Y-Cam Bullet network camera

The Y-Cam Bullet is a network video camera – you can set it up to monitor your home and, even without a computer switched on, it will record when it detects motion (or continuously, if you prefer).

This model is designed to be used outside – it's weather-proofed and comes with a metal sun-shade screwed to its top.

The Bullet is large (20cm long and 7cm across its circular front) and has a metal case, with a glass shield protecting the camera and the infra-red lights that allow it to shoot in the dark.

However, it wasn't as easy to configure as other cameras we've seen. For a start the camera is supplied with an alarming range of attachments, few of which were required for home use. The cables are wired into the camera's body inside a waterproof sheath and a wall-mounting bracket is supplied. It can connect wirelessly but you need to first connect the network cable to your router to set it up, as is the norm with network cameras.

We couldn't get the supplied software to recognise that the camera was attached to the networkl, and the supplied manual referred to a button that didn't exist, which wasn't much help. We eventually realised we could access the camera by typing http://bullet/ (no ‘.com') into a web browser, at which point it requested a user name and password (which were listed in the manual) and allowed us to view video, with sound, from the camera. Image quality wasn't great, but it was more than enough for surveillance.

Previous Y-cam models needed a complex setup process but this camera was simpler, though it was difficult to set up: you need to go into the above console and enable something called Hive, then go online and select a service to use. At the time of writing only one was available, called Jabbakam.

This was fairly easy to set up and, once done, you can view video and alerts on the Jabbakam website. There's an app for iPhone viewing but it was very unstable and we couldn't get it to work well. The free Jabbakam account comes with several ‘credits' for uploading and downloading video and text message alerts (emails are free). Once they run out you need to buy more.