Linksys WVC54G Wireless-G Internet Video Camera review

Even if your premises have an alarm, the chances are you'll be worried about the safety of its contents when you leave them unattended. You could consider a network security camera, although you'll still need web access to view goings on. But Linksys goes one better with its WVC54G camera - it can send alerts of any activity via text message to your mobile phone.

As with many Linksys wireless devices, setup assumes the rest of your kit is Linksys as well. The WVC54G ships with a fixed IP address of 192.168.1.115, so if your broadband router doesn't use addresses in this range you won't be able to configure the Linksys without temporarily changing your router's settings. Using a Linksys Wireless-G router, we attached a desktop PC and the WVC54G via wired Ethernet, and the setup ran smoothly from the installation CD.

After changing the WVC54G to dynamic IP allocation, we were able to plug it into a non-Linksys router and gain access. We could then alter the SSID to that of our existing setup, although we found we had to temporarily choose Ad-Hoc mode to specify a different wireless channel. Finally, we were able to unhook the camera and access it wirelessly, which is where the fun begins.

Accessing the setup web page gives you access to a live view of what the camera can see, with audio. The latter can either be from the built-in microphone, or there's an input for an external device. Installing the bundled Viewer & Recorder Utility provides more options still, including managing multiple cameras from one interface, making recordings, and scheduling regular recordings.

However, the latter requires you to leave the desktop PC with the software installed turned on. What you don't get with the Viewer & Recorder Utility is motion-detection-triggered recording, although the camera itself supports it. To take advantage of this, it's necessary to set up the Intamac monitoring system. A 30-day trial is included, after which it costs £5 a month. Once you've registered both your own and your camera's details, you can turn on monitoring. When you're out, if movement is sensed, a short live video clip will be uploaded to the Intamac server. Alerts will then be sent by telephone, text and email to your nominated contacts. You can watch the clip online, or it will be attached to the email. You can even have images sent via MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service).

To aid live viewing over the Internet, direct support is provided for SoloLink, which is Linksys's own dynamic DNS system. This gives you a static URL that tracks the non-permanent IP address allocated by your ISP. A free one-year subscription is included.

The image quality of the end picture is very much determined by how you're receiving it - MMS images, for instance, are distinctly low-rent. But over a wireless connection, at the top 640 x 480 resolution, quality is surprisingly good (inevitably, some frames are dropped though). Quality is certainly good enough to recognise faces.

Considering the WVC54G operates as both a wireless and wired device, and includes audio, it's much better value than the similarly priced Axis 205. While you don't need the Intamac service to view video over the Web, the Intamac features make it a fully functional security device. With an MMS-enabled phone, you can even take a look at any activity on your premises when you're nowhere near a PC - a perfect panacea for the paranoid.

Author: James Morris