Remote Viewing/Video from remote location

[soma56]

A friend of mine has a business where, from time to time, would like to go online from his home and check out the status from an online camera which is installed at his place of work. What software is out there that any of you might recommend for this purpose? Is there a user-friendly software out there that will allow him to log on remotely to view the live web-cam installed at his place of work. Lately he has been getting false alarms of a breach of the premises at his work (getting calls from the police in this regard) and would like to avoid going to his work on person but rather simply log on to a remote camera. Your suggestions and opinions are appreciated.

Also, is there a way to back-up the video feed in a simple fashion?

[xierox]

Edit: You could try Yahoo IM. It allows you to define a list of people who are always allowed to view your webcam. Create two accounts, one for home, and one for work. Always have the one at home running. Hope this helps!

-X

[soma56]

That's what I suggested. Apparently he had a bad experience with Messenger, which is basically the same thing, isn't it? What would be the very next step up from Yahoo?

[Spyrus]

i dont know of any programs off hand but I can point you at a couple of solutions... first is a camera I installed for one of my contract jobs... it is a camera that has a web interface, its a sweet camera but its kind of on the pricey side of things. Allows for a network cable to be plugged into the back and they have some that allow you to move them so he could put it in a location and move the thing so he would be able to see the entire office space not to mention record if someone is there stealing something.
http://www.axis.com/

Or you could go a cheaper route....
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1060002823767
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1091101682330

The second link is for a linksys wireless camera that allows remote viewing... otherwise I would just look at maybe a VPN router and just have your boss VPN into work and view the camera from a computer that you have it hooked up to and that you have running all the time

[valhallen]

for an easy and free option you could try at32 (http://www.at32.com/doc/index.htm)

this can be set to take still images from webcam at timed intervals and then upload them via ftp to a remote server. You could then use .htaccess to password protect the dir the images are uploaded to so only your boss can view them.

I think as well you can set it to record the images to the local computer so you have a record of them.

v_Ln

[oofki]

Everyone makes web based cameras, axis is one and even linksys makes them.
http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=38&prid=566
and
http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=38&prid=650

I think sony makes them and netgear and dlink probably have their own versions.

[soma56]

He already has a camera. It is the software for viewing remote locations that I'm searching for...
I'm playing around with a trial version of WebCam Monitor which looks pretty good.