@Stallion Yeah, which app? Because the Amazon reviews don’t inspire confidence. Looks like a good-quality mid-price camera with terrible software and support.
@sparkle_motion I use tinyCam Monitor PRO for the SD version of the same camera. It’s $4 on the Google Play store. Allows you to monitor and control (movement, speaker, and microphone) the camera anywhere you’ve got a cell signal. Money well spent, I feel.
@intenseNERD@sparkle_motion I use Foscam Pro for iOS. Also gives you all the options. Control the movement, 2 way communication, you can take screenshots and record the video to your phone.
Since these are refurbs, there’s a chance that they keep selling the exact same ones over and over. Brilliant marketing plan and keeps things out of the landfill.
@Yoda_Daenerys I’m not sure about these particular models, but I had a couple of the SD versions. One lived on my porch for about six months (through winter) without much issue. Had to reset the power about once a month due to the WiFi connection losing my router – but to be fair, it was bouncing through four walls.
A Foscam was my first Meh purchase from a year or two ago. I might not be as old as the Kickstarter backers or even the people after the Kickstarter backers, but I guess I’ve been around a while, now.
I have a pair of the older SD models and just picked up three of the 720p models. These are awesome for checking on the house while you’re out or checking a bump in the night without ever leaving your bed.
I have the insteon version of a Foscam F18918 and it has been outside watching the front porch over a year. Tempted by these for the increase in video quality but the refurb is a total turn off. Went through twenty apps till I found a free one that works, IPCam_Viewer.
Two for Tuesday maybe. Pass
Serious question time: Given that these models have been out for 2+ years now, are they still decent for the price or is there something much better in the sub-$80 range?
@narfcake I have both models and have had nothing but trouble with them. Yeah, they’re a step above random nonames, but they are far worse in every respect compared my Amcrest IP2M-841B. I highly recommend spending another $20 for that model, or at least avoiding Foscam.
@BerMMM Please supply a link that has the Amcrest for $50-$70, even refurbished. That does seem like a good camera, but comparing that to this refurb and quoting a $20 difference isn’t accurate.
@happyshow Thanks. I bought my Amcrest from Foscam, but I thought they were just reselling them, not manufacturing them too. Hopefully the Amcrest firmware will eventually replace all the legacy Foscam crap.
I bought the Insteon camera from Meh a while back, and I use it to monitor the chickens when I’m too lazy to get up and go out back. Just ordered this camera so now I can continue to be lazy in 960p.
Read the warranty details. Foscam requires you to go through the place you purchased the camera from for warranty replacements. Is Meh going to stand behind these? Otherwise you’ll be stuck dealing directly with China since Foscam screwed over their US partner who has now cut ties with them.
@minuette My family has a few of the Fi9821p, and assorted outdoor models on BlueIris, and they work splendidly.
As far as the earlier concerns about the inexplicable outbound connections via odd ports, we have a simple solution; Run them behind a firewall on their own VLAN sans internet connectivity, running to some NVR or server for storage - That is one of the primary purposes of network segregation…
(and before anyone makes any racist jokes because I said “segregation”, I’m Asian, so if you have any wet cellphones and put them in a bag of rice, I might be the one who is attracted by the rice to fix them during the night )
According to the product pages at the UK site (Fi9831p and Fi9821p) the FI9831P (960p) has a 1/3" CMOS and the FI9821P has a 1/4" CMOS. Also, the FI9831P has lower power consumption, <6.9W versus <8.2W (I’m considering an Anker battery to power it and it looks like it may work).
Thanks to all the folks that posted here and elsewhere, I’m aware I have to lock this down at the router, keep a careful eye on firmware, and likely put a bunch of work into it to get what I want out of it.
from a skimming of the reviews, it seems nothing has changed much in foscams(i own an old 480p foscam)
hardware is great
software is SHIT
i literally had to search around for an older foscam apk for my android phone because they discontinued the original foscam viewer app and the new app is incompatible with my tablet .
Man, you just can’t please some people. What’s the problem with mixing an I and a 1 in the model number if there’s no hyphen? It’s not like people will be typing it in by hand.
