Tuesday, August 4, 2009

DIY home surveillance

Got a house sitter or an alarm system? Good for you. If not, there are a handful of ways to take a computer and Webcam and turn them into a tool that will alert you if someone's there who shouldn't be. Sure, you could be looking for burglars, but you could also (as a friend of mine once did) monitor your bedroom for illegal entry by snack-stealing roommates. Whatever your reasons, it's not hard to set up your own surveillance system at home. For the sake of this guide, we're keeping things simple and limiting our list to free apps that work on PCs, Macs, or both.
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August 4, 2009
Laura K. Cucullu
Laura K. Cucullu
Features editor,
CNET.com
DIY home surveillance
Got a house sitter or an alarm system? Good for you. If not, there are a handful of ways to take a computer and Webcam and turn them into a tool that will alert you if someone's there who shouldn't be. Sure, you could be looking for burglars, but you could also (as a friend of mine once did) monitor your bedroom for illegal entry by snack-stealing roommates. Whatever your reasons, it's not hard to set up your own surveillance system at home. For the sake of this guide, we're keeping things simple and limiting our list to free apps that work on PCs, Macs, or both. Read more

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