A webcam can be set
up on a shared server. Shared servers offer the most affordable
web hosting plans that you can use for your site. Any
web hosting plan that charges under $15/month is almost
certainly on a shared server. The other options
are dedicated servers or virtual private servers which
are more expensive.
1. The cost for web
hosting for your webcam will cost between about $7/month
to about $10/month
2. The cost of the
actual webcam will range from about $15 to about $80.
3. The cost of an
FTP program to used to transfer images from your camera
to your web hosting server will range from free to a one
time fee of about $35.
4. Many webcams come
with software that will work with your FTP software to
automate the process of uploading your pictures from your
webcam to your hosting server, but if you need to purchase
webcam software, it will cost about $30.
Summary
of Costs
Once you
have your webcam up and running, your only costs will
be your web hosting costs.
The up front
cost of getting your webcam up will range from about $50
to $200 for the first year. These costs include the web
hosting fees, webcam, webcam software, and FTP service.
If you need
high quality, streaming images then the cost can get quite
a bit more expensive.
Setting
Up A Webcam
There are a few steps that you'll
need to take to get started with your webcam.
1. You'll need a webcam
if you don't already have one. If you do have one, then
move on to step 2. If you need a webcam then it will cost
you as little as about $15 up to $100 or more. If you
can afford it, the higher end cameras provide a better
picture with more options, and it entirely worth the extra
money, but if you're on a budget, then there are webcams
out there for you that are under $20.
There
are lots of webcams available to order online. We don't
have any specific recommendations on webcams, but we do
recommend that you do some comparison shopping online
using search engine.
2. Now that you have
a webcam, you need a way to get the image files from your
webcam to your web host's server, and this is where you
will need FTP or File Transfer Protocol. Don't worry,
it's not nearly as complicated as it sounds. To use FTP
you must have your own website that is FTP accessible.
If you're not sure if your website is FTP accessible,
you'll have to contact your web host and find out. Nearly
every web host provides FTP access with their hosting
service, and all of the web hosts on this site certainly
do provide FTP access with all of their hosting plans.
FTP works great if
you want your webcam to upload pictures every minute or
so, but if you want streaming video, FTP can't do that
for you. For streaming video on a budget, AOL, Yahoo,
and MSN instant messengers have services that you can
set up for free. The image quality for these free services
is not as good as with FTP, but they are streaming images.
If you need high quality, streaming images, then you will
need a dedicated server, virtual private server, or your
own in-house server. If you are going to set up streaming
images from your webcam, why not start with the free service
so you can get a feel for how everything works?
Check out
CoffeeCup
FTP. It is a very popular FTP software program.
You can download the free version risk free and keep it
for as long as you want.
There is also
CoreFTP which works
well and is free.
Most webcams do come
with webcam software that will work with your FTP to automate
the process, but in some cases, you may need to purchase
webcam software. We recommend doing some comparison
shopping using search engine to find the best deal
on webcam software.
