First thing is to find out the stuff that you want to turn into a surveillance system, it may be a laptop or a desktop computer. Analyse what you have, if an old working laptop with a useless camera, then we couldn’t use it for our purpose. For desktop’s, there is no video cameras are built on to it. We have to add a video camera by purchasing a new one or use an old webcam that we don’t have any use now. Next, there are a few good programs available to capture images from the camera. You can use programs like Yawcam, ispy, securityspy, etc. For a laptop, you have to adjust the screen turn off time setting to keep the laptop live when it is plugged in. Laptops are meant for long time portable use, and it’s power settings are arranged accordingly, the screen on battery power turns off after a few minutes, similarly the screen turn off after a few minutes even if your laptop is connected to a power plug. But you can change the settings by changing the power saving settings.

To change the power saver option, click on the battery icon on system tray in your laptop screen. Click power and sleep settings, you can see the option box next to the screen, asking, “on battery power turn off after”, and “when plugged in, turn off after”. change the answer to “Never”, instead of a few minutes.

If you are using an old PC, ensure it has internet connectivity, USB port to connect the camera (one camera per port), a hard drive with a minimum of 40/100Gb storage capacity. There are kits available to connect multiple cameras to your computer.

Alarms for home – Setting Up

• The first step is to check the places you want to fix the camera. Take a quick tour of your premises and spot the locations.
• Switch on your PC clean up the system and remove unwanted applications, keep the only essential applications that a system needs.
• Connect a webcam to your PC and check the intended item is to be monitored, like your children, your pets or your garden. If you want a panoramic view of a place or room fixes the webcam at a height that gives you a better coverage.
• Carry out a Preview check. You can do this by using the camera monitor’s Preview window.
• Configure the application for your need, like sending Emails or SMS when motion detected, etc. (read webcam monitor configuration settings)

Webcam Monitor
(http://www.deskshare.com/wcm.aspx)

Webcam monitor is a surveillance software detects motion and triggers alerts that can record video and audio of the incident, notify you by e-mail or text message, or sound an audible alarm.  It can also begin recording at pre-set intervals to maintain a record of events. It’s as simple as connecting a camera to your PC.  Using the configuration wizard, you can easily set up and running in minutes. WebCam Monitor can automatically upload recorded video, audio, and photos to a server.  Video can also be streamed live over the Internet, letting you monitor events from any computer with an Internet connection. Professional security features include automatic time-stamping of recorded video and photos.  All monitored activity is displayed in an event log for quick reference.  The Auto Delete function lets you keep a “last number of days” set of recordings and photos, without risking filling your hard disk and without having to manually track and delete files.

Yawcam
(http://www.yawcam.com/)
Yawcam is short for Yet Another WebCAM software, is a webcam software for Windows written in Java. The programmers of  Yawcam keeps it simple and easy to use but to include all the usual features like video streaming, image snapshots, built-in web server, motion detection, Ftp-upload, text and image overlays, password protection and other features.

iSPY
(https://www.ispyconnect.com/)
iSPY is an open source Video Surveillance software for windows to control your cameras and access live video and recorded content from anywhere in the world. Main features of this software, unlimited cameras, and microphones (including IP and USB cameras), Motion Detection, motion processing, recording, scheduling, audio, remote Access, network audio broadcasting, password protection, desktop recording, YouTube uploading, cloud uploading, FTP, SFTP, SMS, Twitter and Email alerts. You can use the ispy user guide to install and configure the software.

ContaCam
(https://www.contaware.com/)
This is also a free Video Surveillance and Live Webcam software for Windows, it is light on system resources, and does not contain unnecessary bloat. It is fast, light, and versatile enough to meet all your security needs while still being very user-friendly and able to run on even the most moderate systems.

There are other programs like EyeLine Video Surveillance Software offering monitoring and recording 100+ camera sources simultaneously with motion detection recording which saves space by only recording when something is happening, and it will send Email or SMS alerts when motion detection happens!

You can find a number of similar software’s online. Most of them have all the features but with a price to enjoy all the features. Look for a lightweight software that requires less hardware requirements to use with your old system. Do you want to edit your videos? You can use easy to use video editing applications like, Movavi Video Editor or Corel Video Studio to edit or trim your videos. To take screenshot of the video with its settings, you can use a screen capture tool.

Online content theft is a common issue these days. Identity theft happens when a hacker gains access to your personal information like your full name, address, date of birth, bank details, etc. for stealing your money or for some other purpose. This may happen by illegally accessing the information that you are sharing online. Your privacy at risk, as search engines and other apps, reading and accessing your personal information for showing relevant advertisements.

