Internet connection, USB Cam

[darkkness]

Hello, i am using a USB webcam, and it works.

However, the application closes with errors if there is no internet. Why is internet needed for a USB cam? Ive tried disabling internet via firewall, and manually disconnecting the cable; the result is the same. Without internet, it will fail to start (error:encountered problem), or it will shutdown if internet is disabled while it is running.

I only have the trial, and one camera, perhaps its anti-piracy measures? to kill the program if some kind of verification fails?

I would really like to connect this to a stand alone desktop without internet. Not possible with this software? I looked, but didn't find any info about internet being a requirement? (obvious with IP CAM, but it supports USB webcam so im confused....)

thank you for any support

[Joe]

Hi Darkkness,

I use a standalone desktop PC not connected to the internet with a single USB camera on my home security setup. I also use the VDV free version and it works fine for me, so it certainly is possible.

One thing you can check is to make sure that your firewall program is not trying to block VDV from attempting to access the internet, even if your machine is not currently connected to the internet.

I used to run the ZONE ALARM free firewall program on my machine, and I had to go into the ZONE ALARM program settings and specifically "ALLOW" VDV permission to access the internet on startup (even though my machine was not hooked up to the net) or the VDV program would fail to launch just as you described. Once I granted those "ALWAYS ALLOW" permissions, the program started and ran fine from then on.

That particular machine with one USB camera attached, has not been connected to the internet for well over a year, and VDV has been running great on it the whole time without any problems.

Also make sure your computer has sufficient RAM memory installed to run the VDV program and the camera effectively. I had a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 PC running Windows XP Pro with 1Gb of RAM and VDV ran fine with the one USB camera. Maybe just comment back and let the staff know what your own machine's specs are in case that turns out to be an issue.

Either way, good luck to you. I have been very happy with that simple kind of standalone setup myself.

[darkkness]

Joe, for taking the time to post a detailed helpful reply, Thank you!

Indeed it was Zonealarm! simple alterations of some settings fixed it. Some time ago, I found out Vitamin D was able to change permissions of ZA by itself, and I hastily retaliated :p ... upon looking over some things, it worked great without internet.

I applaud you sir! Thank you! i didnt even expect get a reply.

[Joe]

No problem Darkkness, glad I could help a bit. The regular support Staff here are exceptional and will promptly answer any question you have about getting your own particular VDV setup to work. I am just a regular user like you and only chimed in because it sounded a lot like the minor problem I had when I first started using VDV. I should thank you too, actually helping out someone here makes me feel a little wee bit less guilty about just using the free version of VDV all this time!

[ryan]

Thanks for the reply Joe! No need to feel guilty, we wouldn't have a free version if we didn't want people to use it. Just remember to mention us if a friend or family member ever buys some shiny new cameras for their house.

And darkkness, just to respond to something you mentioned:

Some time ago, I found out Vitamin D was able to change permissions of ZA by itself, and I hastily retaliated :p

I'm not sure exactly what you saw but Vitamin D Video does not interact with any other software installed on your machine. Nor would be able to even if we tried! It would be lovely and solve a number of user problems like this if we could just ask the firewall to let us through, but it wouldn't be a very good firewall if that actually worked...

Thanks,
- ryan