The Linksys WVC200 PTZ (pan, tilt and zoom) is an evolution of the earlier network wireless webcams from the company and this one is compatible with both wireless 802.11g and b networks and it also claims to be able to work with your network security too (more on this later). Measuring x x x mm and weighing a chunky  grams, the WVC 200 combines the key ingredients of a 640 x 480 pixel webcam, wireless networking card, PTZ motor system, and an integral web server. Meaning it does not need a PC to be switched on in order to work.

Having extracted the WVC200 from its packaging we set about configuring it to join the office wireless network. Power is provided by a plug top adaptor and there is also a flimsy desktop mount into which you can sit the camera, although there are proper mounting options on the back if you wanted to bolt it too a wall. Set-up starts by connecting to the 100 baseT port in the bottom of the unit, you'll need to connect it to a source of DHCP in order for it to gain an address but this process is made much easier by the LCD panel and indicator lamps on the front panel.

Within seconds we were connected and able to open up a web browser session with the default 192.168.1.xx address, however this is where the problems started. First up Firefox will display the configuration menus but there is no active X component for the video this is only available for internet explorer 5.5 or above. Likewise Mac users will get no joy with this Linksys model. Using IE we were able to see the image from the camera and get full PTZ control, plus it was possible to start configuring the WVC200 to connect wirelessly.

The set-up menus are simple enough and there are options to work with either a DHCP assigned address of fixed IP using DNS and gateway servers. Then there are the wireless settings which can handle WEP and WPA security keys. We quickly entered our office set-up using 128bit WEP and re powered the camera so that it established a wireless connection after we removed the CAT5 cable. Sadly although the wireless lamp came on the unit could not gain an IP address despite saying it was connected, the LCD screen remained blank for a minute or so before defaulting to .115 an address that our router had not assigned.

Subsequently we were unable to connect to the camera and had to re plug the CAT5 cable a process which we repeated for some hours before trying a switch to a fixed IP addy. Again no joy here either although a fixed IP does make finding the IP address the camera should have, much easier. After reading that changing the wireless channel on your router and fiddling with the angle of the aerial can help we still had no access to the camera over a wireless network. At this point the WVC-200 was going to get the worst review we could pen, but after retracing some steps we noticed that the WEP key was being changed from upper case to lower case by the cameras settings page. We modified the key on the router to lower case to match and all came good we could at last see the camera without the need for a cable.

Before we continue and talk about the rest of the features a word of warning. If you intend to purchase this unit and are not reasonable skilled and knowledgeable about your wireless network then steer clear. The instructions provided are next to useless and the unit is picky in the extreme, getting it to work took us a total of 5 hours!

Viewing via the web browser within the network is very easy and the various options for picture configuration are simple enough, with a choice of streaming quality, image size and basic exposure and colour settings. The image isn't great and can be a bit washed out or worse the colours can be very wrong indeed, plus at a maximum of 640 x 480 pixels don't expect to run your own version of Crimewatch. Playing with the pan, tilt and zoom is great fun and the pan and tilt work well if a little jerky in movement. It is possible to pre programme positions and given them names of your choosing and then set these as an automatic patrol for the camera to follow. The zoom is a rather laughable two times digital zoom which in practice is next to useless.

Linksys ship the WVC200 with monitoring software capable of watching many cameras and this pulls through the features accessible from the web interface as well. What it adds is server recording software and a multi viewer, the recording software is ok but we found it hung after about 4 hours of operation, plus the PC has to be on which sort of defeats the idea of the camera unit being self contained. Perhaps far better to use the ability to email or FTP shots or short clips that is accessible from the web browser menu. This can either be at regular intervals or triggered on motion detection.

Sadly like the rest of the software options the motion detection is difficult to configure and more pot luck than skill in marking the area of image you wish to monitor and setting the sensitivity. After all our efforts it seems that you have to be fairly close or making huge movements to actually trigger the system. It does however send email using your own mail account / server and the FTP function also seems to work.

The last part of the package is a years subscription to Sololink. Sololink is a web based service from Linksys that handles dynamic IP addresses that most broadband users are allocated by their ISP's. If you want to view your camera while away from home or the office then you need to type in the IP address and port number, that's fine if you have a fixed IP address but if you have a dynamic one it could change. So Sololink lets the camera tell the Linksys server what your current IP address is and you enter a URL which takes you to the Linksys server where the connection is made.

You can of course use a service like DynDNS.org or TZO.com on many routers to achieve this but the Linksys service while free for the first year is worth using and it does work. Viewing over a broadband link is workable but nowhere near the quality on your home network as you are restricted by the upload speed of your ADSL connection which is typically 256k.

Overall the Linksys WVC200 is a tale of brilliance dashed by poor execution, the PTZ camera with wireless networking is exactly what we were after but problems with network set-up, reliability of the software and poor image quality make the £160 asking price seem very steep. We can only hope that an updated firmware version can deal with some of the networking and reliability issues which if combined with the inevitable price drop could make the WVC200 a good buy.

Published - 11/11/2006

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