You can use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) service to prevent any chance of others prying on your connection. If you are using public Wi-Fi, using a VPN will prevent snoopers from collecting your personal information. You can overcome web censorship imposed by several countries and can access location restricted contents. For Example, you can manipulate your IP with an IP address location specific to the US with your VPN, you can access Netflix and other streaming services outside from USA.

Installing NordVPN
I will show you how to download and install the NordVPN application to your Windows PC in simple steps. You can easily log in and connect to their servers to access secure internet.

First, download the NordVPN application. Open your downloads folder to find the downloaded application and double-click the NordVPN Setup.exe installation file. A new window might pop up asking “Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?”. Select ‘Yes’. The installer window will open and click ‘Install’ on the first screen. The installer will proceed with the installation process.

After installation, the NordVPN application will start, and appear in a new window. You can also see the shortcut to the application on your Windows desktop.

Setting up NordVPN application
Now, click on the NordVPN application logo on your desktop. Once the application window opens, enter your credentials. Click ‘Login’. You can see the main application screen with servers list and the map. On the top bar, you can navigate through servers, application settings and access servers search feature. There is the Quick Connect button at the bottom. The Quick Connect button will automatically connect you to the server recommended for you. The smart Quick Connect algorithm of the application chooses the best possible option for you at that moment. You can also connect to a server in a specific country by clicking on the country pin on the map. Once connected, the country pin on the map lights up in green, and the Quick Connect status label says that you are connected and shows your new IP address.

Do you want to connect to a specific server? Click the Search button at the top right corner of the application. In the search field, enter a country, a category or a specific server’s number with a hashtag (#) to find what you need.

After a successful connection, you can close the application window. Don’t worry, you can still access the NordVPN from the system tray at the bottom right corner of your computer screen. If it might be hidden in the tray, you can find it and open with the upwards arrow in the tray. Use right-click in the NordVPN system tray icon, you can see the basic controls like quick-connector disconnect, view and reconnect to the recently selected servers, open or quit the application. Go to the ‘Settings’ tab, you can easily configure the application.

NordVPN has won the awards for Best VPN Overall and Best Customer Service from BestVPN.com. Get NordVPN Now.

For this, you don’t want to spend a few thousand rupees to purchase the costlier instruments and cameras. You can do it by using your own old computer and using an old webcam. Interested? Then if you think of setting up a surveillance system but were put off by the huge expense, then this free solution is right for you to set up a nice video surveillance system with your old or new PC. To detect the movements you need good surveillance software. There is a big number of such surveillance software available on the market. But selecting the best one is the key, as the detection algorithms used in some surveillance software are too primitive and highly sensitive. Such faulty software will activate every time when small living objects like rats or wind blow across the system. You can use these systems to monitor offices, buildings, retail stores, entrances, pets, and your children’s rooms.

iSpy
(iSpy Website ; iSpy in Sourceforge) – Download iSpy
The first software we want to mention is iSPy, due to its free and opensource availability. We don’t want to spend our reader’s money unnecessarily, so we choose the iSpy software. If you are ready to spend more, you can check other tools explained below, which may have more options than this one.  iSpy software uses your USB webcams, IP cams, capture cards, desktops, and microphones to detect and record movement or sound and provides security, surveillance, monitoring, and alerting services. The video is recorded directly to H264 mp4 files or AVI files. The software can stream live and recorded video over the local network, over the web using the ispyconnect portal, and to mobile devices and third party software. iSpy also includes a server project that lets you connect to USB webcams and microphones running on other computers. iSpyConnect provides subscription-based SMS, MMS, Email, YouTube uploads, and Remote Access. LAN usage of iSpyConnect is free, but others have a nominal fee. iSpy will let you add an unlimited number of cameras and microphones, but you should keep an eye on the performance counters on the status bar of iSpy as they will tell you when you are running out of memory or CPU. The CPU can spike when recording video and encoding. If you are worried about the system resources then you can also set a maximum CPU target value in settings, by default this is set to 90%. This means that when your CPU usage goes over 90%, iSpy will start reducing the frame rates of your cameras to help protect against a crash. Once the CPU drops back below 90% iSpy will increase the frame rates again. The software currently works on Windows-based PCs and is tested on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 but may work on other Windows Variants that support the .Net Framework v4 client.

Yawcam
(Yawcam Website)
Yawcam, a free web surveillance application having features like motion detection and video recording. Setting up Yawcam is pretty easy, first install the app, then select the built-in webcam for your laptop/netbook. The software can send email notifications when it detects a motion. For that, you do the configuration for sending the email from the software so that it sends you an e-mail whenever it detects motion. Yawcam software is written in Java and is completely free to use.

