Upgrade D-Link DCS-950G 802.11 Wireless Network Camera Firmware

I have numerous D-Link DCS-950G network cameras and a D-Link DCS-3220 at my house and needed to upgrade the firmware recently to provide some new features on the DCS-950G’s. The DCS-950G is one of the lower end models provided by D-Link however they work fairly well. They lack many features of something like the DCS-3220 such as pan and zoom however upgrading to the DCS-950G 1.08 firmware actually adds a digital zoom feature. Below i describe some of the benefits of upgrading from DCS-950G 1.07 to 1.08 along with the steps actually taken to complete the upgrade.

D-Link 950G 802.11 Wireless Network Camera 1.08 Firmware Changelog:

• Correcting code page for help page (from BIG5 to ISO-8859-1).
• Allow recording over midnight.
• Adding new time zone.
• Update daylight saving algorithm.
• Solving IE crash issue.
• Adding UPnP on/off function.
• Correct time of day light saving.
• Add digital zooming.
• Fix bug when using special characters as WPA-PSK key.
• Change settings for sync time with NTP server.
• Check illegal subnet mask.

As you can see above there are a bunch of good reasons to go ahead and upgrade the firmware on your D-Link DCS-950G if it is running any firmware revision prior to the 1.08 firmware release.

Upgrade D-Link DCS-950G Network Camera Firmware Revision:

1. Download DCS-950G Firmware: First visit this link to download the DCS-950G 1.08 firmware revision.  The image below shows the D-Link support site. To see the download button for the 1.08 firmware revision scroll down in the right side window until you see the below.

   

   Click the download button to download the DCS-950G firmware which should be named dcs950G_firmware_108.zip.

2. Unzip DCS-950G Firmware: Now unzip the file you just downloaded from the D-Link support site which should contain two files named “DCS-950G Fimrware 1.08_1.08k.08k” and “dcs950G_release_notes_108.txt”. Notice that Firmware is spelled incorrectly in the name of the firmware file. This is OK though because the network camera doesn’t care what the firmware file is named. The first is the actual firmware while the second is a text file containing the 1.08 firmware revision information similar to the above mentioned information.
3. DCS-950G Firmware Update Tab: Login to your DCS-950G web interface by visiting the IP address assigned to the camera in Internet Explorer 32-Bit. Once logged in click on Tools and select Firmware from the left navigation to display the DCS-950G firmware update page as displayed below.

   

4. Begin DCS-950G Firmware Upgrade: Click the Browse button on the DCS-950G firmware update page to browse to the “DCS-950G Fimrware 1.08_1.08k.08k” as displayed in the below image.

   

   Double click on the firmware file to add the path to the field on the firmware upgrade page. Once the firmware has been added here you can move forward with the firmware upgrade process by clicking the green circular button with the check mark in it.

5. Continue Upgrade & Reboot DCS-950G: After clicking the Apply button in the previous step the upgrade process will have started and it may take a little while for the firmware file to transfer to the DCS-950G. The firmware update page will look similar to the below while the file is transferring to the device.

   

   Once the file is transferred to the network camera then the firmware update page will change its display to the below revealing a Restart button.

   

   Go ahead and click the Restart button to restart and apply the new 1.08 firmware to the DCS-950G network camera. You will be required to wait 100 seconds or so while the firmware upgrade process completes.

6. Verify Firmware Upgrade: Your browser will let you know when the upgrade is complete by using a timer to count down the time until the process has completed. Once it is login to the DCS-950G and click the Status tab in the top tab navigation to verify that firmware revision 1.08 is displaying as shown in the below image.

   

By completing this upgrade you not only add functionality to your D-Link network camera but you also resolve many issues that the camera had. If you need a camera with all the bells and whistles then the DCS-950G is not for you however if you simply need a wireless network camera that will provide a great picture I suggest giving it a shot.