Setup

Before hooking up any of the hardware, follow the setup instructions to install the software; it is the first step to getting your system working. Figure 4 shows the Welcome screen of Werk's basic software installation.

Figure 4: Software Installation

The installation process took quite a bit of time because of the number of required components that needed set up. Once the base package was installed, I was directed to hook up the camera hardware. Because it was my first experience with setting up HomePlug, it took some familiarizing since the outside camera had no separate network connector. All I had to do was plug the camera's AC power cord into a nearby outlet and let HomePlug work its magic.

The inside camera (shown in Figure 4) seemed a bit out of the ordinary as well. It had no power cord. Instead, it uses Power Over Ethernet that is supplied via an Ethernet connection that plugs into a HomePlug adaptor (shown in Figure 5). The adaptor, in turn, plugs into an electrical outlet. Now, to position the camera, place the camera "suction-cup" on the front of the camera and attach the camera to an inside window so that the camera looks outward.

Figure 5: Homeplug Adaptor

For feeding the output of the cameras to the computer, a USB (to the HomePlug adaptor) is provided that plugs into an electrical outlet, and then to the computer via a USB 2.0 cable. Once I finished the setup and had everything plugged in, my cameras appeared in the main application. All in all, the setup was very easy. The cameras were auto-discovered and their videos appeared in the appropriate panels on the management application screen.

Tags: HomePlug, LukWerks, Network camera, powerline, WiLife,

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