I think I may know the answer to this, but wanted to ask anyway -- say you have a house that's empty in one country, you live in another country, and you want to keep watch on the house. Everyone and their dog has a webcam set up where everyone in the world can view it.

The question is -- does the camera that's set up in your house have to be connected to a computer at that site? It would almost seem obvious, since webcams are precisely that -- web cameras.

Is it possible to have a video camera/webcam set up at your home without a computer, and still be able to access the live feed from your other home on your computer (on a motion detection basis)?

I didn't know if you could or not so I googled a little bit. It looks like you can. There are units such as this one that can be connected to via a phone or hooked to the internet via ethernet as a device on a remote machine (I think). Try googling around for 'standalone webcam'. You won't be able to use a standard webcam. It will have to have some type of built in computer and method of connecting to such as phone or ethernet.

To do such a thing the webcam would require a fixed internet address plus enough intelligence to accept and validate a connection then send pictures back. I don't think it could be done for a reasonable price.

Wouldn't really need much of that. Even a cheapie router/firewall today includes DNS etc.

Either plug the camera into the router. Wi-Fi or cable. Or build some of the router features into the camera.

No need for a fixed IP. Enough free DNS servers.

http://www.axis.com/products/cam_207/index.htm

A catalog came today and this was in the catalog.

Not cheap but considering you'd need a full time broadband connection for the camera the DSL costs would soon exceed the cost of the camera.

You would need a computer to configure the camera but that's it. At least it seems that way.

Thanks everyone for the answers! I had a feeling he would need a computer at the house that's being watched (unless I'm misreading everything), so I don't think it'll work. I often wondered how it worked when I'd see cams that said "view my dog at home while I'm at work, which is what I do to keep an eye on him while I'm away" -- I knew it wouldn't be as easy as plugging in a cam and being able to view it in another country

The one I posted would only need a computer to set up the camera. After that you wouldn't need one in the house.

Bigger issue is you'd need the net connection.