Home > Consumer Reviews > Linksys WVC54GCA Webcam 640x480 802.11G Wireless Internet Home Monitoring Camera

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...

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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.

First off, I'm a computer tech and know a great deal about networking. It took me about 20 minutes from start to finish to set this up, throw it on the web, and tweek it. From a user prospective, Linksys is lacking as the manual is not consistent with the software (version difference?) as is the Faq's and such. I wouldn't even consider this product from a new user standpoint. Ok, now the gritty. I have to unplug the camera about every 12 hours to "reboot" it as it quits working after awhile. I have it setup perfectly without any of the add on's (such as recording or motion detection, or even the mic!), and it's stand alone so it's locking up on it's own on the most basic settings. Going to return it for another brand. Even the best reviews on here admit it just locks up alot. Not a stable camera at all. Why even bother if you have to keep pulling the power every day? your call..

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.

Works like a charm. if you know how to set up a router, adding this wireless camera to your home network is a piece of cake. Was pleasantly surprised at how well it works. My wife and I can watch our new puppy from work to make sure she's ok. You can watch video from any web browser. However, you can only heard audio when using Internet Explorer -- that leaves all Mac users like me without the audio functionality. The camera utility software seems pretty good, but there is only a PC version. I find it incredible that I can watch the video on my iPhone. Would've rated this 5 stars if it weren't for the limited functionality for non-PC users.

Once you get the camera started via the network, which was not a problem. The software is just terrible. Hardware seems strong and sturdy, but software is worthless. I could not ge the software to really operate the camera. This product went back. Big dissapointment for a Linksys product