Later on this week a few people are getting together at a local part to put together our first local ARES node net. I have a laptop and a usb webcam. So here are my questions for any and all.

1> what software do you run for USB webcams [not ipcams] to allow other nodes/people access? [still shots or live stream?]

2> How did you add a link to the server services so that it's clickable for some one else at another location?  Did you make a home portal web page and point them to a new IP:port address? Did you change the mesh code to have a link in services?

3> Do you have a demo showing your node/webcam up online? Like youtube or your own site?

Thanks.

J.

EDIT: i'm not using version 1.0 as most people who are bringing nodes have not reflashed them yet. But i'm using 0.4.3

So i have my nodes named "ke7rip-node-1" and -2. I have 2 laptops and 2 mesh nodes. sitting on my desk. Nodes flashed with 1.0 and installed with the default settings. Only changes i have made have been the nodes name and password. Windows xp on both laptops. First laptop and ke7rip-node-1 have a web server on it. IP address of 10.203.36.67 The second laptop has ke7rip-node-2 and a browser trying to reach node-1's webserver on the laptop.

ISSUE: I click the link i made under Setup>Port forwarding and i get an error.

DHCP Address Reservations: no setup

Advertised Servers

Name Link URL

KE7RIP-webserver-1 X :// ke7rip-node-1 : 80 / home.asp [del]

Port Forwarding Interface

Type Port Lan IP                Lan port

WAN TCP 80 10.203.36.67 80 [DEL]

So i click the web link on the Mesh Status page I get the error.

ERROR MESSAGE:

The webpage is not available

       [reload] [more]

I type in the IP address i see the web page. The link takes me to the http://ke7rip-node-1/ I've tried changing the port # to 8080 for the outside port, I've tried using Localnode under Lan IP in the port forwarding. Various combinations of help files and how to. I even turned off the firewall on the hosting PC.

The name of the server is called babyweb.exe A single exe file that runs the server. Like i said. port forwarding does not seem to work when PC2 accesses node 2, views the web services of node 1 and clicks webserver links. Enter in the ip address directly and you get a web page. Hosting server is listening on port 80. I've even changed that to 8080 and back. If i use the ip:8080 i can see pages. Or :80. 2 am.

Time to sleep. Hopefully i was clearer then mud with the issue and what specifications used.

ARG! i had this all neatly spaced out and when i submitted it it clumped it down to a paragraph lump...

I'm trying to achieve pretty much the same goal; something simple that can be quickly loaded onto a netbook, for example, plugged into the mesh and forgotten. I've got two netbooks with integrated webcams, and a 2-node (so far) mesh that I'm playing with. I'm using v 1.0.

I had a look at YAWCAM's page, and I'm going to play with it a bit, but I would really miss the audio. I, too, don't want to make a major production of getting audio to work, so if there's another product that will do what YAWCAM advertises that includes audio, I'd love to hear about it.

I have poked around the VOIP community a bit, and LINPHONE looks promising. It can be set up in a peer-to-peer arrangement to make VOIP video-phone calls on the mesh. I haven't succeeded yet, having just installed the software on my netbooks. It looks like there's a daunting amount of configuration to do with LINPHONE to make it work, but it has other attractive stuff, too, like the ability to work with phone sets. I like the idea of setting up basic, simple, video conferencing across a mesh, with the added benefit of being able to phone between a command post and a field unit or staging area.

For my purposes, simplicity is at the top of the list. I need this stuff to work when I'm not available, and someone else is reading a few pages of set-up instructions included in a go-kit.

Ron P.

Oh, I noticed something in your earlier post, J. Remember to also forward UDP. Sometimes it's different ports, but usually close in number. If that's the pull-down in the routers port forwarding screen, there should be options for 'TCP', 'UDP', and 'BOTH'. I usually just set 'em all to BOTH.

I think v 1 has seperate lines for TCP and UDP? (I'm not at home, can't see the node) In that case, enable both types.

