WebCam Monitor v5.15

Setting up a PC video surveillance system

Times have changed.  The crime graph is on the rise with a sharp increase being reported in the number of thefts, burglaries and break-ins.  You can

remain a sitting duck, or choose to fight back.  Using a surveillance system to monitor things while you are away is a possible solution.  While not

everyone can invest in closed circuit cameras, a PC based video surveillance system is an effective tool that anyone with a computer and web camera

can install.  You can build your own peace of mind, instead of trying to buy it.

A PC based video surveillance system is also ideal for monitoring your pets at home; or the front door, garage and  bedroom while you are away at work

or on a vacation.  All you need is your PC, a webcam or IP camera, and advanced surveillance software like the popular WebCam Monitor.  With this

combination, you can keep an eye on things, all the time and effortlessly.

WebCam Monitor detects motion and noise.  You can configure automatic alerts when the camera detects motion.  The program notifies you instantly via

email along with a snapshot.  It can also be configured to send messages to your mobile phone or record a video of the activity.  If you simply want to

monitor things as they happen, you can do it from any location with a web browser and an Internet connection.

Setting up the camera

1. The first step is to carry out a threat analysis of your assets and identify the ones which are most vulnerable or valuable.  Then take a quick tour

of the premises and spot the entry or exit points.

2. Connect a webcam to your PC, and place it at so that it can view the points you had identified.  If you intend to monitor your children or pets live

over the Internet, then it is a good idea to mount the webcam at a height that gives you a panoramic view of the room.

3. You need to carry out a few dry test runs to be sure that the webcam is placed perfectly.  You can do this by using the WebCam monitor Preview

window.

4. Start WebCam monitor.  Select your WebCam in the Add Camera Wizard option from under the File menu.  Click on Start Preview and adjust

your Webcam’s position till you get the perfect feed.

Configuring WebCam Monitor

Once the physical setup is ready, you can start configuring the software using the Auto Configuration Wizard.  The Auto Configuration Wizard quickly

configures WebCam Monitor when you select a monitoring scenario.  This wizard consists of five of the most common ways the program is used.  All you

need to do is select one of these and the application gets configured!

Noise and Motion Triggered/ Periodically Activated Alerts

Apart from using the pre-defined settings in the Auto Configuration Wizard, you can go to Tools > menu > Options > Monitoring tab and configure

individual alerts and specify when to trigger them.  You can either choose to be alerted periodically or when motion or noise occurs.  You can also specify

the type of alert you want, i.e. email with a photo, sound alarm or a recorded video of the activity (or all three).

To improve motion detection accuracy, it is important to select the highest possible motion sensitivity value that keeps false alarms to a minimum.  Too

low a sensitivity can cause significant events to be missed, but too high a value can cause many false alarms.  It is a good idea to keep the noise

detection sensitivity low to prevent false alarms.  The Motion/Noise Detection Delay feature allows you to specify the time interval after which the

Motion/Noise Detection is started.  This gives you time to leave the area after starting WebCam monitor, so you don't trigger an alert yourself.

If there is continuous motion, such as people moving, then periodically activated alerts must be used.  Select the After Every option.  For example, if you

are monitoring your child, you can have snaps emailed to you every ten minutes,  letting you be sure that everything is fine.  You can also periodically FTP

the images to your web site for remote monitoring.  Specify the time in hours, minutes and seconds under the After every option.

Now check the alerts to use from the Select Alerts option.  The Configure button for each alert can be used to change its settings to suit your monitoring

requirements.

The safety of your near and dear ones and your belongings should always be a top priority.  The advanced features of WebCam Monitor can provide you

with effective surveillance ability, at virtually no extra hardware cost.  Setup PC based video surveillance using WebCam Monitor to enjoy peace of mind.