Heh. Read this offer right after I read Brian Krebs’s latest on how his web site, and Akamai, were totally pwned by a DDOS storm from a botnet made up of miscellaneous ip webcams and other Internet of Bizarre Things junk.
So, if you buy crap like this, change the passwords, eh?
we’ve got some of th 720 versions. We use them when we aren’t home to watch the kittah’s. Otherwise, they are unplugged. That way if the ruskies do happen to break in, they are gonna get some real puzzy porn, and that’s about it…LOL
Oh yes, they work great for that purpose. Pictures are clear in day light, not so clear in dark. But, doesn’t over load the bandwidth in most places. And we’ve had them for several years now, so even though we paid a lot more than here, we’ve gotten plenty of kittah video from them. Wife is happy, and that’s a key factor in my happiness with this product…
I have a set of these for monitoring a remote property, one at the shed, another looking out at the driveway, both indoors. Rather than using the Foscam software, I’m using RTSP with ZoneMinder running on an Ubuntu server off-site. ZoneMinder is constantly connected to the cameras and doing its own motion detection, which is useful if the power goes out, or if someone steals the camera (the latter I’m not too worried about).
With Zoneminder, someone wrote a PTZ script so I can control them. One could also use the older Foscam app, provided the cameras are accessible on the internet (not recommended, but not impossible to secure with connectbot or other vpn solution). Alternatively, I have an XP virtual machine I use where I installed the unsigned virus laden IE plugin, but I only use[d] that for configuring them to work with RTSP. Note: the IR is useless if you put them inside trying to look outside because it’ll just reflect against the glass. In my case, I have it turned off, and when the motion lights come on, the camera can see just fine.
I was thinking of getting these so I can check in on my two dogs while I’m away at work. But then I considered how I’d really just be spying on them as they wrestled, humped, and slept the day away. It seems inappropriate to want to watch that. Plus I’d just be jealous of how much nicer their day was than mine. Meh.
@keithschm There is a free foscam app (apple anyway), but after trying it and a few others, we settled on an app called LiveCamsPro. There are several out there that work, but this just seemed to work the best for us.
@keithschm They do have a built in web server, but it only works in IE. You’re much better off finding a RTSP viewer, but then you typically lose Pan/Tilt function.
I have several of these cameras. PITA to set up and their own self-hosted web interfaces suck. I keep them updated to the latest firmware and have pretty complex passwords and run them into Blue Iris. I have them on small UPS backups (APC makes ones for small devices like routers, etc.). Once you go through that mess, they are pretty stable.
However, one of them started having severe quality image degradation over a year. It started out as lines running the the video and steadily got worse until the whole picture looked like psychedelic Predator-vision.
Like a fool, I tried to get service through Foscam, was even willing to pay a reasonable price for OOW service, if available, but it was not. US based Foscam just referred me to China Foscam, a wholly different entity that never responded to my support requests.
So I did what any reasonable person would do; I tore it apart and re-capped the damned thing using about $10 worth of parts. IIRC, there are about 4 SMD capacitors on the board. That fixed the camera right up. I even tore the traces on one cause I don’t have a proper rework station but it turned out ok.
Long story short, I just bought an extra one to have for when the next one goes bad so I can still have security while I’m fixing the bad one.
@shadowzen For configuring crappy IoT devices like these I keep a Windows XP virtual machine. Makes life a little easier. I’ve noticed mine are pretty fuzzy, but realized it’s a combination of the dirty window they sit in front of, and the mechanical focus that was likely bumped.
What I learned from reading the comments today is that meh users are not normal people. Like holy crap, most of this stuff went so far over my head. How do you even acquire all of this information about setting this stuff up? Running servers and routers and complex networking setups and apps and programs and owww my head.
I can’t tell if people are just paranoid or if there is actually a good reason people go through all of this trouble with these things.
@dansch07 When you plug any internet-of-things device into your network, out-of-the-box, you’re basically giving hackers, terrorists, and governments (foreign and domestic) access to your internet connection, private network, etc. Think of the Internet of Things as an advanced botnet, except you didn’t download a virus, you plugged one in. Not only could they spy on your video feed, but use your connection for other purposes. The only way to protect yourself is to airgap it onto a locked down network.
