• 640 x 480 resolution
• 16x digital zoom
• Manual-focus
• Wireless N connectivity

Trying to set up a home surveillance camera, or cam, used to be rocket science. To be able to view the video feed remotely on a smartphone or PC, you have to key in the Internet protocol address of your cam on your viewing device.

That is where the problem starts, because all broadband services now work on dynamic IP addresses and these change all the time.

To get around the problem you have to sign up to DynDNS.com, which monitors your broadband line every time your IP address changes.

That fixes only your external IP address, but because your router also dynamically allocates the internal IP address of your network, you need to set your router to always allocate the same internal IP address to your cam.

Another problem is that some Internet service providers block the default port 80, which your IP cam uses to send out video feeds, and you need to activate port forwarding in your router to solve this problem.

But all that is history with the new D-Link 1130L IP camera – the first cam I tested that is simple to install. What D-Link did was to load extra software into the cam. When the cam detects an Internet connection, it automatically bypasses the router as the gatekeeper to your cam and goes straight to a D-Link server on the Internet that does all the hair-tearing configurations at the back-end for you. It has never been this easy.

Simply connect the cam to the router through a LAN cable, then run the step-by-step installation wizard on the CD. If your router supports the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) standard, just press the WPS button on the cam and the router.

You will then be prompted to sign up for an account at www.mydlink.com, which is the server that configures all the settings on your cam. Next, install the mydlink app from Apple App Store or Android Market on your smartphone. Launch the app, key in your user name and password and start viewing.

You can also view it on your laptop by logging on to www.mydlink.com.

After I set up the cam, I unplugged the cable and moved the cam from my study to the living room. Even via a wireless connection to the router, the video was smooth. I kept the cam running for hours in my office and the video feed just kept going.

I am using the D-Link DIR665router at home, which has a standard called Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), that lets devices talk to each other (in this case the router and the cam). This means the video feed goes directly from the cam to my smartphone over the Internet.

According to D-Link, if your router is not UPnP enabled, the cam cannot do a live feed. In this case, it records a 60-second video automatically and uploads it to the D-Link server, which then streams the video to your phone upon request – which means you have to keep reconnecting to your cam to view the latest feed.

Image quality is average and things can appear grainy. There are no pan and tilt capabilities.

D-Link says it will roll out more powerful cams later this year with the mydlink feature. Other brands like Edimax are also launching similar cams soon.

More: D-Link DCS-1130L Wireless N Fixed IP Network Camera with Built-In Microphone