CCTV recommendations and advice - No advertising/jobs/quotes

bearing in mind I'm useless with technology ....

Can I run the webcam via the PC, then see it through the wireless network on the laptop?

Probably. It depends on how much trouble you want to go too.

You can get a freeware webcam program called webcam2000 I think which I know has a built in webserver.

This would let you browse the output (updated about once a second) from your laptop via internet explorer.

sounds like just the thing

Does that mean other people can see it though? or will it have passwords?

you can set it up with a password, and you can also setup your router to firewall your network, so that no one on the internet should be able to see it.

I had one setup using possibly the same software as mentioned above that would let me view it from any pc with internet access. It really is simpler than it sounds. the most difficult part is getting the camera in a sensible place and linked to the computer. Then you just sign up for something like no-ip.com and forward the correct port on you router to your PC. The port is setup in the web cam software.

I use no-ip.com as well.

Although i've now gone for tomcat and having seperate software that captures images to a folder, and a webapp that generates thumbnails from those images and generates a gallery to view them.

To solve the location problem, I got a wireless webcam for £50 from ebay, so the webcam sits in the attic room looking out of the window.

so basically what would i need.

webcam - or external cam.

power supply to cam won't be an issue.

what software would you recommend.

we dont have any security issues to warrant massive expense.

can a retard like me,figure out port numbers etc or should i get someone in?

Remember that a bog standard web cam isn't going to give you great resolution.

It won't be good enough to identify a face unless the are less than a few metres away.

For an example of what you can expect from a webcam, take a look at this;

http://cyclone.servehttp.com/cam/Motion%20%28picture%29%20236.jpg

to be fair, that's a bit worse than normal, looks like i need to refocus the camera... But you get the idea, and that's from the 3rd story window (glass might be dirty after the recent rain), so probably about 50 metres to the grey granada you can see.

The free software is okay, but the stuff that comes with the dedicated capture cards is much better. For example, this detects motion across the whole image, the dedicated stuff lets you define areas that you want to watch and a dedicated camera should be able to get a better picture, and maybe even have auto focus...

just thought I'd bump this up because reading Sheffield Forum has made me paranoid and I'm thinking of setting some sort of camera system up.

things must have come a long way in 2.5 years, so any suggestions anybody?

my main concern is that the most expensive item in the house is actually the PC, so anybody breaking in would probably nick it. is it possible to record remotely from the house?

.

I wonder if it is posible to use a camcorder connected to the pc instead of a webcam? Gives better resolution?

how much hd space would it take sampling say every 5 secs?

Thanks.

Ive got a wireless cctv camera set up on my pc.i use a dvc50 to conect it to the pc.the picture is really good and i can monitor it from another pc.very easy to set up and not expensive at all.

Hi

We're thinking of getting a security camera fitted onto our drive, can anyone recommend a good company?