@dansch07 …and in 5 years, this notion will extend into most of our cars. Internet viruses, hackers, script kiddies, etc will cause accidents and traffic jams
@dansch07 I only come here to complain and call things stupid. Sometimes I only buy things so I can complain about them…which upon further thought, is kinda stupid.
And yes, meh users are a bizarre bunch indeed. Don’t make me complain about you.
Specs talk about storage temp/humidity limits but nothing about operating temp/humidity limits. Any thoughts on running these outdoors in a well-covered location that won’t get rained on but is exposed to east coast (Virginia) temperature variations? Winter lows in teens, summer highs in 90s, humidity just butt-ugly at worst. Thoughts?
@Sarahsda They might work for that type of application; maybe you’ll get a year or two out of it before birds make a nest in it, and a drop of condensation eventually decommissions it, but for the money, you’re probably better off buying a $30-50 PoE bullet camera instead. I certainly wouldn’t hold my breath that the pan/tilt mechanism works in the cold.
Well this was a big old waste of money. These things are absolute garbage. Won’t connect to most wifi unless you have it unsecured or WEP (same as unsecured). A 5 year old android phone with the Alfred app is significantly better than this because…it works. Great I can hard wire it and get stunning video of my server closet where the router lives…I could have spent this $40 on booze and been happy. First and last meh.com purchase? yeah, probably.
@baus7 not sure if you have a defective one but with foscams in general:
FIRST connect via ethernet cable and update the firmware
Foscam wifi issues are usually caused by the “auto” wifi setting… try switching it away from auto mode… if you have a newer wifi router try switching it to a mode that your router supports (like N only for example)… when they can’t connect to WPA2 is usually related to the “auto wifi” setting on the foscam.
remember when setting up security wired is always more secure than wireless, because they can take out your wifi with little to no effort.
Use a paper clip to hit the reset button on the bottom. (It will beep)
Plug in your camera’s ethernet.
Create a Foscam account on the app or sign in.
Add the camera on the app; scan the QR code on the bottom of the camera and use the Wired method.
Camera should appear in the app, select it and it will ask for a name and password just for the camera.
Select the gear icon and (Sync Time first if you want to and then) go to Network, select a wifi network and enter in your password, you should be able to unplug the ethernet cable now, or update the firmware first
Keep reading if you want to update the firmware:
Go to the Foscam website and download the Equipment search tool and firmware.
I bought the 1.3MP camera so I downloaded the “FI9831P V2 V-2.x.2.27-20160811 32.5MB” file
Don’t upgrade to the latest firmware, in that file is a folder for the older firmware, extract that
Run the Equipment Search Tool, right click on the camera, Upgrade Firmware
Put in the camera’s user name and password, upgrade the system firmware first, and then repeat the process to upgrade the app firmware
You can probably upgrade to the latest firmware now, I chose to go back to the app and do it from the gear icon just to confirm that process works now
@Jetlag in additional: you need to use the Internet Explorer plug-in to get to all the controls, like turning on 960p output (they default to 720p).
I don’t think these are actually refurbished. One of mine appeared new but the other was packaged kind of sloppily with 2 Ethernet cables and no mounting screws.
My final setup will be blocking internet to the them at the router and monitoring with a local copy of BlueIris.
@Jetlag A couple more tips. The app will let you tell your camera to connect to a 5GHz network even though the camera cannot. Don’t do that. 2.4GHz only.
And if you’re doing router things don’t forget that the WiFi interface has a different MAC address than the Ethernet interface. I gave the Ethernet MAC a static DHCP assignment and then everything broke when it went on WiFi.
Also, the app seems to be able to kick the 960p cameras into 720p mode which is a bummer since so far the only way I can find to set it back is using the Internet Explorer plug-in. 720p mode is just a cropped 960p, so 960p is preferred for the wider angle.
Specs
720p:
960p:
What’s in the Box?
