Streaming webcam on a Windows Server 2003?
February 16, 2010 1:24 PM Subscribe
What easy options are there in terms of software for setting up a simple temporary webcam video/audio feed on a (non-pro) Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard installation?
Every so often my wife and I leave town and leave the cats at home to have the run of the place for a few days. I have a Logitech webcam that I've used a few times to enable myself to check on the cats and make sure the house isn't broken into. In the past I have used Justin.tv to do this; I've just left the client on at home. This works well as far as stream quality goes, and it also streams the audio quite well from the mic embedded into the webcam.
Unfortunately, it's also very unstable. It's never gone more than about 36 hours, and then the stream has been cut off, usually by a browser crash or an unknown issue.
Since I recently switched the OS on my wife's PC to Windows Server 2003 (Standard), I would like, if possible, to stream the video myself, hopefully making the connection more stable. My cable connection has a dynamic IP, but I can get around that with DynDNS or something.
I'm not asking for step-to-step instructions, just perhaps suggestions as to how to go about this most easily...software recommendations would be great.
Basically, I'd like to run a webcam server app on a Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard machine, for purposes of connecting to it over the Internet to watch webcam feed and preferably hear audio via a browser on a Mac client. I would also highly appreciate the ability to administer this webcam server remotely if necessary.
I'm not well versed in all things Windows Server; I can set up a print server or a file server for my own networking needs, but I've never done anything with IIS or any media streaming capabilities Win Server may have out of the box.
I'm open to other ideas as well, it's just that running my own server to do this seemed like the most stable option. I'm sick of the cam going offline in the middle of my trip when there's nothing wrong with the cable connection itself...
Every so often my wife and I leave town and leave the cats at home to have the run of the place for a few days. I have a Logitech webcam that I've used a few times to enable myself to check on the cats and make sure the house isn't broken into. In the past I have used Justin.tv to do this; I've just left the client on at home. This works well as far as stream quality goes, and it also streams the audio quite well from the mic embedded into the webcam.
Unfortunately, it's also very unstable. It's never gone more than about 36 hours, and then the stream has been cut off, usually by a browser crash or an unknown issue.
Since I recently switched the OS on my wife's PC to Windows Server 2003 (Standard), I would like, if possible, to stream the video myself, hopefully making the connection more stable. My cable connection has a dynamic IP, but I can get around that with DynDNS or something.
I'm not asking for step-to-step instructions, just perhaps suggestions as to how to go about this most easily...software recommendations would be great.
Basically, I'd like to run a webcam server app on a Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard machine, for purposes of connecting to it over the Internet to watch webcam feed and preferably hear audio via a browser on a Mac client. I would also highly appreciate the ability to administer this webcam server remotely if necessary.
I'm not well versed in all things Windows Server; I can set up a print server or a file server for my own networking needs, but I've never done anything with IIS or any media streaming capabilities Win Server may have out of the box.
I'm open to other ideas as well, it's just that running my own server to do this seemed like the most stable option. I'm sick of the cam going offline in the middle of my trip when there's nothing wrong with the cable connection itself...
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by nomisxid at 1:36 PM on February 16, 2010 [2 favorites]