Customer Reviews

Cisco-Linksys WVC54GCA Webcam 640x480 802.11G Wireless Internet Home Monitoring Camera

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(34)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(47)

 

 

I bought this camera 2 weeks ago and put it above my front door looking out onto my walkway and street and it works great. It's 802.11 G/B so it scales back if you have only a B access point. It takes good 640/480 up to 30 frames per second video. It's got a couple of low light enhancements you can turn on which work pretty well. DONT be disappointed if it can't see in the dark it's NOT a night vision camera. However... I don't yet know if it can see IR. I guess I need to get out a remote and see what happens.


So a few people posting reviews have said it's not easy to setup. Not True!! I guess if you don't know anything about home networking, port forwarding, or WIFI then yeah of course it's going to be hard to setup. But don't come bashing the product just because you lack the skills to set it up correctly. Now I will admit I'm a IT professional and make a living doing so but, anyone with basic networking skills should be able to get this camera working in 10 minutes. Now... That doesn't include the time to tweak all the settings as it will take several days and some time to get everything just how you want it.

I got an iPhone that I use all the time to watch streaming video. In fact I used the iPhone to setup the camera using it as my hand held display so I could see what the camera was seeing.

One thing I will mention that I'm not really fond of is the motion detection system. If you turn it on, it requires you to choose either FTP or Email for the alerts. The problem is that even with the sensitivity really low it still triggers and you get like 10 million emails. Now that's not entirely the blame of the camera cause every time a cloud goes over my house the sidewalk changes because of the lighting and causes the camera to trigger a motion detection event. But if you were using the camera inside your house it would most likely function much better.

The camera comes with a CD that has some recording software that works ok. I've had it crash more than once in the past two weeks but it seems to happen when you have the motion detection enabled to send videos via Email. I switched this feature to JPEG's instead of motion and the application hasn't crashed since.

The camera does do audio but only when watching the playback on the software or using IE 6.0 or greater to watch the live video directly from the camera. I.E. you can't hear the sound with Firefox or Safari. However, you can adjust all the settings and get it going without IE so if you're a Mac person like myself you will need to have access to a PC at some point especially since the recording software, motion detection, and live video viewing with sound portion of the camera uses a Active X control that only works in IE.

All in all this Camera is an Awesome camera for $107. It did everything I wanted and more and it works well. I ended up buying 2 more of them since I was so pleased with the first one.

Just make sure before you buy this that you meet the following requirements.

A. Know what your doing when it comes to networking or you will be disappointed as with any network device it takes a level of skill to set it up.
B. Make sure you have access to a PC to setup all the things that require and Active X control and IE 6.0 or greater
C. Don't expect the device to see in the dark with great precission
D. Remember that you only paid $107 for something that does almost as much some of the other expensive stationary network cameras on the market.

We purchased this camera for security reasons.

The good:

The network setup was fairly straightforward, I did one camera via the included Linksys software and one by accessing the cameras firmware directly. The camera's have fixed-focus, so if you're taking pictures through a window, it's nice to know that the camera won't focus on glare in the window instead of the area of interest. The camera's mount is adjustable and has screw mount points so you can fasten it to where you need. The picture quality is OK, we only expected basic video quality, not high-def, that would take too much storage capability for video capture. The motion capture function for video is a nice addition, though there are some issues with that.

The software allows you to monitor multiple feeds, and via the camera's firmware, allows you to set up motion capture, and FTP or email setup so that you can view your video from anywhere you have internet access. I haven't set up streaming video yet...

All in all an "OK" setup, but there are issues...

The bad:

The camera's mount only allows the camera to be mounted vertically on the stand; we have one camera mounted sideways and the software does not allow you to rotate the picture. All feed is sideways from the camera.

The software is clunky and slow and doesn't do what it is supposed to as far as storing images go. Awful. The interface doesn't allow you to select multiple files and delete video you don't need. You have to select and view each file and then delete it. If you've let the camera run for a few days, this can be easily over a few hundred video files and it would take forever to get rid of them. The .sef file format is not viewable by any other software, so you can't just open them in windows and view them in a different app that might be better.