1x IP camera
1x Mount with hardware
1x Power supply
1x Ethernet cable
1x Quick installation guide
1x WiFi antenna
1x CD with driver
Pictures
Camera
The other side
Box and stuff
Camera looking at you
Box?
Back view
Price Comparison
720p: $69.95 List, $64.99 at Amazon
960p: $99.99 List, $79.97 at Amazon
Find a relevant price comparison? Please share it in a comment in this thread
Warranty
90 Day Foscam
Estimated Delivery
Thursday, Jun 15 - Tuesday, Jun 20
I had trouble loading the site for this?!?
Wow trouble loading this site…anyways meh “camera time…can’t touch this” …well meh be u can-
Awesome cameras, make great cheap baby monitors with a $2 app.
@Stallion what app? Might tip me over the edge here.
@Stallion Yeah, which app? Because the Amazon reviews don’t inspire confidence. Looks like a good-quality mid-price camera with terrible software and support.
@sparkle_motion I use tinyCam Monitor PRO for the SD version of the same camera. It’s $4 on the Google Play store. Allows you to monitor and control (movement, speaker, and microphone) the camera anywhere you’ve got a cell signal. Money well spent, I feel.
@Stallion I use BlueIris, with several cams placed at various windows to watch for vandals outside.
@intenseNERD @sparkle_motion I use Foscam Pro for iOS. Also gives you all the options. Control the movement, 2 way communication, you can take screenshots and record the video to your phone.
@Stallion Plus one for TinyCam for Android (it’s awesome) and for PC BlueIris is superb.
@Stallion I use OWLR, it’s even free.
@intenseNERD @sparkle_motion This is the one I’ve used forever and its perfect for monitoring a baby. Has all the bells and whistles to make it a fully functional monitor. http://ipbabymonitor.com/
Since these are refurbs, there’s a chance that they keep selling the exact same ones over and over. Brilliant marketing plan and keeps things out of the landfill.
Seamless midnight launch.
/giphy creepin
Save yourself the aggravation. I bought a Guardzilla system and it’s great. Invest in something good.
Nice to see two lanterns on sale again!
what do you think about using these outside, instead of the ping dot com product?
@Yoda_Daenerys I’m not sure about these particular models, but I had a couple of the SD versions. One lived on my porch for about six months (through winter) without much issue. Had to reset the power about once a month due to the WiFi connection losing my router – but to be fair, it was bouncing through four walls.
@Yoda_Daenerys these are not waterproof or meant for outside use
BUT
i read that as long as there is some sort of cover, indirect rain is fine
I’m having trouble finding, is it ONVIF?
Do they all have that same dirty picture on them? Or was the refurbishing supposed to take care of it?
A Foscam was my first Meh purchase from a year or two ago. I might not be as old as the Kickstarter backers or even the people after the Kickstarter backers, but I guess I’ve been around a while, now.
A FoSCAM, huh.
@jmoor783 Thank you for this, i often forget that this video/song exists. its always a pleasure to see it pop up
is the power supply 110/220 V?
I have a pair of the older SD models and just picked up three of the 720p models. These are awesome for checking on the house while you’re out or checking a bump in the night without ever leaving your bed.
I have the insteon version of a Foscam F18918 and it has been outside watching the front porch over a year. Tempted by these for the increase in video quality but the refurb is a total turn off. Went through twenty apps till I found a free one that works, IPCam_Viewer.
Two for Tuesday maybe. Pass
You should always get two.
That way they can keep an eye on each other…
Serious question time: Given that these models have been out for 2+ years now, are they still decent for the price or is there something much better in the sub-$80 range?
@narfcake depends on the use case, what are you trying to video? is it for 24/7 security or once in a while check in on the dog?
@narfcake I have both models and have had nothing but trouble with them. Yeah, they’re a step above random nonames, but they are far worse in every respect compared my Amcrest IP2M-841B. I highly recommend spending another $20 for that model, or at least avoiding Foscam.
@BerMMM Please supply a link that has the Amcrest for $50-$70, even refurbished. That does seem like a good camera, but comparing that to this refurb and quoting a $20 difference isn’t accurate.
@Jonas4321 Amcrest via ebay has them refurb for $80, and new they start at $100 (groupon, frys). I figure that is $20 above the requested sub-$80.
