You should be able to the motion events folders in the Finder by going to Macintosh HD/Users/<your_username>/Dropbox/
Dropbox is just syncing with a folder on your computer, so anything that shows up in Dropbox should also be viewable with the Finder on that computer.
Do you mean a preview window that just shows video from the webcam and doesn't show any of the settings? I can add that to our list of potential features to add to iCam in the future.
The CPU usage depends on several things. If any of the cameras are IP cameras, then the camera settings, such as the resolution and the framerate could effect the CPU usage of iCamSource. Also, the motion detection processing settings in iCamSource will effect the CPU usage.
What is the Brand/Model of your webcam(s)?
Is your computer connected to the router directly with an ethernet cable or through Wi-Fi?
Does disabling Motion Detection in iCamSource have any effect on the problem?
Regarding the Change button, when you click it, it should open a folder selection window. If you select the Dropbox folder (usually /Users/<your_username>/Dropbox), then iCamSource will store Motion Event images in the Dropbox folder. Moving the folder by dragging it won't do anything because iCamSource will just create a new folder in the default location.
Just to clarify, you're seeing fluid frames for 1/2 second, then it pauses for a second, then is fluid for 1/2 second, over and over. Is that correct?
Do you see this same behavior if you connect your phone to a remote Wi-Fi network? Approximately what framerate do you see when the phone is connected to a remote network?
The encoding software that we've seen the problem with before was ffdshow and calibratedQ XD Decode, but there are probably other similar products that do the same thing.
We haven't seen the behavior you're describing in our own testing. There have been a few other users that have seen jerky images on the local Wi-Fi network, but so far, they've all appeared to be associated with 1) CPU speed, 2) available bandwidth, 3) Third Party image encoding software, and 4) jailbroken phones. The vast majority of users with jailbroken phones don't experience this, so it's not just the fact that the phone is jailbroken. There might be some jailbroken software that has some effect on the network or image decoding functionality.
We just change the Motion Event folder in iCamSource so that it points to the Dropbox folder. We don't use the alias method.
When you say "hash" file, are you referring to the folder with the long name (hash) or are you referring to the actual jpg files? The folder with the long folder name should contain other folders and shouldn't be renamed. If you do rename it, iCamSource will just create another folder with the long folder name.
If you're trying to open the .jpg files in Safari and they're opening in TextEdit, trying right-clicking on the link and selecting "Download File".
Unfortunately, there isn't any list where you can see what image encoding software you have installed (not that I know of anyway).
I'm not sure what is causing the behavior you're seeing, which is why I'm asking about the image encoding and the jailbreak. Those are both things that have caused framerate issues in the past. Unfortunately, the bandwidth usage by itself doesn't indicate what the cause is, so we need more info to narrow it down.
You said that it freezes for about a second. How often does that occur?
You may be right about the image encoding, but I'm not sure that a program like Yawcam would even be encoding any images. iCamSource resizes the images before they're sent to the phone, which is why it needs to use the image encoding functionality included in Windows. Sometimes, third-party software hijacks the image encoding functionality from the operating system. We have seen a few instances in the past where third-party image encoding caused issues similar to this.
Also, do you have access to an iPhone/iPod/iPad that isn't jailbroken? If you were able to test with a non-jailbroken device, that would rule out jailbroken software as a possible cause.
Was iCamSource always crashing on the work computers, or did that just start happening?
Do you have an Airlink camera at home, or just the two at work?
Is iCamSource crashing on both work computers?
Is the MJPEG checkbox checked in iCamSource? If so, try selecting JPEG instead. It's possible the MJPEG stream is getting corrupted somehow, and JPEG mode doesn't use a stream.
When you say it freezes, do you mean it locks up, or is it just jerky?
What are the specs of your computer (CPU, RAM, etc.)? It's possible that resizing to the larger fullscreen image is requiring more processing.
We have seen cases in the past where the framerate was slowed by third party software that had hijacked the JPEG encoding functions from the operating system. Do you have any sort of image or video encoding software installed on your computer? The encoding software that we've seen the problem with before was ffdshow and calibratedQ XD Decode, but there are probably other similar products that do the same thing.
The 3G bandwidth limitation was imposed by Apple. They never communicated the reason for it.
Does the video appear slow in iCamSource on the computer as well? The framerate in iCamSource is determined by the camera.
On local Wi-Fi, you should see a few frames per second. On a remote Wi-Fi hot spot, you should see about a frame per second. On 3G, Apple requires us to keep the framerate less than 1 frame every 2 seconds (0.5 fps). This has been the limit since iCam was first released. On EDGE, you'll probably see about one frame every 5 seconds or so, or as low as 1 frame every 10 seconds if you have a poor EDGE signal.
If the framerate you're seeing is significantly lower than that, please let me know what framerate you are seeing and what connection type you're using.
I'd like some clarification about your setup. How many cameras do you have at work? How many cameras do you have at hoome? What Brand/Model is each camera? Which cameras are working correctly, and which ones aren't?
Also, how is your phone connected to the internet (when you see these errors)? Do you see these errors when your phone is connected to 3G or Wi-Fi. You mentioned Clearwire before, please describe how you're connected to that.
iCamSource requires an MJPEG URL for each IP camera it displays. If your video server has a unique URL for each camera, then you would be able to access each one in iCamSource.
From searching around, it looks like Axis video servers (some of them, at least), can use an argument in the URL for the camera, like this : "http://<Camera_Address>/axis-cgi/mjpg/video.cgi?resolution=320x240&camera=1"
If your video server supports that argument, you should be able to enter different values for the "camera" variable to access different cameras
That Dual NAT error message indicates that there are two routers on your local network. It's possible that you have a router that is connected to a modem that has an integrated router. iCamSource is able to auto-configure the router that it's connected to, but the other router is still blocking the traffic. The solution is to put one of the devices into Bridge Mode (turn off the routing functionality).
If you have a second router on the office network, what is the Brand/Model of that router? What is the Brand/Model of your DSL/cable modem (at the office)?
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