EyeLine Video Surveillance Software
(Eyeline website)
EyeLine Video Surveillance Software is a feature-rich video monitoring and recording software. You can record a single security camera or you can manage a 100+ camera system easily. Eyeline software is ideal for video monitoring of offices, buildings, retail stores, and as home security for monitoring property, entrances, pets, and children’s rooms. You can view camera footage on-site or from a remote location, that is you can monitor your home from your office or vice versa. It has the ability to use automatic motion detection on individual cameras and easily set up each camera is possible with just a click of a button. The recorded surveillance video can be compressed and archived. It works perfectly with both USB cameras and networked IP cameras. The software works well on Windows 7, XP, Vista, and Windows 8, the only thing you have to bother about is the availability of adequate USB ports for cameras.

Vitamin D
(Vitamin D website)
Vitamin D is a video surveillance software that lets you set up your desktop webcam, laptop’s camera, or network camera, into the surveillance system. This software constantly records the videos but saves only when a relevant object is detected. It has a feature that eliminates false positives. Vitamin D has some options which allow the users to specify the size of objects that will trigger events. You can also set up detection windows to only monitor activity in specified areas of the video frame. The selection process can be done with a simple wizard-style interface. You can also do some specific tasks by giving a set of instructions to Vitamin D, like a parking lot to be monitored for vehicles arriving or wanting a door to be monitored for people leaving. Vitamin D Video detects people and moving objects in video, but only the single-camera version is free.

Webcamxp
(Webcamxp website)
Webcamxp can access from PC or from mobile, it supports a large list of network cameras. Always keep an eye on your goods from anywhere by turning your computer into a security system and using other computers or your mobile phone. You can also use webcamXP to broadcast live video to your website, to schedule automatic captures or recordings, or to schedule specific actions using the motion detector. We offer the largest list of supported network cameras on the market and best of all, it is free for private use with a single video source.

Easy Video Surveillance
(Easy Video Surveillance – Sourceforge)
Software for video surveillance that can manage multiple webcams and IP cameras through an easy interface. It can record it’s videos continuously or using motion detection. The software alerts can activate an email or an IP video call.

Hardware Requirements
Hardware recommendations for using this software vary a lot depending on the software features, how many cameras and microphones you are going to be using at any given time, etc.. A modern PC with 2GB of RAM and 200 GB of free hard disk space should be more than capable of running four cameras simultaneously at 320 x 240 resolution. Of course the better the hardware the better results you will get from the software. You can refer to the connecting cameras guide from iSpy is used to connect and set up cameras to your PC. Sometimes you need to apply some intelligence to work the system flawlessly. You will usually only be able to add one USB camera from a particular manufacturer. For example, if you have two USB webcams from the same manufacturer only one will work at a time. This is due to limitations in the drivers provided by the manufacturers. Use USB cameras from different manufacturers – for example, you could use three USB cameras simultaneously if you use one from Microsoft, one from Logitech, and one from another manufacturer. All these depend on software.

What do you think about this technique? Can you set up a surveillance system based on this method? Share your experience, suggestions, and comments here.

Suppose you need to remember many passwords. You need a password for the Windows network logon, your e-mail account, your website’s FTP password, online passwords (like website member account), etc. etc. etc. The list is endless. Also, you should use different passwords for each account. Because if you use only one password everywhere and someone gets this password you have a problem… A serious problem. The thief would have access to your e-mail account, website, etc. Unimaginable.

Desktop Based

• Keepass Password safe

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).KeePass is really free, and more than that: it is open source.You can have a look at its full source and check whether the encryption algorithms are implemented correctly.

Keepass Download

• SX password Suite

SX Password Suite is a slightly different application but it is also worth mentioning, The SX password suite tool pack that allows you to recover that information which is automatically filled in by the browser and we don’t usually remember: name and password for different sites and services.The pack includes different applications, each one is good for a different browser. No matter the one you use: IE, Opera, Chrome, Safari or Firefox.Use the one you need and don’t loose those passwords. It’s easy.You only have to choose the folder where the browser is installed and click ‘Start recovery’ button. 5 seconds later you’ll have a list of names and passwords.SX Password Suite can be really useful if you are planning to change the browser or to format the computer. It is also a free program.

