Rating: 
Summary: Brightness control is very poor. Integration is great!
Review: I like this product a lot, despite some problems.
The brand new Linksys WVC11B Wireless-B Internet Video Camera is an amazing little product. The reputation of Linksys (now owned by Cisco) is number one in my book. Every component in my home network is Linksys -- cable modem, router, switches, print servers, etc., including the new Linksys WAP54G Wireless-G Access Point purchased in part just to accommodate this camera... so it was natural that I'd wait for Linksys to produce and purchase a "Webcam" that was wireless and contained its own web server. The 802.11x protocol is 'b,' but I wish they had used the more modern 'g' standard. The camera installed without major problems, although I did download and burn in newer firmware (to V2.05, then to V2.10) to see if things might improve. I also had to update the firmware on my two-year old "wired" Linksys BEFSR41 Router in order to get the menus necessary to poke a port open to the outside world.... easily done. The biggest almost fatal problem is that the picture it too bright when the camera is pointed outside. I tried setting the image brightness to manual, and had to turn it all the way down to 0 on a scale of 0-64, and even then I taped a pair of sunglasses over the lens to make the picture more visible. The automatic brightness feature is useless outdoors. This is the biggest fault of this unit. Inside the house, the camera seems to work fine. I'm hoping future firmware upgrades will correct this flaw... as of 12-03 there have been no firmware upgrades above V2.10. My final solution has been to tape two sunglass polaroid lenses over the lens, and flip either one or both down depending on how sunny the day is - argh! The Linksys/Cisco Sololink service to manage a domain for users with dynamic IP addresses at home works well. I liked the included free 90 day trial well enough after the first day to purchase a two-year subscription for about $40. I wanted to mount the unit on a tripod so I could easily aim the camera at different points, but there is no camera mount. You can either place the camera in a little stand (included) that sits on any flat surface, or you can hang the unit anywhere you are willing to nail in two nails (like a picture hanger). For the price (sub $200) this unit can't be beat. As expected, at this price range, you sacrifice remote-controlled pan and tilt, and the lens is of fixed-focal length, so there is not even any manual zoom. If you are like me, you will be pleased that you bought this unit, in that, for a low cost, you can experiment with a wireless video camera with its own built-in web server. You may soon be frustrated, however, that your camera can't "see" outside. To be fair, Linksys says that the camera is not to be USED outside, but why can't it even look throught the window at an outside scene? Buying this unit is like buying your first inexpensive digital camera. At first you are amazed at what it can do, especially for the price... but, after you have some more experience, you begin thinking about how nice it would be to have higher-end features and better image quality.
Rating: 
Summary: Great camera, great picture.
Review: I find it odd that there are so many bad reviews on this camera. I purchased this camera and the d-link internet camera and the linksys is leaps and bounds better. The picture quality is great and the setup and management is swift. I was up and running in just a few hours on my linksys network and I can now easily watch videos of my home from any internet connection. I had no idea it would be this easy. I am totally impressed and will be buying several more for the office, vacation homes, etc. One note: Make sure to update the firmware on your router and camera.
Rating: 
Summary: Get a Veo Observer Instead
Review: The editorial review failed to mention that this camera is terrible. The quality is poor, the interface is poor, and the feature set is lacking. The Veo Observer offers much better performance and value at a lower cost, and adds pan, tilt, and zoom. There is no competition here. I made the mistake of thinking this thing was a PTZ camera. Even if it was, I would have still returned it - it is that bad - even at $200. One good note - the setup was painless. Too bad 1 star is the lowest rating possible.
Rating: 
Summary: Only OK-Poor Brightness, but easy setup
Review: I purchased this and have used it for a couple of weeks now... The though of an 802.11b camera was great since I utilize 802.11b and g within my house. I have a large house and cabling is impossible. This cam sets up very easily. I set up the link to Linksys via their fee service. My only gripe is the poor, and I mean POOR, contrast of the cam. Unless the room is well lit, everything will be too dark. Even adding a table light to the room means you'll only get the light and all else will be dark. Outside, as others have said, is totally impossible. It'll just be a white blurr. For those who can understand photography terms and principles, it also is a slight telephoto and it should be a 'fisheye' lens so you can see it all. I'd guess it to be about the equivalent of a 60-70mm. Fix these items and you have a great cam. If these are not an issue to you, it's a great cam and a fairly good price
Rating: 
Summary: Decent Value for the money...
Review: I do not for the life of me understand why people are trashing this camera here. Yes, there are cameras out there with better resolution. Yes, there are cameras that do this or that better. But let's be real folks, you weren't expecting HDTV resolution for the money, right? First, Linksys clearly states that this is an INDOOR camera. That means OUTDOOR use is not indicated for this equipment. Second, installation is a snap, and folks, there IS a way to install the camera using only wireless if you look at the manual on the CD or bother to download it from Amazon or Linksys. Make sure you are using version 2.10 or later of the firmware, and you should be good to go. I have had the camera running for several days with no glitches or problems, and the image quality (which I set to "Very High", as the stream will adjust itself for slowpokes) is good enough for most uses. If you have no web servers in your LAN, you can enable the UPnP function of the camera and redirect port 80 in your firewall and you can avoid the expense of the SoloLink service. Alternatively, there are a bunch of services out there that do the same thing free of charge. A lot of people whine and complain about this camera but the fact is that from what I can see most don't have the patience to read the instruction manual, can't configure it properly, and have overly high and otherwise erroneous expectations of what it can accomplish for the price. Give it a try; if you dont like it, return it. I'm keeping mine!
