Bulbs & Fittings Ideas

Having owned quite a few DLink Cameras over the years here are some pointers before you start installation:
1) Create a MyDlink.com account.
2) Download the setup.exe for your respective camera from the support link on that site. This is only a utility to configure the camera, and will not install any items on your pc.
4) Connect the camera to a physical network cable, not wireless, at this point. Run the setup.exe

Many network devices have an admin webpage, if you can locate the DHCP address, however I advise not to do this. Running the setup.exe will save you some headaches and additional steps (including linking the camera to mydlink for cloud use). The setup.exe will handle:
-scanning the network for your camera
-setting an admin password
-setting up your device to use a wireless network (it will scan for your Wireless Name and you can specify the password)
-link this camera to your mydlink cloud account so you can use a mobile phone (android, iphone), or remote PC, to browse this remotely.

One of the nice features for mydlink is it works without the necessity to open any additional ports on your network or require a running PC connected to the device. I find the dlink app through my wife’s iphone ideal for the occasional check in when we are on vacation or out of town. When we show friends/family they are impressed enough to purchase similar dlink models. I currently have 8 cameras running on my mydlink account.

Another common issue I see often are the cameras have a focusing lens on the camera that may not be intuitive or noticed during installation. This focusing ring can be adjusted by turning it clockwise or counter clockwise. Once the camera is configured, using the steps above, I would adjust this where needed. I have found quite a few skewed one way or the other that made the picture out of the box unacceptable but became clear once adjusted.

There are other cameras on the market, including HD versions, but I have found these cameras a good value. The mydlink feature is one of the reasons I select D-link over the other models. Please keep in mind that the max resolution is 640*480. Good for monitoring areas for activity or changes, but not enough to read text (ie license plates) or specific details that would require an increased resolution (ie facial features from a distance).

This camera is not compatible with D-ViewCam software, although the manual informs that it is compatible. This camera is not listed under D-ViewCam software camera list so I could not even manually add this, when D-ViewCam failed to detect this.

It is important for me to use D-ViewCam because I need to manage multiple cameras.

D-Link email support does not exist. They never reply back. They do not answer the phone and they do not return calls, even after I leave voice mails.

I hope that they understand the importance of assisting post sales inquiry to minimize unnecessary returns. I hope the D-Link rep who is posting reply to the review in Amazon forward this issue to management.

I am returning this.

Update: The D-ViewCam became available for this camera a few days ago. D-Link should have made it available when they released this product or at least answer the phone to inform late addition.

I am still not going back to this product because motion detection was not working for me, either. I used it to get email notification when we are away and someone enters our house. However, this camera considers light change as a motion. I changed the settings-sensitivity down to 1%, image with less contrast, simpler detection area… Nothing works. I did not want to play all my recording all the time to check.

If you want to get motion detection notification by email and do not want any misfired notification, PIR camera is better than this, although it is still not perfect.

The IP cam does what it is designed to do. The set up was quite easy with my Windows notebook – just follow the simple directions in the manual that comes with the box. I also downloaded the Android app (mydlink lite) and was able to easily view the webcam remotely with my smartphone. The mydlink website requires use of Java so it is very hard to get the MacBook Pro to view it, but iPhone/iPad uses the mydlink lite app, so no problem.

I was able to perch the IP cam in an area where I could get almost 200 degree view of the room, so I was able to make the most of the pan feature of this camera.

After testing for a few days, I tried to set up motion sensor alerts (sending e-mail and brief 10 second video). The alerts work well, but I did get false alerts when the IP cam switches the mechanical shutter from day time (color) to night time (IR LED / black-and-white) images. The shutter triggers the motion sensor. It is something minor that I can live with.