How To Convert A Laptop Into A Remote Security Camera System For Free

I’ll begin this one by saying that since this is all free, don’t expect miracles here. But it does work.

For this easy project, this is what you need:

• 1 wireless-capable laptop running Windows XP, Vista or 7
• 1 external USB webcam (as in the type you mount and not built-in to the monitor)

Note on the laptop requirement: A netbook may work as long as you “shim it down”. More on that in a moment.

Plug in the webcam to the laptop and make sure it works. All you need to do is confirm it can get a picture. The best kind of webcams to use are the kind with a manual focus wheel either surrounding the lens or on the side.

Go to www.ispyconnect.com. This is open source security camera software, so don’t be scared off by the name. It’s spyware/malware-free, not to worry.

Install the software. After that, install the server software. Instructions on how to do that are here; it’s easy.

Run the server software. After that, just “add” your camera from the main interface.

Once everything is set up, your security cam is now running, and the address of how to get to the cam will be listed at the bottom of the camera window in the iSpy software.

For example, if your laptop has an IP address assigned by your wireless router of 192.168.0.3, the address where you can load up the camera from other computers on your network would be something like http://192.168.0.3/?camid=0

Again, remember, the address will be plainly listed for any camera you add in.

Does the software support multiple cameras? YES! Add in as many external cams as you want to.

From there, just place the laptop anywhere you want, and mount the camera(s) to point at the places you want to keep an eye on.

Special considerations for older netbooks (and configuring the laptop in general)

Older netbooks from a few years ago are slow. While the iSpy software will work, the server may crash every so often.

This is what you do to make sure the laptop stays running:

• First, disable the screen saver. Instead, configure the screen to turn off on its own after 10 minutes. Just the screen – not the whole computer itself.
• Second, since the laptop will remain plugged in all the time, disable any automatic “sleep” or “hibernation” that would otherwise kick in after a set amount of minutes.
• Third, disable all updates everywhere. Windows updates, software updates, all updates. This laptop is going to act as a security cam server, so there’s no need to update anything on it automatically.
• Fourth, uninstall any program the laptop doesn’t need. This includes all anti-virus/malware/spyware suites.
• Fifth, purpose choose the “classic” Windows theme, which is the lightest least-resource-intensive graphics Windows can use.
• Sixth, no wallpaper. Just a color only.

Anything else you can think of to uninstall or set to blank, do it. Make the laptop run as light as possible. This may take time, but it’s well worth it because when a computer is acting as a server, you absolutely do not need any “fluff” installed.

The best solution is to simply wipe the hard drive and install Windows from scratch, should you happen to have an OS recovery disc. If not, just uninstall everything you can to make the laptop run light, fire up your security cam software and you’re good to go.