Linksys Compact Wireless-G Internet Video Camera

The reason I purchased this webcam was to set it up on my new baby's crib so the folks back in Dallas could tune in to see him whenever they wanted. For all intensive purposes, it has served its purpose. I did go with the option to purchase the Linksys service that allows anyone (only if you provide them with the URL) to go to a specific website and view the live stream. This is an optional service that Linksys is more than happy to sell you for $24.99 per year. However, this is not necessarily needed (so I later discovered) for anyone in the world to be able to log in and view the stream. In order to share the images on the web, all you need to know is the WAN IP address that your ISP is giving you. This will change periodically if you don't have a static IP address. However, I have been lucky. Mine has been the same for over 6 months now. If they do change it on you, all you have to do is log into your router and find out what the new IP address is (very very easy to do). To be able to share the stream via your IP address, you do need to know a little bit about routers and port forwarding. It can become a little too "techy" if you don't have a little knowledge on the subject. I will not be renewing another year subscription for the paid web service. I will continue using the IP address method. It is virtually impossible for any unauthorized person(s) to view the video or change the camera settings. They will first have to know the WAN IP address and port that you're using (this is next to impossible unless you tell them what it is). Secondly, they would have to know your username and password to your camera in order to get in and change the camera settings.

Having said all this, I would recommend this for small projects that don't require a crystal-clear resolution. Remember, there is not any audio, just video.

Compared to just about every other Linksys product I've ever purchased, getting this thing to play nice with my 802.11n network was a breeze. I simply plugged it directly into my Mac Airport Extreme router with the supplied Cat5 Ethernet cable and ran the install from a networked PC running Windows XP. After about two minutes of basic configuration following the clear instructions onscreen, the camera was online and streaming nice, crisp, 640 x 480 video into my LAN.

Would that the supplied software behaved as intuitively.

Where to begin? First off, the claims of this device being viewable ONLY via Active-X capable browsers appears to be resolved, because I was able to view the video feed in Firefox, Safari, and IE. There *ARE* a few minor features that require Active-X (like digital zoom), but they were hardly value adds anyway and won't be missed if all you want is a simple, remote monitoring device with an uncomplicated web interface. The included monitoring software, on the other hand, is where the wheels pretty much fall off completely.

You're supposed to be able to monitor up to nine cameras from one PC (the box claims you'll need at least a dual-core 3GHz CPU for this), and set each up with motion detection recording. Great concept. I'm sure it must've looked good on paper to the Linksys execs who decided not to offer any such functionality for OS X or Linux users. The interface was buggy and full of anomalous glitches (all the buttons look ghosted out, even when fully functional, and there is very little by way of user feedback to let you know anything is happening when you click on something), and the preferences dialogue frequently crashed the entire application when I tried to apply changes to the camera configuration. I managed to get motion detection to work, but even with over 60GB of free hard drive space, and ample bandwidth, 9 out of 10 tests failed to record anything at all. When I did manage to get it recording, the onboard microphone feed was abysmally low -no pickup to speak of. The "export to AVI" feature (again, accessible only via the crashy Windows-exclusive monitoring app) failed to export any of the clips I captured. That pretty much renders anything you capture with this camera useless as evidence in a court proceeding, unless you plan to haul your whole monitoring platform in should the need arise. Remote recording is pointless if the files are proprietary and non-portable.

Finally, the lens angle is far too narrow for a security camera. I quickly learned that it would take TWO cameras just to cover my modest-sized apartment living room.

Linksys is going to need to try a little harder with the software development before I make this mistake again.

The e-mail feature of this product made it very useful as a home security product. I have yet, with the help of Linksys product support, been able to get this feature to work. I don't know if the camera is faulty or if the support center simply does not know enough about the device, but in either case the camera does not work as advertised. I would not recomend this device for anyone.

I tried for a full day but could not get the wireless part work. The wired (Cat-5) worked at the begining, but the ActiveX (or java) applet were not able to view the pictures. after changing the reslution of IE, I was ab;e to work it out (only with wired), but the quality was not good when the light was even so-so. The quality was ok when the light was like sunshine, but in evening... not good at all.

I was unable to install and run the viewer utility SW on my computer with VISTA!!!