Stored video doesn't go where it's supposed to. We have the cameras set to MPEG motion capture. There are plenty of false captures (nothing we could see moving) and the sensitivity adjustment doesn't seem to be working very well. The videos for camera #1 are stored just fine and can be viewed. The videos for camera #2 show up like they've been stored, but you can't view them! We set camera #2 up to feed to an online FTP and that seemed to work ok and can retrieve the files that way. We set #1 up to send video, but it doesn't send video to the FTP like #2, it sends still photos! All we want is to watch and store video to and from the same place.

Overall:

The camera is adequate for what we want, it does the job. If the software interface was better, we'd have given this product a much better rating, but the software is terrible. I'll probably spend many more hours trying to get it to do what it's supposed to, store the files in the same directory accessible by the viewer or storage online. If it gets sorted, I'll post the fix here. Otherwise, does anyone know of another app that works with these cameras?

EDIT: To everyone that has the camera drop out after XX hours: You need to set a fixed IP to the device in your router! Wireless routers give each device that connects a "certificate" that allows it to stay connected to the wireless network. These certificates have an expiration time, and the router may assign a new IP to the device after that time period. If that happens: no IP, no camera, no video! You'll have to figure out how to do that yourself, there are too many different routers and setups out there for me to explain it here. Try your user manual, online support for your manufacturer, or even a Google search for info.

I bought this having had a little experience setting up a Panasonic webcam. With that bit of knowledge, I was able to set this up in 10-15 minutes. I have use OS X and an Airport Extreme router. To set up this camera with a Mac - you will not be able to use the software disc that comes with the camera (unless you have Windows on you system - I have too much pride for that).

The basic setup is to plug in the camera to the router with the Cat 5 cable. Now the trick is to find out what address the router gave to the camera. Look on the back of the camera to find the MAC address. Now open Airport Utility>Manual Setup>Advanced>Logging &SNMP>Logs&Statistics>DHCP Clients. Now you see a list of IP addresses and MAC addresses. Look for the Mac address that matches the sticker on the back of your camera. That is the IP address for your camera.

Now you type 'http://' followed by the IP address of your camera into your browser. You will find the camera and use 'admin' for both the user name and password. Now you can set it up as you would like. I set up my camera wireless, made it a static IP address, and gave it a unique port, gave it a new new name and password. Then I set up Port forwarding on my router (this is only if you want to be able to see it from the internet & requires more set up). I unplugged it and disconnected the ethernet athen plugged it into the power and it works great wirelessly.

The video is what I would expect from a 640 resolution camera. There is a reason this camera is inexpensive - but it suits my home monitoring needs just fine.

Like the Panasonic, I do not get sound using a Mac - I think you have to have ActiveX on Internet Explorer - but I didnt need sound. It would be nice for those who do to be able to get it with out having to use Microsoft products.

The mount for this camera is better than what both of the Panasonic units I have.

This camera doesnt have a buffer like the panasonic. But the memory in the panasonic is so small it is almost useless.

This camera overall is a great value -under [...] for a wifi camera? that is a bargain.

You do need a little technical knowledge or the desire to try to get any of these cameras set up. These thing are still not Plug n Play - but if you can tinker with the settings of your computer a little, you can set this up. From what I've read, the software that come with these for the Windows side does not always work - and you still need to tinker with the settings. My wife and mother could never figure out how to set this up. They can do email, facebook, etc, but dont go beyond that. If that is you - don't buy this camera, or plan on having someone help you.

Good Luck.

add more setup below

WVC54GCA Setup instructions


Plug in.
Press and hold reset button
Plug into router via Ethernet cable
Look and see what MAC address is written on the back of the camera.
Open airport utility
Go Manual -' Advanced -' Logs and Statistics ' DHCP Clients
Look for the MAC of camera and see what IP it is matched to. - Write both down.
Go to Internet ' DHCP
Click on + for DHCP Reservations
Give Camera a name, Select MAC. click OK.
Type in MAC and IP address as written down above.
Hit Update

Go to Camera - set it up
Basic - Give camera a name. Choose time zone. Network setting - choose fixed IP address. Set it to the IP above. Wireless Setting: enter your WiFi name for the SSID (like in your Airport). Enter the password and the security type. Hit Apply.
Change the login name and password in Administration and apply
Go to users and change to only users in database (unless it is public).

