youcme.net - Easy Webcam Setup

Setup Your Own Webcam Site
...in 3 easy steps

Setting up your own webcam site can be very easy but experience has taught us that a beginner will not only need the proper tools, but also quite a bit of patience. Hopefully, with these 'excellently-written' instructions, images from your webcam will be broadcast across the World Wide Web on your first try. If not, tweak your code, look for support on the net, or send us an email.

Here is what you'll need:

> Some basic html knowledge

> A place to host your site. This could be with your Internet provider. Alternatively, there are many sites offering free webspace on the Internet.

> A webcam. You can purchase one from any computer store or you can get one online. See below for a suggestion.

> The software to make it all work, all available free online.

Here's how we got our webcams up and running. It may not be the only way to do it, but it worked for us:

Featured Webcam

Perfect for the beginner!!!
Inexpensive and easy to use.
The new Labtec camera lets you share your favorite moments with your friends. Here is your chance to experience video communication over the Internet. Easy to capture still images, send your favorite pictures to mom, or just share it with anyone. Meet face to face.
Just point, click and send.

If you are visiting our site from outside the UK, try Amazon.com.

Step 1.
> Download CoffeeCup WebCam - Click Here
> Install it and run it. You have some information to fill in now. Have your webspace user name and password to hand:

Click the images below to see a larger view in a pop-up window:

	Once CoffeeCup WebCam is installed, you will be guided through the setup wizard.
	Server Name: It should look like this: www.yourdomain.com, with, of course, your domain name. Remote Directory: Fill this in if you are keeping your webcam images in a folder on your server.
	Your username and password.
	Click on the top radio button if you connect to the Internet through a LAN (Local Area Network) and the bottom radio button if your computer connects directly with a modem.
	You should have your webcam installed by now and it should show up here on the list. Click on your camera and choose 'next'.
	CoffeeCup WebCam has now been installed. You can just tweak a few settings like enabling the captions and the time stamp. These can be found under Image Settings.
	Under FTP Settings, click on Use FTP Upload and change the upload rate to whatever you want (time in seconds)

> You won't need any other software to upload your images to your webspace. It is all done within CoffeeCup WebCam. Once you've filled in all your details, CoffeeCup WebCam uses FTP to upload your live webcam images directly to your webspace.

Step 2.
> Design your webpage. An example of one of ours is here.

Your choices are:

> Write your own html

> Use some web design software

> Use our sample template. This template supposes that you use the JavaCam.class applet - see below

> Alternatively, CoffeeCup WebCam has a facility to help you write the code for your webpage

Step 3.
> So you have the webpage designed and the software to capture and upload your webcam images installed and ready. If you were to upload your webpage and start CoffeeCup Webcam now, you'd notice that you have a static picture, one that never changes or refreshes.

You have set up CoffeeCup WebCam to upload a new image every 60 seconds, but now you'll need to put something on your webpage so that your visitors can see the new images.

You have a few choices as far as refreshing your webcam image goes:

> You can advise your guests to manually refresh the image by refreshing the page in their browser, but not only is this an annoyance for your visitors, but they might be trying to refresh it more frequently than you are uploading images.

> You can use the Meta Refresh tag. It looks like this:

The above code will refresh your image every 60 seconds and goes between the <HEAD> tags on your webpage. The trouble with this option is that it not only refreshes the image, but it also refreshes the whole webpage. Again, this can lead to frustration for your visitors.

> By far the best way to refresh your image (in our humble opinion) is by using the JavaCam.class applet. Download this zip file and extract JavaCam.class and JavaCam.java.

Your code for your image should look like this:

The code in bold needs to be customized by you. The value should equal your domain name, followed by a forward slash
( / ), followed by the name that you've chosen for your webcam image. The default name is webcam.jpg.

value="60" means that the cam image will refresh every 60 seconds. This value should match the upload rate that you've chosen within CoffeeCup WebCam.

IMPORTANT: Upload the JavaCam.class file and the JavaCam.java file into the same directory where you are sending the images from your webcam. This is important. It will not work if you put the applet into a different folder.

You're done!
Once CoffeeCup WebCam is set up properly and the applet has been uploaded to the same directory as your images, you need only open the software for your live webcam images to start being broastcast across the globe.

It's as easy as that!

And when you've got your webcam site up and running, please come back and tell us about it. Or send us your site details so that we add the link to our soon-to-be-introduced Webcam Directory.

One final note: if you're looking to make a bit of cash from your new webcam site - or any kind of site, for that matter,we recommend using Google Adsense.

Click here for more details: