that Linksys' wireless camera product was better and decided to try it out. When I received the package, I was surprised to find out that not only was there no screws to mount the camera on a wall, there were no suggestions as to what type of screws should be used for this camera. Calling Linksys Technical Support, they told me that they would have Customer Service call me. After several days and no call, I decided to call Customer Service myself for information. Instead of giving me specifications as to the screws or how to obtain the screws needed from Linksys, they blew me off. Thinking that the omission of screws was just this one package, I'd asked Amazon to resend a replacement package. Unfortunately, the replacement I received was just exactly the same as the first...no screws, no specifications.

How am I supposed to mount a camera on a wall if I don't know what type of screws to use? If there was a way to rate a product no stars, this product would definitely qualify due to lack of support.

With my house being robbed last week, I decided to put in a surveilance system. I think the idea of having wireless cameras sending video back to a well-hidden computer would create a nice surveilance system. When I read about the software that could record the video of several cameras, I was excited to try out the camera and its software. I never made it that far. The camera was fairly easy to set up, but there were several drawbacks. The camera is pretty big, making it hard to hide. It has fairly bright coloring including a chrome ring around the lens. That was pretty cool looking, but it stood out in my first hiding place. It would be better if it were black. The resolution was really poor meaning it would be hard to capture a useful image of a stranger and the camera required prodigious amounts of light to produce an image. With my living room lights on dim, the picture was barely discernable. It was ok with the lights on bright. The software that I was so eager to try was very disappointing. I never even got to test the features because it would mostly produce a "buffer overrun" error message on the screen then refuse to run. This camera and its software are not useful at all for my situation.

As other reviewers have noted, this camera has miserable low-light performance and fairly low resolution. But if you're looking for a low-light, high-res security camera with a built-in Web server, you'd better be ready to spend more than $100.

For my purposes--daylight and porchlight monitoring of our front and back doors during vacations and being able to see who's ringing the doorbell when working in my attic office, this camera functions just fine.

I've worked with three different, low-price wireless webcams, and this is by far the easiest to use with the most features. The built-in ability to email video clips upon motion detection is fantastic compared with other cameras that either don't offer this feature at all or that handle motion detection by requiring you to subscribe to a monitoring service or to keep a PC running 24/7.

Yes, it could be smaller. Yes, the mirrored ring around the lens makes it visually obvious (try some electrician's tape to cover the silver). And no, it doesn't come with screws, but any hardware store could help you there.

Will I record my brother's wedding with the thing? No. But keep its limitations in mind and you won't be disappointed.

All the reviews have mentioned the pathetic res. and darkness of the picture from this cam. Now take that an multiply it by a hundred, it's that bad. It is a nightmare to set it up to access remotely ( the main reason I bought it was to view my house from work ) IF you turn on every light in the room, and it better be a bunch, you will be able to reconize that it is your room, but barely. I can't say enough about how horrible this cam is. It was however, fairly easy to setup. But comeon linksys.. you can do better than ActiveX. With an expired certificate at that. DO NOT waste your time and money on this.
It is the first product that i've purchased from Linksys that did not get a big thumbs up, very disapointed.

Linksys seems to be living in the last decade. This camera can only be observed remotely with an ActiveX capable browser, in other words, Internet Explorer.

What this means: NO Macintosh, NO Firefox, NO Flock...

To make it worse, the ActiveX control has an expired certificate, which means you can't install it without tweaking the default security settings in the browser.

Come on Linksys, you can do better!!!! How about Flash based video, or quicktime, or Windows Media Video? ActiveX is a thing of the past.

IT'S A GOOD PRODUCT, SOMETIMES IS HARD TO USE THE PROGRAM.

I am very disappointed in this product. After 5 calls to customer service and waiting hours upon hours on hold, the camera still is inaccessable remotely, and the picture quality is horrendous. Linksys customer support has told me on several occastions that I need to "register" the camera and that the only option is to call the same number as the customer service number at some bogus extension that doesn't reach the people who can supposedly "register" this product. I plan on sending this back! I thought Linksys was a reputable name, but apparently I am quite mistaken.

For the price, this camera works pretty darn well. My router/office is at the end of the house furthest from the front on the first floor, and I wanted a camera on the second floor up front to view my front lawn for when people come and I don't hear the bell and for the damn annoying neighbors that mess with my things (watching to see who is going to mess with my garbage cans as I write this)... and it is working GREAT! The refresh rate at 640x480 is far bettern than I had expected.