Port forwarding
(Need to set up Dynamic DNS or know your IP address-it changes with many internet services.)
This will allow access from the internet to the camera though the router.
Go to camera's site (IP) address.
Click Setup ' Options ' Alternate Web Port Access ' Enable ' Apply
Make note of the Port number and the RTP data port (1024 and 5000)
Now go to Airport Utility
Advanced ' Port Mapping ' click +
Choose Public Ports (Public 5000,82 work) May need different ones if another camera is active.
Choose Private Ports (match what is in camera above (1024,5000)).
Put in IP of camera
Click Ok
Name Camera again
Click Update.
Now go to your dyndns website ***.com:82 (e.g.[...]) (82 is your port). Or your IP:82 (e.g.[...])

This is an excellent product, especially for the price.

Pros:

* Very inexpensive

* Has great audio pickup. You are able to hear a pin drop!

* Easy to setup (some experience with routers and port forwarding is recommended)

* Allows for E-Mail and FTP of video files captured after motion detection

* WiFi built in, all you need a WiFi network and a power outlet and its ready to go

* Small in size

Cons:

* The swivel base is adequate, however it seems a little flimsy. You have to tighten it down with a plastic ring that could break if you have a heavy hand

* Small bug with FTP transfer for motion capture video. The configuration settings do not allow any special characters in the FTP server name, username, or file path. So if you are going to ftp files you will need to configure it with plain usernames, and server names. I used the IP address of a local computer on the network and changed the username to NOT include an underscore.


Overall:

I would definitely recommend this product. I am planning to purchase two more of these now that I have my first one. I have spec'ed out a traditional security camera system, both IP and RF. With the cost of a DVR, cameras, cabling, etc you could be facing a $1500+ bill. However with a few of these, a WiFi network, and a PC to store the video, you can do almost as good for under $300 (assuming you already have a PC).

The setup I have is:

PC running Windows XP
-Filezilla FTP Server (make sure to open port 21 on your PC firewall)

Belkin Wireless G Router:
-You will need to setup port forwarding to be able to access the video from off of your network.

WVC54GCA
-Save yourself some time and trouble and assign it a static IP in your router. That way it wont be changing on you.

The picture is good, but it bogs down a wireless router a bit. Also instructions for setup could be better. As other reviewers have said, it is not plug and play!! After reading the instructions and piecing together other reviewers comments and getting help from the TZO site I got it to work. Here is the overall process of what you need to do...

First: Follow the instructions that Linksys provides to install the camera and setup a static IP address for it. Do not skip the step about setting up a static IP address! At this point your camera should be working within your home network.

Second: Set up port forwarding on your router - this will send the images from your camera over the internet. Without this step you can only view images from your camera on the same network (i.e. without this you would only be able to view camera images inside your house while you are home). Note that the camera's default setting is normally to use port 80 but it can use port 1024 instead. This sounds more complicated than it really is, just know that many cable companies etc turn off port 80 unless you're a business user and pay extra for it.
** Step 1: Find out if Port 80 is available for you to use -- Download the PortDetective application from portdetective.com. Then run the application and see if port 80 is shut off -- if it is then you can just change to port 1024. (If Linksys had done this right they would have automated this process with their installation software)
** Step 2: Go to the TZO website http://linksys.tzo.com and follow the instructions for setting up your camera to work with their website. Linksys gives you 1 year free of this service. Here is a link to the step by step tutorial http://www.tzo.com/MainPageSupport/HowToPage/LinksysHomeMonitoringCameraTutorial.html
If they change the link then just go on the TZO site and click on support and then find the link for Linksys wireless cameras.
** Step 3 (only for people like me who can't use port 80): Change the port that the camera uses to 1024. You do this in the camera's setup software. Then whenever you want to watch the camera on the internet you use the TZO site but add :1024 after the .com they give you, i.e. http://john12345.mylinksyscamera.com:1024

If you follow the above instructions then your camera should work. Good luck!

This item has been a nightmare! Before I purchased this camera, I contacted Linksys sales and asked the following questions: 1. Does it have the capability to record activity to the hard drive of a computer? 2. Is it wireless? 3. Does it need the internet to function? 4. Does the camera have "motion detection capability"? 5. Can the file be copied to media and be viewed on another computer?

With the exception of 3, the answer to all of the above was YES! An internet connection is not needed unless one wants to view video activity at a remote location. However, a separate router is required. Connect the camera to the router and the router to the computer. Once this is done, unplug the camera and if the router is wireless, the camera can be viewed and recorded.