Quickly Setup Your Security and Surveillance Configuration

WebCam Monitor is designed to make setting up your surveillance system easy and effective.  A typical security configuration can require choosing

among dozens of settings, but the Auto Configuration Wizard gets you started quickly by providing pre-created monitoring scenarios.  Software setup

can take as little as one minute using this method.

You can use the Auto Configuration Wizard as soon as you start WebCam Monitor.  Open the File menu and choose Auto Configuration Wizard.  If this

is the first time you’ve run WebCam Monitor, you’ll be asked to use the Add Camera Wizard to add at least one camera to the program’s list.  Go ahead

and add all the cameras you plan to use at this point.  You can return to the Auto Configuration Wizard by selecting Configure Alerts before clicking

Finish.

If you do not need to configure cameras, the first screen of the wizard is just an introduction.  After reading it, click the Next button.  This takes you to the

Select a Scenario page of the wizard.  The scenarios are “pre-defined groups of settings”.  By choosing one, you configure the program for a particular

situation in just one step.  The five scenarios in WebCam Monitor are:

1. Record when motion or noise occurs

2. Continuously upload JPEG snaps to my FTP server

3. View my camera remotely from another PC

4. E-mail me when motion or noise is detected

5. Schedule camera (s) to start monitoring at a specified time

Record when motion or noise occurs

This scenario is intended for a standard burglar alarm-style situation, in which the program gathers evidence (and optionally alerts you and sounds the

alarm) if intruders are detected.

Video/audio recording is turned on when triggered by motion or noise detection.  Periodic triggering (“record every five minutes”) is turned off.  Normally,

other Alert settings like Take Snap and E-mail Notification are not changed, but you can check the Clear all other alerts checkbox at the bottom of the

window, in which case only Video/Audio Recording will take place when motion is detected.  Scheduler and other settings are not changed.

If you select this scenario and click, Next

you’ll be asked to choose a folder to save the recordings in, a basic file name for the recordings (the date and time will be added to each file's name), and

how many seconds to record each time the Alert is triggered.

Continuously upload JPEG snaps to my FTP server

This scenario is used when a record of events is needed.  The program takes still pictures (JPEG snaps) regularly and saves them on a server, which can

be anywhere.  This creates permanent, hard-to-destroy documentation of events at the locations covered by the camera.  It is also a good way to view

upload images continuously on your website.

Snap taking is turned on, along with periodic alerts.  (This means that motion detection and noise detection are turned off.)  All other types of alert

(video/audio recording, e-mail, playing a sound, and launch program)  are automatically turned off.  Other settings are not changed.

If you pick this scenario, you’ll be asked to supply the name or numeric address of an FTP server, along with a user name and password.

View my camera remotely from another PC

This scenario just enables live streaming, so video from the camera (or cameras) WebCam Monitor is previewing can be seen from other PCs.  If you use

a router or firewall to connect your network to the Internet, and you want the video to be visible to computers outside your LAN, you may want to read our

article Configuring Your Camera and PC for Internet Streaming.

You’ll be asked to pick a bandwidth setting and how many viewers at a time may connect to your video stream.

E-mail me when motion or noise is detected

This scenario is similar to “Record when noise or motion occurs”, except that instead of turning on video/audio recording, it automatically sends e-mail.

You’ll be asked for one or more addresses to notify by e-mail, and what address the mail sent should come from.  Note: if your Internet Service Provider

(ISP) blocks outgoing e-mail from your account (as some do, especially cable modem providers), you’ll need to click the Settings button on the final page

of the wizard, switch to the Settings tab, and configure an Outgoing mail server.

Schedule camera (s) to start monitoring at a specific time

Choosing this scenario enables the scheduler.  You can choose this after any of the other scenarios has been configured and schedule it at a specified

time.  Information on scheduling WebCam Monitor is part of this article.

In general, you can select multiple scenarios.  The only exception is that “Continuously upload snaps” cannot be combined with other scenarios. 

