Webcam in cottage
 

OK you techies....

Is there a way I can connect a webcam in cottage, to a stand-alone laptop, which will remain onsite, but be able to view the web-cam on another remote computer? Actually, I'd like to hook-up a couple video cams, one for each floor.

I know there are some fancy and expensive systems out there you can purchase, which will do similiar, and even send video streaming to your
smart-phone.

Juts looking for the best feasable and cost effective approach.

Appreciate everyone's feedback.....

What's your budget, and your expectations?

Sure, you can get some cheap cams that won't show much. You can use something like teamviewer.com to remotely log in to the laptop.

Or, you can spend a few more bucks on something a little better, get remote access, etc.

Lorex and Foscam are popular "consumer" brands that are pretty basic, but solid.

many options but these are pretty easy to setup and lower cost for something basic


http://www.dlink.com/us/en/home-solu...etwork-cameras

I'm having pretty good luck with Foscam cameras.

http://foscam.us/

They don't require an onsite computer. You just browse straight to the camera from afar. I have a nice android phone app that will display the camera output in real time and let you pan the camera around.

I have one that uploads an outside picture every 10 minutes to an FTP site and I have and another setup to email me a series of pictures if it detects motion. Funny that a dark cloud crossing the sun on a bright day will make it think it's seeing motion in the house.

I've managed to keep mine alive all winter so far with a mechanical timer that resets my DSL modem once a day (since a hung internet connection seems to be the weak link).

This stuff isn't quite trivial to setup since it requires you to make a few setting changes in your internet router and they're all different.

I have a couple of very inexpensive TrendNet cameras that I purchased on Amazon. The limiting factor for me is the cost of the static internet IP address year round, especially for the winter months when I'm not there, which is when I want them the most. If you don't have a static IP address, remote access is always a challenge with the constant changing IP, sometimes several times a day.

BT

Foscam here as well
 

I bought a Foscam wireless camera and set it up on my porch to keep watch over my back yard and pool area. I followed all the instructions to the T, but only can access my camera from inside my wireless.
I like the Foscam for it's simplicity, relatively good picture quality, pan capability and even two way sound through the camera.
My IPhone has an app, which works when connected to WIFI, but not when I'm on the cell network.
Port forwarding, static IP address are all pretty foreign to me, and I'm still working it out.
Foscam offers free hosting for a few years (myfoscam), but I'm going to have to see if I can figure out where the block is.
Good Luck

Others who know about the cams can chime in on this specific camera model. I noticed you guys mentioned Foscam and while surfing noticed it was an eBay "deal of the day" so I figured I'd share it.

http://slickdeals.net/?sdtid=6655006...item486081edd1

I may jump on one if it's a good deal...

The Foscam FI9821W works fine (I have one). The HD video will be useless unless you have pretty fast internet upload speed. I find it still works fine on my slow DSL, but you don't get very fluid motion out of it.

If you're pointing the camera outside you need to be sure it has an IR cut filter or all the colors will look very odd in bright sunlight. This camera has one.

There has been a lot of talk in the past about who is really a licensed distributor for Foscam and who is not. I've heard of people having issues with support if they didn't buy from foscam.us

Foscam does have a free DNS service that will let you track your camera even with changing IP addresses. It's possible you only get that when buying via foscam.us.

Sorting out what you need to do to your particular internet router is the big challenge with most of these cameras. Every router is different and even the same router might be different depending on the ISP supplying it. With enough tinkering and looking stuff up on the internet, it can be sorted out. Having a new-ish router makes like easier.

We went the drop cam route, installed it in September and love it. It's small, wide angle, good quality, under $150 and you don't need to have it attached to a laptop past the initial set up.

The down side is that its video so it uses a large amount of bandwidth, on dsl that can be an issue, but we only use it when we aren't there so nothing else is competing for the space.

The have a website that you go to to view it, an IPhone app and a public access link. For the small investment, 5 min install, not requiring a computer to run and all of the web access choices, it was a good fit for us. Until the power goes out, then it drives you nuts :D

Here is a link to a do-it -yourself guide to setting up a webcam that I wrote a few years ago.

http://www.bearcam1.com/cam_info.htm

This is why I like they dropcam, new snow and you can get the action as it happens, glad people are out enjoying it! We will be soon.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/astWNn9MMDk?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=astW...ature=youtu.be

Skype cam
 

I'm just using a regular high def Logitech webcam. I've mounted it in my window overlooking the lake. I set up a skype account on the computer in the camp and set the Skype software to answer automatically. I can view the cam via Skype (which is free) from anywhere with internet access including on my smart phone. Piece of cake and free other than the cost of the webcam.:coolsm: