Linksys Wireless-G Internet Home Monitoring Camera Review
Model # WVC54GCA
Editor’s Note: The Linksys Internet Monitoring Camera is the first product in a series of “home server companion product” reviews we plan to bring you over the next few months! Our goal is to bring you more reviews of products that fit into the home and small business networking environment that work with and alongside our home server.
The Linksys WVC54GCA camera is small, measuring only 3.5”x4.75×1.5” deep and is a dark charcoal grey color and includes a front LED and a tiny microphone for audio streaming. The camera can be mounted on the included base from the bottom or back. The camera mount offers many different angles with the help of a swivel, and mounting holes for mounting the camera from a ceiling or wall. Although this is not an outdoor camera, it can most likely be used in an outdoor scenario if the camera is protected from direct water/moisture. We have been using an older WVC54GC outside under a rafter to protect it from rain and it’s been operating for years without any issue. The camera includes a small DC power supply that provides the camera with the 5 volts needed to operate and also has an 10/100 Ethernet port in the back if the camera is to be used on a wired network. This Ethernet port is also used for the initial setup of the camera.
Setting up the Camera using the provided CD: The Linksys WVC54GCA is a low cost fixed focus IP camera by Linksys. This camera is a second generation and has many more features than the first generation WVC54GC, for about the same price.This is one of the easiest setups we have tried for an IP camera and it took less than 5 minutes to get up and running. When we first unpacked our camera, we were directed to insert the setup CD (Windows only) and follow the instructions on the CD wizard. We found the wizard almost too easy and once the camera was discovered on the LAN (Local Area Network), it allowed us to select a wireless access point and then we could connect to the camera over the wireless network.
The Linksys Camera Setup Wizard makes it very easy to setup
Once our camera was attached to the wireless network and the setup wizard finished, we moved it into a window location and proceed to setup an administrator password different from the default, add users and fine tune some of the advanced features.
Once we moved the camera and powered it back up, we could see by watching the front LED that it was connected to the wireless access point properly and we were ready to login. We then logged into the camera with the newly set administrator password and poked around the menus to customize the camera.
The WVC54GCA administrative interface is very simple to use and laid out in a similar fashion to many other Linksys devices. See the screenshot below of the OPTIONS screen of the camera. This screenshot shows how to change the web server port to an alternate if port 80 is blocked by your ISP.
The Linksys Camera Admin Interface allows you to change the web server port
Before we dive into our favorite features, we have an expanded feature list below that describes some of the key features of the camera. Linksys has made MANY improvements over the previous model WVC54GC
Key features of the Linksys Wireless-G Internet Home Monitoring camera:
• Built-in Web Server that defaults on port 80 and also allows a secondary port to be selected if your ISP blocks port 80.
• Built-in microphone for audio streaming – Internet Explorer only with ActiveX component installed.
• 640×480 native resolution that offers MPEG-4 and MJPEG video and screenshot mode.
• Supports Wireless-G network and also offers WEP and WPA wireless security. The camera also has an integrated 10/100 Ethernet connection for use in a non-wireless environment.
• Supports up to 4 simultaneous remote users/viewers.
• Streams via RTSP for remote viewing via Cell Phone such as the LG Voyager and others that support RTSP. (Currently the iPhone does NOT support RTSP)
• Security mode offers email and video alerts when motion is detected. Motion Detection area is custom and sensitivity can also be selected.
• Multicast offers video to be monitored by unlimited users on local LAN. Since the stream is “multicasted” users on the local LAN can connect to the stream without degrading video quality.
• 1 year of TZO.COM Dynamic DNS service bundled free by Linksys. Offers domain names such as “MyLinksysCamera.com” that users can enable for easier remote viewing/administration.
• Time Stamp and Text Display – allows text and time stamp overlay on the video or snapshot.
• Includes Linksys home monitoring utility to record video and motion for later viewing – acts like DVR software for up to 9 Linksys Internet Home Monitoring cameras.
• User Database built into camera allows multiple usernames and passwords. Allows viewing by certain user without providing the administration password.
Included Software: Linksys provides the Home Monitoring software that has the ability to provide a split screen view of up to 9 Linksys cameras at once. The software can also record motion video based on a schedule or motion detection. This included monitoring software is a great option for those who want to preserve and review the video if they cannot watch the stream live.
Configuring the Camera Settings: The first thing we did to configure is setup the camera to a Static LAN IP address. Since we plan on using this camera for remote viewing over the Internet, we assigned a static LAN IP address to our camera at 192.168.1.200. This IP is a “safe” IP that is out of the DHCP range when using a Linksys router. By setting a static LAN IP we avoid the possibility of the camera changing IP’s on us (via DHCP) and breaking the port forwarding rules we setup. Once we had the camera setup on a Static LAN IP, we then logged into our camera at the internal IP address of 192.168.1.200 and setup the features we planned on using in the camera.
