"Foscam FI8918W Wireless IP Camera is a stand-alone surveillance security system every home and office must have for a fraction of the price you spend on a bulky CCTV security system. Best of all, there are no monthly fees associated with this camera’s use, nor does it require a running computer to work. Once setup, plug it into a power source within your network’s range and rock and roll!"

What We Like About It

The Price. Its Clutter free Wireless features. Its an IP camera with all the bells and whistles. It has Pan & Tilt so you con move the camera remotely. Night vision to to see in pitch black darkness. You can hear whats going on and Speak through the built in speaker. It can detect Motion to activate an array of features. Camera supports any web browser for ease of use. Ease of instalation with minimum hassel. Take pictures and emails it to your personal account automatically. It can be controlled via an Iphone or an Android phone.

The Price
This is super cheap compaired to the functionality it provides.

It’s Wireless
Although it also has an Ethernet port for physical connectivity, being wireless means that it can connect to your 802.11b/g network even when an Ethernet jack is not close by.

It’s an IP Camera
This is one of its greatest features and means that it connects directly to your network (translation: you don’t need to connect it to a running computer to have it work.)

Unlike a printer which is physically connected to a computer. When you need to print something you need to make sure the computer is on.

Pan/Tilt support
Allows you to change the orientation of the camera 300 degrees horizontally, and 120 degrees vertically.

The more expensive Logitech camera is a fixed mount.

Night Vision
Allows you to see in complete darkness (up to 26 feet)

Two-Way Audio
The embedded microphone and speaker enable you to remotely talk and listen to people by the camera from wherever you are on the planet which is crazy cool.

Motion Detection
Which can be used to trigger the alarm function that snaps a series of 6 pictures and then emails them off to your gmail account (or other email address). I use it to get notifications when packages are delivered to my front door which is pretty neat.

Web Browser Monitoring and Control
Since this is an IP Camera it has to be self-sufficient, meaning it can’t rely on software running on a separate computer to function. That’s a good thing!

Since the device itself does not have a keyboard or display, setup, control, and monitoring are controlled via web browser. Just simply launch a browser on your computer (or iPad, or smart phone) and type in the camera’s IP address (Hence the name IP Camera) to interact with it.

Dynamic IP Address Support
Allows you to access your feed outside your home network even if your IP address changes.

Real-time Monitoring

The above picture is a snapshot of the browser interface of the Foscam FI8918W Wireless IP Camera.

The little blue sphere in the top left allows you to pan and tilt the camera (which happens in real-time). You can adjust the camera’s resolution, turn on/off the Infrared camera, adjust brightness and contrast, and enable auto pan and tilt mode which keeps the cameras eye roving around.

This is another picture taken at night to demonstrate the night-vision capabilities.

Mobile Phone Support

Since the controls are browser-based you can access them from any web browser. I found a nifty application called IP Cam Viewer which is a bit easier to manage on my phones diminutive screen and allows me to not only see and control my camera from anywhere, but also listen and talk through it, even if I am in another country or state. Above is the feed viewed from my Droid X using IP Cam Viewer.

The program is free, but I loved it so much I splurged and paid the $4.99 to remove the ads and support the developer. This cool little app is also available for iPhone and Blackberry and is a worthwhile download even if you don’t have a camera as it allows you to see feeds from a list of beach and traffic cameras.

Device Settings

Setup and configuration of the Foscam FI8918W is contained in the Device Settings tab. Here you can adjust all elements of the camera. The user interface is similar to what you see when you setup a router or DSL modem. So if you have experience setting one of those up, you will be right at home here.

External Video Stream Access
Getting the camera to work outside your network requires that you to do a little port forwarding magic, and if your IP address is dynamic (that is, a new one is assigned to you every time your DSL modem is reset) then you will also have to configure the DDNS (Dynamic Domain Name Server). Thankfully the FI8918W supports this and Foscam provides step-by-step instructions for setting it up using the free service provided by dyndns.com.

Email Alerts
To take advantage of the motion sensing and alert capabilities you will have to enter your outgoing email credentials into the device and if you want pictures sent you will have to have access to an FTP server. If you have a blog hosted on a provider like Host Gator you will already have access to this so it will be just a matter of entering in the appropriate ftp server address and login credentials to get this working.

Once properly configured you will receive an email with a series of six pictures anytime motion is detected. You can adjust the sensitivity as well as the time (in seconds) between snapshots.

Collecting all the right information and entering it into the requisite fields can be tedious but once you have it properly configured the results are certainly gratifying. Maybe I’m a geek, but I find it super cool to be able to check my porch for packages, or receive an email snapshot of the person ringing my door bell when I am out and about.

Installation Guide / User Manual

Foscam used to have two really important documents on their site that don’t appear to come with the camera. In any event, I found the FI8918W Quick Installation Guide and FI8918W User Manual before they were removed. I have uploaded them to my site as they are extremely detailed and a great reference.