Setting up a webcam or 2

Setting up a webcam or 2

Posted by: HolyRoller
Posted on: 2003-06-24 22:01:00

I would love to set up a webcam or two for weather monitoring. Does DreamHost support this as long as its within the bandwidth?

Any guestimates on what the bandwidth would be? Is it based on if anyone is viewing it or just the cam itself running?

Paula (aka HolyRoller)

Where are we going and why are we in this basket?
mine - http://holyroller.org
dog's - http://joella.holyroller.org

Re: Setting up a webcam or 2

Posted by: will
Posted on: 2003-06-24 22:25:00

Viewing a webcam is generally just a normal HTTP request, so the bandwidth would be calculated in the same manner as with any other image on your site. The actual amount of bandwidth would completely depend on how often the image is refreshing, the size of the image, and the number of viewers. If you have an idea of these variables, you could calculate some estimates.

Re: Setting up a webcam or 2

Posted by: Atropos7
Posted on: 2003-06-25 01:52:00

In reply to:

The actual amount of bandwidth would completely depend on how often the image is refreshing, the size of the image, and the number of viewers. If you have an idea of these variables, you could calculate some estimates.


I found out from experience that browsers seem to ignore checking the cache if you use the HTTP Refresh header. So if you use that method, you definitely don't want to set to have it refresh more frequently than necessary.


Re: Setting up a webcam or 2

Posted by: ardco
Posted on: 2003-06-25 18:56:00

As usual, there's more than one way (and more than one price). I like the looks of the streaming Axis Network Cameras like this one (may need a plugin). You can also have the local webcam software act as a server, rather than pushing all the images through your web host.

For weather pictures, it seems like uploading 1-4 images per hour might be good, and depending on size and quality, they might only be 10-50 KB, so maybe 150 Megabytes per month uploading. If you set up something to only upload on demand, then it could be much less. Obviously downloads depends on how many views the page gets.

Cheers,

Bob S.

Re: Setting up a webcam or 2

Posted by: will
Posted on: 2003-06-25 19:45:00

> I like the looks of the streaming Axis Network Cameras like this one (may need a plugin).

We have a couple of these in our cage. They work pretty well - but need to be powercycled every once in a while.

There was also a recent security hole in these, so make sure the software is up-to-date if you get one.

Re: Setting up a webcam or 2

Posted by: ardco
Posted on: 2003-06-25 19:52:00

>They work pretty well - but need to be powercycled every once in a while.

>There was also a recent security hole in these

Sounds like Windoz/PC, and most software. :-)

Cheers,

Bob S.

Re: Setting up a webcam or 2

Posted by: wil
Posted on: 2003-06-26 02:29:00

Yeah, that security hole was a classic. It allowed anyone to root the webcamera, really, and to be honest, who actually bothers to upgrade their webcamera software? Well, not a lot apparently as there are still hundreds of Axis camera connected to the web running the unpatched software. Just make a search for the version number of the insecure version, not linked or mentioned here for obvious reasons...

- wil

Re: Setting up a webcam or 2

Posted by: inhiding
Posted on: 2003-07-01 20:59:00

Incase you are still looking for a program to upload the images, I use VisionGS (http://www.visiongs.com/) which works fine with my DH account.

Re: Setting up a webcam or 2

Posted by: ardco
Posted on: 2003-07-21 13:57:00

will,

Any chance you know of a way to capture a snapshot (jpg?) from an Axis camera?

BTW, the one I linked has been having troubles lately...

BobS

Re: Setting up a webcam or 2

Posted by: will
Posted on: 2003-07-21 14:46:00

I am not sure how to access ours currently, but I think you can just right-click on the image and either save the file, or copy the link location and use wget...

It's been a while, though.

Re: Setting up a webcam or 2

Posted by: ardco
Posted on: 2003-07-21 15:12:00

Neither works for me. Kinda funny, though, wget or right-click save just keeps saving, and saving, and saving...

wget gives "Length: unspecified [multipart/x-mixed-replace]"

There must be a way. :>

BobS

Re: Setting up a webcam or 2

Posted by: HolyRoller
Posted on: 2003-11-03 18:50:00

Many thanks y'all for your advice!

From what I understand, with webcams you get what you pay for.

I am an amateur radio licensee and want to get into the APRS and the weather nets. A webcam is an excellent add-on to both of them.

I considered building one (buy the board with 'eye', caseing, and misc) but have decided to purchase one instead. Tech support is excellent as long as it is not me!

Paula (aka HolyRoller)

Where are we going and why are we in this basket?
mine - http://holyroller.org
dog's - http://joella.holyroller.org

Re: Setting up a webcam or 2

Posted by: mygsx
Posted on: 2004-03-19 12:34:00

i like the idea of showing pictures from a webcamera online - the only problem is, I would like to do it at parties, just that there wont' be a network connection to upload them online.

Tags: bandwidthwebcamorgdreamhostdogrunningweatherlovehttp