@BerMMM Thanks - I’ll pass on these.
@Jonas4321 @BerMMM is correct on the math.
@communist No doggie right now
, but there has been a rash of mail theft incidents in the vicinity before.
@BerMMM Thanks for the eBay info, I checked them out and they seem like better alternatives!
@BerMMM FYI. Amcrest is Foscam. Although I bought one today, the Amcrest camera is better overall quality.
@happyshow Thanks. I bought my Amcrest from Foscam, but I thought they were just reselling them, not manufacturing them too. Hopefully the Amcrest firmware will eventually replace all the legacy Foscam crap.
Am I the only one who read all the disturbing articles about how this camera ‘Dials out to suspect hosts’?
@AlbanyJones Nope. After your post, I found and read them myself. Yikes. A lot of suspicious traffic in the name of P2P ease of use.
@AlbanyJones
Maybe take a look at:
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/General-Tech/Steve-Gibsons-Three-Router-Solution-IOT-Insecurity
Save those old routers!!!
@meshpuka774 It’s routers all the way down!
I bought the Insteon camera from Meh a while back, and I use it to monitor the chickens when I’m too lazy to get up and go out back. Just ordered this camera so now I can continue to be lazy in 960p.
My robot vacuum stopped working. It was a fuku robot vacuum, but I started relying on it. I forgot how to clean the floor. Now what?
@Rstoker For thousands of years people lived with dirt floors. Don’t worry about it.
@Rstoker I think you should start a new topic for that discussion. No, really.
Read the warranty details. Foscam requires you to go through the place you purchased the camera from for warranty replacements. Is Meh going to stand behind these? Otherwise you’ll be stuck dealing directly with China since Foscam screwed over their US partner who has now cut ties with them.
Still no.
How hackable are these things? Can I firewall these off and stream to a central server inside my lan?
@minuette I’d assume the worst. You’d can firewall them and use something on the LAN like BlueIris.
@minuette My family has a few of the Fi9821p, and assorted outdoor models on BlueIris, and they work splendidly.
)
As far as the earlier concerns about the inexplicable outbound connections via odd ports, we have a simple solution; Run them behind a firewall on their own VLAN sans internet connectivity, running to some NVR or server for storage - That is one of the primary purposes of network segregation…
(and before anyone makes any racist jokes because I said “segregation”, I’m Asian, so if you have any wet cellphones and put them in a bag of rice, I might be the one who is attracted by the rice to fix them during the night
@arosiriak Hmmm, all that firewall mumbo jumbo I know nothing about really takes the ‘plug and play’ out of . . . well, yeah.
@minuette my current setup is blueiris or ispy pictures taken every second into a folder
google photos unlimited 8MP uploading that folder to the cloud.
Think about where you want to put one. Is there an outlet within 5ft? If not, go get an extension cable now.
I already have enough SCAM in my life.
According to the product pages at the UK site (Fi9831p and Fi9821p) the FI9831P (960p) has a 1/3" CMOS and the FI9821P has a 1/4" CMOS. Also, the FI9831P has lower power consumption, <6.9W versus <8.2W (I’m considering an Anker battery to power it and it looks like it may work).
Thanks to all the folks that posted here and elsewhere, I’m aware I have to lock this down at the router, keep a careful eye on firmware, and likely put a bunch of work into it to get what I want out of it.
from a skimming of the reviews, it seems nothing has changed much in foscams(i own an old 480p foscam)
hardware is great
software is SHIT
i literally had to search around for an older foscam apk for my android phone because they discontinued the original foscam viewer app and the new app is incompatible with my tablet .
Back in the day… you order lights and cameras came too! May be a way to sell out of the Bluetooth led lights.
Man, you just can’t please some people. What’s the problem with mixing an I and a 1 in the model number if there’s no hyphen? It’s not like people will be typing it in by hand.
@gominosensei And what’s the problem with a hyphen? Is clicking and dragging really that much harder?
Heh. Read this offer right after I read Brian Krebs’s latest on how his web site, and Akamai, were totally pwned by a DDOS storm from a botnet made up of miscellaneous ip webcams and other Internet of Bizarre Things junk.
