# Without holding ya to it, whats a web cam gonna cost me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 22, 2004, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-holding-ya-to-it-whats-a-web-cam-gonna-cost-me/281113 "2004-12-22T04:10:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Trailer\_Park\_Casanova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@Trailer\_Park\_Casanova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trailer_Park_Casanova)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-holding-ya-to-it-whats-a-web-cam-gonna-cost-me/281113/1 "2004-12-22T04:10:54Z")
I want to spot a web cam on a popular party spot on the Colorado River by my Vac house. What would be the entire start up , hosting, and intangable & annual costs probably be? Thank you, I’m serious about this. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-holding-ya-to-it-whats-a-web-cam-gonna-cost-me/281113/2 "2004-12-22T04:59:21Z")
Indoor or outdoor placement? Indoor web cams are usually 20-60 bucks and come with software. I have no clue about outdoor cams, but based on color survelliance camera prices (and they might be the same thing) you’re probably looking in the low to mid hundreds and up for a decent wireless outdoor color camera. To use a wireless (or wired) color outdoor survelliance camera you’ll usually need to have an analog line video input on your video card. ---
**Author:** ![Trailer\_Park\_Casanova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@Trailer\_Park\_Casanova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trailer_Park_Casanova)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-holding-ya-to-it-whats-a-web-cam-gonna-cost-me/281113/3 "2004-12-22T05:06:46Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Indoor or outdoor placement? Indoor web cams are usually 20-60 bucks and come with software. I have no clue about outdoor cams, but based on color survelliance camera prices (and they might be the same thing) you’re probably looking in the low to mid hundreds and up for a decent wireless outdoor color camera. > > To use a wireless (or wired) color outdoor survelliance camera you’ll usually need to have an analog line video input on your video card. And website hosting ect, and do I need software that’ll allow it to operate and feed a webpage, and registering the web adress, It’ll be outdoor, and as high a quality a color cam as the Casanova can afford. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-holding-ya-to-it-whats-a-web-cam-gonna-cost-me/281113/4 "2004-12-22T05:14:10Z")
> [@Trailer Park Casanova](#): > > And website hosting ect, and do I need software that’ll allow it to operate and feed a webpage, and registering the web adress, > It’ll be outdoor, and as high a quality a color cam as the Casanova can afford. How much are ya willin’ to pay? What kind of resolution? Refresh rate? ---
**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-holding-ya-to-it-whats-a-web-cam-gonna-cost-me/281113/5 "2004-12-22T14:37:30Z")
One factor you need to keep on your toes about is bandwidth costs. If you get a hosting deal that obligates you to pay whatever the data transfer amount, you could have an embarrassment of riches that you have to pay for. Web cams can take quite a bit of bw per viewing and have the potential of popularity. So you want a setup that will stop after a certain amount or permits you to monitor closely the usage. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-holding-ya-to-it-whats-a-web-cam-gonna-cost-me/281113/6 "2004-12-22T14:49:25Z")
Probably the best bet is to use a bit of software such as [YawCam](http://www.yawcam.com/) to periodically (and automatically) upload an image from the camera by FTP to your web page (which might be one of those free host jobbies) - that way, you don’t have to worry about serving the image to multiple users yourself. You’ll need an internet connection, of course (you’d need one whatever method you use) - if you’re updating the image once per hour, dialup might be acceptable (I think it can be configured to dial and hang up automatically), but if you’re wanting to refresh the image every minute or even more frequently, you’ll need some kind of always-on internet connection. ---
**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-holding-ya-to-it-whats-a-web-cam-gonna-cost-me/281113/7 "2004-12-22T19:18:42Z")
Also, you might want to work on that multiple comma problem. ---
**Author:** ![Alvis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alvis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alvis)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-holding-ya-to-it-whats-a-web-cam-gonna-cost-me/281113/8 "2004-12-22T20:00:15Z")
There are several outdoor webcams with built-in web servers, if you’re looking to simplify. ---
**Author:** ![Alvis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alvis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alvis)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-holding-ya-to-it-whats-a-web-cam-gonna-cost-me/281113/9 "2004-12-22T21:22:31Z")
Here’s the brand of the network-enabled camera I was thinking of: [http://www.axis.com/products/video/](http://www.axis.com/products/video/) ---
**Author:** ![Trailer\_Park\_Casanova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@Trailer\_Park\_Casanova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trailer_Park_Casanova)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-holding-ya-to-it-whats-a-web-cam-gonna-cost-me/281113/10 "2004-12-22T23:15:47Z")
> [@Demo](#): > > Also, you might want to work on that multiple comma problem. Nope, that’s my writing style: [www.riverratlife.com](http://www.riverratlife.com)