In a poll conducted recently 158 FlexiHub users said that they use it to share a webcam over network among their Windows machines. This number surprised me, so I decided to see if there are good online guides on how to do it. Google search returned websites with questions and answers, but a proper guide was nowhere to be found. I came across questions of two types – some wanted to gain full control over another PC webcam while others wanted to know how to stream an image from one computer to another or directly to the network.
76% of Windows users suppose that to allow a remote computer access a webcam, one needs to spend a lot of time adjusting Windows settings. But if you were wondering if there is a software that can share webcam over LAN easily - there is one!
To share USB webcam over network, download FlexiHub and install it on both of your computers. Anyway, you shouldn’t worry about your OS - the app supports Windows, macOS and Linux.
Below are the best techniques and tips I picked to share with you.
You may be wondering why is it necessary to create an account when you just want to share your webcam. The answer is you need an account to share devices over network instead of LAN. All devices are shared in your account and won't be openly available to everyone over local network or Internet.
Back to your camera and software.
dpkg -i [package]
dpkg -i [package]
sudo apt-get update
apt-get install -f
dpkg -i [package]
yum install [package]
$ sudo apt-get install vlc
$ sudo yum install vlc
$ cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
$ sudo wget http://pkgrepo.linuxtech.net/el6/release/linuxtech.repo
$ sudo yum install vlc
/dev/video0.
$ ls /dev/video*
/dev/video0
$ vlc v4l2:///dev/video0
$ vlc
/dev/video0
for webcam, and hw:0,0 for audio. Tick "Show more options" checkbox and make a note of value strings in "MRL" and "Edit Options" fields. These strings will be used later in the tutorial. Click "Stream" button.v4l2:///dev/video
, and click "Next" to continue.$ sudo netstat -nap | grep 8080
http:// <ip_address_of_webcam_host>:8080/stream.wmv
$ vlc http:// <ip_address_of_webcam_host>:8080/stream.wmv
$ mplayer http:// <ip_address_of_webcam_host>:8080/stream.wmv