So, if you buy crap like this, change the passwords, eh?
@OllieJones Yes, because if you buy expensive stuff, you don’t have to change the passwords.
we’ve got some of th 720 versions. We use them when we aren’t home to watch the kittah’s. Otherwise, they are unplugged. That way if the ruskies do happen to break in, they are gonna get some real puzzy porn, and that’s about it…LOL
Oh yes, they work great for that purpose. Pictures are clear in day light, not so clear in dark. But, doesn’t over load the bandwidth in most places. And we’ve had them for several years now, so even though we paid a lot more than here, we’ve gotten plenty of kittah video from them. Wife is happy, and that’s a key factor in my happiness with this product…
@beachhead How do you unplug your kitties when you are home?
@sligett very carefully, they has sharp teeths…LOL
I have a set of these for monitoring a remote property, one at the shed, another looking out at the driveway, both indoors. Rather than using the Foscam software, I’m using RTSP with ZoneMinder running on an Ubuntu server off-site. ZoneMinder is constantly connected to the cameras and doing its own motion detection, which is useful if the power goes out, or if someone steals the camera (the latter I’m not too worried about).
With Zoneminder, someone wrote a PTZ script so I can control them. One could also use the older Foscam app, provided the cameras are accessible on the internet (not recommended, but not impossible to secure with connectbot or other vpn solution). Alternatively, I have an XP virtual machine I use where I installed the unsigned virus laden IE plugin, but I only use[d] that for configuring them to work with RTSP. Note: the IR is useless if you put them inside trying to look outside because it’ll just reflect against the glass. In my case, I have it turned off, and when the motion lights come on, the camera can see just fine.
I was thinking of getting these so I can check in on my two dogs while I’m away at work. But then I considered how I’d really just be spying on them as they wrestled, humped, and slept the day away. It seems inappropriate to want to watch that. Plus I’d just be jealous of how much nicer their day was than mine. Meh.
Do these have a built in webserver to view or do you have to buy the app? Can I just go to its IP address to view?
@keithschm There is a free foscam app (apple anyway), but after trying it and a few others, we settled on an app called LiveCamsPro. There are several out there that work, but this just seemed to work the best for us.
@keithschm They do have a built in web server, but it only works in IE. You’re much better off finding a RTSP viewer, but then you typically lose Pan/Tilt function.
Some questions -
a. are there web sites with comparative reviews of these and other wireless IP cams?
b. are there sources of hacked/improved firmware for these cameras?
@sligett Just buy them.
I have several of these cameras. PITA to set up and their own self-hosted web interfaces suck. I keep them updated to the latest firmware and have pretty complex passwords and run them into Blue Iris. I have them on small UPS backups (APC makes ones for small devices like routers, etc.). Once you go through that mess, they are pretty stable.
However, one of them started having severe quality image degradation over a year. It started out as lines running the the video and steadily got worse until the whole picture looked like psychedelic Predator-vision.
Like a fool, I tried to get service through Foscam, was even willing to pay a reasonable price for OOW service, if available, but it was not. US based Foscam just referred me to China Foscam, a wholly different entity that never responded to my support requests.
So I did what any reasonable person would do; I tore it apart and re-capped the damned thing using about $10 worth of parts. IIRC, there are about 4 SMD capacitors on the board. That fixed the camera right up. I even tore the traces on one cause I don’t have a proper rework station but it turned out ok.
Long story short, I just bought an extra one to have for when the next one goes bad so I can still have security while I’m fixing the bad one.
@shadowzen For configuring crappy IoT devices like these I keep a Windows XP virtual machine. Makes life a little easier. I’ve noticed mine are pretty fuzzy, but realized it’s a combination of the dirty window they sit in front of, and the mechanical focus that was likely bumped.
What I learned from reading the comments today is that meh users are not normal people. Like holy crap, most of this stuff went so far over my head. How do you even acquire all of this information about setting this stuff up? Running servers and routers and complex networking setups and apps and programs and owww my head.
