Nor' Easter, and T-Shooting a Cam
Yup, we got clocked pretty good with a storm over the last couple days. Lots of wind and lots of rain... Our little streaming cam got knocked for a loop. While I kept the video camera itself dry under a plastic bag, the rest of the system pretty much got obliterated. Between the outdoor cable being soaked and the router suffering umpteen brown outs, about the best our setup could do was provide a pure white feed. What to do? How to troubleshoot? Well... First let's back up and look at the rig...
That is how we've got the beast configured... Step by step, let's see if we can't make sense of the whole thing and find the problem...
- First, the web signal comes off the street from the "Web Cloud" on the left to the cable modem and on to the router which in turn hands it off to the "main PC" via a hard wire... So far, so good... We've got web connectivity at that PC. (Remember, when you broadcast a cam stream, you're basically "offering it up" to a broadcaster like CamStreams. If you have low-level web functionality problems, the broadcaster will never be able to reach your stream. Period.)
- But the router does more then just "re-route" the signal back to the main PC... It broadcasts it to all the other machines on the network via the airwaves. That was working too, since the other computers were "internet happy" including the one handling the webcam.
- So what's left? Well, a few things... Maybe the converter that massaged the analog signal coming off the video into a good ol' digital USB was kerflooky... Maybe the cam itself had turned turtle... Maybe the CamStreams broadcasters were having a bad day... Maybe the settings used to hand off the signal to CamStreams (port forwarding) were kattywumpus... How to tell??? Uncle Fester, it's really just a matter of a process of elimination...
- I more or less ruled out the converter because it seems to be a sturdy piece of innocuous hardware.
- Could it be that the camera itself had taken leave of this earth? Nope. I hooked it up to a regular TV and it held its own.
- Other folks were broadcasting on CamStreams, so that wasn't an issue.
- If the port forwarding was in a backlash, I couldn't send anything over the net... And yet I was - though it was a nice white signal.
But that's the point of this post... If you really want a web site or a blog with a cam (or whatever), just do it! Sure there will be hurdles, but so long as you have a backup of all your data, the world won't end. It might grow mighty irksome for a time, but it won't end... What's that? Have a USB cam? Look here. You only want sound? Look here? Want instruction on web photography? Look here...
The truth is that no one can give you micro-step by micro-step solutions, and these can only be starting points... But if you're prepared, stop sitting on your hands and jump right in... Nor' Easter or not!
Very proactive by the feeders,
CapeCodAlan
Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding
Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding
Comments
CCA,
Don't think for a moment that I'm not interested in your video network setup. I make notes of all you offer, and thanks.
On bird behavior, this might be interesting to some of your readers.
I've observed, over the past several months, a unique and surprising pattern of my birds as far as "messing" on the patio. They don't, and I wondered why. Instead, they fly to the top of a four-foot step ladder, where, by co-incidence, I laid out a newspaper on top. Here, my birds do their "thing". After a week, I change the paper. As a result, my birds do not "mess" on any part of my patio or around the bird feed locations.
It's been too short of a time to say this is a "fact" but it sure looks like it might be. If any of your readers are having a problem with "bird messes" where they don't want them, they might consider trying something similar to see if it makes a difference.
Say hello to Mrs. CCA.
Cheers,
Harry "Gipper" Morris
Posted by: Harry Morris | October 17, 2009 11:48 AM