TZO Dynamic DNS Service included with each camera: Linksys also includes a free year of TZO.COM Dynamic DNS service with each WVC54GCA camera. The Dynamic DNS service is useful if your ISP provides you with a Dynamic IP address. The Dynamic DNS (also known as DDNS) service provides you with a domain name such as “YourName.MyLinksyscam.com” and continually polls the WAN IP address and keeps the domain name in synch with this IP. The DDNS service makes connecting to the camera much easier, since remember a name is much easier to remember than a number.
To setup the DDNS, we logged into the camera, Enabled the DDNS service and then clicked the “WEB SITE” button as shown below. This launched the TZO Linksys signup page and after entering our email address and MAC address of our camera, we were sent the TZO account information. We then put this information in the camera and saved the settings. The camera instantly updates the domain name with the current IP and polls the IP every 15 minutes to detect a change. As soon as it changes, it updates the DNS. We could then connect to our camera using our domain name YourName.MyLinksyscam.com after opening the required ports in our router. After the free year of TZO DDNS service, you can purchase the service for a discounted rate of $19.95 per year.
The Linksys Camera comes with a free year of the TZO.COM Dynamic DNS Service
Using RTSP to view streaming video from a cell phone: This is no doubt our favorite feature of this camera! This is the first low priced Internet camera that has this type of feature and we love it! Enabling the MOBILE STREAMING feature in the IMAGE menu of the Linksys camera allows us to use our LG Voyager cell phone from Verizon to log into the live video stream from the camera. RTSP by default uses port 554, so we forwarded port 554 into the static LAN IP of the camera we setup. Once we did this, we can type in a URL from our cell phone browser like rtsp://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:554/xxxxx (where xxxxx is the access code we set within the mobile streaming section – see screenshot below)
The Linksys Camera can stream video to a mobile device such as a cell phone using RTSP
Having the access code as part of the URL allows us to use our custom home page on the Voyager to instantly select the stream to view and no username or password prompt is required. We loved that we could stream to our cell phone, so we now have 5 of these on our network. The first camera is on the default RTSP port of 554, and the second cam listens on 1029 and the third camera is set to port 1030 as shown in our examples below. We simply changed the RTSP port in the additional cameras and then use the following format to reach the camera’s via RTSP (xxxxx is the access code you set):
rtsp://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:554/xxxxx
rtsp://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:1029/xxxxx
rtsp://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:1030/xxxxx
rtsp://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:1031/xxxxx
rtsp://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:1032/xxxxx
Since we have 5 of these cams on our home network and want to be able to view all of them via HTTP and also via RTSP from our cell phone, we needed to change ports on each camera to do this. Since our home server is on port 80, we couldn’t use that. Linksys allows you to use 1024 and higher if 80 is unavailable. We set the cameras as follows and forwarded all these required ports to each Camera IP:
Cam 1 – Static LAN IP of 192.168.1.200
Set HTTP port to 1024, and RTSP data port to the default 554
We can reach the cam by HTTP at http://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:1024
We can reach the cam by RTSP at rtsp://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:554/xxxxx (where xxxxx is the access code)
Cam 2 – Static LAN IP of 192.168.1.201
Set HTTP port to 1025, and RTSP data port 1029
We can reach the cam by HTTP at http://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:1025
We can reach the cam by RTSP at rtsp://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:1029/xxxxx (where xxxxx is the access code)
Cam 3 – Static LAN IP of 192.168.1.202
Set HTTP port to 1026, and RTSP data port to 1030
We can reach the cam by HTTP at http://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:1026
We can reach the cam by RTSP at rtsp://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:1030/xxxxx (where xxxxx is the access code)
Cam 4 – Static LAN IP of 192.168.1.203
Set HTTP port to 1027, and RTSP data port to 1031
We can reach the cam by HTTP at http://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:1027
We can reach the cam by RTSP at rtsp://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:1031/xxxxx (where xxxxx is the access code)
Cam 5 – Static LAN IP of 192.168.1.204
Set HTTP port to 1028, and RTSP data port to 1032
We can reach the cam by HTTP at http://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:1028
We can reach the cam by RTSP at rtsp://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com:1032/xxxxx (where xxxxx is the access code)
The screenshot below shows how to change the RTSP port. We did NOT have to change the data port for each camera, just the RTSP port differs on each camera.
The Linksys Camera allows you to customize the RTSP port for mobile streaming
Keep in mind that some mobile devices and cell phones support RTSP, but at this time many do not. We have one of the latest cell phones offered by Verizon, the LG Voyager. The LG Voyager has one of the best HTML compliant browsers available and it also support RTSP. Some phones like the iPhone do not support RTSP at this time. Check with your wireless carrier for more details if their network or wireless hardware supports the RTSP protocol.