However, you can certainly combine, for instance, “Record when motion or noise occurs” with “View my camera remotely from another PC.”  You could

even combine both with “E-mail me when motion or noise is detected.”  And you could certainly use “Schedule camera (s) to start monitoring at a specific

time” with any of the other four, or any combination.

Using the Auto Configuration Wizard, you can activate a complete surveillance setup only seconds after installing WebCam Monitor.

Using Multiple Cameras to Monitor Effectively

Different environments have different surveillance requirements.  A large facility like a parking lot, store, residence, or hall cannot be monitored efficiently

by a single camera.  Traditionally, CCTV (Closed Circuit TV) based Surveillance Systems were used for multi camera monitoring.  This solution was

expensive due to the huge hardware costs.

Advances in PC based surveillance software now allow anyone with a webcam to setup a robust, effective and inexpensive surveillance system.

Today, all you need for securing your assets is a PC, a couple of webcams and software like WebCam Monitor.

Setting up your cameras

The first step is to evaluate the objectives of your surveillance setup.  Start by answering the obvious, yet important question, “Which is the most important

thing to be monitored?”.  It could be anything: your front porch, a store, a parking lot, your home, children, pets or even your prize roses.

The next step would be to identify the entry, exit and other vulnerable points present around your subject.  Once you identify these points, you can

determine the number of cameras required to fill in the gaps.  WebCam Monitor can be used with either cameras directly connected to the computer

(using USB or FireWire ports), or networked (IP) cameras.  One PC with WebCam Monitor can control 4 or more cameras in rotation.  (Security Monitor

Pro can monitor and record from multiple cameras simultaneously.)

When a camera is connected to the PC using USB or FireWire, WebCam Monitor will detect it automatically.  IP (networked) cameras can be installed

using WebCam Monitor’s Add Camera Wizard.  You can then use the Preview window to position the cameras to cover the vulnerable points you had

identified.  Spend some time on this step: the effectiveness of your surveillance will depend upon the camera positions.  To use your cameras efficiently,

make sure the views from two cameras do not overlap and cover the same area.  However, you should also try to minimize the number of blind spots.

Cycling Through Multiple Devices With WebCam Monitor

Once the physical setup is complete, WebCam Monitor can be scheduled to cycle through the feeds from different cameras automatically.  As it monitors

the feeds, it can be configured to send different types of alerts, either periodically or whenever motion or noise is detected.  These alerts include: Audio &

Video recordings, Snaps, E-mail notifications and playing an audible sound alarm over the PC’s speakers.

To schedule multiple devices to monitor in a cycle:

1. Start WebCam Monitor.  From the camera and microphone drop down lists on the main screen,

confirm that all the cameras have been detected.  If you don’t see a camera listed, click on Refresh

Device List on the File menu.

2. Click on theSchedule Devices link underQuick Settings.

3. Check Enable Scheduler  Click onSetup.

4. In the Schedule Device Pairs in Cycle dialog, click Add.

5. Use the Add Camera Wizard that will open to add a device pair in the schedule.

6. To add more devices to the cycle, repeat the steps 4 and 5.

7. The complete list of device pairs you added to the schedule will be displayed in the Schedule Device

Pairs in Cycle dialog.  To change an entry, select it and click on Edit.  To delete an entry, select it and

click on Remove.  Use the Move Up andMove Down buttons to change the order of the device pairs

in the cycle.

Each device pair will keep running for 60 seconds before switching to the next device in the cycle.

8. ClickOK to save the settings and return to the Scheduler dialog.

9. Under Specify Scheduler Timings for Monitoring, you can select: Once, Daily, Weekly or On

Application Start Up.  Click OK.

Now that you know how to schedule multiple devices to monitor in a cycle, you can configure different alerts to be triggered periodically or when motion or

noise is detected.  The article on Setting up a PC video surveillance system discuses the process of configuring periodic alerts or motion and noise

detected alerts.

