[Soekris] WebCam in Soekris net4801

[Jeff Quast]

On 10/10/06, Pablo Osuna <posuna at ehas.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Has someone used a Soekris net4801 with a USB WebCam? If so, what
> drivers and OS are you using? I am thinking of using a Soekris with a
> WebCam for Video Streaming and would like to get any information about
> that.
>
> Regards:
>
> Pablo

USB Cameras are targeted for desktop use -- I am not very familiar
with them, as I have never owned one, but I gleam that they are
extraordinarly weak in terms of hardware. They do absolutely no work
themselves -- depending on the host PC to do all of the work --
similar in construction to a winmodem.

Years ago I purchased an axis video camera for a customer who was in
need of video survaliance of his business from home. This type of
camera ran a form of linux (busybox, apache, and a puny form of php on
a MIPS-based processor if I recall correctly). The cost was around
$250 at the time. This camera was its own computer, and hosted its own
webserver -- setting it up for the customer was very easy, just
forward the ports, set a password, and bookmark the "site".

Its been years since I've touched one, but I was recently in a (very
small) US Computer shop and saw a "network video camera" for just over
$100. I suspect they can get even cheaper if you shop hard enough.

It is a significant amount of money, i know, but if this is being
considered for a business use, it is worth the cost. Also, the reason
most USB video cameras are $20 is because it is $5 worth of hardware
and you are buying a $15 windows driver.