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- An almost perfect wireless web camI got the Panasonic BL-C131A to be able to set up a streaming video feed from home that would allow me to watch and show the progress on a construction project. The wired network setup was a breeze. I was able to control the camera over the web in 5 minutes or less. The wireless setup was a different story. I tried about everything I could think of (in addition to what was in the documentation). After a few hours, I did get it working, but I am still not sure what made it happen. Perhaps the camera was snooping on my internet connection and saw I was searching Amazon to figure out how to return it. It was about at that time that the status light turned green and the wireless connection was operational. Now that it is configured, the camera works quite well on a 802.11b/g network, connected through a Linksys wireless router and Comcast high-speed internet connection. If you log in as a privileged user of the camera, you get full-motion video. A guest user has to settle for a lower rate, but for both the picture quality is high. You can allow the guest user to have as much or as little control over the camera as you want, including pan/tilt, white balance, position presets, access to the audio, etc. If you have a vacation home, a nanny, a pet, or something else you want to watch while you're away, this is a compact wireless unit to do it with. Now, if it only had audio output or a output relay that could control something, you could have real fun with the people you were watching. Rating: - Some supported needed, but works as advertisedNeeded some help from Panasonic tech support to get the wireless mode working. Picture quality only average, but overall a good product. Rating: - Review of modelWe need to check well, what model is good for your work, since BL-C130 is similar to BL-131A. Finally I choose BL-C130, and I am very hapy for the easy way has amazon to interchange or return items that you really want and need. Rating: - Normally great camera but watch who you buy from.I've had 3 of these and they all work great. Unfortunately the last one came in with a defective CCD sensor. Since the lead-time on Amazon's supply for this camera is 1-2 months (as of August 2008), I went with an alternate Amazon Marketplace vendor. When their supplied camera came in defective they refused an exchange and simply specified that I send it back to Panasonic who's now taken a week with no response on returning it. Because this vendor's stated policy (Hint: A small 6-legged insect that lives in "hills"-Online.com) was that they don't take these things back, Amazon's A-Z guarantee doesn't cover it. Bottom line, if you buy this camera, you'll want to buy it from someone who will exchange it if you receive it defective. Otherwise, you'll have a brand new camera that has to go back to the manufacturer and be replaced with a refurb. Rating: - Excellent Turn-Key Network CamThis is an excellent product with a very intuitive software interface for manageing the camera. I found it to be very simple to set up with my wireless router. The whole process from opening the package to viewing the camera image on the internet took less than an hour. If you have never logged into and configured your router you are probably going to struggle more setting it up, however the instructions are very easy to follow so take your time and read each step carefully and you won't have any problem. I found it easier to view the camera over the internet directly to the camera's IP address rather than using the web address they provide for you. I can access the camera homepage on my Blackberry but the links for viewing or configuring aren't able to be activated, so I'm still trying to figure that part out. Be aware this camera requires power, so you need to plan for that wherever you are going to install it. This product exceeded my expectations and I recommend it for anyone for consumer use.
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