Question 1

Does it pan and tilt with motors or do you manually have to do it?

Accepted Answer

you can control it manually it is motor controlled, and or set up a patrol in the software when recording from the console to your computer.. I really like it for the price I purchased 3..

Question 2

what do  I need to  operate this camera ? Can I view my office with my windows tablet or PC , and my  android phone. Is there a monthly fee to operate the camera? Must I download an app to use it?

Accepted Answer

I installed the camera to my wi-fi network using the supplied instructions.  It is now connected to my wireless Wi-Fi router.

I am able to view the camera in a browser window on my Windows PC and with the free mydlink Lite app on on iPhone and iPad.  Have never checked whether dlink offers an android app, you'll have to check that.  Camera clarity is pretty good.  Am happy with it.

There is no additional monthly fee to access the camera.  The only fee is the fee you are paying to your internet provider (Comcast, FiOS, etc).  Just leave your modem and router on when you go out and you should be in business.

Although the camera can be set up to send messages / alerts when it detects motion, I have disabled this feature.  Gets too many false positives.  There are several options that you can tinker with, but I have not been able to eliminate the false positives.

Question 3

Does this camera operate from a rechargeable battery or only from a electrical outlet?

Accepted Answer

This camera requires an electrical outlet. It ships with the appropriate adapter for 110v line voltage (USA).

Question 4

Are these indoor/outdoor?

Accepted Answer

Indoor only. I use them inside of an unheated garage viewing through a window. We live in the Northeast where temps can fall below 0F in the winter.

Question 5

How does on control the camera? Pan/tilt

Accepted Answer

You can control the pan and tilt from your pc, tablet, or smartphone. You can download an app for the tablet or phone and access the camera remotely. The app functions fine for me, however I've discovered the bigger the screen the easier it is to control the pan and tilt. Arrows pop up on the screen and you just push the arrow to direct the camera's view. As I said though, the bigger the screen the easier it is to control.

Question 6

I would like to know if I can view from a PC or chromebook from a remote location?

Accepted Answer

Sure, you can view your camera from anywhere there's a internet connection. I view my quite often from out of state.

When you first set up you camera, you choose a user name and password.  When away from home, on a PC go to 'my dlink' and sign in and there's your streaming video.

Question 7

Can i hook it up to my computer and have it recording so i can go back and view later?

Accepted Answer

i am positive you can record to local pc.  I would not suggest if you are going to record for long periods of time. I have 5 of these and record to a Nas server which has 20tb of disk space.  one of my cameras is setup to record 8 hours a day and motion detection for rest of the time and has 300gigs.  I also believe the Dlink also has cloud recording but I will assume its a paid subscription.  You should be to record locally but keep on eye on disk space.

Question 8

Does this require port forwarding to  be set up on the router and a service like dynamic dns?

Accepted Answer

I don't know what you mean by port forwarding. You can set it up 2 ways.

1. By using the wps buttons on the router and the camera.

2. By connecting the camera directly to you router with the in closed cable and following the instruction. Hope this helps.

Question 9

iMac OSX compatible ?

Accepted Answer

according to D-Link technical support forum: Please note the following operating systems are currently compatible with the DCS-5010L, Windows® 8, Windows 7, Windows® XP SP2, or Mac OS X (10.5 and above, Intel Processor). This device does not currently support the Windows Server 2008 operating system.

Question 10

How secure is my viewing form interception by others?

Accepted Answer

I have set my router to use WPA2 security and the camera works with that, so you are reasonably secure between the camera and the router.

I have a userid and password set up on the camera, itself, so the browser session is protected that way.

If you are thinking about interception of the data stream outside your local LAN, for example, if you access your camera from the local cafe, I do not know what encryption, if any, would be on that stream, since that is between your browser and the camera or your browser and the router. It all depends on how you manage your network access from external locations. If you use a VPN for browser access, it would be safer than if you directly connect.

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