Cisco-Linksys WVC54GCA Webcam 640x480 802.11G Wireless Internet Home Monitoring Camera by CISCO SYSTEMS - ENTERPRISE
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Digital camera reviews of Cisco-Linksys WVC54GCA Webcam 640x480 802.11G Wireless Internet Home Monitoring Camera
Digital camera Review: Don't Buy Junk
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this item from Best Buy and kept it a week before returning it. When I could get the camera connected it was an Ok product. It's Video quality is ok for about 5 feet then it gets very pixelated, it's NOT even the quality of a USB WEB cam. The software that it includes to find the webcam kept reporting finding the camera on a IP that was not there. It would hardly ever find the camera. The camera was located within about 15 feet of the router in another room. It appears that was the farthest away I could get it to connect. My wireless router works fine with other products including the Wii. I was able to get the camera connected twice in the week I had it. Sometimes it would find the camera an other times it would not. The included software was very glitchy on playback as well and made it difficult to play recorded events like Motion for example. I'm not a novice at networking or computers since it's what I do for a living. I felt like I shouldn't have to purchase a new wireless router for this thing to work properly. If that was the case I would buy a much higher quality IR wireless security camera for around $300-400 that would have the server built into the camera. I'm really surpised that Cisco - Linksys would put out such a piece of junk.Digital camera Review: Don't Buy this Camera
Summary: 1 Stars
I gave it one star because Amazon doesn't allow zero stars for a product.
This camera is pretty much useless for a couple of reasons.
1) It tends to freeze up and the only way to get it started again is to unplug it for a few seconds or so.
In my case, since the idea was to use this to remotely monitor my condo while I am away the only solution was to buy a timer that turns the camera off and on once every 24 hours "in case" it's frozen.
2) The motion detection activates for no reason whatsoever. It seems that the video image generated by the camera causes a shift in the image brightness. The motion detection software thinks that it has detected movement and you get an email with pictures of the scene. A few minutes later the same thing happens and it sends you another and another and another. Adjusting sensitivity from one extreme to another does absolutely nothing.
I checked the Linksys support forums and these are both common problems with no solutions.
I can't believe that Linksys (Cisco) would ship such a product. I'm also surprised that there have been no comments by Linksys on their forums in response to the problems. Also there has been no firmware update. It's still at 1.0 for this product.
Although the price is great, I'd suggest that you stay away at least until they upgrade the firmware.
Digital camera Review: Don't Waste Your Money!
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased this camera at the end of April. I had to wait a week before the item shipped. This is the second Linksys product I've had to return for a replacement within 30-90 days. If you own a Blackberry, you will not be able to view your website from your cell phone. Tried configuring mobile streaming. Blackberries do not support RSTP. BB's do not support the file format. Linksys should let the consumer know that not all cell phones support their format.
I'm not an IT professional and I set the camera up without any problems. Last week I go to check out my website...total blackout. Call Linksys overseas and get a bunch of incompetent tech support agents. Finally the call was escalated to Cisco (USA), where I got results. Go to open the web page this week, no web page. I pinged the IP address, but still no web page. If you can not access the remote setup page that requires your IP address, you will not be able troubleshoot the camera. Now I have to reset the camera and if that does not work, it's going back to Linksys. Amazon will not accept back without a 15%-50% re-stocking fee.
The camera is mediocre during the day. The video is grainy. Camera site area is not wide angle, so you can not adjust it. Picture does not completely fill screen. You will get 400 emails if the motion detection isn't set properly. If you point the camera at a street, every car that comes by will set off the motion detector. The monitor software crashes frequently. Solution, remove program, download new software from Linksys website and install. At night, with software adjustments, if you have ample lighting on the area, the camera will detect and pick up the subject with sound.
Do your homework when selecting a surveillance camera. For the money, it's too much. The price should be $50.00. You get what you pay for. Will spend the money for a security camera with a wide angle, night vision and all the bells and whistles.
All in all, I can not recommend this product.
Digital camera Review: Don't buy this product!
Summary: 1 Stars
This product works, sort of. If you're lucky enough to have it work when you take it out of the box (mine didn't), the picture isn't usable for security. If it doesn't work out of the box, be prepared for a miserable experience with customer service. I had to give them a credit card number for $10.00 just to get live support. They credited the $10.00 after the tech couldn't make it work either. They sent me an advanced replacement for which I also had to give a deposit. The advanced replacement was a used unit. In the end, I paid full (new unit) price plus $5.00 to ship the defective one back. I ended up with a used junker that someone else sent back because it didn't work! I won't ever buy another Linksys product. You shouldn't either!Digital camera Review: Don't get it for motion detection.
Summary: 3 Stars
Encouraged with my previous experience with Linksys items, I went ahead and bought this camera that seemed to meet all of my needs. 640x480 resolution was fine for me, so no problem there. I'm experienced with networking, so setting it up for viewing via the Internet was no problem. Problems come from
1) the motion sensitivity setup being basically useless
2) the Windows utility for viewing and "managing" the camera is useless except for deleting captured video sequences.
3) the camera randomly alters the lighting of the image, which it then interprets as a motion and triggers a motion notification.
4) not having an installable service to do video recording, but having to start the program with a logged in user (maybe this is expecting too much for a consumer-level product, I don't know)
5) the time synch sucks, it loses time if the computer you synch to disappears (turned off) and it fails miserably at looking time up online as the manual says it will
Anyway, I'm probably going to replace it with a D-Link like we use at work that doesn't have any of these problems.