Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2006/04/25/peak_wireless_enhanced_soho_internet_camera/

Peak Wi-Fi SOHO Internet Camera

A low-cost net-enabled security camera

By Lars-Goran-Nilsson

Posted in Personal Tech, 25th April 2006 15:31 GMT

Review Internet enabled security cameras have gained quite a bit of popularity as prices have come down, not least because of the ability to use them as an affordable home security device.

PEAK has gone one step further than most by adding Wi-Fi to its camera, which means it’s much easier to put it where you need it to be. It still needs power, but it’s much easier to locate a power socket than having to route a length of Ethernet cable around your house...

PEAK_IPCAM

The camera itself is rather unremarkable, although it’s larger than your average web camera due to the integrated hardware. At the rear is an Ethernet connector, antenna connector, a small reset button, and a power connector. The lens has a focus ring for obtaining a clear picture.

Mounting the SOHO Internet Camera has been made as easy as possible - there’s a mounting hole in both the top and the bottom, as well as a small stand, which is intended to be screwed into a wall or ceiling. A ball joint on the stand enables you to adjust the angle of the camera if it’s not lined up correctly. You also get an Ethernet cable (needed to set up the camera up for the first time if your network settings differ from the default ones), and a power adaptor.

Though mounting the camera is a piece of cake, set up could prove more taxing. The supplied utility is fairly basic, and the wizard is easy enough to figure as long as you have some basic ideas about how your network is configured. If you don’t, things can get difficult quickly - you have to manually assign an IP address to the camera and establish some of the wireless network settings to get it working. If you’re running WEP or WPA things get slightly more difficult, but the camera supports both encryption standards. There is also UPnP support, which works over both the wired and the wireless connection.

Rather unusually for a wireless network device, there is no support for 802.11b networks - video takes up a lot of bandwidth and the older standard just isn’t fast enough for the highest resolutions. So unless you have an 802.11g compatible network, you won’t be able to use the camera over the wireless connection. The wired Ethernet connection is of the 10/100Mbit type and can be plugged in directly to a router or switch.

Once you've mastered set up, you can either log into the camera and use the web interface to watch the video streams through, or use the supplied IPView application. Up to eight users can connect simultaneously to the camera using either the web interface or the IPView software. The advantage of the IPView software is that you can use up to four cameras at the same time and record video from all of them at once.

PEAK_IPCAM2

The camera's software is functional in that it allows you to change a wide range of settings but, more importantly, it offers two different ways of watching the video - either through Java or an ActiveX plug-in. This gives wider flexibility when it comes to the type of web client you can use to watch the video. The video can be set to three different resolutions, 160 x 120 (QCIF), 320 x 240 (CIF) and 640 x 480 (VGA). The frame rate is 30fps at QCIF, 25fps at CIF, and a mere 10fps at VGA resolution. While it’s unlikely that most users would need a live feed, you can lower the frames per second and resolution to save bandwidth and drive space if you’re recording the video stream to your PC.

The camera can also be set up to upload still images to an FTP server, or have them sent to an email address. Combined with the motion detection option, this could be used as an intrusion detection system. If you're using more than one camera, names and locations can be assigned to each one so you know which camera the email was sent from.

The image can be flipped both horizontally and vertically, allowing for the awkward positions the camera can be mounted in.

Even if you don’t have a static IP address, the SOHO Internet Camera can be used over the internet as it offers built-in support for dynamic DNS services. You can set up a separate HTTP port for it if you’re already running a web server, as well as user access, allowing you to disable admin rights but still allow access to several users.

The Peak Enhanced SOHO Internet Camera is also available in a wires-only version which, at £70, is less than the wireless model, but there's no real reason to go for the wired version unless you can’t take advantage of the wireless connectivity option.

Verdict

The Peak Wireless Enhanced SOHO Internet Camera is an affordable security solution for anyone that wants to be able to receive live video from the camera's location. It takes a little bit of know how to set up, but the price point makes it accessible to a wide range of users. You could even set one up at home if you’re paranoid about what the kids are doing while you’re in the office. ®