My ASTAK WIRELESS CAMERA MOLE connects thru my router to my IPhone 6 good but I cannot get it to connect offline with my IPhone. This happened after AT&T upgraded my router and I had to change the password. I got it changed for the camera but now it will not work offline. YOICS SUPPORT say the problem is my phone is still using the old IP address. Mole free download - mOLE, Mole Dash Free, Mole in a Hole, and many more programs. Games Educational Software. Apply Filters. Results for mole.
customer reviews
18%
5%
$119.99
Simple IP camera that works
First, it is important to realize that this is primarily an ip camera, not so much a cloud camera. This may be good or bad depending on what you are looking for. When attempting to configure this cam following the directions for setup, I was taken to a web page which was expected to find the camera. It looks as though there may be some intent on making this accessible via cloud access as well, however the site in general seemed poor, and perhaps even incomplete. Regardless, none of this is needed for an IP camera. I configured the cam by plugging into a switch, scanning for new IP's with port 80 or 443 open for http/https access. Once found I was very easily able to configure the camera in a web browser on the local network. I did experiment with configuring the wifi on the camera, and found it to be easy to configure and function, however the range was pretty poor. After moving about a room and a half from the router, it was totally unable to connect to via wifi. This did not really bother me as I have this installed in my garage wired directly via Ethernet. The picture quality is fine, and the motion detection works. It has served its purpose and given me no issues. I am easily able to view and control the camera from various software or the built in web server. On a side note, most cameras in this price range appear to be cloud only. This means you are both able and required to access the camera over the internet via whatever cloud service is used. This has the advantage of being easily accessed from anywhere w/o adding configurations to a router or relying on an additional system/service. It does however require you to trust the that the owner of the could service has taken sufficient steps regarding security. I find that that last bit has often not been done. It also results in a camera that becomes a paper weight in the event that you loose internet access, or the company folds.
Still a useful dinosaur
Bought some 'old stock' since I own some previously acquired from Costco. These were much cheaper than my original $170 Costco prices many years ago. At $30, it's almost disposable. One camera has the same issue another person reported where the screen turned negative colors. It seems the issue is likely a bad connector since the issue pops up when booting up or moving the head around. I'll be returning this one of four I recently purchased. What's great is that it has a web interface including file access (like ftp) which is easy through desktop browsers and my Android browsers. It's easy to set up port forwarding to get direct LAN or WAN access. All the new IP cameras are trying to hook you into a cloud subscription. The only thing about this old product is that it no longer is able to do email notifications due to the recent increased security protocols of the outgoing email servers. Resolution is regular VGA but resolution is over-hyped these days especially when many people have low upload speeds (typically hidden from the consumer), with all the internet gridlock as well, the new IP cameras tend to choke. These camera's have lower burden and if you get a good one, it is consistent. With the web interface, you can set up the camera more custom including a motion detection zone.YOICS cloud (basic) service is still free if for some reason you can't get port forwarding to work such as with a mobile hotspot (by design these don't have an amenable architecture for that). So I use the cloud to get access to the camera in my RV with its Verizon Mifi hotspot to check on my cats. To complement these easier access cameras, I have purchased some Foscam FI9821P HD 720P camera's. See my comments there. Nirvana would be taking the best of these camera's together as direct connection (non-cloud) solution. This cloud stuff is frustrating complicated by constantly changing SW compatibility on multiple fronts which creates present and future obsolescence issues.
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Astak’s Mole is a network camera that does it all. Finding an network camera isn’t exactly a difficult task, but there aren’t many other ones that are wireless, can send clips to YouTube, are accessible from the iPhone, have remote motorized pan/tilt, use nightvision/motion detection, and have a built in DVR function. This might all seem intimidating but luckily the Astak is a device aimed at consumers, designed with ease of use in mind. All this comes at a price though–the Mole cam sells for $299.As you’ve probably gathered, the Mole is an all-in-one, one-stop-shop network video camera. It’s not the cheapest solution, but it’s extremely versatile plus it should be easy enough to use that anyone with a little bit of networking experience can set it up. The great thing about a network camera is just how useful these things are–they work for home security, monitoring employees, keeping tabs on a baby from another room, or watching a pet when you are at work. The Mole’s extra functions compared to a standard IP camera (which might cost you about $80 for a home solution) include the pan/tilt, on-board SD card storage, wireless connectivity, and some of its consumer-focused features.
