



Security cameras? Who needs ’em? That was my opinion until a neighbor’s home was invaded. One morning, a suburban housewife a few feet from our Midwest Test Facility walked into her kitchen only to find a strange man standing there. As soon as he saw her, he ran out the door and into a car, so the burly burglar is still at large.
Nothing was taken and no one was hurt, but one thing was definitely lost: the neighborhood’s peace of mind. Suddenly, I was very interested in a security system. However, I didn’t want to spent thousands of dollars and tear apart my house installing one. Enter the Logitech WiLife, which can be up and running in minutes. Hit Continue to see how it worked out.
The WiLife system consists of indoor and outdoor cameras as well as a variety of night-vision accessories that easily connect to a PC via USB. For our review, we plugged in a couple of weatherproofed outdoor cameras, two indoor cameras that attach to the inside of a window with a suction cup, a weird spy camera that looks exactly like a digital alarm clock, and a USB adapter that plugs into a wall outlet, since the cameras are networked together over electrical wiring using HomePlug Technology.

You can access those cameras for free over the Internet, even via cellphone, and the system can alert you via e-mail if anything moves. Remarkable. Any prowlers wanting to help themselves would have VGA-quality color movies (no sound) of them in the act. Just the mere presence of such cameras, with their highly visible red and green lights (which can be easily turned off), serves as a strong deterrent.
The downside? It's not perfect. The system is geared toward recording footage, so live viewing of all the cameras isn't as smooth as I'd like. Also, while the cameras all have good low-light performance, they require an optional infrared lighting system and special lens to actually see faces at night. Keep in mind, too, that you’ll need a powerful PC to handle multiple cameras and recordings.
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By RonMan at 8:47 PM ON 06/02/08
It does not run on a Mac. Perhaps not a big deal to some, but at least for me that makes it a non-starter.
Still it looks pretty good. I guess I could always get a cheap PC to run the thing. Who knows.
RonMan
By schloemmer at 2:53 AM ON 06/03/08
Hopefully you don't have any unsupervised power outlets in your garden, and a tech-savvy burglar with a laptop ;-)
By Grant at 11:25 AM ON 06/03/08
The system uses DES encryption and a user defined password to ensure system security. It also makes it ideal for apartments where you can setup a system with damaging the place, and have a secure system from the neighbors.
By ZIRIA at 4:15 PM ON 06/03/08
I wish they actually have a module/option to pipe the output to composite video/modulator to a TV channel.
By Security Conscious at 5:20 PM ON 08/07/08
I've been using this system for a year and really did not appreciate finding out after purchasing it that I had to pay $79.95 per year just to get a sound to indicate motion has been activated. That is the only feature I'm using for that hefty price. I'm not paying it any more and am currently looking for a "complete" buy-it-once system which I'm sure is out there.
By ken dales at 5:01 PM ON 05/01/09
I need to know what does the camera plug into and what the thing is that is plugged into the wall outlet goes to. My computer is in my bedroom on the second floor and I want to have a camera in the living room and in the basement to monitor the back door. Is this a wireless system and if so what is the range or distance from the compiter will this system work?
By tg at 1:41 PM ON 05/11/09
To ken dales, a quote from the article: "the cameras are networked together over electrical wiring using HomePlug Technology."
By Bullit at 2:22 PM ON 05/16/09
iT'S SIMPLE But they scew you on the software. You have got to upgrade to actually use all the things u bought it for , pan tilt zoom etc. It is password protected from the guy in the garden...
By BETTY at 12:36 PM ON 06/05/09
i need to know if the primary camera needs to be how far from the wall outlet that the primary recorder needs to be
By BETTY at 12:38 PM ON 06/05/09
i need to know if the primary camera needs to be how far from the wall outlet that the primary recorder needs to be
BETTY:
i need to know if the primary camera needs to be how far from the wall outlet that the primary recorder needs to be...More »