TRENDnet TV-IP312W Wireless Day/Night Internet Camera Server with 2-Way Audio

I'd really give this camera 3.5 stars. If setup were easier, it would be a solid 4, if it didn't have manual focus 4.5, if all of above were true and the company's manual or website gave decent support, it would be 5 stars because of the low costs but high features.

My Trendnet IP312W is connected to a Mac (OS X Leopard) airport express network used for home and baby monitoring. Mac support from Trendnet's site and manual for this product is woefully low.

I am using it with Evocam software, which provided moral support during the various evenings I spent getting it to work. (Eventually selecting "use RTSP" for this camera in Evocam brought an image from the camera, that was after I changed the camera's default IP address, etc).

The camera provides a decent picture day and night via our local network. The image is browser accessible via the local network with most browsers (Safari, Firefox, IE).

The price on this camera was significantly lower than many other wireless cameras capable of joining a more secure WPA2 wireless network and also providing night vision. Word to the wise, you can't buy some other color network camera and a standalone infrared light from Amazon and expect to make your own, budget, night vision system.

You can't find a better device at this price point, but it does come with some annoyances and limitations.

Things I Like:
- Really great night mode via built-in infrared lights.
- Stable. No crashes or hiccups in the month I've had it.
- Solid construction. The camera and included mounting bracket are very sturdy.
- MPEG streaming video. Really nice quality, and a fraction of the bandwidth required by MJPEG standards, so there's less "internet lag."
- The ability to backup your settings is a nice touch, in case you have to reset the camera for any reason.
- Three year warranty.
- Support for sound. Built-in ability to listen (from IE, not from Firefox/Java) and the ablilty to connect speakers to "talk through" the camera.

This I Dislike:
- Camera gets "stuck" in night mode. Under normal indoor lights, the camera often continues to force itself into night mode, which results in strange washed-out colors. This is made more frustrating by software limitations that don't allow you to manually control which mode the camera operates in. Seems to work okay in fluorescent lights from office settings. Surely, this is all just a software glitch that will be fixed in an eventual software patch....I hope.
- Always requires a username and password to view the camera. So if you want to just setup a public camera, that's a frustrating limitation.
- Difficult to remove Trendnet's "branding" around their live video images - their logo, border, and other stuff. I think this can be done, but it's certainly going to require web developer skills and a bit of hacking to do it.

Other things you'll want to know:
- Focusing the camera is done via the focus ring on the front of the housing, not from within the software. So you have to be physically present at the camera to do it. That means you'll also need your laptop (or a friend on a phone) to know you're getting it right.
- TrendNet's site includes a "lobby cam" from their office, as well as a simulated user interface, and digital version of the manuals. That gives you a pretty good feel for what you're going to get with the camera.
- Viewing this camera from outside your home network is going to require some advanced skills in updating your router's settings. It's not especially hard, and there are instructions online to do it. But unless your router supports these settings and you're willing to tinker with them, many of the camera's features are going to be unavailable to you.
- The setup was not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be, based on other reviews. The need to connect it via a network cable to do the initial setup is a little annoying, but understandable and not too difficult if you've read through the manual. The manual is actually pretty well-written - you can download it from the manufacturer's site to judge for yourself.

I bought 4 units of this camera and so far only 3 were delivered. I can tell you right now: if you are not an advanced user or you do not know one that can help you, forget it! You will not be able to configure this camera to work on your network. The instructions manual is a joke. There are much more instructions and hints on other comments here in Amazon than in the manual. But if you are a geek you will make one single camera work on your network.

The real problem begins when you try to have 2 or more cameras working at the same time!

Although the software that comes with the product can manage up to 16 simultaneous cameras, only one works at a time. I had tried everything and all types of configurations, DHCP, fixed IP, changing the security protocol of my router and on the cameras, etc, etc, etc. They simply do not work simultaneously. When I connect all three a very strange thing happens: each camera works for about 5-10 minutes, than it disconnects from the network and another one connects... and it stays for 5-10 minutes and then everything gets repeated.

I'm trying to get help from the TrendNet Support service, but they did not provided me any hint of what is going on, and I'm starting to believe they do not have a clue about the solution. You can also add to that situation the fact that they take several days to answer an email.

It has been a very frustrating experience, and I am starting to seriously regret my acquisition...
'
[UPDATE April 06, 2008]: After sending an email for almost different dozen people at Trendnet they finally gave me attention and provided me with a new firmware build (38) that solved the issues I was facing. I can't set the cameras too away from my wireless router, so I can not use them where I would like to (and both my notebooks work fine at these spots), but in general the cameras are working The recording is not a good feature as the image is too jumpy. I'll probably have to invest on a wireless repeater and see if the video recordings get improved by having a stronger wireless signal near the cameras.

Manual sucks big time. The directions tell you to set up your camera with an IP address of 192.168.10.30. That's fine,but a router is required and who has a router with that default address. Manual says to type that IP address in your browser. Good luck because that is not the Gateway for any Browser. Good bye network with that odd ball address. What is Trendnet thinking? Trendnet has 24/7 tech support, but it takes them days to get back to you! I could go on, but the camera itself is nice.The Jury is still out on Wifi. Encryption seems to disable the wireless. I had to use no encryption on my router and camera in order to make the camera mobile.

After spending a lot of time with technical support I finally got the camera working through a router. The biggest problem (2 hrs) was actually ZoneAlarms firewall. It shut down the window needed to configure the camera with no notice. Turn off your firewall!

Now to the real problem for me. I wanted to use the stand-alone advertised email capability of the device. And I can't. The problem is that the firmware does not support "secure password authentication" required by my broadband SMTP If you are using Qwest Broadband you cannot use the camera to send email. You have to leave your PC on to send an email.

The documentation in general is marginal and the front line tech support folks are rookies. Nice but rookies.