Webcam as a security camera

Doublespresso

Can you recommend a cheap and viable way to set up a decent security camera/monitoring system using a webcam?
I will be using a mobile internet dongle (T-mobile) and a netbook. I would like to be able to monitor remotely and have the images saved on a remote server.

My questions:
1) which hardware (webcam) and software will I need for a decent quality?
2) Will the bandwith be sufficient (I have T-mobile unlimited subject to fair use)
3) Can you recommend a way to save the images on a remote server?

Thanks.

Darksun

You can get motion detection software that will capture images when it detects motion and upload them to a FTP server, as well as sending an email to notify you. There's lots of different packages out there, off the top of my head I can think of Yawcam, but others might be able to suggest something better

Doublespresso

Would you know whether a mobile broadband dongle will be ok for streaming video via the webcam?

fiddiwebb

Doublespresso wrote: »

Would you know whether a mobile broadband dongle will be ok for streaming video via the webcam?

Work out very expensive wouldn't it?

Doublespresso

fiddiwebb wrote: »

Work out very expensive wouldn't it?

Thank you for the useful contribution.
I have no idea what kind of data traffic to expect and whether the data is transferred only when I call up the webcam from a remote PC or if, for example, motion is detected and images are stored on the FTP.

Any help would be appreciated.

Owain_Moneysaver

There's a forum at this suppliers' website:
http://forum.networkwebcams.com/
Worth asking for advice and experience there.

john539

I can recommend Active Webcam by Pysoft.

http://www.pysoft.com/

I use to monitor webcam via internet.
Fully customisable.

I use to record video stills every 10 minutes to my Pc, which I can watch remotely.

Has motion detection & much more.