SMONET IP Camera, HD Wireless Security Camera Wifi Surveillance Video Recorder With Two Way Audio Night Vision For Pet Monitor, Nanny Camera, Baby Monitor (720P-Black)

It is a nice piece of kit however it would not focus through a window to survey a car park, the lens focused on the window not through it so sent it back, still looking for an outdoor surveillance camera setup that is affordable.

Hit and miss operation. Had to factory reset numerous times and set back up over the course of two days. I have many issues with this item.1. Poor WiFi connection strength. Could only get it to maintain a connection in very high strength areas in my home. In my home office my desktop, laptop and smartphone all can see and use my WiFi signal perfectly fine, while this item cannot even see the WiFi.2. The item connects to an external service meaning a third party has full access to the unit, and there can utilize my broadband connection, can potentially see all my localy connected equipment (and also all network traffic which potentially means username/password sniffing is possible). I am not suggesting the company selling this item are going to do this, but the unit is a generic unit available in many other end name brands. Therefore not the seller (who has had it branded to their name) but the actual manufacturer has access, and also any possible data breach on their system/account's/server could result in third parties gaining access (read hacked/hackers). The worry is not only there is a possibility to use/view my camera but it could be utilized for other things which potentially could result in a breach of my own network data or ilegal activities being performed on it.3. Totally useless for me as my supplied unit fried a Sandisk 32Gb class 10 SD card. When I say fried I mean I couldn't even hold it when I removed it. I got a very strong burning smell after I inserted the card and then turned the unit on. I know the card was working before as I had removed some data and formatted it before use. The card no longer works and isn't even detected in any other item. That's now cost me money as I now have to purchase a replacement card.4. As it fried my SD card I have no onboard storage to record to - which pretty much makes it obsolete as a security device. I did attempt to use numerous proprietary external recording software but it appears that this equipment only works with the smartphone app and the third party website. YOU CANNOT STORE RECORDING ANYWHERE BUT ON THE DEVICE OR YOUR SMART PHONE. Using the smart phone means you have to be watching the camera and press record while watching - again pointless as a security camera. I may as well just sit in the area under surveillance and not bother with camera.5. Speed of the feed varies and at times the feed was nearly 60 seconds after real time. I could walk into my garden, walk around, then walk into my home back to my phone and then 30 seconds latter watch myself in the garden.This item is definitely being returned and I will never buy another camera that even references the apparent manufacturer(?) MIPC.EDIT:I was contacted by the seller (who isn't to blame for the failings of this unit). Some of the questions he asked make me believe I haven't explained the problems correctly so this is my response to him.Answers to your questions:1. Yes I used the supplied USB cable and power pack.2. Yes I inserted the SD card with the power off. I would never plug in a drive or storage media with the power on unless it was designed to (i.e. usb based). When turning on the camera with the SD card newly inserted (correctly as they only go in one way) it seemed ok for the first 10 seconds or so, then started to click very loudly followed by a very strong burning smell. As soon as I smelt the fumes I turned the power off immediately at the power socket. As the only thing that I had changed since set up was adding the card I removed it. It was so hot I couldn't hold it. I let it cool and then put it into the PC card reader which I had used perfectly fine with the SD card earlier (I had removed data from the card and reformated it to fat32 using the industry standard SDformater software). On trying to access the card it was no longer detected.The camera was very easy to set up - this wasn't my issue. The issue was it losing it configuration when unplugging it and relocating it to another point of use. The only way to get it working was to go through the whole setup process again. I moved it again the next day to a different point and again it didn't work, so naturally I tried the setup again. This time it couldn't even see the WiFi network even thought 3 other devices in the exact same location could not only see the network but where able to use it without issues. The WiFi and internet speed in this location is more than able to a stream video (I at times stream HD from a webcam on my desktop machine, via WiFi to my TV downstairs and also to remote sites - I wasn't doing this at the time so there was no WiFi/internet bandwidth in use) Moving the unit back to a closer position to the router (about 3 feet) and setting it up again it worked. I unplugged it and moved it back to its intended positon. Again it failed to work. Again I went through the setup in case it had lost it's settings - again it reported that it could not find the WiFi network. Setting up network connected devices I can do in my sleep - I am a true IT guy (Linux and Windows trained and work with servers, routers, WiFi hotspots, wired networks, IP telephony, hardware firewalls and video conferencing). I also know about end to end encryption and although this has high end encryption involved it is end to end i.e. from the camera to the viewing software. Some of this software is based on third party servers so although the feed from the camera to the server is encrypted, once it arrives there it decrypted for use. This means anyone with access to the server (server owner or otherwise) can see or control the camera and it's feed and also potentially repurpose the unit by flashing the inbuilt software with their own - obviously doable as it can have it's software updates via the inbuilt control panel. (Zombie network anyone??) Should they wish, they could potentially also recover the security certificate rendering the encryption useless.So to sum up:1. I used the item as it was intended with the supplied hardware, cables and power supply.2. Although WiFi is one of it's features, it failed to operate in areas with known working WiFi signals.3. Unplugging the unit and moving it can cause it to lose setting and have to be reset to factory settings (long push on reset button - something not mentioned in a manual?), reconnected to the app and reprogramming the WiFi settings.4. The SD card reader on my unit obviously has a major issue and rendered a perfectly good, working, quality SD card useless (Sandisk class 10 32Gb) purchased from a trusted supplier. I would have understood if it was a cheap no brand card or a fake. This raises concerns as the heat was extremely high, and if I hadn't switched it off could have been a fire risk.5. There are potentially security risks with this unit. It uses external servers which I have no control over, the username cannot be changed so the password can be brute forced relatively easy with programs like Hydra (I think I could break in very quickly knowing just the username), the data between server and unit is bi-directional (that's demonstrated by the PTZ function) so the unit not only sends out a data stream to a third party but will also listen for commands back.Hope this clarifies any questions you may have. I await a further response with interest. I am afraid I cannot call the number you have given me as it appears to be an American toll free number and I am in the UK. The clue being that I purchased a unit with a UK power adaptor from amazon.co.uk!D. Rhodes

unreliable app. camera is fine. let down. loots of issues had to buy new camera. wweeks later smonet up running again. app update 2018 has messed alot of people up. tricky to get back online.