Are there any wireless cameras that work outside?

[baxter]

I'm considering buying a camera for security, but I would like to mount it on the outside building. It didn't look like the WIFI cameras could go outside - is there an easy way to do this with a wired webcam ?

[Jay]

We don't own any outdoor Wi-Fi cameras, but I know they exist.  If you do a google search for "outdoor wi-fi camera" or something similar you should find a bunch.  Remember that the camera needs to output MJPEG formatted data in order to work with iCamSource.

Hopefully someone else can give suggestions about outdoor camera models that have worked well for them.

[fred]

I'm considering buying a camera for security, but I would like to mount it on the outside building. It didn't look like the WIFI cameras could go outside - is there an easy way to do this with a wired webcam ?

I use one of these and it works fine outdoors
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Foscam-WiFi-Wireless-Waterproof-IR-Outdoor-IP-Camera-/180518278956?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_CCTV&hash=item2a07ba572c

[icam-c-u]

Hi g0sbv,

You are using a camera which I'm already looking at buying for use with iCamSource/iCam.

But I'm new to all this and learning as I go along.

I was wondering if you could go through the setup and how exactly iCamSource picks up these camera's, I thought they would need to be physically connected to the PC? (as my current webcam)
Do you need to use the software that comes with the camera?

Thanks

[fred]

Hi g0sbv,

You are using a camera which I'm already looking at buying for use with iCamSource/iCam.

But I'm new to all this and learning as I go along.

I was wondering if you could go through the setup and how exactly iCamSource picks up these camera's, I thought they would need to be physically connected to the PC? (as my current webcam)
Do you need to use the software that comes with the camera?

Thanks

Sorry so late in replying as I have been away on holiday..
yes you need to install the software that comes with it and get the camera up and running first with a ethernet connection then switch it over to wifi in the software that way then all you need to do is set the icamsource  to Ethernet/wifi and add in                 http://your camera ip address/pda.cgi?page=image&cam=1&user=name&password=name
its quite simple really
regards
Ricky

[icam-c-u]

Sorry so late in replying as I have been away on holiday..
yes you need to install the software that comes with it and get the camera up and running first with a ethernet connection then switch it over to wifi in the software that way then all you need to do is set the icamsource  to Ethernet/wifi and add in                 http://your camera ip address/pda.cgi?page=image&cam=1&user=name&password=name
its quite simple really
regards
Ricky

Hi Ricky,

It's OK, hope you had a nice holiday, probably on your iCam the whole time 

I've ordered a FOSCAM FI8908W and FI8904W, should be here in the next few days, will try them out and let everyone know how I get on.

Thanks

[fred]

You will need to use the following urls in icamsource..

for FI8904W
http://your ip address/pda.cgi?page=image&cam=1&user=your user name&password=your password


for FI8908W
http://your ip address/snapshot.cgi

Ricky

[icam-c-u]

You will need to use the following urls in icamsource..

for FI8904W
http://your ip address/pda.cgi?page=image&cam=1&user=your user name&password=your password


for FI8908W
http://your ip address/snapshot.cgi

Ricky

Thanks for that Ricky.

Slightly off the iCam topic now and I'm hoping you can help me with this Ricky.

I received my FOSCAM FI8904W today, and it's driving me crazy!! I can't get it to connect wirelessly.

I have followed the instructions but still no luck.

1 - Have installed the software
2 - Connected the Cam to my Livebox wireless ADSL router, with the RJ45
3 - Launched IP Camera Tool, which picked up the IP address of the camera
4 - Double clicked it and it opened in IE, can view the image, so camera working
5 - Clicked on Wireless LAN settings and filled in the details, clicked submit and go a success message
5 - It rebooted, I disconnected from the router and power
6 - Connected back to power, instructions says that the LED will blink after 30 sec, which would indicate wifi mode - Where is this blinking LED? theres the IR LEDs on the cam and a green one on the plug, but nothing flashed.
7 - Tried to connect in IE but page can't be found! - on wireless mode, do you still see IP address on IP Camera Tool?

