This is a price and value leader for IP cameras. I have bought six or seven from various vendors and this is as good as or better than any in its class. And the fulfillment by AMAZON is superior to shipment form China.Remember that the product will require some setup including a little knowledge of LAN and IP addressing schemes UNLESS YOU USE THE INCLUDED SOFTWARE.
Because the software and support information is not originally intended for the USA market, it tends to be obscure, incomplete, or buggy.
Sometimes disastrously so. Operating the camera directly from the browser interface ( not using the special software ) with a static IP address is extremely reliable.
Not included in the specs are details of the 4-pin port ( connector included ) for external switched devices. This IP camera is much more powerful and much more sophisticated than the product description would suggest.
Also I prefer to use DynDns rather than the free dynamic DNS service from the manufacturer. To access the device over the open internet it is necessary to know the IP address assigned to your internet modem connection ( which will likely change from time to time) and a port number if the port is OTHER than 80.
Additionally the modem will have to be configured to accept and pass-through traffic to the camera's port ( even if it is "80" )
Given all that I can hit all four of my active cameras either through dyndns or by puting the ( known ) IP address + port number in my browser as the URL. and example ( fictional ) might be: 72.21.194.1:82 . the" :82 " would be the port number " 82 ".
For all the features and the EXTREMELY good price, not only am I impressed by this product but I expect to buy more while they are available.
One last thought the maximum resolution is 640 x 480 which is VGA and looks very good an a computer display. It is not HD and you will not be able to read the name tag of the UPS guy standing outside your front door.
The IR illuminator is good over a limited distance and revealed what animal would visit in the dark and "decorate" the mag wheels of my car in the driveway.
And you will be amused by the approximations of English in the support materials. You're buying an excellent IP camera from China, not Shakespeare!
The plug included was a Euro-style plug (the two-round prong only). On top of that, there weren't any instructions at all. I tried messing with it for a little bit, but even with the correct adapter, I wasn't able to figure out how to work it.
I'd recommend going with a Foscam if you want something easy to setup and use.It works ok and it is useful only if you have software that can record video. I setup this camera to send pictures to my email whenever motion is detected. It works as expected but images very poor, even with slight movement you get blur images. I dont think somebody going to stand still when they tresspass your property so a big disappoint. It is okay to use as baby monitor or other simple task.....just count on it for home security.Overall this camera is exactly what it claims to be. Its a decent IP camera with pan, tilt and 640x480 resolution. For what I paid I consider it a pretty good deal. However, unlike the previous reviewer, mine seems to have come with a small set of issues. First, the power adapter they sent is not a US adapter, it is the European style (2 pole connector). Luckily I had a set of adapter plugs I had purchased for a trip several years ago and was able to adapt it to the US style socket (you can get inexpensive ones at Walmart or Target). Second, while everything was packed quite well, for some reason they appear to have forgotten a software installation disc. The only manual that came with it was a 3 leaf insert all in Chinese. Since I have worked with similar cameras at work (and they pretty much all seem to come from the same factory), I was able to utilize the software for those cameras and got it up and running. If you happened to get one of these cameras sans disc, you can download the same free software from companies such as EasyN (this camera is pretty much the same as their FS-618A series). If you can get past the issues, it's a decent camera and good value for the price. While this camera works great, I am giving it a 4 out of 5 stars for the power plug and missing installation disc issues.
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