I can’t tell if people are just paranoid or if there is actually a good reason people go through all of this trouble with these things.
@dansch07 When you plug any internet-of-things device into your network, out-of-the-box, you’re basically giving hackers, terrorists, and governments (foreign and domestic) access to your internet connection, private network, etc. Think of the Internet of Things as an advanced botnet, except you didn’t download a virus, you plugged one in. Not only could they spy on your video feed, but use your connection for other purposes. The only way to protect yourself is to airgap it onto a locked down network.
@dansch07 …and in 5 years, this notion will extend into most of our cars. Internet viruses, hackers, script kiddies, etc will cause accidents and traffic jams
@caffeineguy A hacked self-driving car may still be a better driver than some of the other commuters I see out there
@dansch07 Yes, I am always amazed about the level of detail this community knows. Not only funny, but very informative.
/giphy the more you know
@404Error I’m pretty sure that will be the case. Look at what happened to Google a few days ago:
https://9to5google.com/2016/09/23/googles-self-driving-car-was-today-in-what-appears-to-be-its-worst-accident-yet/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/09/26/googles-self-driving-car-involved-in-serious-crash-after-van-jum/
@dansch07 I only come here to complain and call things stupid. Sometimes I only buy things so I can complain about them…which upon further thought, is kinda stupid.
And yes, meh users are a bizarre bunch indeed. Don’t make me complain about you.
Now the raccoons can hide nothing
Specs talk about storage temp/humidity limits but nothing about operating temp/humidity limits. Any thoughts on running these outdoors in a well-covered location that won’t get rained on but is exposed to east coast (Virginia) temperature variations? Winter lows in teens, summer highs in 90s, humidity just butt-ugly at worst. Thoughts?
@Sarahsda They might work for that type of application; maybe you’ll get a year or two out of it before birds make a nest in it, and a drop of condensation eventually decommissions it, but for the money, you’re probably better off buying a $30-50 PoE bullet camera instead. I certainly wouldn’t hold my breath that the pan/tilt mechanism works in the cold.
I wonder how far these can be thrown…or carried by swallows.
@NASTYSKINSUIT African or European?
http://shirt.woot.com/offers/a-simple-question
Well this was a big old waste of money. These things are absolute garbage. Won’t connect to most wifi unless you have it unsecured or WEP (same as unsecured). A 5 year old android phone with the Alfred app is significantly better than this because…it works. Great I can hard wire it and get stunning video of my server closet where the router lives…I could have spent this $40 on booze and been happy. First and last meh.com purchase? yeah, probably.
@baus7 not sure if you have a defective one but with foscams in general:
FIRST connect via ethernet cable and update the firmware
Foscam wifi issues are usually caused by the “auto” wifi setting… try switching it away from auto mode… if you have a newer wifi router try switching it to a mode that your router supports (like N only for example)… when they can’t connect to WPA2 is usually related to the “auto wifi” setting on the foscam.
remember when setting up security wired is always more secure than wireless, because they can take out your wifi with little to no effort.
it is possible you have a dud as well… good luck.
Keep reading if you want to update the firmware:
@Jetlag in additional: you need to use the Internet Explorer plug-in to get to all the controls, like turning on 960p output (they default to 720p).
I don’t think these are actually refurbished. One of mine appeared new but the other was packaged kind of sloppily with 2 Ethernet cables and no mounting screws.
My final setup will be blocking internet to the them at the router and monitoring with a local copy of BlueIris.
@Jetlag A couple more tips. The app will let you tell your camera to connect to a 5GHz network even though the camera cannot. Don’t do that. 2.4GHz only.
And if you’re doing router things don’t forget that the WiFi interface has a different MAC address than the Ethernet interface. I gave the Ethernet MAC a static DHCP assignment and then everything broke when it went on WiFi.
Also, the app seems to be able to kick the 960p cameras into 720p mode which is a bummer since so far the only way I can find to set it back is using the Internet Explorer plug-in. 720p mode is just a cropped 960p, so 960p is preferred for the wider angle.
Mine showed up broken. MEH said to contact Foscam, Foscam said to contact MEH. I am no longer a customer and cannot recommend MEH.