And how do you update the firmware, when you click it, it starts looking for something on my PC???

UPNP enabled on router and Camera.

So I'm not quite at the iCamSource stage yet, am I missing something?

Really appreciate your help.

Thanks

[icam-c-u]

Resolved it, I was using WPA when I should have been using WEP, that's why it wasn't connecting to the wireless.
Now I can access over the Internet.

I got it to work on iCamSource first time too.

I tested it all on my laptop, i set up iCamSource with the built in webcam and the IP cam.
I have to admit the IP cam is really really slow over 3G, refreshes about every 15 seconds, you can get a bit of distance with 15 seconds but if record is on, it will get you even if you walk past the camera & it doesn't pick you up.

[Stefan]

icam-c-u - With regards to the slow frame rate, are you using the MJPEG or JPEG radio button in the iCamSource?

[icam-c-u]

icam-c-u - With regards to the slow frame rate, are you using the MJPEG or JPEG radio button in the iCamSource?

Hi Stefan, I'm using MJPEG & a link associated with that generated using your support page.

Thanks

[Xenophon]

Hi,

I live in Europe, Belgium.
It happens that I have just bought myself a heavy duty all weather surveillance wifi camera.
The make is ELRO, model C901IP.

See www.elro.eu

I've tested it with Icam, it works fine.

[Stefan]

icam-c-u - I actually also just recently purchased a FI8904W ... I'm not really sure how well I like it, though. It wouldn't connect to a WiFi network that had a hidden SSID (one thing that was annoying) and it seems to cause problems with another one of my AirLink cameras when I connect via iCam ... I think all of my WiFi devices are starting to interfere with each other or something.

Is the frame rate with iCam over local WiFi "normal" as opposed to the one frame every 15 seconds over 3G?

I'm actually using the following MJPEG URL with it: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/video.cgi

(Actually using http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/video.cgi?rate=14 to stream at 2 fps ...) I found out about the "rate" parameter here: http://www.gadgetvictims.com/2010/05/new-firmware-for-foscam-cameras.html

[icam-c-u]

Hi Stefan,

To be honest I'm not getting blown away with this camera either.
I've just realised I can't acually connect to it from outside of my network.

Firstly your comments...
Over wifi, it's pretty much normal, may be about 1 second delay.
I'm also using http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/video.cgi too.
I will try the rate parameter when I get home.

I downloaded an app called Foscam Surveillance by Maurice de Bijl, just to test the camera directly, I noticed that it works on wifi but not over 3G (at home).
After I got iCamSource running, I tried it on wifi and 3G and it worked (at home), so I assumed there was an problem with the Foscam app, as I cam see the IP cam on iCam over 3G.

I came to my sisters house and tried to connect to my IP camera on her computer and it says page cannot be displayed.
So I realised thats probably why it's not working on the Foscam app over 3G.

But iCam picked up the USB cam and IP cam while connected to her wifi and then over 3G, but it was intermittent, very intermittent with the IP cam and the delay is even greater, the USB cam works perfectly.

I have port forwarded the IP cam IP using TCP port 9001 but looks like that hasn't helped.

Can you connect to your Foscam away from it's connected network?
I think I need to resolve this first before moving on to iCamSource, really annoying!!!

I know it's off iCam topic but please I need your help.

(One other thing I don't know if everyone has this issue when posting on this forum but text box keeps going up and down as I'm typing, so as I'm typing it scrolls to the top, I can keep typing but can't see what I'm typing and have to keep scrolling down in the text box)

Thanks again.

[Stefan]

Can you connect to your Foscam away from it's connected network?
I think I need to resolve this first before moving on to iCamSource, really annoying!!!

I'm not sure ... I haven't even tried doing that. (I just use iCam to view everything.)

It is somewhat odd that connecting via iCam from 3G would be different to the Foscam than the USB camera, since you are still connecting iCam to the iCamSource that is connecting to the camera over your local network.

Perhaps decreasing the frame rate will give you better results ... A higher fps from a network IP cam can greatly increase the % CPU used by the iCamSource, which may in turn cause a general degradation in performance.