Wednesday, March 10, 2010
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Compro IP50W
Compro’s IP50W is a network camera – it’s a

webcam,

but instead of attaching to your computer it attaches instead to your home

network

router.

That means it can be switched on all the time – cameras such as this are best

suited to monitoring a room or a house rather than to chatting over

Skype.

It looks good, with a black-and-white front and small body. A stand is supplied,

as is a kit for mounting it on a wall.The W in the camera's name indicates that, in addition to connecting to your

network using a cable, it can connect to a

wireless

network too – this option appears once the software discovers the camera, so

you have to connect using a cable initially (one is supplied). If you don't need

wireless capability a cheaper wired-only IP50 version is available.

Setting it up was easy up to a point – the supplied software found the camera

on the network and prompted us to update the

firmware

to the latest version.The software can be used to set up email alerts and motion detection so that

it will only record when it detects movement, which is handy for watching the

house when you’re away. Quality was good, and the software is comprehensive with

loads of options and settings.That’s also the problem, though: it’s not a friendly interface and it’s not

clear which buttons are used for which options.This is a powerful network camera at a good price, but only if you’re fairly

technically minded or prepared to put in the time to make it work.

Taken from here