Webcam installation, help please

I am looking to install a webcam purely for the purpose of security as it would allow me to keep an eye on the front door. I have never had one before so rather limited knowledge of them.My PC location is furthest away from the front door so it would be nice to know if I need bother answering it, cold callers etc. 1. I assume there are wired and wireless versions. 2. As its only for surveillance I assume a £10 cheapo would be sufficient. 3. Can more than one be used on the same PC. 4. Are there free download sp that a video stream or stills can be sent to a website for storage. Anything else I should know?

Yes there are many who use such things to keep check on the home, but it is an awkward one to answer specifically, to start with I have never done this, but it should not be any different than using it on the PC for it's intended use, but there are several factors to bare in mind:-
1/ Location, is it sheltered or exposed ?
2/ Lighting, is there enough light outside to see at night time ?
3/ Wired or Wireless, what sort of distance would a cable need to run, and could you run it in a way that keeps it out of the way etc ?
4/ Power, should you go wireless you will probably need a power source for it, although cabled would be cheaper probably, just not as convenient possibly.
5/ Legal stuff, not sure what your laws are like, but where I am if you intend possible use in a court situation (eg vandalism etc), then you need to seriously research this topic with your local law enforcement, as there can be specifics required, such as time\date stamps, colour, clarity of the image, where it is recorded, if saved on a PC it can be argued it could be edited, a standalone recorder is the recommended way due to this, another issue is neighbours, they "may" have privacy issues over this.

I realise I have gone in a lot deeper than you probably intend, but I felt it worth covering so you can make a more informed choice, some factors you may not have thought of yet, there may be some I have missed, but these are the big considerations apart from choosing the equipment itself.

As to recording, that eats hard drive space like mad, real time recording needs a massive amount of space, and is just not feasible for most, which is why CCTV set up's are usually time lapse, eg x number of frames per x amount of time, better systems have motion activation, so they only record when needed, a live stream is your most realistic option for this, you could manually start recording if the need arose and you were there, or you could set it recording if you go out for a bit, but recording time would depend on the hard drive space available.

Software is trial and error, web cam's may come with such software, or there are numerous free applications around to capture a web cam feed, but having not used any I couldn't offer specific suggestions as to what is best, but I can happily find you some links to try if you like, but web storage is not something that will cover what many want from it, for free anyway, I believe msn may have something (SkyDrive) ? not sure if thats of any use.

Hopefully that gets you started, once you reply I can try and get more specific, but another idea for you, you can get door entry systems, from a simple intercom set up, to a live camera feed, just from a doorbell type profile, obviously this will cost a fair bit more, but I mention it as a thought incase, just let us know about these bits and we can go from there.

Thanks 8210GUY In general terms the area doesn’t have a lot of crime and I will be shortly fitting a burglar alarm, door contacts and PIRs, the webcam will just be for keeping an eye on who enters the front gate. We currently have a dog who keeps us well aware but he wont last too much longer (14 years old) so just making the move now to improve security, its also for a bit of comfort as we are just about to enter our 60s and for some reason getting more cautious as we get older, so its nice to know who is at the front door. Location is sheltered but webcam would be located inside looking out. Lighting, standard street lamps so debateable if sufficient. not a major issue for me. Wired or Wireless …webcam will be internal, power source shouldn’t be a problem. Legal, not concerned about going legal as that would take it way over my budget in order to meet legislation, I am aware of privacy rights. Recording was probably one of my main issues as I would like to record when away for short periods, say maybe a half to one hour loop. I am getting to borrow a cheap webcam next week so that will allow me to play around and see if it throws up any further issues before I decide on what to buy.

I think thats a great idea TBH, if you can borrow one you can test it as you say, you wont get any better way to see what you can achieve by going this route, much better than taking a gamble trying to stay cheap, as often it can cost more in the long run if it isn't right first time round, assuming this works well for you (I suspect it will), the next thing to consider is hard drive, not sure what you have to play with, but if you can get a 1TB or 2TB drive you should have plenty of recording time for when your out, downside is prices are still high compared to a few months back, so tell us what you have for now to work with. The lighting you can address at a later stage separately if needed, just get an outside PIR light fitted, you can get solar powered ones pretty cheap which would work just fine for this I would think, but I strongly suggest recording to a single drive, totally dedicated for this use, my fear of allowing it to record on a drive with other material on it it may wipe other stuff to make room for continued recording, never done this so not sure of such risks, but I mention it as a thought incase. About the only point left to make I can think of is the clarity, take notice of the megapixel rate of the camera you try, if the pic is ok or good, then thats the minimum you need, if it's grainy etc then you need a higher rated camera, you shouldn't need anything high end, but a budget camera "may" not be quite clear enough, but testing one as you said is a great way to do it, but let us know how much drive space\quantity you have, and I will try and find a guesstimate of recording time for you if I can find something.

Running a check I have Field Value C: (NTFS) 953766 MB (890396 MB free) E: (NTFS) 157065 MB (109807 MB free) (External, used as a back up) Total Size 1084.8 GB (976.8 GB free) I also have a spare hardrive not as big as the above and yet to be installed.

Sounds like you have plenty of space then, if you can use the 1TB external drive you should be fine, as you get used to it you may find a smaller drive will work just fine for you, tried looking for guesstimates of space, but due to the variables of frame rates and image quality etc., the answers won’t make sense unless you understand enough about this, unfortunately I don't, but as it's only a web cam, I am guessing you will need considerably less drive space than a full on CCTV set up, as the quality is much lower.

I did however stumble across another point made over the cable distance, I must admit it flashed into my mind previously, but went through so fast I forgot to add it above lol, anyway saw the following:-

The specification for USB states that the maximum length of a USB cable is 5 meters (16 feet). As a result, you cannot extend the distance of your USB device more than 16 feet without using a USB "active" extension cable (also known as a USB repeater cable). This cable contains active electronics which boost the USB signal for maximum reliability and performance over extended distances

So from what you said you may well need to get this cable as well, my best advice here is test drive the web cam your borrowing within range of the pc, just to get an idea of performance, then if all is well get this cable along with the web cam if you are further than the distance quoted above.

Now software, I can't say what is best never having used such tools, but here are a few that would appear to be up to the job:-
http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html; downside is it may install many other tools as well, I use the audio editing software (found it easy going), and it installs way more than that, but it is not bad apart from you are not asked, not sure if this will do the same, but I mention it incase, you can easily ignore\remove stuff you don’t want if need be, the free version is linked just under the icons on the left.
http://download.cnet.com/Webcam-Video-Capt…4-10671720.html
http://camstudio.org/
http://www.camersoft.com/webcam-capture.html
http://www.tucows.com/preview/502646

Those are a selection of free programs, you can try them out and see what you like best, or try anything else you may come across, but as I said above, it's possible such software "may" come with the cam, but hopefully this gets you started if nothing more.