Rating:
Summary: More of a toy than anything
Review: Just got this cam in the mail yesterday. Setup is pretty painless but the included software is strange. I was not aware that this camera wouldn't work pointed out a window. I tried for 3 hours to fix the crazy light balancing thing. It was even a typical overcast rainy day here in Portland and the cam picture was completely white from too much brightness; strange! The video quality is average. You'd expect it to be a little better for $200. Save yourself some money and use www.dyndns.org instead of Linksys' SoloLink solution. Works like a champ!
Rating:
Summary: A decent value
Review: I installed the Linksys WVC11B internet video camera yesterday and got it to work quickly - I did not need to download any firmware updates. (Also, I checked on Linksys's website - it appears that Amazon's inventory ships with the latest driver.) This camera costs about half of the D-Link DCS-2100+ after factoring in all the rebate offers for both products. I have a Linksys 54G wireless network at home and so configuring the camera was fairly straightforward. I had some problems with changing the login/password on SoloLink from the default admin/admin - but that might have been a temporary glitch with Linksys' website, it works fine now. For most home users, I would imagine changing the camera's login and password and restricting access to only specified users (password protected) is the way to go. You can do this through the SoloLink website.
I agree with the other reviewers regarding -
Pluses: Easy configuration (at least within a Linksys wireless network), small form factor, reasonable price (after rebates), own web server feature is cool.
Minuses: Poor-to-average video resolution, no support for audio, it would be nice to have a wide-angle lens accessory, poor brightness control/sensitivity, no remote pan/tilt/zoom capability, doesn't use 802.11g, cannot be viewed from Netscape, works with Microsoft ASF format under Internet Explorer. The D-Link product does not have some of these minuses but it costs twice as much.
For my home network, I have noticed that the DHCP-based router does not change its IP address unless it is power-cycled. So, you may be able to access to camera from the internet by typing in the router's IP address in your browser followed by ":port number" without the need to pony up the annual $20 for the SoloLink service. Anyway, Linksys (Cisco) offers a free 3-month trial subscription to SoloLink, which allows you to pick an easy-to-remember domain name.
I have not tried recording video as yet, but I came across some complaints about that feature not working too well. This feature is not important to me.
A comment about brightness and video resolution - the automatic brightness mode is adequate for indoor use. To be fair, Linksys advertises this product to be used indoors only. The camera defaults to medium quality video resolution, but I see no reason not to set it to high resolution (1 Mpbs). If the remote viewer cannot receive this high bit-rate, the ASF-based viewer will automatically compromise the image quality.
Rating:
Summary: Novices beware!!!!
Review: In theory this camera should have been the fore front of wireless camera technology because every other product released by linksys is Grade "A" high quality. This camera however does not perform worth a damn. It does nothing it is supposed to do especially if you don't have a degree in Computer Science. The Linksys DDNS service doesn't work right the camera does not e-mail the way it was promised, I am an IT professional and I can't figure out why the damn thing won't work Stay away from this product it will only cost you hours of problems and in the end just get filed in your junk drawer
Rating:
Summary: A Cool Toy that is fun to play with
Review: First off, as others pointed out, if you a looking for a professional level camera for a business or real security, this is not it. Among other limitations, it only supports 4 active video connections, no sound, no remote pan/scan movement, no autofocus, limiting software, and most important the picture quality is only so-so. But for a gadget guy like me who can't resist a stand-alone wireless video camera to play around with, it works great! The stand-alone part means it has it's own little web server built in, so once you get it up and running, you don't have to leave your PC on. Anybody can connect to it with the limit being needing to use Internet Explorer as the browser. The installation was pretty painless; I uploaded the latest firmware from the linksys website, and it seems to work ok with minimal fuss. The only thing I can't seem to get to work correctly (yet) is the sending of the alert e-mail when motion is detected (I think it doesn't like the format of my e-mail address and the name of my smtp server). Going to play around with that a little more before giving up. The only other issue for me, is the video screen that gets shown in the browser is not customizable - it's basically a big logo for Linksys and Cisco with your video in the middle. But as a toy/gadget to play around with it works great.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing features and performance
Review: Yeah sure, it is an easy setup out of the box. So what.... Once you are done with that easy task, the camera is about as lame of a piece of hardware as I have ever seen. The camera cannot be pointed outside - the brightness controls wont handle it. Sololink is basically a waste of time and money, even when it does work, which is not often, it is very glitchy. Just use IP monster or ddns.org for free - and they work. The camera is a cheap toy that is not really ready for actual use. Save your money or spend a bit more and get a real camera.
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