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[Watcher]

I have come across a real show-stopper with DCS-960L. I have a spot where the camera must be positioned. Before that, the spot was occupied by DCS-933L and then DCS-2332L. The spot is located on a side of a door frame, so that the router and the camera are not in direct line of sight (and in an adjacent room). Both DCS-933L (which does not have an external antennae) and DCS-2332L (with antennae sticking out) worked fine, sending their signals well. I have now mounted DCS-960L there and noticed that I do not get the HD video stream. Tried both 5GHz and 2.4GHz. Router shows that the signal strength and transfer speeds are good:

2.4GHz Rx / Tx / RSSI: 121 / 81 Mbps / -52 dBm
5GHz Rx / Tx / RSSI: 150 / 121 Mbps / -67 dBm

As you can see, the camera is connected and I can manage its settings through the web-interface.
I can also view Live Video in 800x600 and the small preview in the Image Setup screen.
What I cannot do, is to see the 1280x720 stream in Live Video, nor connect from D-ViewCam, nor connect through the iPhone app.

If I tilt the camera so that it pokes a bit from behind the frame, all the above options start working, but then it means that the camera either looks in the wrong direction or sees the frame.

I also have a secondary 2.4GHz AP with another SSID, which is located in another room, but is not obscured by any metal - only 3 plaster/wood walls. When I connect to it, I also experience the problem with getting the 1280x270 stream. Its reception data are:
TX Rate / RX Rate / Signal / Noise / SNR / Signal Quality
39M / 72M / -61 / -90 / 29 / 40%

It looks like the only way to get a stream/ app connection to the camera is to have it placed next to the AP point or to somehow equip it with an external antennae. I am very tempted to open it up and see if a wire/antennae can be attached to it. Has anyone tried it?

[RYAT3]

No, haven't tried opening the camera. 5Ghz works pretty well in my place.

Have you tried turning/mounting the camera upside down if possible? That might move the antenna to a better spot for you?
  You can rotate the video in the f/w.

No possibility of moving the router any?

[FurryNutz]

"2.4GHz Rx / Tx / RSSI: 121 / 81 Mbps / -52 dBm
5GHz Rx / Tx / RSSI: 150 / 121 Mbps / -67 dBm
These connection rates are not good enough for HD streams. I believe the rates should be upwards of 300Mbps starting.

Can you test the router with in 12 feet direct line of site temporarily to see if the connection rates go higher on each radio?
Paste the results here please.

I have come across a real show-stopper with DCS-960L. I have a spot where the camera must be positioned. Before that, the spot was occupied by DCS-933L and then DCS-2332L. The spot is located on a side of a door frame, so that the router and the camera are not in direct line of sight (and in an adjacent room). Both DCS-933L (which does not have an external antennae) and DCS-2332L (with antennae sticking out) worked fine, sending their signals well. I have now mounted DCS-960L there and noticed that I do not get the HD video stream. Tried both 5GHz and 2.4GHz. Router shows that the signal strength and transfer speeds are good:

2.4GHz Rx / Tx / RSSI: 121 / 81 Mbps / -52 dBm
5GHz Rx / Tx / RSSI: 150 / 121 Mbps / -67 dBm

As you can see, the camera is connected and I can manage its settings through the web-interface.
I can also view Live Video in 800x600 and the small preview in the Image Setup screen.
What I cannot do, is to see the 1280x720 stream in Live Video, nor connect from D-ViewCam, nor connect through the iPhone app.

If I tilt the camera so that it pokes a bit from behind the frame, all the above options start working, but then it means that the camera either looks in the wrong direction or sees the frame.

I also have a secondary 2.4GHz AP with another SSID, which is located in another room, but is not obscured by any metal - only 3 plaster/wood walls. When I connect to it, I also experience the problem with getting the 1280x270 stream. Its reception data are:
TX Rate / RX Rate / Signal / Noise / SNR / Signal Quality
39M / 72M / -61 / -90 / 29 / 40%

It looks like the only way to get a stream/ app connection to the camera is to have it placed next to the AP point or to somehow equip it with an external antennae. I am very tempted to open it up and see if a wire/antennae can be attached to it. Has anyone tried it?

[Watcher]

First a work around that I found. The fact that 800x600 stream worked without issues gave me a hint.
I went to "Audio and Video" tab and started reducing the parameters on the 1280x720 stream. Initially I had them at 30fps, 3Mbps. After I reduced them to 20fps, 2Mbps, the stream started working, with an occasional drop out of connection in D-ViewCam. Setting the bitrate further down to 1.5Mbps gave a stable connection.

Now to the requested line of sight @ 3.5m parameters:
2.4GHz Rx / Tx / RSSI: 150 / 150 Mbps /-45 dBm
5GHz Rx / Tx / RSSI: 150 / 150 Mbps / -51 dBm

The router that I am using is ASUS RT-N66U with Asuswrt-Merlin firmware. 5GHz is on channel 44 with 40MHz bandwidth. 2.4GHz is on channel 3 with 40MHz bandwidth.

As a comparison, I have a DCS-2630L on 5GHz in the line-of-sight of the router (same room) and it transmits a 1080p stream at 20fps, 5Mbps. is signal data according to the router log are: 108 / 40 Mbps / -45 dBm - lower than what 960L achieves in the same room, yet the video quality from 2630L is flawless.

This leads me to an interesting conclusion: 960L seems to be using the RSSI signal-to-noise ratio as a deciding factor whether to send a video stream or not. Other cameras, such as 2332L, would send a patchy (frame-dropping) steam from an unfavourable position. 960L stops sending the stream outright!

EDIT: According to InSSIDer scan the router itself supports up to 450Mpbs on both 5GHz and 2.4GHz channels, while the machine that I am running InSSIDer scan from is connected to the 5GHz radio at 300Mbps. At the same time 960L reports max connection of 150Mbps - it seems to be the hard limit of this camera's radio.

[RYAT3]

Why aren't you using variable bit rate? I've never used constant.

[RYAT3]

I'm pulling down 500 Kbs and 6,000 Kbs on 2 different 960l in 720p.

[FurryNutz]

Ya, I believe 150Mb maybe the max connection rate.

It's hard to determine connection rates anymore on routers. I like older D-Link routers had connection rates in there UI. Some reason D-Link gave this up. 

Sound like you were able to get it working better at least.

I recommend using channels 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz. Those are primary channels to use. Don't use the 2ndary's.

FYI, my 960L is using 30fps, 3Mbs on constant bit rate on 1280x720. However mines connected to a DIR-890L OEM FW.

[Watcher]

Thank you for the feedback.

I will try variable bitrate. The reason for using it was from previous tests with 2332L, but it may well be I don't need to max out the bitrate to get a good enough stream quality.

I am on channel 3 because of too much load on the primary channels in the neighbourhood. Site survey from InSSIDer showed that 3+6 was least crowded. Maybe I should set to 6 with channel extension "below".

As for getting the router stats, that's why I installed custom Merlin software on Asus  - to get more information and configuration options. Without it it's too quite barebone.

[FurryNutz]

Ya try channel 6.

[Watcher]

A short update on the "Constant bit rate" vs  "Fixed quality" experiment.
Fixed quality High corresponds to about 384kbps according to the rates I was getting from D-ViewCam
Fixed quality Very High corresponds to approximately 2Mbps.
However, when I set the camera to Fixed quality, the video shows a lot more compression artefacts then when setting to Constant bit rate at the comparable setting.