The picture looks pretty good but while I can see individual leaves on trees, I can understand why one would have a hard time recognizing someone's face unless you knew them, not the clearest/sharpest picture, but certainly good enough to see what is going on.

It is also true that as soon as it starts to get dark, and I mean just starts to, the camera becomes useless. I have also not found any other way of viewing the camera's output than through the ActiveX component (but I haven't tried too hard yet either).

However configuring the camera was very easy. You connect it using the wired network port (you can connect this camera wired or wireless, which I think is something they fail to advertise enough), you go to the 192.something.something.x site of the camera, tell it to use DHCP, change it's IP address, set up your wireless setting and WAP, and you are set. You can unplug the camera from the network and power (it retains the settings) and you are set.

I have it hanging upside down from the ceiling of my window using a magnet. Pretty light.

So if you are looking to recognize people's faces from across the street, this isn't for you. If you just want to see that there are people across the street, then it is great. I got more than I expected. Well worth the money. Guess it is all in what you expect ;)

Everything the reviewers say about this camera being a total piece of junk, even at a marked down price, is true. On top of that I have spent weeks trying to make it work over the internet and simply cannot do it, even with quite a bit of expert help.

Image is terrible and totally unviewable in low light. Don't waste your money on this cam. Linksys should refund everyone who has bought one of these.

I bought this based on my experiences with linksys products, but this is a piece of junk. It only works with activex with internet explorer, and only works over the internet with linksys' ddns service (free for ninety days and after that you pay for the life of the product). Doesn't work with IE7. Very sorry I bought it.

The camera itself it not that bad. The design is ok. It's about like most typical Linksys products: ok documentation (but not great), so-so user interface but generally gets the job done. Initial setup is only mildly frustrating (the camera could not initially communicate with my Linksys router, which you'd think they might test back at the lab...) The fatal flaw with this camera is the SoloLink DDNS service. If you're not familiar with DDNS, it basically allows you to hook up the camera to your router and then assigns a domain name so that you can view the camera from any location by typing in an easy-to-remember domain name in a browser. I bought this camera to watch my house while on vacation. The service worked for about five minutes on the first day of the trip and then never worked again. Perhaps they will fix the service (is it a bandwidth issue?) but as of 9/06, it's horrible and I would stay away. On top of all that, you have to pay for this service. The box doesn't mention this, except if you read the small print where it says something like "free trial of SoloLink DDNS". You cannot use any other DDNS service...

If you plan to sit on your couch and see what's going on in your dining room or if you just want a webcam to take your picture while your chatting on IM with your buddy, then this camera may be for you. However, if you plan to view the images from outside your home over the Internet, save your money and wait for improved technology. I should also mention that the image quality is not great. For the five minutes that I could actually view the image, I only managed to see some dark, jagged images of my living room. In a well-lit room, it's probably better.

Linksys products are usually high quality. This is sadly not the case with the WVC54GC Internet Video Camera. I just finished testing mine, and I'll be returning it tomorrow. I'd rate it zero stars if that was allowed.

Do NOT buy this product! I have tried several brands of standalone netcams and the image produced by this Linksys camera is by far the worst -- it is shockingly poor. Take a look at the "Customer Image" I've uploaded (click just below the main product image) and judge for yourself. The image was so blurry, I thought that perhaps I had forgotten to remove the protective cellophane covering the lens. No such luck. Any reviewer who says the image is OK does not have a clue what a decent video image should look like.

Also, this camera only supports remote viewing via Internet Explorer, under Windows, via an ActiveX control, which is a total joke. Forget about viewing your camera from anything but a Windows-based PC. Even if you're on a Windows PC, most public-access machines (say, a courtesy PC in an airport lounge) won't give you access since you'll be unable to download the ActiveX control required for viewing. Also, it has no audio support.

Save your money and buy a Veo Observer.

I'm amazed that Linksys could put out such a crappy product.
It's huge and the picture quality is incredibly poor.
The only way to use it is with IE 5.5+ or bad utility progra that comes with it. FireFox, Messengers and Skype won't work.
I wanted to use it to embed the picture in a web site.
The only way to do it is to pay them to host it for you. Wow!
I've asked for an API to write some software for it, but Linksys refused. Please, save your money.

Easy to install. Fair picture quality. Good price.
Easy to move around. Works seamlessly with linksys wireless router.

It's fantastic! I can watch what the babysitter is doing with my baby daughter.
To be perfect, it should have batteries.

I made the mistake of buying one of these without reading the user reviews, and I can confirm that the picture quality is nothing short of awful. The fuzziness, darkness and graininess of the image is quite incredible to behold.

