seanqc

Hey, So this is the first time I have to deal with CCTV. I'm a computer technician by trade and was recently called up by a regular client to have a look at his CCTV system. Before I go any further, here's his setup: -6 cameras -Connected by coaxial to a pc that has two Ether10104 cards in it -Nothing special about the pc it's connected to, just a run of the mill HP -Absolutely no idea what kind of software was used to run the system, O/S was probably Windows XP, but i'm not sure -The guy who set him up initially is no longer in business -The computer has two hard drives, one that has the O/S and software (and failed), one that stored the video. The drive with the video has one DVR_Media directory, a Video subdirectory, then folders for each day of the week and camera. The actual .DVR files have filenames that would lead me to believe that the camera continuously records everything in 10 second clips. He had been getting an error message when booting up his computer (SMART failure, which basically means his hard drive was about to fail). This is something I've often seen before so I figured there was a good chance the data on the drive was still good. I was hoping I could clone the drive onto a new one, and have it back to him within a couple days. The drive was a little bit more damaged then I thought though, and I couldn't save any of the data on it. So now my only choice would be to reinstall XP, reinstall whatever software is needed to control the cameras, and configure it with his existing setup. I'm a little lost, so basically I would need a bit of help. How easy would this be to setup? What kind of software do I need? How much time would it take me to set this up? and btw, the client has no copies of the previous software and has no idea what it was. thanks a million, -Sean

haha, the economics of Montreal vs. Vancouver... Just a heads up to any future computer technicians who may come across this thread, here's what I did to the system to get it CCTV-ready: -Changed Power Options in bios to boot up on power loss, also turned off any power saving features -Installed Windows -Activated Windows -Installed latest drivers -Performed all updates -Disabled Automatic Updates (to prevent any kind of rebooting) -Disabled Power Saving features (except for turning screen off) -Installed CCTV software -Made sure port was open in Windows Firewall -Set up the computer with a static IP (through the router) -Made sure port was open in router (set up as DMZ) -Set up dyndns on router to allow remote viewing (note: Was not able to test this from within their network, had to use a proxy to verify functionality) that's all I can remember for now, good luck!

Thanks for the advice, I was able to get his system back up and running. I charged $40/hour for 4 hours of work. Is that what this type of service normally costs? I'm thinking I could have charged a bit more.

I've just come across the following: Is this basically all I need? http://www.wapa.cc/html/en/product/01/2010/0604/107.html ty, -Sean