Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I first want to be clear, I did my research before I ordered these cameras! The only feature I was looking for was to be able to review LIVE video from any of the cameras at any given time. These are PERFECT for this stated need. I really didn't care about the other features regardless of whether or not they worked well but I'll add my 2 cents just to help BLINK team make their product better. With that said, here are the PROS for the reasons I bought them: 1. Love the portability and the nifty idea of powering the sync module at all times so that the cameras themselves use very little juice. 2. The size of these babies is nice too. Somewhat inconspicuous wherever you decide to place them. 3. Mounting options included are well designed to give you close to unlimited viewing angles. 4. I can view Live from any camera from anywhere! (I would never have purchased these otherwise.) Now for my CONS (negative feedback) (For all stated features, I'd give 3 stars): 1. The setup for experienced IT professional is frustrating to say the least. We NEVER have the "assumed" home-use configuration on our home networks-- we have our home systems locked down for incoming AND outgoing internet traffic through the firewall too. This makes connecting the sync module a very tedious task indeed! (More on my workaround below). 2. Connecting over WiFi ONLY is silly. A wired connection is ALWAYS more reliable (especially when the sync unit has a built in wired network interface). I'm sure future releases will fix this. 3. Not allowing one to change IP addresses for the sync module and cameras is annoying. 4. I can't seem to change the name of the system! It remains "BLINK####". 5. You can't take a picture WHILE you are viewing the live feed. This needs to change because in the event I "see" something awry, I'd like to snap a photo for safe keeping! 6. You can't record video in LIVE view either (see above reasons needed). I've read this may be possible in future firmware releases. 7. The Live View timeout is too short (I get it to save batteries) but I'd like to be able to lengthen this especially if I decide to run off USB power instead of batteries. 8. I'd like to hear 2-way sound. With all that said, I'm sure with time, BLINK will improve their product and when they do, I'll revisit this review. Here are a few other feedback items to help. BLINK should indicate all protocols and ports needed to allow communications to the outside. That way IT pros wouldn't have to spend hours gathering this info ourselves. For those other IT pros who care, here is the info you'll need to track down the DHCP addresses of the sync module and cameras, and the protocols and ports used to lock down your "home" firewalls: MAC OIU f4:b8:5e (in your DHCP tables)= Texas Instruments= Cameras MAC OIU 00:03:7f =Atheros Communications, Inc = Sync Modules TCP 22 (SSH) TCP 3727-3730 UDP 123 (NTP) This list may be incomplete but these came from watching traffic at least 5 times from all devices and this is what I documented.