View your
camera remotely
You want to be able to see what's happening on your property, even when you're not there. You can maintain video surveillance from your office or any other location. You only need four things: a camera, your PC, Webcam Monitor and an Internet connection. The remote monitoring features in
WebCam Monitor offer several solutions. You can keep an eye on things from anywhere in the world. All you need to do is to connect your camera to your PC and start remote monitoring in WebCam Monitor, and you can always be aware of what is happening as it happens.
Using WebCam Monitor, you can remotely view your camera in three different ways.
- You can watch a live broadcast from your webcam
- View uploaded video recordings and photos on your web site
- Receive email with embedded photo
Let us look at each of the three different ways to turn your PC and camera into a remote video surveillance system.
1. Live Broadcast:
In live broadcasting, WebCam Monitor sends a live stream of the video and/or audio from your camera over the Internet. If you have the Internet bandwidth, this is the best way to monitor the action live.
Preparing for broadcasting
First, you need a static IP address for the PC where the camera is connected. An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a unique number assigned to each computer in a network. A static IP address does not change. In contrast, a dynamic IP address can change frequently. A dynamic IP address may work temporarily for broadcasting, but when it changes the broadcast will no longer be available.
As an alternative to a static IP address, you can assign a domain name to your PC. Services like no-ip.com and dyndns.org will assign a name to your PC, which can then be used to view the broadcast video. For instance, a computer might be assigned the domain name joeblowshome.no-ip.com.
Broadcasting will not work from non routable IP addresses. Non-routable addresses cannot be used over the Internet. These addresses can only be connected to over a local network (LAN). All addresses starting with 192.168 are non-routable, as are some others. If you are not sure what type of IP address you have, you need to find out from your ISP or a network professional. If your PC has a non-routable address, you can still broadcast video by reconfiguring your network router to use "Port Forwarding", as explained in the article Configuring Your Camera and PC for Internet Broadcasting.
Configuring live broadcasting in WebCam Monitor
WebCam Monitor provides live broadcasting using Windows Media streaming technology. To prepare WebCam Monitor for live streaming:
- Click Tools >> Options
- On the Options window, select the Remote Monitoring tab.
- Click the Configure button for the Broadcasting option. The Live Broadcasting Settings window opens.
- Specify a Port number which you or your viewers can connect to and view the live video. If 0 is specified, WebCam Monitor will automatically select a port number.
- Specify the number of viewers that can connect simultaneously.
- Select a Profile based on the Internet connection speed available to your audience, and your own Internet connection "upstream".
- Choose whether to broadcast Video, Audio , or both.
- If you select Start Live Broadcasting automatically at Startup then as soon as WebCam Monitor is opened, it will begin broadcasting using these settings.
- Click OK .
To start broadcasting, click
Tools >> Start Broadcasting. When you do, the program's Log will display the address and port number needed to view the live video.
As you can see, this computer has a name assigned. To find the computer's IP (numeric) address, click
Tools >> Get Computer IP Address.
2. Watching live video from a remote location
All you need to view the live video broadcast is a web browser and an Internet connection.
- Open the web browser. Type the address shown in the WebCam Monitor Log, including the port number.
- Press Enter. The media player will be launched and you will start receiving a live feed. There will be some delay for buffering.
To have your family and friends watch the live feed, just tell them the address and port number. As mentioned above, you may have to configure your Internet router to make your video broadcast available outside your local network.
Upload Video/ Audio and photos to an FTP Server:
With the Upload feature, WebCam Monitor can send video recordings and photos to an FTP server whenever noise or motion is detected, or at regular intervals. Storing files on a server makes for easy storage, maintenance and analysis. Storing recordings and photos on a remote server also provides extra security, since the files are safe even if the computer running WebCam Monitor is stolen.
To upload recordings and photos to an FTP server:
- If Monitoring is in progress, click Monitor >> Stop Monitoring.
- Click Tools >> Options. On the Options window, select the Remote Monitoring tab, and click the Configure button for Upload.
- Enter the name and login information for the FTP server.
- Check Enable Automatic Upload.
- Select the type of files you want to upload from Upload What.
- If you select Overwrite Photo Files, every photo uploaded will replace the previous one, using the same name. This feature can be used to create a web page that shows a constantly-updated image from your camera. This option is available only when Photos is selected from Upload What.
- Click OK, then OK again to close the Options window.
Receive email notification:
The E-mail Notification alert sends e-mail with a photo as an attachment, either when Motion and Noise is detected, or at regular intervals.
To configure email notification:
- If you would like to receive email at regular intervals, click Tools >> Options >> Monitoring and select After Every n. If you would like to be sent email when motion or noise is detected, click Tools >> Options >> Monitoring and select When motion or noise is detected.
- Check E-mail Notification. Click Configure to open the E-mail Notification Settings window.
- Specify an e-mail address in the From field. This is the address the messages will be sent from. Specify the e-mail address of the recipient in the To field. You can list multiple addresses here, separated by commas. If you want to include a photo with the e-mail, check the Include JPEG photos with email option. If you don’t choose to include photos, you will be simply notified via email that an alert was triggered.
- Click OK.
You can start monitoring by clicking
Start Monitoring with Alerts on the main screen.
Remote monitoring is an easy, convenient and effective way to stay informed at all times. Use Remote Monitoring in
WebCam Monitor to keep an eye on your home or business anytime and from anywhere.