IP Camera over the internet excessive usage

[kempy1000]

I currently have two Foscam IP cameras connected over the internet to a server in my office. (Its another building too far away for LAN) just this week I got an email from my Office ISP saying I had crossed my 20GB monthly download limit. Im only a week into this month!

I guessed this must be due to the cameras. I turned them off ran iptraf and vnstat, had a poke around, turned them on, had a poke around. Each remote camera is bringing in about 250kB/sec... is this reasonable? Running about 6FPS and at 320x240 resolution.

I used to use a windows program called iSpy. This never had the problem but im much more of a fan of a linux server and Zoneminder so don't want to go back!

Is there anything I can do to help prevent this?

[jameswilson]

Were you using a different stream from the camera before. ispy uses the aforge .net library for image grabbing. Which is very good. But there may be more bandwidth efficient ways of you getting your stream.

[kempy1000]

I used the same method. A http stream from my ip camera.

iSpy did seem to offer a slightly less lagged live feed I wonder if this is related too.

[tkalfaoglu]

It seems cameras have two methods, stream and snapshot. you may wish to try the snapshot, and limit the FPS and Alarm FPS.. see if that helps.. -t

[Flasheart]

Just do the maths.

Get the size of a jpg. Multiply that by 6, then again by 86400 - that's the amount of bandwidth (plus some more for control/overhead) you're using per day. Not surprising you're capping out 20gb.

6fps is A LOT for going over a metered connection. I use 0.25 to 1fps when I have to do it, but I prefer to keep within the lan where possible.