Axis 206 Wireless Network Camera is 'set and forget'
Axis 206 Wireless Network Camera is ‘set and forget.’
Wait ’til your novice networkers discover IP video cameras. You’ll get no peace. They’ll want to watch the kids sleep, monitor the patio for raccoons, spy on remodeling contractors in the basement; you name it.
| AXIS 206W |
Price: $299 Installation time: About 1 hour Ongoing maintenance: Set and forget. Bottom Line: A nice, if generic, Wi-Fi camera fit for light use. |
One choice is the new Axis 206 Wireless Network Camera. Because it uses 802.11b, you can place it anywhere within reach of a power outlet. The camera is very small (2.5-by-5-by-1.5-inches), and light. We tested it on a network with three 802.11b/g access points (from D-Link, Proxim and Linksys).
The included software is for Windows only, but if your wireless LAN supplies DHCP, you can skip it. Setup was easy. We programmed initially with a directly connected mini-USB cable, although the camera had already found its IP address through the default DHCP setting. The camera needed only a Wired Equivalent Privacy key and a password to go live.
The Web server tools adjust video, compression, ‘titling,’ and so on, simply. Your users might have trouble with the video image settings, which are buggy. For instance, we couldn’t get a black-and-white image to display. As browsers go, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer worked, but Apple’s Safari and Opera Software’s browser didn’t. A Windows Pocket PC version of the software worked easily with Pocket Explorer on a Compaq 3500 series iPaq running a Cisco 350 Wi-Fi card.
Using no compression, the maximum image size of 640 by 480 pixels has a about a 70K byte/sec data rate. Because the camera uses 802.11b, this slowed our 802.11g network significantly.
To view the camera remotely the 206W can use the AXIS Dynamic DNS server, which lets you access it through the Internet (conditions permitting). This usually means opening a port or a direct proxy with a router to proxy the connections needed by the camera’s Web server and an external client browser.
One downside is you can’t see real-time image changes when adjusting the video image. At best, latency was about a second, at worst, about 3. The frame rate was about 10 frames per second.
Henderson is principal researcher and managing director of Extremelabs in Indianapolis. He can be reached at then derson@extremelabs.com.
