Well, that would definitely help with the airtime issue. But if the thief steals the machine the images are saved on, you're worse off than you were before (because you've now lost your hardware in addition to whatever you would have lost otherwise and have gained nothing from the loss).
I'd assume that the phone would be for connectivity for the webcam. Doesn't that make a little more sense to you?
The biggest problem with such an arrangement is that the airtime costs would end up being astronomical. Even top of the line plans with most carriers don't include nearly enough minutes for 24/7 connectivity. And the overage adds up quickly.
A Ricochet, as suggested in another post, is a decent idea, but this doesn't sound like the kind of area in which there would be coverage. If you have property line of site with the monitored location, you could possibly do your own wireless network of some sort...
Their real fees are now $75-80 a month for the 128k service. That's why I won't use it anymore. I used to have Ricochet service when it was about $20 or $30 a month. That's reasonable. But I let it lapse, and they're not allowing any new subscribers with the old modems and rates (current subscribers are grandfathered in). So my modem is useless and I'd have to pay almost quadruple what I was paying before per month. I don't think it's worth it.
I dunno. Many months ago I created a Hotmail account with a completely random 12 character log account name. I check it every couple of weeks. I've sent mail to it occasionally. But it has never, ever recieved a piece of spam. Ever.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes. That would break a lot of stuff.
Well, that would definitely help with the airtime issue. But if the thief steals the machine the images are saved on, you're worse off than you were before (because you've now lost your hardware in addition to whatever you would have lost otherwise and have gained nothing from the loss).
I'd assume that the phone would be for connectivity for the webcam. Doesn't that make a little more sense to you?
The biggest problem with such an arrangement is that the airtime costs would end up being astronomical. Even top of the line plans with most carriers don't include nearly enough minutes for 24/7 connectivity. And the overage adds up quickly.
A Ricochet, as suggested in another post, is a decent idea, but this doesn't sound like the kind of area in which there would be coverage. If you have property line of site with the monitored location, you could possibly do your own wireless network of some sort...
Their real fees are now $75-80 a month for the 128k service. That's why I won't use it anymore. I used to have Ricochet service when it was about $20 or $30 a month. That's reasonable. But I let it lapse, and they're not allowing any new subscribers with the old modems and rates (current subscribers are grandfathered in). So my modem is useless and I'd have to pay almost quadruple what I was paying before per month. I don't think it's worth it.
I dunno. Many months ago I created a Hotmail account with a completely random 12 character log account name. I check it every couple of weeks. I've sent mail to it occasionally. But it has never, ever recieved a piece of spam. Ever.
Indeed. Much better support than Linux has, in fact.