Home > Consumer Reviews > D-Link DCS-950 10/100TX Internet Camera, Built-in Microphone

Set up was easy, technical support was readily availible. However the camera over a short amount of time stopped working. Had to reset the camera several times a day for it to work. We bought it for remote security for a restaurant, so needless to say it failed for our application. Called TS about a dozen times until "THEY" determined the unit faulty. Returned the unit for one that was even worse. Now I'm getting the run around with the RMA department. I'm going to buy a different camera now at a local retailer. This way, I can return it without issue if there is any problems.

Update! D-Link sent me some magic beta firmware version. The camera has worked flawlessly for weeks now.

As I read product reviews, not just for this item but for other technology items, it occurs to me that many of the comments describing difficulty are often from people who likely don't understand basic networking principles. This is compounded by the documentation included with most D-Link products, including this camera. While not horrific, the documentation could be much better. The help pages accessed within the camera's web server itself are written in less than perfect english, and aren't detailed.

That said, I own two of these cameras, and they do work, if you understand a few networking concepts. Most importantly, you really need to understand IP assignments, port forwarding/port changing, Dynamic DNS, etc. If you don't, you're not going to get a lot of assistance from the camera itself. Yes, it can work right out of the box, and quickly, but if you run into special circumstances - such as the need to change a port number within the camera, forward a port, open a port in your router, or set up Dynamic DNS to view the camera through the web...you should probably grab your nearest computer geek and enlist his or her help.

The latest firmware seems to be more stable (1.07 I believe as of this writing - and here's a tip, when all else fails, try updating your camera with the latest firmware!), and the features are probably adequate for most users. You can record all the time, on a schedule, or via motion detection. One nice feature of the motion detection is the ability to "draw" a box on the camera's image to indicate what percentage of that box must be changed (it works by pixel changes) before motion recording is activated. It does work, but you need to fiddle with the sensitivity settings to find the sweet spot. Night time images are ok (but you may have to manually change the brightness settings at night)...for a lower priced IP camera, you're not going to get infrared vision, so don't expect it.

There are a couple features I'd like to see added to the camera/firmware, such as the ability to specify how long a recording should occur after motion is triggered, and the ability to shut off the microphone permanently as the administrator. As it is, if you create a guest account that can log onto your camera, the guest can turn the audio off and on (for their session) - not good if you don't want non-administrators to hear your audio.

If your camera will be placed somewhere where a power outlet isn't handy, I can confirm that the D-Link Power Over Ethernet (PoE) adapter works fine with this camera - you can find it here on Amazon as well. Just keep in mind that you'll still need to plug the PoE adapter into a wall outlet somewhere, and into your router.

Overall, this camera provides adequate value for the price, despite a few shortcomings.

I bought 2 of these cameras. They had sequential serial numbers, so I know the hardware was the same batch.

One of the cameras works as well as can be expected, but the other one locks up very easily. It has locked up at least 10 times under normal usage conditions, and requires the reset button to be held while connecting power to get it to work again. Simply power cycling does not work. This happened on firmware 1.0, 1.2 and 1.3.

The camera that does work is ok and probably worth the money, but a lot of work should be done on the firmware to make it really solid. For example, the DST setting doesn't stick, so the time-stamp on the image is always off by one hour - if it isn't completely wrong (1969). I can set it again, but it will lose that setting next time I reboot it, or visit the settings page. The basic features work ok, but it crashes sometimes when saving settings, and you get a "page not found" error and have to log in again. It also requires IE for the embedded ActiveX video viewer, and as far as I can tell, the video cannot be viewed live on Windows Media or Winamp even though it is supposedly mpeg4.

So, give d-link a few months to bang out a few firmware fixes, and hopefully they will make it easier to use other streaming video viewers like WM10 or Winamp.

I'm not sure I would buy it again, but I will at least keep the working camera. The other one is going back for a refund.

I bought the DCS-950 camera to watch people testing in a room. I found the camera easy to set up with the instructions that were supplied so maybe I had newer instructions. The image quality is pretty good even in low light. The features seem pretty good but they are a little awkward to use and I didn't test some of them. Overall I would be thrilled with the camera for the price but it keeps crashing. Usually when it crashes I get a "camera server error" when I log into the device. I can navigate the admin web interface but get no video. Navigating to the reset option doesn't fix the problem, only powering it down fixes the problem. Sometimes it all crashes and I can't even log into it so I just have to power it down. It crashes at least once a day.

"Jesse" at the India tech support was of no help. He didn't have accurate information at all. I am still trying to get some resolution and will probably spend $1000 of my time because I didn't spend $400 on a camera.

I bought this, a Panasonic Wireless camera, and a Toshiba IK-WB15A wired camera to sample externally-facing cameras for my home. The Toshiba is the best (and the most expensive), the Panasonic is acceptable during the day and a little more expensive, but the D-link is a huge disappointment.

The D-Link DCS-950 doesn't share video via MPEG or Motion-JPEG, unlike some of the other D-Link cameras. It requires a proprietary ActiveX browser plugin, so if you're running Mac OS X, Linux, etc., you'll either need to use Virtual PC or similar technology, or be happy with the single frame snapshots. Also as a result, a lot of the security DVR software will not work with this camera, so check the supported hardware list of any of these packages that you're using, or are thinking about using.

The worst thing is the camera stability. I don't mean physical, although that's very bad, too -- the software crashes frequently and requires power cycling (unplug and replug) to reactivate. As a result, this camera can't go anyplace remote or difficult to access, and can't be relied upon to watch your house if you're not home.