Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased this camera from Amazon a week ago and last night I set this up. I have read a lot of reviews in Amazon saying the set up is vague and complex and I would say, it is absolutely not. I thought I would put a detailed review that can help other people who are planning to buy a reliable and intelligent security camera. Here are the steps that I would recommend people to note down: 1) Once you open the box and ready to configure the camera for the first time using your mobile phone app, make sure your mobile phone is connected to your home wifi network at 2.4 GHz in your wifi router. Most of the new routers support dual bands and all new mobile phones are capable of connecting to both 2.4 and 5 GHz. Since oure camera support only 2.4 GHz, connect the mobile phone at 2.4 GHz. Then follow the instructions to enter the serial number of the camera, hit next, enter wifi password for 2.4 GHz network. You will see the last screen saying, 1.Network Configuration ( tick mark), 2.Device Configuration ( Tick Mark), then 3.Done. Don't wait for a tick mark to appear next to Done. As soon as you see the message "Added Successfully ( with a tick mark)" in the screen, you are good to go. Enter a new password for the camera. Start Live View and your camera is functional now. 2) For configuring the camera for many operations like motion detection, email alerts, you need to install the software that comes with the package or install it from Amcrest's website (https://s3.amazonaws.com/amcrest-files/CD+Files.zip). 3) Optionally you can just install the ipconfig tool for Mac or Windows from here :https://amcrest.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/214774557-IP-Config-Tool-IP2M-841- 4) Launch Ip Config tool and make a note of the ip address received by the camera and the MAc Address ( you will need it at a later point of time , when I get into more security settings). 5) Click the 'e' at the end of the IP Config tool and you can see the camera in IE, I used Internet Explorer and downloaded the plug in as it popped up to install immediately. Enter the new password you created for the camera and you are ready to configure your settings. 6) The first thing I did was to configure my email alerts. It is a bit tricky as the Amcrest instructions (https://amcrest.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/214633717-Email-configuration-IP2M-841-) didn't work for me for some reasons. I had to use the gmail address after making the following changes in my gmail account settings: Log on to gmail account. Click Drop down the Gear button on the top right, click Settings-> Accounts and Import-> Other Google Account settings->Sign In and Security-> Device Activity and Notifications-> Allow less secure apps: ON. I used a not-frequently used Gmail account for this, because I use it only for sending the alerts from the camera. 7) Back to camera configuration, select Network->TCP/IP-> Select Static instead of DHCP. Save the settings and power off/on the camera. 8) Back to Email configuration and hit Email Test 9) Then I went and configured the motion detection. The videos from Amcrest is so helpful. Follow this link, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPTl5ZUH8sgYB97Te0iIudg/featured and you will see all the videos that are set up so nicely. 10) I did change the date and time manually for the camera here: Connect the camera from browser, then System-General-Date and Time(second tab)- PC Sync. 11) I set up a schedule for motion detection so it will detect only when nobody is at home. The good thing is you can set up multiple schedules, piece of cake and peace of mind! 12) I am going to play with more security settings in the next few days and will update my comments to help other users. Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of images, email sent as soon as it detected motion, quality of mic and speakers etc. I haven't used the cloud or sd card yet, looking forward to play with that in the next few days. Let me know if you have any questions setting this up, I would be glad to help.