Protect your home with a PC without spending much money

While simple precautions such as locking windows and keeping lights on in the evening can help deter burglars from targeting your property, it’s a relatively unknown fact that one of your most expensive assets, namely your PC, can actually give your home security a massive boost.

With a bit of help from your broadband connection and a webcam or network camera, you can use it to help protect your valuables as well as give peace of mind when away from the home.

Whether you’re happy spending a few hundred pounds or would prefer not to spend anything at all, there are plenty of options available, and in this feature we’ll take you through each one and explain the pros and cons of each.

Cheap and cheerful
The cheapest option for home security with your PC is to go for a basic system that runs direct from a simple webcam attached to your PC. The next step is to invest in a network camera which means you won’t need your PC switched on all the time as they’re able to hook up directly to your home’s wireless network.

And if you’re happy to spend a bit more cash, you can create a complete home security system that will alert you if a door or window is opened or smashed , or even if there’s a sudden rise in temperature from an intruder’s body heat.

If you have a webcam and a PC with a broadband internet connection, it’s possible to create a simple home monitoring system without investing in any additional hardware or software.

First, check to see if your webcam came with any monitoring software; if it did, it will also most likely be able to email snapshots to you whenever motion is detected. However, if your webcam didn’t come with such software, all is not lost.

A quick and simple way to view your webcam when away from home is by using remote-access software (a utility that lets you use any internet-connected computer to log in to your home PC and operate it as if you were sitting in front of it).

Log Me In Free is one such service and, as the name suggests, won’t cost you a penny. Just download the free version from logmein.com and install it on your home PC. You can then use your webcam’s software from an internet-connected PC anywhere in the world and view the live images.

This method has a number of limitations though. Since you’re simply viewing a live video stream, you’ll only be able to use it as a monitoring service ­ if the worst happens and a burglar steals your computer, you won’t be alerted and you’ll also have no way of obtaining images of the incident. Furthermore, since the webcam is attached to the PC, you’re very restricted in terms of where you can place the camera.

Software boost
It’s easy to give your webcam a boost by installing some extra software. Dorgem is a free application that works with your webcam to create a simple but effective home security system by saving images either to your PC’s hard disk or some form of online storage such as an FTP site.

You can schedule an image to be uploaded on a regular basis, but Dorgem also has a movement detection feature. When activated, it will only upload images if movement is detected, such as when someone walks in front of the camera.

The motion detection is fairly crude, however, and just compares the last captured image with the live view. There’s also no way of specifying which part of the image should be monitored, so if anything in the scene moves (such as a tree blowing in the wind or even changes in ambient lighting) the motion diction will be triggered.

Although development has now ceased, you can still download the last version of Dorgem free. Once installed, run the Dorgem application and, by clicking on the Source button and heading to the Capture Source tab, select your webcam.

Next you need to specify how images should be stored, so click on the Store Settings button on the main menu. Click Add to create a new storage setting. If you simply want to save images to your computer, choose File, but if you have online storage that’s accessible via FTP (most ISPs offer this as part of their broadband packages ­ call your ISP to enquire) it’s best to store the images there, so click the FTP option.

Now enter your FTP details, including the FTP address and your username and password (your ISP or web hosting provider will be able to help you with these details), along with how often you want images to be uploaded; if you choose the ‘motion detection’ option, this setting will determine how often the image is checked for changes. More details on Dorgem’s features can be found in help files that accompany the program.

Tincam is another utility that works alongside your webcam to create a surveillance system. It has many of the features found in Dorgem, but also includes tools such as email alerts and a sensitivity adjustment tool for the motion detection (see ‘Setting up motion detection with Tincam’ later).

Furthermore, it’s able to publish live images and video to a website, but bear in mind that if you choose to use this feature, anyone will be able to access the pictures if they have the web address. Tincam costs £14.36, but a 30-day evaluation version is available.