The camera is also surprisingly big. I have now returned the camera so I can't measure it accurately, but it was much chunkier than I was expecting from the pictures, though that did give it the feel of high build quality. Pity its performance is so awful.

It's also klunky to set up, uses an ActiveX viewer, and is generally nasty to operate.

If you need a network camera, look elsewhere.

easy to setup and use within wireless network
but not easy to use for remote management without detail instruction to setup the wireless router....

amazon service is so far the best.

What an awful product. After less than a week of use, the camera will no longer connect to my wireless network. Even when it did, it kept causing the wireless router to crash several times a day. Recording settings for the camera software were lost if the computer was re-booted. The instruction manual is poorly written and doesn't even accurately describe the software interface. Save your money.

I got the camera installed and working with no problems at all. The motion detection actually works as advertised.

Image quality is extremely poor though. Would be hard pressed to recognize a person standing more than 10 feet from camera.

Was unable to configure the remote access service. I use a Linksys router as well. The documentation for proper port and firewall settings is minimal and there is no troubleshooting help to be found anywhere on the web for this product. (including the Linksys web site)

After much time-consuming back-and-forth with Linksys, unable to get this camera to broadcast video over the Internet.

Linksys refuses to advise on Westell modems.

Only purchase if you are willing to replace your Westell Verizon equipment with Linksys equipment.

I got this as a way to monitor my children while they are in their room without having to sit at their doorway all the time. Granted you can't see every hair on their head, you can see enough to keep them safe.

I have a Belkin router so it was a pain to set this up, but after six hours on the phone with their tech support from India I finally got it working without them.

My order arrived quickly and I plugged the camera into the wired eithernet and set it up. After the initial setup it worked with my wireless router. I setup a port and subscribed to a free DDNS service and have been able to see the video across ther internet. Motion detection to a file seemed to work, however when I tried to set the camera up to email me a video clip upon motion detection, it didn't work. I suspect it was due to the Google mail server I tried to use.

Unlike many people writing reviews of the product I haven't even been able to install the software as it doesn't support Windows Vista.

Camera works nice. The only complaint I have is we had to e-mail several times to get the camera working wireless and remote computer access. The customer service was wonderful and quickly replied with instructions to make both these items work, but I think those instructions should of been included with the manual. I saw lots of discussion on the site from other customers that had the same problems.

most of the claims made on the description require a service. so the service costs a fortune compared to the camera. the basic management software that came with it is bad. its old and no updates available. many features are unavailable and if you actuate the drive space limitation the whole setup is trashed and you have to start over in setting up again. Some of the features that dont work are the ablilty to name cameras and it sometimes just misses one of the 4 cameras for no apparent reason. The hard sold "feature" of emailed info from a motion sensor and being able to check vids from the internet is the service. Shame on the maker for selling a partly disabled product and then asking a monthly fee to make it work!

I bought this cam to be a nursery cam. I have it mounted over the crib looking down directly into the crib. As was mentioned previously the picture is not great and you do need a lot of light which means as a night time nursery cam it is worthless. No audio of course. I have a separate nursery monitor for that. It does not work with Vista. I have read where the WVC200 software when loaded on a Vista machine will work with this camera but I haven't tried it yet. I think it is a great idea but all in all the cam is just a hair above worthless.

I have read many other reviews here regarding this camera, and have come to the conclusion that the majority of complaints regarding this camera have to do with setting up on this camera on your wifi router; the complaints are really about another product (the router), not the camera itself. In order for this camera to function, the user must set up port fowarding on their router, typically port 1024 for this device ---and that is what trips up most people, including myself. Configuring a router can be a bit of chore, mainly due to poor documentation for your existing router, and Linkys customer service being unable to support your existing router.

After I got my aging Linksys router to function the way it was supposed to, detecting the wifi web cam over the Internet was a breeze.

I also like the "Linksys Viewer and Recording software."

Overall, I think this camera is an excellent value for the price. No wires (except for the power cord), and no need to leave your PC turned on (as with USB camera), as this device functions as it's own web server, which in English means, it talks directly to your existing wifi router (once you set up port fowarding).

Picture quality is roughly equivilent to a low end cell phone camera (ie, less than 1 megapixel). But then again, it's not intended for family portraits. I use this device for home security, to see who approaches our front door, while we are gone.

Based on my satisfaction with this device, I plan on buying the more expense Linksys PTZ model soon.







Had to read an re-read de manual to setup the equipment. (4 stars)
Hard to setup, but WORKS GREAT.