Panasonic Network Camera and Pet Cam (BLC1A)

When you try to set up this pet cam it looks like it will work great. Then, when you try to set it up through Panasonic's system, it is impossible. After spending several hours on the phone with "tech support" I gave up and sent the item back. It's sad when a large corporation like Panasonic can't
even make the set up through their system work. Don't waste your time and money on this product!

L. McLane

I love this camera because I'm able to easily monitor my home and my dog, from my laptop or even my cell phone. The setup was easy BUT I had to go download more info from the Panasonic website, because the instructions are really confusing. It's quite simple, but they make it confusing. Otherwise, great, totally worth it for my peace of mind with my pet.

I bought another company's Net Camera but it was not easy to setup. Then I read the reviews for this camera and figured I would give it a try. It was very EASY to set-up. I was watching my house on the internet in 15 minutes. I like it so much I am buying another for the back door.

Hunting for a networked camera to use to check on our cats, this one turned out to be a good balance of cost and performance.

Initial setup was a breeze and the camera was quickly up and running. Hooking into the free web service to allow us to view from any internet connection wasn't as easy. Taking the Microft-ian approach, if the hardware plays well with your software, things work smoothly and you're ready to go. If it DOESN'T, you're on your own.

I admit I did NOT call for tech support, choosing to try things out myself first.

First, I'm not great at networking or the terminology used. The manual tells you to set up your router for IP Forwarding on the port you use. Not familiar with what exactly IP Forwarding means, I simply opened the port on my router for this device, and that seems to have done it.

Since the automatic account creation for the free account failed as well, it was only by accident that I discovered that this could be accessed via the 'Dynamic DNS' option on the Setup tab (hope this saves someone some time).

So, after all was done, I'm now able to keep an eye on the cats (and watch them dance across the table they're not supposed to be on), and with a clearance Powerline ethernet system, can set up the camera anywhere I can find a pair of power outlets.

And, perhaps the greatest indicator of my satisfaction: a second camera is on the way to me.

I picked this up new but clearance at office depot for $24, plugged into my router, setup the software, enabled upnp as directed but still get failure messages when trying to view thru the web, customer service is clueless, no email response either.

The recording feature works and I can view the cam (just not remotely thru the net yet) daytime shots are pretty decent, the zoom pixels things up but overall gives a nice front parking area view of my home. Night time is well, so so, you can see but its pretty grainy even zoomed out to full picture.

Certainly worth the $24 I paid, have gone thru the books and searched google still cant get that upnp error to go away (and i do have upnp enabled on router).

If you need this for a place that has lighting go for it, check office depots too since i scored this one for $24 recently there.

Bill :)