Anyone have a "chickencam"?

[michaelvcrowder]

i am waiting for the dns server information to propagate. if i did everything correctly my chicken camera should be up and running by tomorrow. if it works i'll post the link.
michael

 

[Scooter]

Thanks all for the info. We already have a wireless network in the house, but I' not sure if the signal will reach down to the coop. I'll check this weekend.

Hopefully we'll get something set up soon - I'm going to check out cameras this afternoon.

Michael - can't wait to see yours up and running!!

 

[michaelvcrowder]

getting it all configured for webcasting was a real pain. it was easy to get it up and running on the internal network. it is not nearly as easy as the box the camera comes in implies. i just hope after all of the effort and cash i dropped into the project that it works.
michael

 

[Smitty's Farm]

Quote:
Scooter, Oooooh I hope you are able to report back on the camera after you get back from shopping. Please fill us in on brand, price, and stores that carry them.

Thanks!

 

[michaelvcrowder]

i bought three cameras. the first two were made by panasonic. one is wireless and the other is wired. both were easy to hook up and view from within the network but getting them to work outside the network has not happened since i bought them a couple of months ago. the wireless version was 200 bucks and the wired was 100.

yesterday i bought a linksys wireless camera. i have it up and running but it isn't quite as wide of an angle of view as the panasonics. i jumped through the hoops and subscribed to the linksys DDS service so that it can be viewed by anyone via the internet. the camera was 120 bucks and the DDS service is 20 bucks a year. i spent two hours trying to configure ports, IP settings and mac addresses. then i spent an hour with tech support after my efforts got me confused. to get the router to allow traffic to go to the web it took a lot of alterations to the IP settings, gateway mask and even involved some dos programming.

i still don't have the assigned url viewable but it usually takes a day or two for the dns setting to filter down from the servers. i would say that what i went through can be classified as difficult. now that i have been through the hoops the next cam should be easier.
michael

keeping my fingers crossed that it all works.

 

[Smitty's Farm]

Quote:
I'm tech challenged. Oh boy, sounds hard to hook up. Hopefully I can find someone to help me set one up. What kind of computer do you have?

Keep us posted on the progress. It will be so cool once you can view it.

 

[michaelvcrowder]

smitty,
brand of computer is not important. the computer is just used to configure the camera and the router. once you have this done you don't even have to keep the computer running. the camera connects to the router and the router connects to the internet. a reasonable connection speed is going to be required. dsl or cable modem either will be fast enough.
michael

 

[Smitty's Farm]

Quote:
Thanks! We have DSL Wireless with AT&T, so that should work. Now, is there a way to record the viewing or is it all live?

 

[michaelvcrowder]

with my camera setup you can view in real time, you can set the camera to do timer record, or record when it detects motion.
michael

 

[okiechick57]

Quote:
How cute , I could watch all day......but gotta keep up on BYC