Remote webcams
Discussion
A firend of mine is working on a holiday apartment in Bulgaria and is toying with the idea of fitting a webcam so he can either (a) keep an eye on it over the net, or (b) have a live feed to a website just for interest.
The place has 512Kb broadband but does he have to have a computer as well, or can it be FTP'd somehow without one? He doesn't want a PC to be running unattended in an empty house for weeks/months on end.
Cheers all
The place has 512Kb broadband but does he have to have a computer as well, or can it be FTP'd somehow without one? He doesn't want a PC to be running unattended in an empty house for weeks/months on end.
Cheers all
simpo two said:
A firend of mine is working on a holiday apartment in Bulgaria and is toying with the idea of fitting a webcam so he can either (a) keep an eye on it over the net, or (b) have a live feed to a website just for interest.
The place has 512Kb broadband but does he have to have a computer as well, or can it be FTP'd somehow without one? He doesn't want a PC to be running unattended in an empty house for weeks/months on end.
Cheers all
He doesn't need a computer. He can feed to a website (loads of hosting companies over lots of storage space for very little cost) or to a hosted server (more expensive but probably more space and bandwidth). Be careful with bandwidth usage - perhaps he could use one of the motion-sensitive webcames so that images are only sent when motion is detected? Also, what is he planning to do in terms of light - i.e. when it's dark (perhaps the most likely time for something to happen) how useful will a basic webcam be?
roadsweeper said:
He doesn't need a computer. He can feed to a website (loads of hosting companies over lots of storage space for very little cost) or to a hosted server (more expensive but probably more space and bandwidth). Be careful with bandwidth usage - perhaps he could use one of the motion-sensitive webcames so that images are only sent when motion is detected? Also, what is he planning to do in terms of light - i.e. when it's dark (perhaps the most likely time for something to happen) how useful will a basic webcam be?
Dark at night-time is OK. He'd only need a frame every minute or so.
On the hardware front, I hear that he'd need an 'IP ethernet camera' and a router that needs to be set up with an open port.... Can anyone give me a shopping list of bits/instructions that I can forward? Is this a job for a pooter-pro or can it be set up by a normal user?
GreenV8S said:
Sounds like he is planning to use this camera to play Peeping Tom on the people who rent the apartment?
I doubt it very much. He thought it would be a nice idea for people looking at his website to see a live picture of what the view looks like - mountains and stuff. Besides, any tenant, on spying a Logitech Webcam sitting on the mantlepiece, would simply turn it round.
A lot of the more up-market webcams have what is essentially a mini web server built into them. You hook it up to your router, assign it a fixed IP address and, if you so wish, make it public and available for all. Or you can lock it down and make it password-protected if you wish.
>> Edited by JonRB on Saturday 4th March 08:41
>> Edited by JonRB on Saturday 4th March 08:41
JonRB said:
A lot of the more up-market webcams have what is essentially a mini web server built into them. You hook it up to your router, assign it a fixed IP address and, if you so wish, make it public and available for all. Or you can lock it down and make it password-protected if you wish.
That's what I'd go for. The D-Link DCS-900 at £76.55 might be worth a look...
simpo two said:
A firend of mine is working on a holiday apartment in Bulgaria and is toying with the idea of fitting a webcam so he can either (a) keep an eye on it over the net, or (b) have a live feed to a website just for interest.
Just out of curiosity simpo, where is his apartment?
I have a bulgarian interest website with a webcam in Borovets, perhaps he'd like a link?
Phil
) Simpo, I don't know if you recall the movie I discussed you making for my employers showing the time lapse capturing of a building going up? Would have been a year or so ago.
The camera I used was from the Axis range; It was the 211.
All your friend would need is an IP camera, an always on internet connection and a network hub/router to plug it into. If he wants to remote view the camera then he'll need a static IP address or use one of these dynamic DNS services like this
www.dyndns.org/services/
The Axis cameras can be configured to do stills and videos, triggered by movement, external inputs or just periodically.
The camera I used was from the Axis range; It was the 211.
All your friend would need is an IP camera, an always on internet connection and a network hub/router to plug it into. If he wants to remote view the camera then he'll need a static IP address or use one of these dynamic DNS services like this
www.dyndns.org/services/
The Axis cameras can be configured to do stills and videos, triggered by movement, external inputs or just periodically.
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