There are several variables that affect the quality of the video on your cell phones, tablets and web as described below:

1. Data connection from camera/ DVR to the internet – DSL, ADSL, Cable, T1,T3 etc. Do note that here upload speed will be a lot lower than download speed – check with your internet service provider (ISP). Here, upload speed matters a lot because your camera or DVR is uploading video to the internet. Some ISPs have maximum limit on upload data/month, and going over that means you will be charged overage costs. Please consult with your ISP.

2. Compression used to deliver the video from the IP camera/ DVR to the service provider's server. This typically depends on the camera/DVR manufacturer and camera/DVR model. The format could be MJPEG, MPEG4 or H.264. Make sure you have the right image size settings (VGA - 640x480, QVGA - 320x240), which affects the fps (frames per second) and data bandwidth required. At your home or business you need to have an outbound bandwidth of at least 512Kbits/sec to view about 5 fps at a resolution of 320 x 240. (This assumes MPEG4 compression.)

3. Type of cell phone device you carry - newer phones come with larger screen sizes, and faster processing chips that can process and decompress the video images faster, providing a better experience. Note, that they consume more battery power.

4. Your cell phone is connected to the central video processing servers using a mobile communication standard. You can connect using 4G, WiFi, 3G, EDGE, or GPRS. WiFi and 4G are the fastest while GPRS is the slowest type of connection.

The number of users on the cell phone tower or WiFi network is very important because everybody in a same geographic area shares the same cell phone tower/ WiFi network. The available bandwidth is split up among them. For example, if a WiFi router has a capacity of 20 Mbps and there are 10 users, then each gets 2Mb. If there are 100 users sharing the router, then available bandwidth for each user reduces to 200 Kb.

5. To view on your PC or Mac, we recommend Google Chrome browser, as it processes better.

6. Get Internet Address. To contact the camera in your home or business you need to know the address of the modem that connects to the Internet. It's like trying to give someone directions to your house, you need to provide your address. In the computer world, this can be a static IP address or a dynamic IP address. Since a dynamic IP address can change, you will need to use a service (dynamic DNS service) that provides a domain name that can be used even when the IP address changes. We recommend a static public IP address, since dyndns (dynamic DNS) is not 100% reliable. Check with your ISP.

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