The remote and iPhone viewing, is handled through Astak’s partnership with Yoics.com, something which makes up an important part of the Mole’s feature set. The thing that should be kept in mind is that Yoics works with almost any webcam, not just a network camera or the Mole. Yoics is a third party that stands between you and your camera. It make remote access to the Mole very simple, but it is another player involved in potentially private matters. It’s almost certainly nothing to worry about, but it should be kept in mind in case you take issue with their involvement. Of course the Mole can also be uses a local IP camera without Yoics or any other service. This will make remote viewing trickier, but with the right partner device (say a computer or NAS) it will be easier enough to setup.
Using it this way you’ll get most of the functionality from the Mole but you won’t get everything advertised.The Mole is about the size of a can of soda and its made out of glossy, black plastic. It is not an outdoor or rugged cam, in fact is feel somewhat fragile. On the back of the base there is an ethernet jack, an SD card slot (with 1GB card included), audio in, audio out, the antenna, and a power jack. It has a number of LEDs on the front so it’s clear when the device is operating. It can stand on its own or be mounted on an included plate if it needs to go on a wall or ceiling.
Setting up the Mole is as involved as you want it to be. If you know a little bit about networking and cameras it won’t be hard, but it will take time. To fully use the Mole’s features you need to:. Connect the Mole to your wired network. Find the it on your network. Optional – Setup wireless if you will be using this. Place and mount the Mole.
Configure the Mole to that spot–this include when it will record, the nightvision features, if it will record, what it will record to (FTP, SD, etc.), motion activation, alerts, etc. (There is a lot.). Optional – Setup Yoics for remote access.
This isn’t hard, but it is not an intuitive system.The backend software is convoluted and slow to setup. Important settings are tucked away and often not properly linked to one another. Things that should be obvious often are not. But if you give it an hour or two and read the instructions you’ll have the Mole properly setup and acting as a good security cam.
It can even upload to YouTube, create Twitter alerts, or email you an image taken from the camera every X minutes. Another complaint, though a minor one, worth noting is that the backend software works best with Internet Explorer.
Chrome and Firefox work, but they don’t have some basic functions available, like a single-click record button.Long story short, it’s a bit of a pain to get the Mole setup. The backend of the system is as clunky to work with as an older router–it’s manageable but frustrating at points, especially if you ever deviate from the standard setup. After all is said and done with though, you will have a locally accessibly cam that has full-featured remote access. You can even use it from your iPhone, which is a major perk.
The downside of this is that the live video uses QuickTime, which may or may not be a format that you want to work with. Video quality is OK, which is to say that the 640×320 is fine for security purposes.
The night vision is quite good, which really impressed me given the size of the camera and it’s cost. Remote tilt/pan is slow, but it works and the Mole has very solid range in four directions as well as set/call so you can give it a home position to return to. Working with it remotely is slow, and you need to go through Yoics, but it’s perfectly acceptable given how much you can accomplish. It’s pretty slow locally too though, so the issue is probably on the camera end, not the connection.I can’t say that I was happy with the setup, but it was long and tedious which is preferable to short and difficult, or outright broken.
Everything worked as it said it would and I was able to give a casual computer a procedure by which they could check in on the cam from an iPhone and from their computer at work which seemed to me like the perfect scenario for a potential buyer. The cam is expensive and there are cheaper solutions, but once the Mole is setup it’s really impressive. Its accessibility is the best selling point though, and despite my complaints, you don’t need to be a networking pro to have a good (though single camera) security system.