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I bought the 760 at the beginning of the week. Since then I have spent hours and hours and days reading all I can to try and workout why the thing doesn't connect with my laptop through ethernet cable. This means that login fails - I can't get past that screen to see if I can change settings in the s/w behind that. The supplier seems very helpful but 'have never heard of this problem before'. The only thing they suggest is using a BNC>SCART cable to connect to TV and seeing if 760 settings can be changed via its command buttons. But that may not solve the networking problem of course. And if I can't network the760 with the laptop obviously it means that I can't pull vid off it onto laptop HD - which is the whole point of networking...). And, of course, the supplier is fresh out of BNC>SCART cables... Here's the kit/settings: Acer Aspire 3630 laptop Cat 5 crossover ethernet cable AVTech 760 - 2 cctv cams LAN settings: 192.168.1.11 (have tried others - 12, 100 etc at random) Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 Have tried every sort of permutation with gateway etc. Laptop is on a WiFi network: DHCP Netgear router (which doesn't recognise the MAC address of the 760 even though I've enabled it as a permitted user) Have tried disconnecting laptop from the network and connecting via cable as two standalone machines. AV760 log in screen settings: have tried every permutation that I've read others have used (changing port, user name etc). Now set back to default. The weird, weird thing about this is that I actually got past the log in screen ONCE and had a great cam picture for about 10 seconds. I went into the preferences/settings menu on that view camera picture screen and SHAZZAM! the whole thing suddenly stopped working. (Wouldn't it be sooooo helpful if the AVTech manual gave details of the settings behind the login screen??) Before that the log in screen was reading the 760. Now it doesn't recognise it at all. I wonder if I accidentally tinkered with some setting on the view cam screen and completely switched off the DVR's ability to communicate via cable (no idea what though - the only thing I can think of is the DHCP setting...) You can imagine, after 4 days of changing every permutation I can possibly think of, I am climbing the walls here! Any and all ideas are welcome.! Urgently ...bouncing off the walls is not a pleasant pastime! : [/i]

We're still playing with the cam/record/playback settings and evidential quality so haven't got to the DDNS part yet - will keep you posted. If AVTech had a model between this and the 761 that just offered the option of a USB connection without the additional add-ons of the 761 that would have done fine - there would have been no probs with the LAN setup of course. Couple of things about the ethernet hook up between laptop and DVR - one is that the sticky bit was actually behind the OSD login and on the DVR itself so we couldn't see it with laptop only. Since the whole idea was to do away with the need for tv (and indeed AVTech and their retailers actually advertise the ethernet>laptop solution), the fact that we had to shell out more to get a special scart cable and faf about with all that was a real pain. The other thing is that we had all the settings on the laptop/Local Area Connection exactly per the manual - I'm not a novice at the networking game. The necessary info was completely hidden behind their accessible-by-tv only DVR>tv OSD. One line in the manual giving STATIC and DNS gateway info for ethernet>laptop/PC users with 760 would have been fine. A note about not being able to get at these settings/info if you have ethernet probs would have helped. So, Kiwi, we must agree to disagree! I reckon that this wasn't a basic networking problem - besides the manual gives a lot more basic networking info for USB etc users as well as re dyndns remote viewing set up. The retailer sounded like a very knowledgeable and helpful guy, yet he was flummoxed too. (BTW, would recommend i-view for their good customer attitude and willingness to get things working as you need them to, not just with this issue but with the specs etc for the particular purpose of this system). But, returning to the primary issue, in short, there's actually very little support for the ethernet option and their s/w and manual writers hadn't thought of the eventuality we encountered. I wonder if that's because it's the only model of 5 that doesn't offer a USB option.

Ok already, I'll answer my own question! We got the system working - " title="Applause" /> First things first: the AVTech 760 manual (on CD pdf) is woefully lacking. It needs to explain more about Local Area Connection. This is what we did: 1. Bought scart to av cable and fitted BNC adapter/connector to connect with AV760 monitor port. 2. Bingo! Cam came up first time on tv. Very good pix from medium/low range cams. 3. Went into DVR's OSD on tv. Checked out DVR IP address= tallied with that on Local Area Connection on laptop and the Video Server s/w on laptop. 4. ****This is probably the bit that caused all the probs: DVR's OSD on tv showed the network connection as DHCP. We changed that to STATIC. 5. The DVR's OSD network settings also showed a DNS of 192.168.001.65. We changed the properties in Local Area Connection/DNS to this config. 6. Hooked up the ethernet cable from laptop to AV760, logged in via the OSD and into the Video Server as quick as blinking. 7. Now both tv and laptop viewing and OSDs work exactly as they say on the tin.... The AV760 manual could have said a lot more about Local Area Connection and the need to create a STATIC intranet loop, together with the 192.668.001.065 DNS info. We haven't tried to connect remotely via the dydns- dot-org/com host so no idea what difference tit'll make re the static intranet (between laptop and DVR) will make in a DHCP internet connection environment - will we be able to view via a web browser...? For now, the basic network is set up though. Phew! Good kit, especially for the money, AVTech - but cr@@@@p manuals, VSE software. Also surprised that the supplier hadn't come across this one before.