Set up a webcam to watch at work ??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Andy12437
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A

Andy12437

I have WinXP Pro and a webcam. Is it possible (preferably for free) to be
able to view this from work. I'm thinking on the CCTV side of things. Either
refreshing every minute or so, or streaming.

What are the steps i need to take, what software will i need, will i be able
to use just one piece of software to do the whole thing ??


Cheers
Andy (a novice !)
 
"Andy12437"
I have WinXP Pro and a webcam. Is it possible (preferably for free) to be
able to view this from work. I'm thinking on the CCTV side of things. Either
refreshing every minute or so, or streaming.

What are the steps i need to take, what software will i need, will i be able
to use just one piece of software to do the whole thing ??


Cheers
Andy (a novice !)
Click to expand...

i'm suggesting twice this free little great sw today :)

cam commander
http://www.exxcalibur.com/

i have w2k and a dsl line.
you need to have a site with ftp/http access, any will do.
cam commander has a site setup and a cam setup, very straightforward. it
shots a c:\capture.jpg then uploads it where you want to, so you just need
to build a simple html page which shows the jpeg and it can be seen
everywhere from the net.
i think i've setup the page in the site to refresh every 30"
(i tested a javascript, but you can also use, more easily, the meta tag,
i.e.:
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="30;url=yourpage.html">)
and the webcam here the same time: sometimes the upload fails, so at least
once a minute one should get a good one.
a sample is in my homepage.
feel free for more help if needed.

btw, i was also given a logitech cam, but this old kodak ez200 camera is way
easier to config. the logitech was messing up my system with little or no
better result. while my older canon a20 cant be used as a webcam. the kodak
only snaps 320*240.
 
I have WinXP Pro and a webcam. Is it possible (preferably for free) to be
able to view this from work. I'm thinking on the CCTV side of things. Either
refreshing every minute or so, or streaming.

What are the steps i need to take, what software will i need, will i be able
to use just one piece of software to do the whole thing ??
Click to expand...
Some webcam programs ( such as Pryme ) are able to use motion
detection to both trigger shots and upload them via ftp - so yes, it
can be done...though I don't know about your OS.

http://www.hilo.dk/pryme/

Other than that, you could combine a standard cam utility with a VNC
type app.

Regards,
 
I'm sorry, i don't understand about 'building a web page' or HTML, is there
a program which will do this automatically for me ?

Cheers
Andy
 
Andy12437 said:
I'm sorry, i don't understand about 'building a web page' or HTML, is
there a program which will do this automatically for me ?

Cheers
Andy
Click to expand...
--------------------------

You can try Webcam2000:
http://www.webcam2000.info/

it will do what you want, down to a 1 second refresh rate if you need. It
will serve images from your webcam to a predetermined port, webpage
included. All what you need to know is your IP at home. You use that as URL
(on your workplace browser), as explained in the instructions. It even has a
password option.

Good luck
H.N.
 
Andy12437 said:
I'm sorry, i don't understand about 'building a web page' or HTML, is there
a program which will do this automatically for me ?
Click to expand...

the logitech did, but beside messing the pc, the page took half screen and
was ugly.

if you know nothing about html, here's a sample page:

<html>
<head>
<title>javacam</title>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="30">
</head>
<body>
<center>
<img src="http://www.sundaysw.com/kodak/capture.jpg" border=0>
</center>
</body>
</html>

paste the above lines in notepad (not word), save them on your desktop as
'webcam.html' or the like, then doubleclick it. you should get my webcam
into your preferred browser.
i just tested in ie6, but the 'refresh' tag should work with other browsers
too.

if your webcam can save its snapshots somewhere on your disk -- i believe it
depends on which cam -- the most important thing is a cable, dsl or any line
always connected, for sending the snapshot every 30". of course you cant
dialup once a minute.

after that, your isp should have given you the way to setup an ftp upload to
your webspace.

then camcommander (or, as suggested by steven, hylo's tincam -- lit too
looks cool) does all the work. it opens an ftp connection, uploads the snap,
and closes the connection.

in time you can use any free html editor to build a more complex site. but
with this sample you'd have your webcam setup and running in 15'.

(steve, i kinda feel andy's not yet ready to any vnc software...)
 
Thanks Javalab for that interesting experiment. I changed the scr to follow
a picture on my c drive. Unfortunately the picture fills the whole page
when opened in ie6. How do I resize the picture to your size?
 
afaik ie has the option to fit the image to the page when you open the image
itself, not a page.
anyway setting something like
<img src="http://www.sundaysw.com/kodak/capture.jpg" width=320 height=240
border=0>
should fix it.
thanks for trying.
ciao, j.

btw, if you have other webcams you're interested in, some can be arranged
like this.
i guess that now most use streaming though, which cant be saved this easily.
 
"WhItE RaBBiT"
You never know who has you on a worldwide webcam, when, or where, anymore.

Probably more of these around our neighborhoods and elsewhere than we
can imagine, focused on us out of every kiddy ( age neutral ;) window.

Big Brother is *--WE, the PEOPLE--*.

lol
Click to expand...

yes. whenever i'm entering a cinema, i'm going to invoke my rights of
privacy. it could be a nice way to lower the cost of tickets :)
Here is another one to try, if you want.

http://www.webattack.com/get/thrucam.html
Click to expand...

thanks. i had a lots of hints today :)

ciao, j.
 
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