PCA Forums

anyone using an IP cam for anything? home security, etc?

i've used standard usb webcams in the past for home monitoring (motion detection w/ email alerts, etc), but never liked the reliance on a full computer to keep it running.

i'm going to pick up a standalone IP cam and see how that goes. ordered this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Foscam-FI8910W-Wi ... a+wireless

it was cheaper earlier today by about $15. seems like a solid option for wireless use.

Hate to break it to you but most DVRs are just computers in fancy cases.

DVRs, yes...this isn't a DVR. it doesn't have internal storage, however, so if you want to record, you need to point it to a share or ftp server. it does allow streaming and alerting independent of a pc, however, with a basic web interface.

i could always connect a hard drive to my router for the share, but haven't decided if that's the route i want to take.

in the past, i've used the free yawcam ("yet another webcam") software to do alerting. it is a barebones, but effective software based solution. it'll send jpg images of anything it captures, send emails, etc. i just want to get away from usb webcams, mainly. near-IR is a good addition too.

Let us know how that one works. I've been in the market for one myself.

At one of my work places we use IP cameras for all of our surveillance. I was playing around with some programs and came across one called iSpy.

http://www.ispyconnect.com/

Free, open source, and it has a bunch of features. Great software that works with pretty much any IP camera out there.

As for the cameras, we use pretty much exclusively D-Link cameras. Wireless on some of them cam be flaky, but I'm pretty sure it's due more to our access points than the cameras themselves.

will do...i should have it tues or wed next week and will report back. i'll check out iSpy too...thanks for the tip.

quick update on the ip cam...

it's pretty close to what i expected based on my experience with other cams at work. it has several nuances to the web interface, but once you get the hang of it, it's decent. it's fairly small as well...the pics online make it seem larger than it is. it's about the size of a soda can, with a wider base. wireless has been very stable and no noticable performance difference between wired/wireless.

image quality is fair, but not anywhere near HD (not that it's advertised that way anyway). 640x480 is the top resolution w/ 20fps max. night vision works well and can see the entire room without a problem. it automatically turns the IR mode on when the image gets too dark for regular light. you can manually turn it on/off as well, if you prefer.

i have it configured for motion detection that triggers both local capture via FTP upload to a desktop as well as email notification w/ a few pics attached to the message. you can set schedules or timelapse photos, but that's not of interest to me.

limitations are you must use FTP or HTTP upload...no mapping to a NAS fileshare. kind of a pain, as i had to set up an FTP server just for that, but no big deal. DD-WRT would run one for me, but i don't want to rely on a usb stick in the router.

remote monitoring is also pretty solid. there are a ton of iphone/android apps you can use, and i like TinyCam the most so far. easy to configure and the interface let's you do most of what you want, even two-way audio. no use to me, but some may like that.

i tried iSpy for local monitoring, but it requires a paid subscription to do recording/alerting. yawcam wins for that, as it's barebones, but solid.

overall, for the $83 i paid, i'd rate it a 7.5/10. reliability is unknown, but if it doesn't die any time soon, i could recommend it.

I have 8 cameras on a DVR system ... great and they have phone aps so I can check in when I want. I have two one in shop looking at house, one in house looking at shop

FP- if you have your cam yet, don't let the firmware confuse you. i just got mine and it shipped with a newer firmware than my other and their website doesn't yet have it for download. i'd recommend not upgrading unless you have to and wait for the newest .47, as it adds a few features (if yours doesn't ship with the newest)

check this out: http://foscam.us/forum/what-happened-to ... ion#p16283

.02