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D-LINK webcam deemed uselessful
By Dave Winer on Saturday, November 05, 2011 at 9:38 PM.

Update: I got it to work. Posted a comment explaining. #

I got a DCS-932L#

Have had no success setting this sucker up.  #

I just want to get it working on wireless, and have it shoot a picture once a minute to a dropbox folder.  #

A picture named dlink.gifI want to start a Reduced User Interface movement. Just give me the mininum of what you must, and make sure a wireless device works with the most popular routers, out of the box, with nothing to do.  #

And make it totally ridiculously foolproof to enter the wifi username and password. These guys use a very odd combination of Java applets, and Java just isn't well supported these days by Mac and Windows. #

I had the best results using Firefox 3 on an Asus netbook. I couldn't connect to the webcam visually with any of my Macs. The iPhone app worked. The Android app didn't.  #

But the web server built into the device won't under any circumstances let me through the Basic Auth dialog. I have no idea what's on the other side of that barrier, I hope something lets you enter the wifi username and password. That is where I am stuck.  #

This product is just a come-on to get you hooked into their mydlink website. That's the Java thing. What a mess. #

I have generally had good luck with D-LINK devices, but there seems to be a new software regime now. Where they used to have kind of frumpish HTML 4 websites (that worked great) they now have Taiwanese-looking Java applets with bad English, and it doesn't work. So you get the worst of both worlds. A retro look that's a bad parody of All Your Base that's broken. #

I'm probably going to return this.  #




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