Airlink AIC250W VGA Network Camera
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Similar in Web Cameras
- Capture Resolution: 640 x 480 320 x 240 160 x 112
- Digital Video Capture Speed: 30 frames per second
- Web Camera Type: Network Camera
- Image Sensor Type: CMOS
- Interface Type: Wireless - IEEE 802.11g
- Resolution: VGA
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Affordable, glitchy wireless web camera
Pros
Cheap. Wireless. ActiveX and Java video streaming. Hobby Camera.
Cons
Cheap. Not Vista Compatible. Locks Up. Manual Focus. High-Latency. No Motion Detect.
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
The AIC250W is affordable but cheap hobby camera, and not reliable enough for security applications.
The Airlink 101 AIC250W is a low-end, affordable, HTTP-based, wireless (802.11G) and wired Ethernet web camera. The major difference between this camera and the AIC250 is the addition of the wireless interface.
Network set-up is a bit clunky - The camera supports DHCP, but not out-of-the-box - you must first install their "Discovery Wizard" on a Windows XP PC (NOT VISTA) on the same LAN segment and let it find it and set its initial IP address so you can then web into it to configure it for DHCP or PPPoE.
Once you have it configured for network access, you use an HTTP web browser to manage the settings of the camera and view streaming video. It supports both ActiveX (Internet Explorer) and Java (most other web browsers) methods for streaming. It provides 120x160, 320x200, or 640x480 streaming at 20 frames per second (fps) max. There is a 2-3 second latency from action to display.
The camera is manually focused, with no optical zoom. The web interface supports up to 4x software zoom, but there's no way to pan the zoomed portion - it just makes the middle of the image bigger and blockier.
This camera supports emailing or FTP'ing video clips to a server, but there's no motion-detection, so it's an all-or-nothing affair. A motion-detection feature would've been a helpful feature, but I'm not certain the CPU on the device could handle the load - from time-to-time the HTTP server would stop responding to requests.
The camera is supported by PY Software's Active WebCam for remote streaming, video capture, motion detect and more, but due to the unreliability of the device, this isn't recommended. Mine had the irritating habit of locking up after running for awhile - the web interface would stop, and there was little you could do short of power-cycling the device. This precludes it from being seriously considered for any kind of true 'security' application and regulates it to the 'hobby' camera category.
Network set-up is a bit clunky - The camera supports DHCP, but not out-of-the-box - you must first install their "Discovery Wizard" on a Windows XP PC (NOT VISTA) on the same LAN segment and let it find it and set its initial IP address so you can then web into it to configure it for DHCP or PPPoE.
Once you have it configured for network access, you use an HTTP web browser to manage the settings of the camera and view streaming video. It supports both ActiveX (Internet Explorer) and Java (most other web browsers) methods for streaming. It provides 120x160, 320x200, or 640x480 streaming at 20 frames per second (fps) max. There is a 2-3 second latency from action to display.
The camera is manually focused, with no optical zoom. The web interface supports up to 4x software zoom, but there's no way to pan the zoomed portion - it just makes the middle of the image bigger and blockier.
This camera supports emailing or FTP'ing video clips to a server, but there's no motion-detection, so it's an all-or-nothing affair. A motion-detection feature would've been a helpful feature, but I'm not certain the CPU on the device could handle the load - from time-to-time the HTTP server would stop responding to requests.
The camera is supported by PY Software's Active WebCam for remote streaming, video capture, motion detect and more, but due to the unreliability of the device, this isn't recommended. Mine had the irritating habit of locking up after running for awhile - the web interface would stop, and there was little you could do short of power-cycling the device. This precludes it from being seriously considered for any kind of true 'security' application and regulates it to the 'hobby' camera category.
