With the availability of faster internet connection through numerous service providers offering broadband connections, monitoring your business is becoming as easy as ever. One option that a particular shop owner have is installing an IP Camera and monitoring the events of their shop from their pc wherever they are. Let me talk about that in detail.

Web Camera versus Internet Camera

First, let's distinguish what a web cam is and how it is different from an Internet Camera.  The main difference between a web cam and an Internet camera is that a web cam needs a computer to operate and send images or videos to anyone. While an internet camera do not necessarily needs a computer to function (although you definitely need one to configure it first). Also, an Internet Camera directly connects to the internet via your network's switch. It is treated as part of your network and acquires its own IP Address. As long as your network switch/hub is powered, you can access your camera via the internet. This is not the case with the web cam as it rely solely on your PC. If your PC is off, your web cam is off.

Advantages of IP Cameras

Using an IP camera installed in strategic location within a shop, a business owner can:

• Monitor live events real time
• Record video of events happening in the shop
• Take snapshots or pictures of your shop anytime
• Video and picture recording can be triggered by pre-defined events (i.e., time set, motion sensor, etc).

With the above mention capabilities, you would conclude its bottom line advantage: SECURITY. Plus the fact, that your employees have this knowledge that you maybe watching them anytime.

The Requirements

So how do you get about installing an IP Camera for your shop? Let's run down a list of must haves first:

1. Internet Connection. Well this is a must have! Also, you need not just an connection with the internet, you have to request your Internet Service Provider for a Static IP Address to be given to you.  You see every time you connect to the internet your computer or network is assigned an IP Address. If you are given a Dynamic IP this means your IP Address changes every time you connect to the internet. What you need to have is a Static IP address so that you can assign a permanent IP Address to your Internet Camera.
2. An Internet Camera. The IP camera I used was an Edimax IP Camera Model IC-1500. It’s a pretty decent camera. Aside from the fact that you can view the camera remotely via streaming video anywhere through Internet Explorer, it has the following features:
   • It supports Motion JPEG Images Compression
   • Supports Motion Detection and sends the snapshot of events
   • Records Video Clips on a Predetermined Schedule
3. At least one PC to configure your Internet Camera
4. A broadband router or switch. For my previous project I used a DLINK 4-port router.
5. CAT5 Cables (used to connect your Internet Camera to the switch)

The Installation

Setting up the Internet Camera is pretty much straight forward.

1. Always, before starting anything, read the product manual of your camera and router
2. Connect the router to your DSL modem
3. Connect the PC to the router
4. Install the camera in the most strategic place (Note: the camera I got needs an external power source so you may want to plan ahead regarding where to plug it. Some cameras have “Power over Ethernet” features. This is cool feature since the camera is powered by the same cable connection you used to connect it to your network).
5. Install the camera software in your computer.
6. Access the web page of your broadband router (normally, its http://192.168.0.1) via your web browser.
7. In your router web page, forward the ports of your IP camera (typically its 80 for the web port and 4321 for the video port).
8. Run the camera software and if there are no other problems then you’re done!

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