The LG Voyager cell phone offered by Verizon offers RTSP support for mobile video streaming
The LG Voyager cell phone connected to our Linksys camera over RTSP for mobile video streaming
Tapping the screen will put the RTSP video stream in Landscape mode and fill the screen
Snapshot image: Another feature that we really appreciate is the ability to get a snapshot JPG image from the camera by going to a simple URL. This was something that was lacking in the older WVC54GC cameras and was one of the most common questions on the Linksys support forums. This is a feature that is very handy if you have a cell phone or mobile device that does not support streaming. We use a simple URL format http://MyName.MyLinksysCamera.com/img/snapshot.cgi that takes the current image and feeds that JPG image back to the browser. This option should allow you to view a current still image from the camera, no matter what browser or device you are using.
Motion Detection and Motion Alerts: One of the main selling points of this camera is the ability to detect motion and send email alerts with a JPG or video attachment upon detection. We tested this feature by setting up motion detection on our driveway, and sure enough we got an email shortly after the FedEX delivery we were waiting for. The motion detection can be highly customized, allowing you to select the area of the screen to “watch” as well as the ability to raise and lower the sensitivity. One thing we didn’t particularly care for was the Internet Explorer browser requirement for adjusting the motion detection. This is due to an ActiveX control for setting up motion detection. In the screenshot below, we set a custom area and drew a motion box around the doorway to our office. We then adjusted the sensitivity to our desired level.
The Linksys Camera allows you to customize the Motion detection and specify sensitivity
The motion detection works very well, but on a windy and cloudy day you can receive many false alarms from shadows and clouds causing “motion” within the monitored image. This false motion detection is something that even the most expensive DVR’s and Security cameras suffer from as well, so Linksys is not to blame.
Quick Access URL’s for the cameras using a browser:
Snapshot mode - Captures a static JPG Image from the camera, from any browser:
http://YourDomain.MyLinksysCam.com/img/snapshot.cgi
Streaming Video and Audio Streams:
http://YourDomain.MyLinksysCam.com/img/mjpeg.htm
(Motion JPEG for Firefox – video only)
http://YourDomain.MyLinksysCam.com/img/main.cgi?next_file=main.htm
(Internet Explorer browser – relies on ActiveX control, but supports audio stream)
Other applications such as QuickTime, Windows Media Player, VLC, etc can also support the camera streams. Please refer to the Linksys manual for more detail on using these applications.
Using our home server to create a web page to display all camera snapshots: Since we have 5 of these Linksys cameras around our home and property, it was tedious to log into each camera URL to obtain a simple snapshot. We were looking for a way to grab a snapshot image from each camera we had setup and save those images to a local folder on our home server. Since the HP MediaSmart Home Server has IIS (Internet Information web server), we used IIS Manager to create another website on the home server and then added a customized default.html file into that folder that simply displayed 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg onto a single web page. The problem was finding a way to “fetch” the images from each cam and place them on the server…
After some extensive searches and some trial and error, we found a freeware windows application called download.exe – This lightweight application can “fetch” the images from each of our cameras, even if we have usernames and passwords assigned. We created a simple batch file that runs on our HP Home server and is located in the startup folder so it runs automatically each time the server restarts. The application “grabs” the current image from each camera and writes them out to an image name of your choice. Since we have 5 cams, we formatted the URLs in our batch file to fetch from each cam and name the image 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg, etc and saved them locally in the directory that we setup in IIS. The application grabs all the snapshots, then sleeps for 300 seconds and does it all over again.
We can now use our browser on any PC or Cell phone to load up a single page on our server and we can instantly see all the latest snapshots from each camera with a single click. Interested in doing this yourself? Download a copy of Download.exe Freeware
Overall Rating: Excellent! This baby is packed with features at a great price! – The Linksys Wireless-G Internet Home Monitoring (WVC54GCA) camera is well worth the money and offers great features for the price. Our favorite feature is the Motion detection and RTSP streaming to mobile devices such as a cell phone. We were not surprised that the camera monitoring/recording software did not work on our HP 470EX Windows Home Server, but for the majority of users this is a great option for those that do not want to invest in a dedicated DVR. Another bonus feature is the 1 free year of TZO.COM Dynamic DNS which allows a domain name to be attached to the camera making it simple and easy to connect for remote viewing and administration. This camera is a winner and we hope to see Linksys release future products with such innovative features at a great price.
Linksys Wireless-G Internet Home Monitoring Camera, Model WVC54GCA
Suggested Retail Price: $119.99
Linksys WVC54GCA Product page
BUY NOW – Review prices on Amazon.com
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