After receiving the unit, I had a tech at Linksys help in the setup. Everything seemed to work ok, but as I began to make certain all was recording as hoped, nothing was available to view. After many hours of consulting with Linksys tech's I was finally sent to the next level in Irvine, CA. After waiting for two days, I finally received a call. We began working on the recorded issue. Finally after three days, the tech said the camera was faulty so I returned it. Amazon.com was excellent and sent me a new camera via second day. The new camera arrived, and I performed a new install. Still I couldn't get Motion Video to record. Many many more hours and I paid $9.99 to Linksys for online help. Still no resolution, but guess what: they kept my money even though they "guaranteed" resolution or a refund. Finally, I was able to talk to the Irvine tech (only after calling the commercial number in Irvine and asking to talk to the President of Linksys). Turns out my emails to him were going to his junk mail. He couldn't come up with the answer either so he installed a camera and the software to find out what the problem was. He had some of the same problems which I encountered, so he went to the engineering department for help. Turns out we had a check mark in a box that precluded proper saving of video. Also turns out that this camera can only record 30 seconds of activity, BUT there is a field that allows for a "0" (zero instead of one or more minutes) which is the amount of time between detected events. That seems to correct the problem. I've had it functional for three days now, and it appears that the unit and software are functional for my purposes. Also, the user manual doesn't tell that essentially the camera software is, to a great degree, useless. That the Camera Utility software is the most important and works the best. It's easy to think that setting up the camera software works in conjunction with the Utility, but that doesn't seem to be the case. If my email address is available, I'd be glad to help anyone who is having problems with their camera. I can't even begin to estimate my time spent on this, but I've been at it since mid September. It's now October 31. 'Spose there is any significance to that? GOOD LUCK!

I was looking for an economic wireless network camera. I got much more than I expected with this camera.

If you are anything above a Lv 3 techie/nerd class, and have ever setup a home wireless access point (with WEP/WPA encryption and know anything about SSIDs) or an DSL/Cable router then you'll be able to set this up via the built in web interface within mere minutes. If you do not have these skills or if you normally do, but fail your saving throw versus new technologies, you'll want to get that neighbor kid to come over and do it for you.

I setup a static IP address on this unit (due to all the DHCP lease issues I saw in other reviews) and in wireless mode I have NEVER had it drop off and not be able to connect to it. It has worked flawlessly for over a week in various positions around my house.

I live in a 2 story house my linksys wireless access point is in my basement, but I can put this camera anyplace in my house and it will connect to the wireless so I haven't encountered any issues with range (within reason, people).

The picture is 640x480 (or smaller if that's your desire) and is decent.

Things I found to be relevant:
Initial setup must be done with a wired ethernet connection.
This unit is better than it's cheaper counterpart, the WVC54GC.
This unit does do WPA2
This unit can be VIEWED in Firefox on Linux and Windows and Safari on the iPhone
Motion detection must be setup in IE or the Linksys Camera App that is included on the CD.

I like this camera. For the price there is no competitor. I am purchasing 3-4 more of these in the next month.

I got this camera this week, and so far, so good.

Installation using a Mac was a breeze. The key is not to use the installation CD from LinkSys, but to go straight to the web page. This is accomplished by first plugging the camera into a hard-wired ethernet port on a router, then finding out what IP address was given to the unit (most home users will be able to find this via their router's status web page or log file). Once you've got the IP address, plug that into your browser (I tried both Safari and Firefox, quite successfully, too) and go through the Setup page. After you've got it setup the way you want, power off, disconnect the ethernet, and power it back on to go into wireless mode. (NB: both interfaces, the ethernet port and the wifi port, use the same MAC address if you have MAC filtering enabled on your wireless access point.)

One point to note: I did try running the installation CD while running a VM (using Sun's VirtualBox and Windows XP) on my Mac, but due to the NAT'd address for the virtual machine (a class A 10.x.y.z address), my VM XP installation was not in the same subnet as the camera (a class C 192.168.1.x address), and the setup program could not find the camera. However, I was able to use the VM XP installation to load and run the ActiveX components for IE7 to view the MPEG4 ASX video stream as well as run the advanced Motion Detection ActiveX component for setting up "windows" that the camera detects activity within.

