D-Link Wireless Webcam Not Ready for Its Close-up

Price: $219.99
Pros: Good signal strength; program lets you view multiple streams or use motion detection.
Cons: Poor image quality; no controls with Web interface; online stream doesn’t work with Apple iPhone.

Imagine an 802.11n wireless camera that streams gorgeous video to the Web even when your computers are offline. It’s small enough to go unnoticed and you can easily view the results, and even control the camera, from any cell phone.

Well, if you pick up the D-Link DCS-1130 Wireless N Network camera, all you can do is imagine it. This camera, frankly, sounded a lot better in the planning stages. We’ve been following its delayed development for a while now, and the final result is a letdown.

For starters, the DCS-1130 is huge. No secret spy cam here, the body measures 1.5 x 3.2 x 4.7-inches with two 3.5-inch antennas sticking out the top. If that wasn’t enough to call attention to it, it has a green light on the front that blinks whenever you’re monitoring its video.

Installation wasn’t exactly the plug-and-play process we’d been led to believe. We needed to run an install wizard that only works on Windows computers. We don’t understand why D-Link has chosen to leave Mac users out, when all the software does is a simple router configuration. To use the camera, you’ll need a router that supports Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). We tested it with a D-Link router that has a WPS button, so installation didn’t take long.