This doesn't really help with your web server's connection, but you'll need it for the video. Don't mind me, it's the end of the work day on a Friday.

Ron P.

Well, I've been fiddling about with some webcam server programs, and have some comments:

- DCAMserver - Available at sourceforge, freeware, pretty old, pretty simple. Not really video, and not anything like video chat, but simple and seems to be pretty bulletproof. Built-in web server. Worked on first run, almost nothing to do for configuration. 

- ISpy (www.ispyconnect.com) Big, requires .NET 4, a little more intensive than I want, but seems to have exactly the features I need. Don't want to put .NET on my poor little netbook, so didn't test

- Focus Videophone (focusmedia.ru/prod_phone_en.htm) haven't tried it yet, but it's tiny and looks easy. There's another thread in the applications forum where Mark tried and tested this one and Linphone. I'll try this one tomorrow.

- Abelcam (www.abelcam.com) Haven't tried this one yet either, but it looks pretty on the web site.

- WebcamXP (www.webcamxp.com) Free for a single video source, 30 Euros for multiple sources and extra bells and whistles. This is the one I've been playing with tonight. Very easy to set up, installs from a single .exe, serves video in lots of formats, has a built-in web server and chat service. Relies on JAVA, which is fine with me. I'm having a bit of trouble with audio, but I think that's a source issue, not the software. So far, I really like this one for basic video surveillance/monitoring. Lag is very high, even at low video resolutions (160x120 looks good on my netbooks) so video chat wouldn't be too great. About 4 seconds delay using windows media stream. Little better using java on the client.

As stated earlier, I'm looking for simplicity, so the ability to turn from installing and launching the server to calling up a picture on a browser window is my highest priority. DCAMserver and WebcamXP let me do that, using the computer name as an address.

In my setup, I'm using two nodes in direct 5 LAN mode; as I understand it, this is like having all the LAN ports in the DMZ; no port forwarding required. With DHCP reservations, that seems to let me point a web browser on the client netbook to the server netbook using it's name, and everything works fine.

One thing I noticed was that using Chrome browser, I don't get away with just typing in 'netbook_server:80' as an address. I must have the HTTP at the front. ie: 'http://netbook_server:80'. 

Setting the server up in 'advertised services' was a snap; worked first time. Can't use it from the WAN side, but that's an issue for another thread. 

Here's what I did to use my computer's webcam on my netbook to stream live video over the hsmm-mesh.  It was easy.  I've now got a group of guys with their cams working on the mesh.

I downloaded YAWCAM.  Once installed you open the program and go to "settings"...click on "Detect Webcam" - from the drop down menu find your webcam (usually it'll just say "webcam").  Then, on the Control Panel click on "Stream". 

Now, the next thing to do is point others on the Mesh to your camera which is streaming already, and they just need the IP address of your node to find it.  To locate your node's IP address, go to your node's homepage (on the router) and find "Your Address": it'll be something like 10.177.78.231 - THAT is your IP address to your node.  Next you, and anyone else on the mesh that wants to see your video, go to any web browser and type enter that IP address along with ":8081" at the end of it; which is the port it talks on.  It'll open up a web page with nothing but your video streaming.

For instance, enter in the address line: "10.177.78.231:8081" (or whatever YOUR IP address is) and wala.  Video pops up and streams (without sound BTW, but hey - Hams have radios!). Simple. For convenience, add the link to your bookmarks and it's one click to your camera in the future.

You need not buy IP cameras or download any 3rd party "service" software to your router.  Its straight forward.

Side note: if you move your router to another computer your IP address will change.  Hope this helps all.

Side note 2: Out of 5 computers I've set this up on (in literally a few minutes) only one gave me a fit and for some reason, the Windows Firewall needed to be shut off.  After that, it worked fine.

Roy, W4LLZ

feel free to email me at my QRZ listed email address for help.