When an event occurs, you can be informed through different alerts like Video and Audio Recordings, Take Snap, E-mail notification, PC sound alarms

and Launch Program.  To specify the different settings for these alerts, click on the Configure link, which is present adjacent to each alert in the Quick

Settings  panel in the main application window.

Depending upon the Start Time you had specified, monitoring through the various devices will start automatically.  Whenever an event occurs, alerts will

be triggered.

Securing your assets was never so simple, effective and inexpensive.

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.

1. You can watch a live broadcast from your webcam

2. View uploaded video recordings and photos on your web site

3. 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:

1. Click Tools >> Options

2. On the Options window, select the Remote Monitoring tab.

3. Click the Configure button for the Broadcasting option. The Live Broadcasting Settings window opens.

4. 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.

5. Specify the number of viewers that can connect simultaneously.

6. Select a Profile based on the Internet connection speed available to your audience, and your own

Internet connection "upstream".

7. Choose whether to broadcast Video, Audio , or both.

8. If you select Start Live Broadcasting automatically at Startup then as soon as WebCam Monitor is

opened, it will begin broadcasting using these settings.

9. 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.

1. Open the web browser. Type the address shown in the WebCam Monitor Log, including the port

number.

2. 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:

1. If Monitoring is in progress, click Monitor >> Stop Monitoring.

2. Click Tools >> Options. On the Options window, select the Remote Monitoring tab, and click the

Configure button for Upload.

3. Enter the name and login information for the FTP server.

4. Check Enable Automatic Upload.

5. Select the type of files you want to upload from Upload What.

6. 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.

7. 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:

1. 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.

2. Check E-mail Notification. Click Configure to open the E-mail Notification Settings window.

3. 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.

4. 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.

Configuring Your PC for Internet Broadcasting

One common use for webcams is to see what's happening at your home, or your business, when you're away. WebCam Monitor makes it easy,

broadcasting video from one or more cameras. However, as network security becomes tighter, you may have to change your network settings to make the

video visible from outside your own local network.

The most common type of computer network today uses the Internet Protocol, almost always abbreviated to "IP". There are two types of IP addresses -

Private and Public. The numbers that begin with 192.168.x.x are called Private or Non-Routable IP addresses - and they are only useful inside your

network. So your desktop computer might be 192.168.2.2, and your laptop might be 192.168.2.3. Public IP addresses are assigned by your ISP. You can

see your Public IP address by visiting http://www.deskshare.com/MyPcInfo.aspx.

A typical home or small office LAN has a router that connects to the Internet. Every other device on the network connects to Internet servers by going

through the router. The router in these situations is often called a "firewall".

In order to see a WebCam Monitor video broadcast from outside your network, you need to instruct the router to let certain requests into your network

from the Internet.

Because there are so many brands of router that you may be using, we can't give detailed instructions for each. By following the basic procedure shown

here you should be able to set up your own router to allow WebCam Monitor video broadcasts to be seen from the Internet.

For most routers, there are two ways to allow the video out of your network: put the computer in the DMZ and use Port Forwarding.

In the special vocabulary of network firewalls, the DMZ is a zone which has no security. All connection attempts are permitted through. If you put your PC

in the DMZ, WebCam Monitor broadcasts will be visible from outside, but so will every other network port, which may leave your computer open to system

hijackers. Therefore, we recommend that instead, you use Port Forwarding.

Po

rt Forwarding

One aspect of IP networking is the use of different "ports" for different kinds of network service. In Port Forwarding, you will instruct your router to pass

along requests that come to the video broadcasting port to your PC, while ignoring other requests.

First of all, you'll need to open the configuration utility for your router. Of course, different companies use different systems, but a common one is to open

a web browser and type a particular address into its Address Bar, often 192.168.1.1. You can find out how to do this from the manual for your router, or

the manufacturer's web site.

Now you'll need to locate the Port Forwarding configuration for your router. This will look different for every brand and model of router, so don't expect

yours to look exactly like the illustration. Some common names for this configuration screen may be 'Virtual Server' or 'Applications'.