None of this is necessary for use with a Mac, however. The camera offers several ways of seeing its output that are compatible with Safari, QuickTime, or Firefox. For example, use http://my.camera/img/snapshot.cgi for stills, http://my.camera/img/video.mjpeg for motion JPEG video, or rtsp://my.camera/#### (where #### is your "Mobile Settings Access Code" from the Setup tab) for low data rate streaming video suitable for a PDA, cellphone, or Nokia Internet Tablet (I've an N800 that it works great with!) I was also able to get http://my.camera/img/video.asf to work in Safari with Flip4Mac installed, but performance was horrible, even on a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook.

As I mentioned before, the camera can be setup with motion detection. The key to getting it to work decently is to make sure that you've got a proper motion window setup for the camera to watch for motion. The camera won't be fooled by gradual lighting changes (like dawn or dusk), so if you set the window to a static background (e.g., a covered concrete walkway, vs. a tree blowing in the breeze and subject to shadows from clouds), motion detection works quite well. You can also set the camera to not send motion alerts between certain times (like when you're asleep!) Of course, this must be tempered with my note below about setting the time

Wifi range seems to be good -- I've gone over 30' and through 2 interior walls from my D-Link DIR-655 802.11n router without any performance dropouts or other problems.

Overall, the camera works as it's advertised. I like the extra mounting hole on the back of the camera, the long power cord, and the standard video and still image formats available. I also like that you can specify the still image output format via the URL (just tack on ?size=#&quality=# to the snapshot.cgi), but wish the same could be done with the video stream. The video quality's not great, a bit grainy in low-light and colors are slightly washed out, but what do you expect for $[...]? I'm also not convinced the NTP client works at all on this device, which makes power outages or moving the device problematic for keeping the time set on it. (see update below!) Manual time setting must be done against the browser client you are running to view the Setup page.

That said, it's a strong 4 out of 5 stars in my book. I just might be buying another one of these to dedicate to the back yard...

--
Update, 22-May-2009
This camera's been running non-stop for the past 9 months, without any problems. The NTP client has proven to work just fine, in answer to my query above. I've never experienced any dropouts or disconnects that required me to reboot the camera. And, as I thought I might, I've bought another unit for my back yard!

The motion detection has proven to be a bit more problematic than I originally thought. The problem appears to be "blooming" in the image -- the automatic exposure control slowly climbs a little bit, and when the image gets to a certain point of over-exposure, the camera automatically steps the exposure back. This causes the entire frame to change -- and this causes the motion capture to trigger! I used the motion detection for a few weeks, and got several bum triggers. Watching the camera one day, I saw this happen, and was able to then confirm it happened in the same scenario later. I've since turned off the motion detection, and rely on an external IR motion detector to trigger my capture.

It's not the best webcam in the world, and it's not the cheapest (though darn close), but it is the best platform-independent, JPEG/MJPEG/MP4/RTSP, wifi webcam, for under a Benjamin. (Well, give or take, as the price does fluctuate.)

Things I wish they'd fix in a firmware update:
- Fix the motion detection bug described above.
- User specifiable NTP server.
- Non-Windows proprietary streaming video w/ audio.
- Automatic day/night exposure gain control.
- Ability to invert the image so the camera could be mounted from the "top".

Still, I'm happy with my purchase! And it still deserves a solid 4 stars.

I was really happy with this camera. It is a good size, nice design, easy to setup.

But, then after leaving it plugged into the network and unattended for a few days, it shut off. It does not like to be powered up for more than a couple of days, and the only way to reset it is to unplug the power, and plug it back in again.

I have tried wired and wireless connections, but no luck.

It's not worth your money unless you don't mind resetting it's power every day or so.

I bought this camera about 2 weeks ago. The video quality is outstanding. It took me about 10 minutes to have it fully set up and operational on my wireless network using a DLink Draft N router. After it was operational on my internal network, I set both cameras up for internet access using different ports forwarded into the respective cameras which are set up on different internal IP addresses. Now I can watch both from my office. I have 2 pointing out my window to capture any activity on my front lawn. I am buying a 3rd one to use for indoor monitoring and security.
I will say that you must set up motion detection at your own risk. It WILL bombard you with about 300 emails or FTP alerts per hour, even on the lowest sensitivity. Other than that it is certainly one of the best looking, and easiest to use cameras I have found. For the money, you just can't beat the quality. Do not, however, try to use this an an outdoor camera...I heard someone who returned one trying to do just that...Couldn't figure out why after the first rain storm it failed completely...