"Senior Newbie" totally confused

I have googled for days, spent quite a bit of time here
http://www.networkcamerareviews.com , and do not have a clue yet on where to
begin.

I would like an outside surveillance camera at home, that I can monitor at
work. I do not need any ability to move the camera remotely. Just fix it on
my front gate and leave it. Email motion detection would be nice, but I do
not need to record.

I am on dialup (out in the weeds and that is all that is available to me)

I just (barely) setup a LAN at home for file sharing and internet sharing
with my desktop and laptop. Linksys router and used the LAN port since no
broadband.

No idea where to go from here.

I do not need any nighttime monitoring only daylight while I am away. There
are 8 motion lights that come on if someone comes to the gate or into the
yard so there is some light during the winter early morning hours.

I have a webcam hooked up to the PC in the house for any motion detection
there, and email with date time stamp.

Is it as simple as camera, EarthLink free webpage and some software such as
Webcam XP PRO?

I am not concerned about privacy, if someone manages to watch my gate also,
no big deal. No video chat etc. is needed.

I would like to keep the cost around $300.00

Thanks for any advice.

Bob

Bob;

As another "senior" I can relate to your confusion. Too many layers to the
onion.

With just a dialup connection "live" video is not feasible. About the best
you'll be able to do is to grab a camera image on some time interval and
load that to a web page so that it can be viewed via the Internet. This
would require that your dialup was always connected.

FWIW, I have a camera that I use as part of my weather web site
(http://wengert.org/weather). That picture is captured and uploaded once
every 60 sec (I do have broadband) and the image is 21KB.

HTH

Wayne

"Leanin' Cedar" wrote in message
link.net...
I have googled for days, spent quite a bit of time here
http://www.networkcamerareviews.com , and do not have a clue yet on where
to begin.

I would like an outside surveillance camera at home, that I can monitor at
work. I do not need any ability to move the camera remotely. Just fix it
on my front gate and leave it. Email motion detection would be nice, but I
do not need to record.

I am on dialup (out in the weeds and that is all that is available to me)

I just (barely) setup a LAN at home for file sharing and internet sharing
with my desktop and laptop. Linksys router and used the LAN port since no
broadband.

No idea where to go from here.

I do not need any nighttime monitoring only daylight while I am away.
There are 8 motion lights that come on if someone comes to the gate or
into the yard so there is some light during the winter early morning
hours.

I have a webcam hooked up to the PC in the house for any motion detection
there, and email with date time stamp.

Is it as simple as camera, EarthLink free webpage and some software such
as Webcam XP PRO?

I am not concerned about privacy, if someone manages to watch my gate
also, no big deal. No video chat etc. is needed.

I would like to keep the cost around $300.00

Thanks for any advice.

Bob

"Wayne Wengert" wrote in message
...
Bob;

As another "senior" I can relate to your confusion. Too many layers to the
onion.

With just a dialup connection "live" video is not feasible. About the best
you'll be able to do is to grab a camera image on some time interval and
load that to a web page so that it can be viewed via the Internet. This
would require that your dialup was always connected.

FWIW, I have a camera that I use as part of my weather web site
(http://wengert.org/weather). That picture is captured and uploaded once
every 60 sec (I do have broadband) and the image is 21KB.

HTH

Wayne

Well that is one layer off the onion. I guess one snapshot every minute or
so would do the trick. If anyone is going to come through the gate while I
am gone, they would certainly be here for more than a minute.

I don't need color just black and white is good.

This is worse than picking cabinets and floor for the kitchen I am about to
remodel.LOL

Bob

PS:

Do you mind if I start asking some details about camera, connections etc.

Your site looks like it would suit my purpose with an update ervery minute
or so.

Thanks
Bob

On Thu, 23 Mar 2006 10:58:05 GMT, "Leanin' Cedar"
wrote:

I have googled for days, spent quite a bit of time here
http://www.networkcamerareviews.com , and do not have a clue yet on where to
begin.

I would like an outside surveillance camera at home, that I can monitor at
work. I do not need any ability to move the camera remotely. Just fix it on
my front gate and leave it. Email motion detection would be nice, but I do
not need to record.

I am on dialup (out in the weeds and that is all that is available to me)

Its not really a viable solution because the time interval between
images would make the system unworkable/of little use. Your best
solution would be to maybe buy a used VCR and use it in long play mode
with 240 min tapes, thus giving 8 hours recording. Of course you would
have to buy another camera device but these are not too expensive.
Webcams are generally useless for cctv imaging anyway as the
resolution and lenses are not suited and they are often hopeless in
the dark.