You will need to pick a port to forward. WebCam Monitor lets you select any port for broadcasting. The default is port 1040, but when broadcasting using a

cable modem or DSL modem to connect to the Internet, we recommend a higher-numbered port, like port 4569.

There are two reasons for this:

1. Most Internet Service Providers now block access to commonly-used ports in order to keep you from

running a server in your home while only paying for a consumer account.  Ports frequently blocked by

ISPs include 25, 80, and 8080.

2. Using a randomly-selected high number port avoids the possibility of conflicting with a port used by

other software.

In our example we'll use por

t 4569.

As

you can see, when setting up Port Forw

arding, you enter the port to forward f

rom the outside, to what computer to fo

rward it to inside your network. Some r

outers must be restarted before the cha

nge in configuration takes effect.

You

must also set up WebCam Monitor to use

the correct port. You can do that by c

licking the Tools menu, then Options, s

witching to the Remote Monitoring tab,

and pressing the Configure button for B

roadcasting.

That

should do it.

To connect from outside

, you need to know what URL to type int

o your browser. You can find that out b

y opening a web browser on the machine

running WebCam Monitor and visiting htt

p://www.deskshare.com/MyPcInfo.aspx. Th

at gives you your Public IP address. My

IP address is shown as 65.119.205.151.

To this, you add mms:// at the beginni

ng, and :4569 at the end (substituting

your IP address, and the port you selec

ted for 4569). The final URL would look

like this: mms://65.119.205.151:4569

Several other ways to remotely view cam

era information.

WebCam Monitor give y

ou the ability to "keep an eye on thing

s" with video broadcasts from your web

cameras. Using the tips in this article

, you can configure your network and co

nnect from anywhere.

Security Alert: Get Email Notification With Photos

In a security emergency, minutes matter. Alert the police quickly, and criminals can be caught in the act. Call the fire department right away, and you can

save your house or business from major damage. On the other hand, false alarms waste the valuable time of emergency personnel.

Home and office monitoring software such as WebCam Monitor detect noise or motion and trigger actions like audio and video recording, and sending

email. Email notification will alert you seconds after a motion or noise event is detected, and include a picture of the event with your email.

There are many reasons you might want to be alerted by email when motion is detected:

Keep an eye on sleeping children or the elderly

Watch for intruders in your back yard

Detect unusual activity in your home or office

Setting up an email alert system is easy. You need a computer running WebCam Monitor, and at least one webcam or IP camera. After installing

WebCam Monitor and setting up your camera, start the Configuration Wizard. Select Email me when motion or noise is detected. Just follow the

wizard's instructions for entering your email account details.

Click Advanced Settings.

In most cases, you will need to Send e-mail using Outgoing mail server. If you are using mail software such as Microsoft Outlook, you can copy

information from the Account Settings to configure WebCam Monitor. Generally, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) supplies a mail server. You can find

the necessary information by contacting your ISP. After entering the server information, click Send Test E-mail. If a test message arrives in your mailbox,

the settings are correct.

Google's GMail service blocks unencrypted outgoing mail. Because of this, GMail cannot be used as an Outgoing Mail Server with WebCam Monitor.

You can send email to GMail addresses. Generally, it is best to use your ISP's mail server.

Yahoo! provides an Outgoing Mail Server only to customers of its paid Mail Plus service. For Yahoo! customers, use these settings:

Outgoing Mail Server:                  smtp.mail.yahoo.com

Outgoing Mail Server Port:          587

Account Name:                            youraccount@yahoo.com

Password:                                    yourpassword

Any Yahoo! account can receive email from WebCam Monitor.

Remember, you can run several alerts at once. A very common and useful configuration is to have WebCam Monitor send you email notification, and also

record audio and video. Simply select both options in the Quick Settings area.

Email alerts are an important feature

to have when choosing a security monitoring system. Knowing that you will be alerted with a photo helps you to feel confident and secure.