VistaCam - What's it all about?
A camera connected to the internet, known as IP-camera or sometimes webcam (not to be confused with USB-webcam!), usually comes with software to view the camera image
which requires Microsoft (R) Windows (R) operating system. No one camera manufacturer today would supply software for OS/2 or eCS.
VistaCam is intended to fill this gap. VistaCam is a native OS/2-program which runs under all
versions of OS/2 since version 3.0.
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A sample image: click to enlarge |
VistaCam provides most of the services which a user may need to make use of his camera, as to mention:
- Show the current image from the camera
- Adjust brightness / contrast
- Move camera to pre-set positions
of course, presumed that the actual camera support these features.
VistaCam - How to use:
Before you can use the program you must define the remote location where the camera is installed.
Defining the camera-location means: you give it a name, e.g. "MyBackyard", if the camera is installed to monitor
the garden behind your house, or "Office", if you have installed an IP-camera in your office, or any name, wherever you may have
an IP-camera installed.
Then you must specify the type of camera which is installed at that place. This is done by selecting the camera from a
list of predefined camera-models. At the time being there are three camera models supplied: Allnet2282, INSTAR-2905, HAMA-WLAN-IP-Camera.
Note:
If your camera is not in the list then you may define your own camera-model,
but that may incur some problems: You need to know
the CGI-specifications from the manufacturer. If you are in possession of such information you may send it to me and I can define
your camera-model. If there is no CGI-specification and your camera model does not happen to be of the same type
as one of the spplied ones, than you can not use VistaCam.
Next you specify the internet-address by which you access the camera. This is typically a subdomain provided by DynDNS-hosters
such as DynDNS.org or - in case the camera is connected within your intranet - the address is of the form 192.168.1.nnn or alike.
In addition to the IP-address (or domain) you must specify the port-number, which is by default :80, but in most cases must be set to
another number, required by the router, to which the camera is connected.
Don't forget to specify a port-forwarding-rule in the router!
Next you may have to specify a name and a password for a login to the camera. You may skip this step if your camera ist not
protected by a login (which is not recommended!).
Finally - in case your camera has pan-/tilt-capability - you may define some preset positions for the camera-lens. This has to be done in
accordance with the definition in the camera's setup.
Now that you have defined a location you may start viewing at what the camera sees: Just click on "Get Image" and you're done!
Enjoy!