Foscam FI8904W Outdoor Wireless/Wired IP Camera (Silver)

• Simple to setup, friendly GUI, remote viewing, record from anywhere anytime
• Waterproof for outdoor installation, Auto IR-LED illumination for night vision up to 20 meters
• Motion detection alert via email or upload image to FTP. Access management with password protection.
• Supports all standard browsers and can be viewed remotely using smartphone software (not included)
• Wi-Fi compliant with wireless standards IEEE 802.11b/g and supports both WEP & WPA WPA2 encryption

I've used different types of cameras for security in the past, but most of them have very narrow viewing angles, making it hard to watch a large area with one camera. This camera, however, has a wider viewing angle than most and makes it easy to watch a large area without having to move it too far back.

This camera can be setup with a wired wireless connection. Here was my experience with both:

(I'm using Windows 7)

Wired Connection:

This was very easy and quick. I simply took it out of the box, plugged it into the router with the supplied network cable and installed the software on my computer. The software recognized the camera right away, but you don't have to use the software if you just go directly to the camera within your network, i.e. . Once you access the camera within your network, you can view it right away and setup a wireless connection, your mail, ftp upload, and adjust other settings. If you plan to use the wireless connection you will want to enter your wirelsss connection info while you're directly connected to it here.

Wireless Connection:

This is fairly easy once you directly connect the camera to your router and open it's settings. I simply had to supply my wireless SSID (and login/password/encryption type if used) and save it. Then I tunred off the camera, unplugged it from the router, and turned it back on after waiting about 30 seconds. From that point it was connected through the wireless connection instead of the wired connection.

Accessing the camera from outside your home network:

When you access the camera from within your home network, it's simple and easy. But when you go on a trip and you want to view your camera from outside your home network, you have to set some extra things up. This was a little trickier to do, since you will need to be able to open your router settings and adjust them. Basically you need to tell your router to allow outside connections to your camera. In short, I had to allow connections to the camera by forwarding a certain port number from within my router to my camera. Once I did that I could simply type in my router's IP address from anywhere and I could access the camera. If you don't know how to do this, your ISP tech support can probably walk you through it on the phone. Here's how I did this:

(I have a linksys router)

1) I opened up my router settings by going to:

2) I located the Port Range Forward menu (under Applications and Gaming)

3) I entered the following into the first line:

-Start=80

-End=80

-Protocol=Both

-Ip Address=192.168.1.102 (your camera might have a different last number here, you can see it in your address bar when you are accessing your camera)

-Checked the Enable box and hit the Save Settings button

Your mileage may vary but once I did this I could access my camera by entering my computer's IP address into a browser from any location.

Motion Detection / Alarm:

The motion alarm works well, but you will need to adjust it's sensitivity settings for your own needs. You can set it to email you a screen capture when it detects movement and/or upload the screen captures via ftp.

The camera performs well and this model has a wider viewing angle, allowing you to view more area without having to move the camera back. I was looking for a camera like this since most I had tried had very narrow viewing angles.

I gave this camera 4 stars because the instructions were not the greatest. If you don't have experience with IP devices or this kind of thing you might not understand what the instructions are telling you sometimes.

Overall it was an easy setup, no different than setting up any other wireless device.

I will be buying a couple more of these to cover the rest of the areas around my house.

Buy Foscam FI8904W Outdoor Wireless/Wired IP Camera (Silver) Now

I just bought the FI8904W camera to go along with the Foscam FI8918W camera I bought earlier. I was disappointed to find that the field-of-view for the FI8904W was much tighter than the F8918W, even though both are title listed by Amazon as "3.6mm lens, 67-deg viewing angle". I went to the foscam.com website (not foscam.us) and found the spec sheet for the FI8904W. It states a "6mm lens and 42-degree viewing angle". I found that the narrow FOV made it inadequate for outdoor patio coverage. (For the tinkers out there you can buy replacement lenses. Google "IP camera lenses"). It's really too bad it doesn't come with the same lens as the FI8918W. Also, the camera does not have auto-brightness, which can be a problem if you want to view in both bright sun and darkness. On a positive note, it was not too difficult to set up in both wired and wireless modes and the construction seems solid and water resistant. I returned mine but would have kept it if it weren't for the narrow FOV.

Read Best Reviews of Foscam FI8904W Outdoor Wireless/Wired IP Camera (Silver) Here

I bought this camera to monitor my driveway when I'm not home. The wide-angle is nice and while not fantastic, the video quality is good enough to recognize vehicles or people.

However, the camera has no auto-exposure capability. You can manually adjust the exposure in the web interface to get a fairly good picture, but it's only going to look good while you have the exact same lighting conditions. Get it just right for mid-day on a sunny day, and it will be too dark in the morning and afternoon or when the sun goes behind a cloud. In fact, because it doesn't auto-adjust, the motion sensing can be triggered by nothing more than a cloud passing in front of the sun. And forget using it during the day and at night. If it's adjusted for daytime, you won't see anything but a black screen at night. Adjust it for nighttime and you'll get nothing but a white screen during the day.

The bottom line is that I can't count on this camera to send me emails when there's activity in the driveway since it only reliably detects motion when the exposure is just right. The other 22 hours of the day it doesn't work. I'll be sending it back and looking for something else. I guess that you get what you pay for...

Want Foscam FI8904W Outdoor Wireless/Wired IP Camera (Silver) Discount?

I bought this camera based on the assumption that Amazon was being honest about this being an 'outdoor' camera. You must hide all of the attached cableing (network interface, poer supply, reset button) indoors. This camera worked well untill the first rain and lightning storm we had (and here in the Pheonix area we don't get THAT much rain) and the power supply blew out. Purchasing a replacement power supply from Amazon allows the camera to power up now but I still cannot get into the network interface to be able to set the camera up nor get an IP address through DHCP. Have tried the 'factory reset' many times and same result. For this price I basically got a doorstop to use in my garage. I would NOT recommend this peice of junk to anybody. On the note of support from Foscam, forget it. The website is sparse on support and they will not answer emails.

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On paper, these look like a great bargain, and they would be if Foscam would spend a bit more time on the software/firmware. My other gripe is some sellers (Loft-K) are selling the non wide angle, I had to order from another seller to finally get the 67 degree model. If your image doesn't look like a funhouse mirror, you got the standard angle.

If you aren't up on your camera software and networking, definitely stay away, setup is not for the tech shy. I already had a Zoneminder system up and running on a Linux server with various other cameras, I was looking for something with a bit better night performance.

So on to why I had to return this camera. It is just plain unreliable for video surveillance. If you only use WEP, it is actually somewhat reliable, however if you turn on WPA, forget it. I'm not sure mine even went 24 hours without requiring a reboot. Even if you hardwire, the next software bug will get you if you use any sort of motion detection software. The camera keeps adjusting its light levels, and it does it so fast that it will trigger your motion detection software.

Lastly, the main reason I got this camera over another was the built in IR. When I placed it side by side with a Panasonic camera, which was under $100 and has no IR, the night shots are much better on the Panasonic. The lighting levels are just all wrong and the IRs aren't used to their advantage. The fact that it does not have an IR filter for daytime use means images during the day are pretty rough too.

The real shame of it is, most of this is software issues within the camera, that could be fixed by the maker, but this is really just another one of those cheap Chinese cameras, I was a fool for expecting more.