System with 1 Indoor Motion Detection Camera (SM2200)

I travel a lot throughout the year and it's tough when I have no idea what's going on with my home when I'm away. Companies that specialize in home security want lots of money to set up a viewable home monitoring system if they even offer one at all. I decided to wait until I could find something that would work for my needs. The VueZone system seemed to fit the bill. When Amazon had the VueZone on a goldbox deal, I decided to roll the dice and see how it worked. Truth be told, when the system arrived, I stuffed it into a cabinet and forgot about it for a month or more because I wasn't in the mood to goof around with it. Most technology doesn't work properly right out of the box and I didn't have time to troubleshoot any problems. When I finally did get around to pulling the system out and setting it up, it literally didn't take me more than 5 minutes. This couldn't be any easier. I plugged the base unit into the wall and my router. I put the included batteries into the camera and pressed a button on the base unit to sync the camera with the base unit. I then found a place in my home to put the camera. The kit comes with several "ball" wall hangers. You just peel the plastic off the back and stick it anywhere you like (they do caution you about the adhesive possibly messing up your walls, but I believe they have adhesive removers to handle such issues). You'll have to log on to VueZone online to set up an account and choose your level of service. You can either get the free service which supports two cameras, or the premier service which supports 5 camera. I got the premier service on sale for $36 for the year. Once online you can view your camera right away and the pictures are cystal clear and fantastic! I'm so pleased with a product that delievers just what they promise. I can now leave town and not only check in on my home from my computer, but from my android smartphone as well! I have three cameras in various places inside my home and two cameras positioned at the front and back door. I can always get a clear picture as long as the lights are on. One caveat I'd give to anyone considering purchasing the product, the cameras do not pan around or move in any way so be sure to pick a good spot that covers the most space to get the biggest bang for your buck!

Spent hours on IP camera reviews. Found the best advice was one given by a reviewer who had wasted many hours trying to make one work. He said if you cannot get it to work within an hour, don't waste your time like he did. It's either going to work in your particular situation or not.There are many reasons for this. You can find them in other reviews. Many are simple, like some software not accepting certain character or spaces, others are technically complex.Having said that, I found this camera to be very easy to install and connect to my internet modem/router (about 2 minutes). If you are tech savvy and do not plan to use the VueZone website service, it might just work for you, otherwise, read on.I have a very simple situation: phone company modem/router, no network. It does not get simpler than that. The problem I ran into was the VueZone website, to which you have to connect to view your images via internet. This website is a nightmare. False errors, false navigation, freezing up, etc. This is all before I even got to register the camera to it! When it finally registered it, it was telling me that I had a bad connection, even though the lights on the camera were telling me it was properly connected. I tried everything I could think of for over an hour then decided to follow that wise reviewer's advice and returned it. Hard to believe their "user" website is so bad when their "marketing" website is so impressive.I should note that I also bought an Astak Mole IP camera, also from Amazon, and that connected and got registered on the suggested Yoics website beautifully in 10 minutes and has been working fine since. So I guess that wise reviewer was absolutely right: it will work right away for you...or not!

The good news:* Very easy to set up.* Decent image quality in indoor-lighting useThe bad news:* The box talks about the mobile app, which was my intended use, but this requires a $5/month subscription* More than 2 cameras requires $5/month fee - didn't know about these fees until I set up the device.* Low frame rate - adequate for casual monitoring but a throwback to olden times* You can view only one camera at a time. Switching to a different camera stops the one you've been watching* Motion sensor doesn't work through glass and where it does work you turn it on/off manually - you can't set up a schedule.* Very limited exposure range. Exposure has to be set manually. If looking outside, can't handle a sunny day.My take: I'm feeling cheated because when I bught it there was no mention of monthly fee for a 'Premium' subscription that allows use of mobile app or more than 2 cameras. Disappointed by weak handling of high and low light level situations and by inability to watch multiple cameras at once. Not well suited for watching deck/driveway/etc. through a window. The Amazon writeup does mention the fee for use of the mobile app now.