How do Intenet Ip Cameras work?

[Ryan]

This may sound like a strange question. My wife and I are out of town and will be gone for quite a while....prolly a 3 or 4 more months. We have a cat and the neighbors are stopping by and taking care of him. From what our neighbor is say.....the cat is meowing a lot. So what I was thinking is putting in a web cam that has a microphone and speaker so my wife can "communicate" and keep an eye on the cat. Yes I know......gotta keep the wife happy. "If the wife isn't happy, the husband is not happy" Not sure how the Ip camera works. I was looking for something I can hook up to the router and not need the computer on all the time. Is this possible?

Been looking at these on ebay.
WPA Wireless WiFi IP Internet PTZ Dual Audio Camera+3G | eBay

Do I need to subscribe to anything?

 

[williamsGN]

Pretty sure you just need to hook it up to the internet and leave your computer on all the time.

 

[Dabigguy]

Why not call and talk to the cat thru your answering machine?

 

[CS99]

Leave the wife at home with the cat!!!:biggrin: Google TINCAM, that should get you headed in the right direction.

 

[phillyturbosix]

It might be easy to just install Skype on one of your PC's with auto answer and a web camera. That way you can call in and it will auto answer and talk to the cat. When your done hang up.

 

[aminga]

The IP cameras work by running a small web server. It's a simple thing that puts up a page running a little script that displays the current image from the camera. They usually have some rudimentary security so you can set a password to get to the page. Hook it up, connect Ethernet and point your browser to http:<IP of camera>/default.html (or something similar.