[thelist] How do I link cameras to the web?

[Melody Kerchhoff]

Hello Listlings,

I have to admit up front that I have not done a Google or an Evolt search ..
sorry. Having got that out of the way, my problem is as follows:

I have a client who has 4 video cameras attached to his house taking
pictures of the view and the sea etc. He would like these cameras to feed a
still picture to his web site maybe every couple of hours or once a day ..
basically it doesn't have to be live streaming video. I believe there is a
computer in the house, but it is not linked to the internet.

So ... what I want to know is ... what questions should I be asking? Does it
make a difference what cameras they are? Will they be sending pics to this
PC in the house do you think? Could I write some kind of script to get the
PC to dial up once or twice a day automatically to FTP files which I will
just display on the web site. I just haven't got a clue. Keeping the PC
online all day is not an option as the telephone costs are prohibitive.
Getting someone to do it is also not an option as the house is unoccupied a
lot of the time.

To make matters worse, the client is in Germany and I and the house with the
cameras are in South Africa so I have not had a chance to speak to him
directly. We have had some email contact, but he is not technically savvy
and doesn't know too much about the cameras and stuff, except that they need
to be on the web.

I have not yet been to the house either as he wants some kind of an idea of
a quote. At this point I am about to say I can't do it and recommend someone
else, but I would like to do it as I have not ever worked with web cams
before ... obviously :)

Thanks so much in advance. I know if anyone can help me, you guys can. I
love this list and have gained so much knowledge by lurking. Thank you all
for sharing and for taking the time to supply such detailed answers.

Regards,
Melody