The Trendnet T156-2356 is a day/night cam and seems to be about $100 cheaper than the Toshiba IK-WB02A. There is also the Trendnet TV-IP312W which is a day/night cam for about $200.00 Also, the above mentioned Trendnet IP400W is now the updated IP410W and sells for $199.00.

While it may look complicated, configuring Security Monitor Pro to broadcast your video on the internet is very simple. Make sure you have mapped port 4569 in your router to the IP address of the PC running Security Monitor Pro. Next, add port 4569 to the Windows Firewall on your PC as an exception. Finally make sure you have clicked Actions >> Start Broadcasting in Security Monitor Pro. You should now be able to view your video over the internet. We have an article that explains the steps in more detail with images. You can view the article here.

If you are using all 4 cameras with a wireless connection, you are likely being limited by your wireless bandwidth. The computer running Security Monitor Pro should be directly connected to your network with a wired connection. Try directly connecting at least two of the cameras to your network with a network cable. You will see a significant increase in the frames per second.

A single Security Monitor Pro 4 camera license will monitor and record from all 4 of your cameras simultaneously. You will need the 4 IP cameras, 1 PC to run Security Monitor Pro, and an internet connection. If the camera does not have settings to invert the image, Security Monitor Pro can invert it. Axis, Trendnet, D-Link, and Linksys all make good cameras that will be suitable for your needs. We have an article on selecting a security camera. You may find this article helpful: https://www.deskshare.com/resources/articles/wcm_SecurityCamera.aspx

The new Security Monitor Pro version 4 will limit the number of alerts to once every two minutes. It also allows you to specify the number of images to attach for each alert. Download the new Security Monitor Pro here

Click on Tools >> Scheduler, then click Add. You can set a one time schedule to start monitoring, recording, taking photos, or broadcasting, on Monday at 8PM and end on Tuesday at 8AM. You can also have a recurring schedule that will begin at 8PM and stop at 8AM. Remember to use 24 hour format for the time. Read more about scheduling cameras here.

The sunshine is probably varying, for instance when a cloud passes in front of the sun, which is detected as motion. Cars driving by and trees waving in the wind can also cause alerts. You can use the Mask function to block out any objects that are likely to move. If you still get too many false positive alerts, you may want to consider using continuous recording and no email alerts. You can then examine the recordings at the end of each day.

Security Monitor Pro, can record your 4 cameras from a remote location. We have published an article that you may find helpful: https://www.deskshare.com/Resources/articles/smp_MultiplePCs_Backup.aspx You can preview the cameras, record them to your external hard drive, and also broadcast their video feeds all simultaneously.

Security Monitor Pro does not support multi-port capture cards. Only the first port is detected, so only one camera will be recognized. To use multiple CCTV cameras with Security Monitor Pro, we recommend using a multi-port video encoder such as the Axis 241Q (https://www.axis.com/products/cam_241q/). This device is fully supported in our software. Using this device, you can add 4 cameras to Security Monitor Pro.

Thank you for writing. Yes, Security Monitor Pro can stream live video and audio on the web. In fact, it can stream from every connected camera simultaneously, which is a feature unique to this program. Each camera has its own URL. You can switch to watching a different camera simply by entering a different URL. We have published an article, Configuring Your PC and Network for Internet Streaming, which you may find helpful. You will need to create any camera groups yourself on a web page, referencing each by its unique URL. Security Monitor Pro only works with IP cameras. And yes, you can trigger alerts based on motion, sound, or both. Each camera can be configured with individual sensitivity settings and alerts.

We have tested the Axis 241Q 4-port video encoder, which will connect four analog security cameras to Security Monitor Pro over a network. When you add a camera to Security Monitor Pro, give the IP address of the video encoder. Once you select the Axis 241Q profile, a drop-down list of 4 cameras will appear.

Security Monitor Pro can receive audio and video from any directly-connected camera or webcam. A few IP cameras do support viewing of video with audio. There is no industry standard method for IP cameras to transmit sound. The manufacturers of the audio IP cameras are using various proprietary formats. Therefore, at this time Security Monitor Pro does not receive audio from IP cameras.

You can set Security Monitor Pro to start with Windows. A user must log in for the software to run and for recording to work. Instead of logging out, you can lock the Windows desktop. Security Monitor Pro will continue to run. Use either the Windows key + L or press Ctrl+Alt+Del and click Lock Computer to lock the desktop.

Yes, a significant flicker can trigger motion detection and cause an alert. You may be able to eliminate the flicker. Click File >> Camera Properties and see whether your camera has a setting for "Anti-Flicker" or "Light Frequency". Make sure that it matches the frequency of the wall current where you are located: 60Hz in the USA, and 50Hz in Europe.

If your networked IP camera does not appear on the list, we will be happy to add support for the camera to our software. In order to add support, we will need to test your camera. If you would like to have us support your camera in Security Monitor Pro, please mail the following information to DeskShare Support (support@deskshare.com The camera's IP address. You can find your IP address here. Any user name and password you have configured for your camera. If your camera is on a local network (LAN), you will need to enable "Port Forwarding" so that our developers can test your camera. Instructions for forwarding the appropriate ports are available here: [https://www.portforward.com/default.htm](https://www.portforward.com/default.htm)

A 640x480 still image is approximately 8kb in size. Another way to say this is that 125 still images would take up about 1 megabyte. A 1024x768 image is about 20kb, or 50 images per megabyte. Assuming you took 100 pictures per day for 30 days at 1024x768, these 3000 images would only need 60 megabytes of storage space. Even with 8 cameras, you could still store one month's images in half a gigabyte (at 100 images per day).

To record video streams from a camera using Security Monitor Pro, first add the camera using the Add Camera Wizard. In the camera's preview window, click Camera Monitoring Options. Switch to the Monitoring tab, and click Record Video. Choose a location to save your video files by clicking Browse. Now, click OK to close the Options window. To start recording this camera's video stream, click the Record button in the Preview window's icon bar.

Security Monitor Pro can preview up to 16 cameras on a single screen. It can also monitor and record from all of them simultaneously.

An updated list of supported IP cameras is available here. We recently published an article "Selecting a Security Camera" which may be helpful. New camera models are added often. If you have a camera that is not listed, and you would like to use it with DeskShare software, please contact us. DeskShare - Support

You can reduce CPU load by decreasing the frame rate for your cameras. Click on the Settings button for each camera (the button farthest to the right on the camera window). Switch to the IP Cameras tab, and use the drop-down list to choose 1 frame per second. A Pentium 3-based computer may be overtaxed when monitoring 4 cameras simultaneously. The Pentium 4 system should monitor all four without being overloaded.