Customer Reviews

D-Link Securicam Network DCS-950G Wireless Internet Camera

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

Great camera but it is a bit slow to set-up.
My main issue was that I use Firefox, but the camera will only log in using the Inernet Explorer window. They don't tell you this on the instructions and it still gives you the login panel - but it just says done and won't connect you to the camera.

When you iron out these problems its a great camera a little tricky to focus and the view angle is quite small but it is easy to move to any location and you get a great image.

Why does this camera have to be so difficult to set up and use? All it is, is a camera and some firmware!
My experience has been terrible with this thing. Sometimes I see its IP on the network, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I can get access to the setup page, most times I get an IP error. This would be ok if I was a novice, but I run our network at work, so know exactly how this thing should work.. and one word sums it up: FLAKEY! The wireless is sometimes up sometimes down. And don't get me started on the motion-detection (the main reason for buything it). I put it to 1 (out of 100),. point the camera to the wall, or some other very still vista, and it constantly gets tripped, and starts to record. I will look into this more, maybe there is something I am missing.
But why should I have to!? This thing should work out of the box. Simple buttons which say 'start camera', 'stop camera', 'engage motion detection' etc.
It's only due to my geeky persevering nature that I am continuing to try to beat this damn thing into working properly. I pity a civilian buying this thing and trying to use it.
If you can find another similarly-priced & featured camera, buy it instead.

I just purchased this camera and noticed upon install that new firmware is now available. Many others had posted that bugs existed in old firmware. I immediately updated the firmware with no problems - please note only to update firmware when the camera is connected to a hard wired network - do not update firmware over wireless. Since updating the firmware, I've found the camera to be very reliable, sharp image with manual focus lens, and easy to set up with dynamic dns for viewing via a regular web address via the internet. I have seen no other wireless color cameras on the market in this price range that also include audio. This is a great buy for home security, baby monitoring, remote vacation home monitoring, and other uses. Enjoy!

Bottom line, don't buy it unless you want to reboot the thing several times a day. It just will not stay connected to the network more than a few hours at a time. My other camera (a Panasonic BL-C30A) stays connected non-stop without a problem (but it has no audio). I'm retuning the Dlink tomorrow.

The motion detection is not too good, it is difficult to calibrate, the notification only send pieces of video, I need to take snap shot to send by email when detect motion.

After reading mostly bad reviews, I took a chance and bought this product. True to the majority of reviews, the camera is subject to locking up regulary. When it worked, the picture quality was good. Tried to work with DLINK and they were no help. They acted as they were not aware of this problem, but they must be since everyone returns these camera's. I saw similiar reviews for their other models as well. My guess is they have a serious firmware problem they need to fix. With so many models to choose from, you would think they have enough invested in this product line to fix the software. I am going to try the "4xem Corp. IPCAMWLPTG 4XEM Wlptg 802.11G Wireless"

After reading the other reviews I was prepared for the worst. I use a Linksys Wireless Router, had all my settings ready to go, followed the directions, set the camera configuration with Routers SSID,channel,WEP encryption etc.The whole process from out of the box to seeing an image was less than 20 minutes. Tested it in the wireless mode, had to click the search button to get the IP & then logged on with no problem. Pulled out my laptop, typed in the IP, and it connected. I haven't run it for an extended period of time but for the hour+ I was testing it, it didn't lock up or disconnect. Overall all,pleasantly surpised with ease of setup and the quality of the picture. Use Windows XP Pro, 2.4 GH processor, 1 gig of ram. The next part of the review is a follow up to the ealier review. Now that I have a chance to use this camera for extended periods of time, it does lock up too often. Upgraded the firmware but that didn't solve the issue. It has a good picture but once you access it from a remote location, you may want to keep it going. 05/10/2007 Follow-up review. After upgrading to the latest firmware, 1.07, I have been able to access the camera from my office without a lockup. Access has been multiple times each day. Picture quality is excellent. It's still a challenge to set up offsite internet access but with the Port Fowarding Settings set correctly and using DHCP for both the Router & Camera it should work. 06/09/2007, one last review comment. The new firmware version is working. Have accessed the Camera multiple time every day for over a month and it has always connected.

This camera requires frequent restarts (unplug and plug in again) so it is virtually useless for a security camera.

I spent a lot of time configuring the camera. Uploaded and installed the newest firmware (1.06) and viewing software (IPView SE) and the camera still froze and dropped of my network frequently.

When it was working, I thought the image quality was good and low light feature very good. I never bothered to set up for Internet viewing and email notification.

I returned the camera

Not a bad camera. I got it so I could watch my newborn nephews on the opposite coast. It works well enough. The image is pretty grainy, and movements are a bit choppy. And the image blanks out once in a while for about 5 seconds. But, I only had to power-cycle it once in the last week, and I think it was because I tried to use https and that somehow screwed something up with the built-in webserver.

Installation and setup was easy and straight forward. All the problems I had were with the wireless router.

I just use IE to access it. I used IPView for a little bit, but didn't see any benefit with it. And I think IPView only takes IP addresses. I couldn't enter a name to be resolved.

Overall, pretty good. It's probably only going to be used for another year. Once the kids become mobile, a stationary camera just won't do.

This camera needs to go back to the drawing board. The motion sensing does not work when I used the IPview Lite program. I upgraded the firmware and used the latest version of the IPview Lite program(version 5). The ipview lite constantly freezes up after I activate the motion sensing. The quality of the picture is no better than the DCS 900W. I wasted my money and the camera is in storage with the rest of my junk.