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Ethernet-Based Security Cameras?
detritus asks: "I own a few acres of woods and am wondering if there is some sort of camera that can be networked via ethernet instead of the standard video connectors? Preferably, a telnet interface and the ability to control and transmit live feeds/snapshots to a remote server on a LAN/WAN would be awesome. I am looking to mount them in specific areas on my property and running 10Base2 (BNC), repeaters and power to each camera, and then be able to remotely manage the cameras from the comfort of my computer. It evidently would have to be weatherproof. Any ideas on where one could find something like this?" For anyone looking for something like this, you might want to check out Axis.Com. Is there anyone out there who can comment on the performance of such devices?
When my parents opened a daycare here in Edmonton earlier this year, one of my jobs was to get a web camera system set up. After looking at all the options, I eventually turned to Ask Slashdot myself, and the overwhelming response was to go with the Axis system. We've been highly pleased with it, thus far. We picked up two Axis Camera Server 240's, which connect to our LAN via normal ethernet, and each can take coax input from four seperate video cameras (we use normal CCTV cameras with auto-irus lenses). These badboys have their own webserver built in, which you use for configuring the device, as well as viewing images (the java push one is particularly cool). Since we're running so many cameras and serving to multiple people, we didn't want to have people directly hitting the camera servers, so we use the Eye_get script they make available on their webpage (its for Linux, but works just dandy on FreeBSD) which I have set up to grab images every 5 seconds. Basically, for the last 7 months, every 5 seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 8 images are downloaded to a SCSI disk on our FreeBSD webserver and made available to the web (password protected, of course). That's pretty damned reliable if you ask me =) We haven't had a single hiccup during that time frame, and we're planning on adding another camera server (along with another SCSI disk to reduce the load on an individual disc) in the near future. I give them my wholehearted reccomendation. Now, it seems to me you want a self contained unit, not a server + cameras, and they do sell one of those ... can't recall its exact model name, but its the same deal, an integrated camera and webserver with an ethernet port. If you've got any other questions, feel free to drop me an e-mail.