SmallNetBuilder

Setting Up

The initial setup is simple - you plug in the camera to your LAN and then insert the install CD on any Win 98 SE,ME,2000 or XP computer. A setup program will autorun and find the camera without intervention - no hunting for IP addresses or guessing. You then can change the IP information or the wireless settings. The wireless security settings can also be entered using the setup utility.

Figure 4: Wireless settings

The camera supports WEP with 64/128 bit encryption and I was pleased to see it also supported the more secure WPA-PSK. If Actiontec intends to have many small-business buyers, however, they should add WPA-Enterprise and preferably WPA2 support soon. After the initial setup, you can fire up your browser and enter the IP address of the camera and go directly to a webpage where you can view live video from the web camera (Figure 5). You will also hear what is happening if you have turned on the audio feature.

Figure 5: Camera webpage view

Mozilla / Firefox users will probably not like this camera, since its webpage requires ActiveX. While there are ActiveX plugins for Mozilla, I don't think users are likely to install them, since getting away from IE's security problems is why many users switch to Mozilla / Firefox in the first place! I asked ActionTec if they plan on supporting alternate browsers and here is their response:

"The camera requires active-x support in the browser. Presently there are not plans to support other mechanisms (java, etc.) We only support IE 6.0 or above, but you can get active-x plug-ins for other browsers like Firefox which would then allow you to view images with the Camera."