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First version: 2017
Last changes: 2017.05.06
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The review of DLink baby monitoring camera

This is the review of DLink Baby Camera and the DLink "cloud" and also their mobile application. It should work together as a nice baby monitoring solution, but...
...but it's shit.

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I bought DLink DCS-855L (EyeOn Baby Monitor HD 360) some time ago. I wanted to have good product from good brand, with no problems, HD video, fast, secure and reliable.
Huge disappointment, please DO NOT buy it.
And also with this approach from DLink - I suggest to stop buying anything from them.

Details

Initially it wasn't bad, but they update apps from time to time and things get worse every time.

I have a technical IT background and yet this camera takes ages for me to setup properly.
After it finally start to work, it may forget the settings and the setup needs to be re-started from scratch. When you really need it, it may just not work.
I'm tired of workarounding this sh*t again and again.
Then, when it works, it's far from perfect - hangs, lags, disconnects randomly...

Details: Setup

  • To add the camera to your devices list in your app, you need to follow a significant number of steps. This is done on mobile or tablet (Android or Apple), you can't do that on PC.
  • You need to create login to D-Link account (cloud !), then to the camera itself and then add it to the list of devices. A lot of "security". Each step takes ages ("connecting, please wait").
  • If anything goes wrong, you have no way of finding what exactly failed - it's just sitting there like a brick, simply not working. Says "try again" and that's it.
    If you don't know what PING or DHCP is, don't buy it - you have no way of diagnosing what went wrong, and the only way would be to reset and go through the process again and again.
    You may need a lot of experience in understanding Wifi and networking to hack this thing.

Details: Setup 2

Somehow it wasn't bad in 2015/2016. But in last few months (due to updates of software) the setup procedure became even worse and less reliable.
  • First: if camera forgets the settings and can't connect to your local Wifi, you need to HARD-RESET it.
    There is no way to get through the setup without resetting it completely.
    It looks like some of the settings you may try to change (Wifi password?) will never really get applied. Looks like untested software to me.
  • Then, because it connects to it's own local Wifi during setup - it changes the Wifi settings on devices used for a setup (tablet/mobile) in such a way, that it's not possible to connect back to your original network.
    And because it cannot connect back, the setup always fails as it can't connect to the DLink cloud. The only workaround is to reconnect manualy in the middle of the camera setup.
    It's some issue between app, cloud and wifi.
    However, that's a new issue (after recent updates), at the beginning I didn't notice anything like that.
I don't think a non-IT person will survive the setup process.

Details: when it's online

  • It boots for few minutes.
    You need to wait some significant amount of time after turning it on. Or simply never turn it off - but that's a power waste and a security problem.
  • It behaves strange and loud during boot:
    Why whole camera is moving left-right-up-down ?
    To wake up the baby with the loud engines ?
    Why it's playing stupid sounds after boot ?
  • It's very slow in terms of user interaction. The audio/video has a huge delay (>2 seconds). It breaks randomly, then needs restart of the camera or the restart of the application or simply both.
    Sometimes in the middle of "video session" it breaks in such a way, that you can't connect back to camera at all (cloud problem ?).
  • and forget about any "movement autodetection" or "sound notifications" - b*sh*t, it doesnt' really work
  • Security: how do you know who is listening when it's on ? Why it's not possible to setup it as a local device without cloud ? I don't want any clouds when I don't need them.
... there is more, but I'm simply tired of wasting time on DLink's cr*p.

Final thoughts

Again - do not buy DLink DCS-855L (EyeOn Baby Monitor HD 360).
It's simply time wasting, money wasting, bad quality piece of sh*t.

For this brand, this money, I would expect something that actually works.
Alternative: my friend bought something 2 times cheaper and it works like a charm.
Another option: if you know a thing about IT, just buy Raspberry Pi with HD camera and have a full config to yourself.
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