Time lapse videos for cctv use can often be had relatively cheaply on
ebay.

joe



Remove antispam and add 670 after bra to email

"tarquinlinbin" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 23 Mar 2006 10:58:05 GMT, "Leanin' Cedar"
wrote:

Its not really a viable solution because the time interval between
images would make the system unworkable/of little use. Your best
solution would be to maybe buy a used VCR and use it in long play mode
with 240 min tapes, thus giving 8 hours recording. Of course you would
have to buy another camera device but these are not too expensive.
Webcams are generally useless for cctv imaging anyway as the
resolution and lenses are not suited and they are often hopeless in
the dark.

Time lapse videos for cctv use can often be had relatively cheaply on
ebay.

joe

I see they have motion activated cameras that hook up to a vcr. maybe I will
go that way for outside, and a couple of webcams in the house with email
alert.

Bob



Remove antispam and add 670 after bra to email

Leanin' Cedar wrote:
I have googled for days, spent quite a bit of time here
http://www.networkcamerareviews.com , and do not have a clue yet on where to
begin.

I would like an outside surveillance camera at home, that I can monitor at
work. I do not need any ability to move the camera remotely. Just fix it on
my front gate and leave it. Email motion detection would be nice, but I do
not need to record.

I am on dialup (out in the weeds and that is all that is available to me)

I just (barely) setup a LAN at home for file sharing and internet sharing
with my desktop and laptop. Linksys router and used the LAN port since no
broadband.

No idea where to go from here.

I do not need any nighttime monitoring only daylight while I am away. There
are 8 motion lights that come on if someone comes to the gate or into the
yard so there is some light during the winter early morning hours.

I have a webcam hooked up to the PC in the house for any motion detection
there, and email with date time stamp.

Is it as simple as camera, EarthLink free webpage and some software such as
Webcam XP PRO?

I am not concerned about privacy, if someone manages to watch my gate also,
no big deal. No video chat etc. is needed.

I would like to keep the cost around $300.00

Thanks for any advice.

Bob


Another 'Senior' here...you already have your 'problem' half solved with
this statement:
I have a webcam hooked up to the PC in the house for any motion
detection
there, and email with date time stamp.
All you need is another cam outside, but as another reply points out,
probably something a bit better than the average webcam. Perhaps a
weatherproof CCD CCTV camera hooked into a video capture card. This
would be monitored by the software such as Webcam XP Pro (or similar),
and email you with a date/time stamped image upon motion detection.
Don't know about the US, but here in AU, you could set that up for under
AU$250. Prices are cheaper in the US I would imagine.
I am using a Swann 510R CCD CCTV
(http://www.swann.com.au/show_item.php?item=144)
camera with a minimum illumination of 0.0 Lux before switching to IR
(built in), connected to a very cheap video capture card. Shopping
around, the camera cost AU$160. Card was AU$50.
This camera is not weatherproof, but there are ones available at similar
prices.

"kim" wrote in message
...
Perhaps a weatherproof CCD CCTV camera hooked into a video capture card.
This
would be monitored by the software such as Webcam XP Pro (or similar), and
email you with a date/time stamped image upon motion detection.


Had not considered that route. All my PCI slots are full, but did some
Google and came up with this
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...00932?n=172282

Maybe Earthlink Satellite to Satellite is going to be my ultimate solution
for a lot of problems

Bob

Leanin' Cedar wrote:
"kim" wrote in message
...
Perhaps a weatherproof CCD CCTV camera hooked into a video capture card.
This

would be monitored by the software such as Webcam XP Pro (or similar), and
email you with a date/time stamped image upon motion detection.



Had not considered that route. All my PCI slots are full, but did some
Google and came up with this
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...00932?n=172282

Maybe Earthlink Satellite to Satellite is going to be my ultimate solution
for a lot of problems

Bob


I have heard of those USB 'capture cards' but haven't tried them. I seem
to recall something else about them ages ago in this newsgroup..think
someone else was recommending them to someone who had a similar
problem...full PCI slots..
Most (if not all) CCTV cameras use a composite video out, so this unit
would probably work as it has a composite video input. (Some cameras
leads (Such as the Swann I am using) terminate in a BNC connector, but
this is not a problem as you can easily purchase a BNC to RCA convertor
for a couple of dollars (composite in is usually always an RCA socket)).
The product manual specifies that the unit will ONLY work on USB 2.0 and
not on USB 1.1..no doubt that is due to the speed of USB 2 for video
transfer. I would assume also that most webcam applications would be
able to recognise (correct spelling in AU! :-) ) the input as a camera.
Before buying it, it might pay to email ATI to see if this is the case.

Sure

"Leanin' Cedar" wrote in message
ink.net...
PS:

Do you mind if I start asking some details about camera, connections etc.

Your site looks like it would suit my purpose with an update ervery minute
or so.

Thanks
Bob