Hawking HNC290G Wireless-G IP Camera

Hawking Technologies claims its HNC290G Wireless-G IP Camera will automatically configure router settings, making setup a snap even for novices. We installed two of them on two different home networks, and in both instances, the auto-configuration mode failed. Once up and running, however, the inexpensive Webcam delivers outstanding video that’s bright and finely detailed.

Hawking did an outstanding job detailing the setup instructions for the camera, which features a built-in Web server and does not need to be attached to a PC. But the setup wizard had trouble reading the router’s DHCP settings, and, when tried configuring the camera for remote viewing on the Web, the novice and semiautomatic modes didn’t work.We manually opened the Web and video ports on our Linksys 802.11g router using the manual-setup option and sailed through the rest of the process.

Hawking includes a free 90-day trial for a DDNS service, which enables you to assign an easy-to-remember URL for accessing the camera from a Web browser. The cam works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari; we appreciate the multibrowser approach, seeing as other cameras work with IE only. We fired up our browsers and found that the Webcam displayed bright, crisp video, noticeably better-looking than that of other low-cost IP cams.

The HNC290G supports both wireless 802.11b/g and wired 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet, and it can theoretically stream video at up to 30 frames per second (fps). Using an 802.11g router, we typically got frame rates of 3fps to 4fps, which is adequate for home surveillance and pet monitoring. Other features include built-in motion detection with e-mail-alert, recording, and snapshot options