Can someone help me set up a webcam?
0I have the basics down. I’ve had a webcam for years and the Foscam died earlier this month and we got a brand spanking new one. I have a laptop dedicated to running the weather page. I don’t use it for anything else and it’s on 24/7.
Brian set it up this past weekend (he’ll be moving it to a different location, we don’t like the trees in the way).
I have an image being sent to my website every thirty seconds (we have a ton of data available with our ISP). I’m using Blue Iris.
But I want to have some streaming done. Back when dinosaurs roamed the internet, I used a program called webcam32 for both the ftp and the streaming (I still have the “live video” link on the main page. But technology got better and the old ways died and are just a memory.)
So, I did some research and signed up for ispyconnect. They have a tool that you can embed your streaming video in your website (if you pay). Which is what I want to do.
The problem is, I can’t connect. There are two stages. I’m seeing the camera on the software downloaded to my computer, but can’t get their internet site to connect to the camera.
I’m at this page and I’m fucking lost. The port forwarding page on my router has multiple service options. ftp, http, IP phone, telnet…etc.
The address of the actual camera is not the same that their wizard is showing (camera is .147, wizard is .141, wtf?)
So, is someone interested in helping me figure out where I’m going wrong?
Here’s the website where the pictures are being uploaded: weather.lisaviolet.com
Thanks.
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In terms of port forwarding, you’ll want HTTP or any option which lets you specify the port. HTTP might be 80, but you want 8080 so double check that. It’s possible the wizard wants you to forward to your computer rather than directly to the camera so whatever web service can interact with the software you installed. I don’t know much about webcams but I’ve setup a few servers in my day. Hope it helps.
@doctorow is in line with what I understand. From my quick read through it looks like the software connects from your pc to the webcam, which you should already have working. The port forwarding is from the world to your pc (the laptop running the software). There is probably an option to create a service. You can call it http8080. The source port and destination port (or inside and outside port) will each be 8080 and the destination ip address will be the internal ip of your laptop (.141).
@doctorow, @dsljack
Thank you. That will give me something to go on.
Alright, just set it up. I’m only seeing port 80, not 8080. I can have custom settings, in that I have more options and should be able to set the port number.
Which door should I choose, Monty? Or should I just stay with the default 80?
TCP/UDP
TCP
UDP
@lisaviolet tcp 8080. Custom settings sounds like you are getting to the right place.
You could change the software to use port 80 but many isps block port 80.
@djslack I changed it, now something is blocking it. I’m turning off my virus software on that computer to see if it helps.
@lisaviolet check that windows firewall is allowing port 8080 (or if your antivirus is providing a firewall, check that too). It’s a valid troubleshooting technique but I wouldn’t keep your antivirus off long term, especially on a computer you’re exposing to the internet. Even though it’s just that one port, you never know.
You can test from another computer in your home by trying to go to http://xxx.xxx.xxx.141:8080 - if you can connect, it’s your router or your isp blocking. If you can’t, it’s that laptop’s firewall.
My ISP is blocking port 8080. I called them. The tech was really surprised about this. He had no idea.
I told him that I’d checked it out online before calling.
le sigh. Color me bummed.
@lisaviolet so that’s no problem!
Use port 8081. Or port 31337. Or port 7154 (LISA-ish).
On your router, change the custom service outside port to 8081. Leave the inside port to 8080.
Voila! Now whatever goes to your public ip port 8081 will get what your laptop is serving up on 8080.
@lisaviolet
They might be blocking anything not secure (TLS encrypted). That would require a certificate on your server and you would use https instead of http. The default port for https is 443 (instead of 80 for http). You can move it to some other port as well, like 8443 (but check if that other port is not already reserved by IANA for something else).
Ask them what ports do they allow if they’re blocking outside connections to your computer. They may be doing that as a simple blanket security measure, since people don’t typically host services. It is also a trigger for talking “commercial” service rates if you want to host content, not consume it like good sheeple.
Any reason you don’t stream directly from Blue Iris to, say, Youtube live (or some other service), and then embed it on your site? Over the spring I did this with a phone in a chicken coop, streaming to Blue Iris, which then kicked it to YouTube and it worked reasonably well, when the phones wifi stayed up. Just a thought.
@smigit2002
Maybe it’s because what she’s hosting on her private OnlyFans site would violate YouTube’s TOS?
@smigit2002 Good point. And this is what the guy from ispy said last night.
They have two processes for streaming, Ispy and Agent DVR, Ispy isn’t going to work for me, but the other probably will. I was concerned about the CPU usage, but after some discussion, he said it won’t be a problem, this version uses less computer resources than the original.
Anyway, this version does use YouTube to stream to the website.
https://www.ispyconnect.com/userguide-agent-embedding.aspx
Now, gonna try setting up YouTube streaming…
@mike808 @smigit2002 Dork (for Mike).
Not me. You won’t see a stream of “old fatty wrinkled women I’d like to fuck” coming from my house.
More like our backyard. weather.lisaviolet.com
@lisaviolet @mike808 @smigit2002 I think I may have seen a cat this morning, which is pretty much all I was hoping for. It looks like a pretty neighborhood.
Have you tried using OBS software? It’s pretty popular among streamers. It is Open Source and completely free, full-featured, actively developed, and community support.
It might have integration capabilities to do exactly what you want.