i want to host my own website from home, so i am probably going to look into that dydns, or freedns or opendns. i want to host my own website from home, i want to have a live webcam with sound, what equipment do i need to buy??

Hi, here's what you'll might want to consider: - Suggest that you use your desktop PC, rather than a laptop, to be your web hosting server with a high-speed Internet connection (no dial-up). - If your desktop PC doesn't have a built-in Web cam, then you can purchase a Web cam (e.g. Logitech) and install the software from the manufacturer to run it on your computer. Often this software can be downloaded from the Web cam manufacturer's site. - Install a web server app. Suggest Apache software, which is what most servers use. - Load your site files to the public folder. If you have a router, suggest that you configure the forwarding of port 80 from the router to the hosting server. - Check the FTP settings for the Web cam image. - If you have a domain name don't forget to link it to your computer's IP address through your domain registrar's system. - Code the HTML page with your Web cam image to refresh its content automatically with this meta tag in your header section. For example, if you want to refresh your Web cam every 5 seconds, use: <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5" /> <meta http-equiv="expires" content="0" /> Don't forget to create an image tag. Here's an example to put in between open and close brackets: img src="yourwebcampicture.jpg" width="50" height="50" border="0" alt="This is the Web Cam Picture" Hint: Make sure that the width and height of the image tag doesn't compromise the quality of the image by resizing the Web cam image.

I will probably use a Win2003 server with IIS. what about sound? will the webcam have sound built into it? i want it to display on the web page a person playing a musical instrument, so viewers should see and hear what is being played.

Hi, here's a way to do both audio and visual: - For hardware: Buy a web camera with audio capabilities and install it on your PC per the manufacturer's instructions. Make sure that your drivers are installed properly. Suggest using a desktop PC for your server with a broadband Internet connection. - Download Microsoft Windows Media Encoder and follow the instructions for installation. This is a free media encoder that enables you to capture live or pre-recorded audio and video for streaming over the Internet. Hint: Windows Media Encoder uses port 8080, so either make sure that this port is available or configure another available port - Forward your port so that external IP requests for your web cam go to the IP and port that you defined for streaming. - Start the encoding button to enable viewing your broadcast - Create and upload a web page that displays your broadcast using Windows Media Player