Download SX Password Suite ; View Keepass complete features

• Password safe-Password Manager

Password Safe is a password manager that keeps all your passwords and personal data secure with 256-bit encryption.Access your passwords securely with Password Safe – install in Windows or use the portable USB thumb drive version.Password Safe is a great personal data management tool. One ‘Master Password’ is all that is needed to access all your passwords and personal information. You can use it to store,Web site passwords,Credit card and PIN numbers,Computer logon passwords,Telephone banking codes,E-mail passwords,Software access passwords,Door entry and alarm codes,etc. Manage your passwords with Password Safe’s secure access; drag and drop your KeePass compatible passwords to web pages and other software.  Strong encryption keeps your information safe and secure.

Manage your password entries with the searchable list. A password entry can be a combination of URL, your user name, and your password, which in Internet Explorer can be used to automatically log you into websites.The Password Generator can generate random passwords of any length you specify. Random passwords are secure and much harder to compromise. Password Safe remembers all your passwords for you.Password Safe gives you the security, freedom and flexibility to carry all your passwords, contacts, personal information and bookmarks, which you can use on any Windows computer simply by connecting the USB thumb drive.Password Safe has an optional on-screen keyboard which protects your data entry and preventing keyboard sniffers from discovering what you type.Password Safe has powerful Advanced search option which will search all parts of your password entry and present the results on a Google style list.Password Safe can also be run as a portable application from your USB Flash or Thumb drive.

Download Password Safe  ; Password safe USB download

• Password Safe

Password Safe is multi award winning password protecting tool, it allows you to safely and easily create a secured and encrypted user name/password list. With Password Safe all you have to do is create and remember a single “Master Password” of your choice in order to unlock and access your entire user name/password list.Security starts with you, the user. Keeping written lists of passwords on scraps of paper, or in a text document on your desktop is unsafe and is easily viewed by prying eyes (both cyber-based and human). Using the same password over and over again across a wide spectrum of systems and web sites creates the nightmare scenario where once someone has figured out one password, they have figured out all your passwords and now have access to every part of your life (system, e-mail, retail, financial, work).

Password Safe allows you to manage your old passwords and to easily and quickly generate, store, organize, retrieve, and use complex new passwords, using password policies that you control. Once stored, your user names and passwords are just a few clicks away.Using Password Safe you can organize your passwords using your own customizable references—for example, by user ID, category, web site, or location. You can choose to store all your passwords in a single encrypted master password list (an encrypted password database), or use multiple databases to further organize your passwords (work and home, for example). And with its intuitive interface you will be up and running in minutes.Desktop version of Password Safe is freely available under open source license.

Download Password Safe – Free

Online Based

• Passpack

Store passwords securely online. Better than your memory. More durable than paper.Securely share passwords with people and groups. Easy for families. An affordable alternative to SSO for businesses. You can invite the people you trust and work with so that you can share passwords with them when need be.Passpack works with the latest stable versions of Google Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer 7+.

With Passpack you can share one (or batches!) of passwords with single people or with entire groups.Every Passpack account comes equipped with a personal Passpack It! button. Install it on as many computers as you’d like, then 1 Click Login to all of your websites. Passpack supports  thousands of websites, with more added every day – you can even add one yourself.You can use the free account to store 100 passwords, it supports one shared user, one group and three travel logins. The pro pack starts with 1.5$ per month onwards.

View the full features list

• Lastpass

Lastpass is an online password protection tool. Your LastPass master password is the only password you’ll ever need.Easily log into your websites seamlessly with a single click of your mouse button.Set up multiple ‘profiles’ and automatically fill your personal information into web forms accurately and safely with lastpass.Your sensitive data is encrypted on your PC. Only your LastPass password can unlock your data and only YOU have it.Your LastPass vault isn’t limited to only securely storing usernames and passwords – ANY confidential text data can be placed in your vault for safe keeping.Securely share logins with friends and let them share logins with you and never worry about sending sensitive login credential by email ever again.Securely backup your data to a USB key and use Firefox Portable or LastPass Pocket to use your data directly from the USB key.Enter your password using your mouse on a virtual screen keyboard to protect yourself from keyloggers and key sniffers or use One Time Passwords.

A universal windows installer is available. The Universal Windows installer installs browser extensions for Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome. It also allows you to easily create a LastPass account and import your existing passwords. It’s the best way to install LastPass on Windows. The 64 bit installer includes 32 bit IE installer.

Lastpass online ; Lastpass Download

• Clipperz Community

Clipperz Community Edition allows you to host on your own server a web service identical to Clipperz online password manager. It’s open source and released under an AGPL license.

Check Clipperz Community

What you think about this type of software based and online password managers. Which password manager you use for storing your passwords? what you think about the reliability and security of online password and offline suites ?