Shoutbox

Need Input!
I want to monitor a sick person with cam and audio. I have many pcs hard-wired into network, mostly xp. All pcs have access to internet via cable modem and various routers and switches. All pcs have access to each other.

I want to be able to check in with the sickie from any in-house pc, but do not want their personals broadcast over the internet. The sickroom monitoring needs to be hands-free, once set up for the day. Want two-way conversations, not necessarily two-way cams.

What product is best suited? How secure? can it be restricted to in-house network only?

Does it care what cams/mics are used?

Sure would appreciate INPUT!
thanks
seeker1

My first thoughts are to try a simple method using something like skype [or an open source alternative], I'm pretty sure those can be set up to automatically answer calls from certain users and block other users by default. That should be good enough, but if you're really worried about security and/or redundancy, some services may let you set up and use your own server, and you can block access to that using your firewalls.

You could go for streaming video with access control, but unless you've got a hundred or so patients to look after, the skype-y option seems simpler to me.

EDIT: just wanted to point out that by "set up your own server" I mean run a lil daemon on one of your computers- not dedicate one computer to the job. Just everything would be done in your house, no internet access required.

Thanks for the come-back.

I already have an a/v security cam set up, and it's ideal in quality of pic and sound, and the way it's set up, it requires minimal user intervention.  It's normally hard-wired to a remote tv/monitor, but that room is no longer in use. I was thinking I could put a pc there to get the cam to the network, good because I have pcs everywhere they'd be needed for this. But the software seems to be the issue. (Other locations for monitoring are so spread out that it precludes running wires to all of them.)

Netmeeting first came to mind, but I was afraid there was too much collateral capability involved, and it's gotta be 'appliance' simple. Next I began wondering about messenger, which is why I posted on this board.

My main issue is security. How can I keep the a/v off the internet, or at least invisible to anyone except us? Will messenger do this? If not, do you know of a video-conferencing quickie/freebee that will run as a server on an p2p intranet? (hope I'm phrasing this correctly).

I can't believe this isn't a hot topic. There just ought to be tons of simple stuff out there to place streaming a/v on a home network. I know x10 has some hardware, but it's all wireless, short-range, and   
has environmental issues. Close, but no cigar.

As usual, your comments, thoughts and suggestions are very much welcome and appreciated.

seeker1

You could sort of do it with messenger, however I was thinking you can't set up a messenger server [you can! But I don't know how] and in order to get the webcam feed, it would be the pc with camera attached that needs to send you an invitation to view webcam. I can't, off the top of my head, think of a way to get around this, but I thought some of the more phone-oriented software might allow automatic answering of video calls, no need to have an invitation sent each time.

Messenger will keep the video feed off the public internet, unless you start adding outside people to the account that the camera is connected to. The video may be sent unencrypted to the msn server and back to you, but I doubt MS, the government or your ISP are interested in the security feed of your friend so you're probably ok there.

I'm sure there is plenty of free software to send a video feed over one or more direct links, but I can't think of any names. GNU/Hurd users can set up a camera like that to act like it's local to the viewing computer, and I'm sure you could do the same sort of thing with sockets on any other OS [though that means five to twenty minutes coding and testing- more than I'd bother doing]. Using broadcast streaming software means you've got to cut access to the camera from the outside world somehow, and you said you've got more than one internet connection, so I'd figure it might be tricky.

Still, have you tried googling for free video streaming software?

[makes me think of this]

quote:

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Originally posted by Verte
You could sort of do it with messenger, however I was thinking you can't set up a messenger server [you can! But I don't know how]

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MS Exchange server, and Office Messenger
Bit extreme, and not worth the hassle

Hey!
ya, spent past wk researching the inet... pauperous! pitiful!
Maybe I'm expecting too much, but it just seems like if I can do things on my p2p network like send files back and forth, and run stuff like pcanyhow where I'm actually on one pc but seeing what's on the screen of a remote one, what's it gotta take to get the video being inputted (good word???) to the usb port and make it available on a remote pc? Think about it... all of the ims w/vid do it... only thing is, the part that turns the feed around and directs it back to a diff pc is 'out there' somewhere,; I need that thingie they use to come live at my house, know what I mean?
I can tell this is not going to be a walk in the park... and it dern well OUGHT to be! Thanks MS for not thinking of a way to do it in the os's I've paid so dearly for.
ps Think I read somewhere that most newer browsers 'might' have the capability of offline vid stuff... heard anything like that?
owell, back to the dwg bd.... thx so much, and if you come up with anything, pls post away... I'm on all the time,     s e e k i n g!

seeker1

You could always use messenger, on two accounts that are secret. The patient will need a computer in the room. Messenger Plus! should be installed on this account, and it should be set to allow the other account to have webcam start automatically.

However, you could always simply use ultravnc and simply start the camera viewer program on the pc using that, and view it from there.

I agree, there should be a program to do this more easily, but I personally don't know of one.

However, there's always scripts and such which will broadcast your webcam on the internet. All you'd need to do is run an apache server on one of the computers, and connect to the broadcast feed from the other computers in the house. To make sure nobody else sees it, you can block the http server ports on your router, or you can use .htaccess to require a password to view the webcam.

Just my ideas.

Thanks!
seeker1