Hands on: Monitor your home with a webcam

Refining the system
There are, of course, limitations with this setup. First, it relies on having two PCs switched on all the time, although my Media Center PC would be on during the evenings anyway. Second, there’s a reliance on messaging software, which could become unavailable for some reason.

One way to eliminate the messaging software and potential internet issues is to use alternative software to broadcast the webcam’s signal across your private network instead. You’d then monitor the signal from a web browser on the PC in your lounge. There are plenty of webcam surveillance programs available that will do this, such as Digi-Watcher.

If you’d also like to eliminate the PC from the baby’s room, you could swap it and the webcam for a standalone IP camera. These connect directly to an Ethernet network (some are wireless), and broadcast what they see and hear to an IP address, so you can monitor it using a web browser.

You can keep this IP address private for use on your network only, or let it to be accessed externally via the internet, which will allow you to monitor your home from anywhere in the world. This setup can be very appealing, because what you use as a baby monitor while you’re at home could become a home security device while you’re away.

Modern IP cameras not only broadcast using HTTP to a web browser for ‘live’ monitoring, but also often provide FTP or email facilities for sending periodic images to an off-site location, so even if a burglar nicks your camera, you’ll still hopefully have an image of him doing it.

Typical models that have both wired and wireless connectivity include Panasonic’s BL-C131CE and the Y-Cam Knight IP camera. The Panasonic has a pan-and-tilt camera, while the Y-Cam Knight features 30 infra-red LEDs that operate in complete darkness; both cameras cost around £140.

A simpler way?
The one thing all these solutions have in common is the requirement of a fairly sophisticated device to receive the signals, such as a PC, laptop or smartphone. This wasn’t an issue for me, though, as I already had my Media Center PC present and running pretty much all the time in my living area, and I rarely travel anywhere without a laptop.

However, if this still smacks of technology for technology’s sake, there are much simpler solutions that can still avoid interference. If all you want is to see and hear your baby from another room without any interference, consider one of the low-price security cameras from electronics stores that, for about £20, will get you something that looks like a webcam with a long audio and composite video cable you simply connect to a TV set.

If you’re using your PC for monitoring, we’d love to hear any tips about how you’re getting on.

That syncing feeling
In a previous Hardware column, I described how file synchronisation software may deliver a superior backup solution for many people than dedicated backup software. The main benefit is having instant access to all your files in their original format, rather than a single proprietary backup file, together with the ability to target specific folders, rather than having backup software search for relevant files itself.

File syncing software also has the ability to reflect any changes made to the original files, so if you edit or delete a file, this is matched on the synced version. In file synchronisation terms, this is known as an ‘Echo’ mode and prompted several emails to the Hardware inbox.

Reader Simon Warren agreed that the manual syncing of specific data was indeed more reassuring than the automatic searching of many backup programs, but he noted Echo may not be the safest approach. He said: “It provides no protection at all against colleagues, children or even ‘senior moments’ where files are deleted or altered against your wishes. On several occasions, I have been very glad that I was able to restore an older version of a file from a backup disk.”

This is a very good point. My personal requirement was to keep an exact copy of my original files in a secondary location, including any changes and deletions - in this instance, Echo was the right mode to synchronise with. But if you want protection against accidental deletions or alterations, then a different approach is required.

Most file synchronisation tools offer a choice of modes, including the ability to keep a copy of files on the right side, which are deleted on the original left side; in file syncing terms, this is known as ‘Contribute’. Indeed, reader Geoff Wells wrote to advise: “Contribute is surely more appropriate [than Echo] as new and amended files are copied left to right, but there are no deletions”. Geoff uses Robocopy, a free utility that comes as part of the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools; search for Robocopy at www.microsoft.com.

Jim Littler is another advocate of Contribute mode, this time using Microsoft’s Synctoy, while Brett Laniosh recommended Karen’s Replicator. The interesting thing is just how many people are regularly using syncing software to perform backups.

The Super Flexible File Synchroniser program tested in August’s edition also offers options to keep files that have been deleted or altered, although it doesn’t refer to the process as Contribute. See www.superflexible.com for more details. Options like Contribute may offer protection against files that have been deleted on the left side, but you’ll end up with a bigger collection of files on the right that may no longer be required. If you’re also keeping copies of files with each alteration, you could end up with many revisions of the same file.

There’s more than one way to make a backup, so as always, think about what it is you’d like to achieve and choose the software and modes that will deliver it in practice. Once again, we’d like to hear from anyone with a backup solution that works well for their needs.