Utilities for Windows
Inte PC Deluxe Camera USB, Click on Image to Buy
Setting up a Netcam
I recently purchased an Intel Deluxe PC Camera USB, very smooth setup, a couple of programs froze, but after the usual patch updates they went away. I had heard that they can be a little frustrating to set up so I was surprised I had very few problems, I can't say this holds true to all Netcams, my daughter bought one and I have been helping her work out some bugs, her is not an Intel. If you are thinking of buying a PC Camera, decide on what type you need to buy. Check in the back of your Computer to see if you have a USB port, looks like a big Phone jack. My Packard Bell has USB Ports, it was made in 1997, but I do not believe I can actually use them. USB wasn't really out then, it also had Infrared which messed up everything I tried to install in that Computer, had to wipe it off the Computer.So that said, check to make sure the Port is activated in the Device Manager and Enabled in the Bios. You can find info on these under Computer Help-Trouble-Tips-Tools
Installation USB ( Universal Serial Bus )
- Make sure your USB port is working and Enabled in the Bios. Check in the Device Manager for your USB port and check its properties.
- I then installed their software, this includes Drivers and applications.
- Next I plugged in the Camera, into the USB Port, it recognized it and asked for the Windows98 CD to install new USB Drivers and whatever else.
- Next I Registered the Camera so I could get any Updates.
- Next I started to Play! This is fun stuff, I can snap still pictures or Videos and automatically email them to a friend or relative. Just turn it on and watch yourself and everyone in the room if you want, you can have it take auto, timed pictures and save them, good if you want to see what the dog did all day. Make a slide show, I'll be using it for taking pictures for my Web Site and a Live Webcam, that's next.
- Actually before I played I went into the Options ( Preferences in others ) in the Software and got that all set up the way I wonted. This Software was very user friendly and has a good Help Section.
- Next I installed Windows NetMeeting , installation went fine, this comes with Windows, but you should get the Latest version 3.01 from Windows Update. After you Register and if you chose to, you are put into their directory, that way people can contact you by typing in your name or email address. My Daughter and I have not been able to connect yet, I think she filled out the registration but wasn't,t connected to the Internet, so she does not show up yet. With NetMeeting you can do Video Conferencing, chat and use a shared White Board, like a caulk board. Pretty Cool Stuff.
- I'm on a Cable modem so I get really good frame rates and picture quality, my daughter is on a phone modem and actually she looks just about as good, but you really can't send info as fast as with the Cable, that goes for sound to.
- There's some still pictures I took, one of me and one of Chewie( my dog ) and me, in the Cool Photo Album, under Fun Stuff.
Live Web cam Setup
- This ended up being a pain.... I downloaded a Free Program called SpyCam and it works perfectly, but, I have to get it open on my desk top in order for it to upload pictures to Server. No the Driver update for this Software did not correct that problem.
- So then I check out the Software that came with the Camera, low and behold it had a program to upload pictures to the Web Site or Server, called Auto Snapshot. Works like a charm even has a Program called Home Builder, which made a Webcam page for me and even uploaded that to the Server. All was going good got the page on the site, was uploading pictures to the folder on the Server, but!! I had it set to take a picture every 30 sec and then upload it to the Server and I had the code in the web page set, to refresh the picture every 30 sec. but!! it wasn't refreshing the picture, the time stamp, but not the picture??? If I emptied my Cache it would change the picture. Well what is going on here!! Internet Explorer is refreshing the last picture it saved to it's Cache files, that means you have to tell IE or whatever Browser Hey! browser do not save these pictures, cause a new one is coming in 30 sec and I want to see that one not the old one. So 3 hours Later and 15 different Web Sites including on at Microsoft addressing this very problem, I came to the conclusion there are no Tags that will do this, cause I tried them all and they do not work.... Next are some of them. Link to Microsoft Article
HTML Tags
- This is the one and only got to be this way solve the problem tag or at least one of them, this Tag thing got to be rather frustrating, OK the Tags.
- <HEAD>
- <META EQUIV="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache">
- </HEAD>
- You are also suppose to put this right after the </BODY> Tag and before the </HTML> Tag.
or this is suppose to be even better
- <HEAD>
- <META EQUIV="Expires" CONTENT="-1">
- </HEAD>
- This is suppose to tell the Browser to Cache the file but mark it as Expired, so the new info can be displayed in this case a picture. There were more I tried and they did not work either, but!!!!! There was a way ( :
In comes the Java Applet
- Refresher: the pictures are getting uploaded to the Server, but the HTML Coded Page with the TAGS isn't updating the pictures and with the Software from Intel I can close the application to the System Tray and it still takes pictures and uploads them. Cool!!
- So, what you do is create your own Webcam page and download a Java Applet and drop the .class file in the same folder( I named my folder webcam, creative hey!) as your page, then add a line of Java Code into your page where you want the picture to show, change the reference to the .jpg, it came as image.jpg I changed it to Autopic.jpg, cause that is what I had the Intel Software name it, set the Value="30" for the time, I set mine to 30 sec, with a Cable Modem I can set it low or to 0 cause I'm online all the time, with a Phone Modem? every 15 minutes or 900 sec maybe.
- This setup works like a charm ( : Here is a link to the Free Java Applet I used. buywebcam.com
- Also you will need your IP Address or maybe it is ftpmikes.com, the directory where your pages are , like public/webcam ( folder) I created a special folder for everything to be put in,( like the html page,.class file, any image files), or it could be www/some name, if you do it this way you will need to chmod the folder 755.
- Read your Help Files that came with your Software and go to the Web Site and check their Faqs Page if you have any questions or problems, this applies to any Software or Email me and I will try and help you figure it out and or find some information that will help.
- Here is a Free Slide Show Program to view the Snap Shots or any Pictures you have. Unzip the file the paste your Pictures into the folder, next double click the PicView.exe icon to start the program. PicView Download