Would you like to show the world your live view of your Derbyshire village online?
If so this is the guide for you. I have tried to make it as simple as possible to follow, I have even tried it myself to prove how easy it is to get a village webcam online.

So what do you need?
1) A Pc that is running Microsoft Windows.
2) A Webcam that can be positioned to show a view of your village, street scene or your garden.
3) A broadband internet connection.
4) The webcam software (free in my example below)

3) Internet connection
You can use a dial-up connection for your webcam but this would limit options available to you, You would only be able to offer a static infrequently updated image. Also it would mean it would have to dial up every time you wanted it to update the image this would not be very convenient.
A permanent broadband connection allows you to offer a high quality streaming webcam as well as the static options.
By the way don’t be worried about a webcam using up your bandwidth. Data is only passed when there is a viewer connected and watching. If no one is watching then no bandwidth is used. If you use the ftp option then hardly any bandwidth is used.

Once its completed downloading, locate the file using “My computer” and run it by double clicking on the file. E.g. Yawcam_BETA_2007-03-18.exe
Once its finished installing, run the program using the icon on the desktop.

At this point you will probably get a screen saying “you don’t have Java Runtime installed” and offering to visit the site to download it, if so accept this then.
Download Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 (this link is part way down the screen)
Click Accept License Agreement then click the Windows Offline Installation, Multilanguage 12.56Mb, once its downloaded Install Java runtime.
Then re-run the yawcam install program, this time it should complete ok without the warning about Java.
You are now ready to try out the software.
Now run the yawcam program using the icon on your desktop or the quicklaunch icon at the bottom of your screen.
Goto Settings and select ‘detect webcam’, pick your cam from the list (hopefully). My cam shows as “Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000” The preview window should now show a live camera image.
Its worth noting that the webcam may default to a low resolution mode when you first try it. My webcam starts in 320x240 mode, this can be increased to 640x480 by going to Settings - Device - format control and changing it to 640x480 see example and increasing it here.

I would recommend that you have a play with the software to see what you think of it.
The software allows you to run the webcam in four different ways depending on what you want to do. These are enabled simply by clicking on one of the buttons in the main panel.

So what are these different options ?
File - this is not an option that will be used for a webcam.
1 – ftp – This option allows you to upload a single jpg image to a website at regular intervals.
2 – Http – This offers a web page view of a single jpg image, viewers connect directly with your pc.
3 – Stream – This option offers an almost real-time streaming video of your webcam, Viewers connect directly with your pc.
4 – Motion is something you can use as an intruder detection system and not an option you would use for a village webcam.

It is possible to activate all of these options at the same time, they will all function simultaneously! The great thing about this software is that it allows you to try out the different options and test them within seconds.
By going to the Help drop-down menu and selecting “Am I online?” it will perform a check live to see if your webcam can be viewed. You can then goto the Help drop-down menu and click “What’s my URL?” and it will list the web address that you need to supply to anyone you want to be able to view your webcam.
If you use a router on your broadband internet modem then it will even list the web addresses to use to view it from inside your local network.

If you use a broadband router then you may need to alter the settings to allow connections to be forwarded through it, as detailed in the help pages and the forum. www.yawcam.com/help/routerconfig

If your router supports UPnP then its simplest if you log onto your routers admin page (read your manual for the router, this normally means using a web browser and typing in the routers address into the address bar as numbers) and ensure it is UPNP enabled See example, the yawcam software has an option in the Settings panel (Connection) “Use UPNP to open up ports on router” If you tick this then the webcam will work without having to manually forward ports etc.

There are many options in yawcam which I have not even tried yet. Options to allow the program to start when you boot the pc up so you don’t have to run it everytime. This is ideal if you only use your webcam pc during office hours for instance.

For information on using your free webspace you would need to look for the word webspace on your ISP’s homepage. Each ISP defines the users webspace address differently and some have to be activated to use the space.
Some examples… On Tiscali the webspace would be http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/directoryname
On VirginMedia http://homepage.virginmedia.com/user.name
On NTL http://homepage.ntlworld.com/user.name/
You do not need to download any ftp software or web design software to use your webspace for the purposes of a webcam, all you need to do is make a note of the settings to ftp things to your webspace as these will need to be typed into the yawcam settings page.

To use yawcam in ftp mode you need to goto the Settings drop-down menu and select Edit Settings… Goto the Ftp option in the Output Catergory. Don’t be put off by the fields you have to fill in, its very easy.
Leave the Type as JPG
Set the Image Qualty slider to 70%
In the ftp server field you need to type in the ftp server as per your ISP’s webspace help page.
The username and password fields will normally be your username and password that you use for your e-mail.
The directory field can be left blank. This means it will place the jpg file in the root of your websapce.
Leave the filename as out.jpg
The Upload interval is how often it will update your webcam image. I would recommend keeping this around 60 seconds.
Click on OK.

Now goto the control panel and click the enable button next to Ftp. The checker thing built into yawcam can not be used to check its working.
All you need to do to check it it visit your wespace address and add out.jpg on the end of the address and hopefully you should see your webcam image.

So if you were a VirginMedia customer using your free webspace then the url to the image would be..
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/user.name/out.jpg
* replace the words user.name with your username (i.e. the first part of your e-mail address before the @ symbol)

If you have successfully managed to follow my guide and get it running ok then please drop me a line and let me have the details of your webcam and I will be more than happy to add it to my Derby/Derbyshire webcam page.

Please ensure you supply all the details about your webcam such as..
1-Location. i.e. Derbyshire village, street name (if you wish to disclose it)
2-What can be seen in the view, well known local buildings etc?
3-Type of wecam i.e. Streaming, static, ftp, Schedule. i.e. How often is it updated? Every 30 seconds?
Is it online 24/7 or just 9am to 4pm weekdays etc
4-And finally the full URL address. If you are using the streaming option then the url will be something along the lines of.. http://81.51.173.038:8081/
If you are using the ftp option then please supply the full address to your webspace including the filename if you have changed it from the default out.jpg name.
I can create a webpage on www.derbyphotos.co.uk for your ftp’d image to sit on which will include the webcam information you want as well as an auto-refreshing page so it shows the latest image from your webcam. It will be added to my webcam list.