How to Run Netcam Watcher Professional as a Windows Service with AlwaysUp

Netcam Watcher Professional is a fully featured Digital Video Recorder (DVR) for network cameras.

To set up Netcam Watcher Professional with AlwaysUp:

1. Download and install AlwaysUp, if necessary.

2. Download and install Netcam Watcher Professional, if necessary. Please make a note of where you installed it as this will be used in a later step.

3. Start AlwaysUp.

4. Select Application > Add to open the Add Application window:

   

5. On the General tab:

   • In the Application field, enter the full path to the Netcam Watcher executable. If you installed Netcam Watcher in the default location, this is:

     C:\Program Files\beausoft\ncwpro\ncw.exe

     or on 64-bit systems:

     C:\Program Files (x86)\beausoft\ncwpro\ncw.exe

   • In the Name field, enter the name that you will call the application in AlwaysUp. We suggest Netcam Watcher Pro but you can specify virtually anything you like.

   • In the Arguments field, add one or more of these values:
     

     -AUTOSTART this starts the cameras automatically
     -TIMER this enables the scheduler
     -ALARMS this enables the alarms
     -MINIMIZE runs the program minimized
     -NOPASSWORD skips prompting for passwords on startup
     -AUTODELAY starts all the cameras but with a 20 second delay to allow the system to full start

     You can add multiple arguments, like this:
     

     -AUTOSTART -TIMER -NOPASSWORD

   

6. If you want to use the Cambar, click over to the Logon tab and enter the username and password of the account in which you installed and use Netcam Watcher.

   

7. Click over to the Monitor tab and:

   • Check the Whenever it "hangs" for longer than box and leave the default value at 1 minute.

   • If you want to use the new Sanity Check:

     1. Check Whenever it fails a "sanity check"
     2. Click the ... button to browse to the Netcam Watcher program folder, locate the file NCWPING.BAT.
     3. Click the ... button to browse to the Netcam Watcher program folder, locate the file NCWPING.BAT and click OK.
     Use an interval of one minute or 30 seconds.

   
   

   

   

   • Click over to the Startup tab and check the Ensure that the Windows Networking components have started box. This informs AlwaysUp that Netcam Watcher needs the TCP/IP networking stack to operate.

     

   • Click the Save button. In a couple of seconds, an application called Netcam Watcher Pro will show up in the AlwaysUp window. It is not yet running though.

     

   • To start Netcam Watcher, choose Application > Start "Netcam Watcher Pro". On Windows 7, 2008 or Vista (or when connecting via RDP), you will have to choose Application > Start "Netcam Watcher Pro" in this Session to show Netcam Watcher's windows and tray icons. (More on this in the AlwaysUp FAQ.)

     

   • That's it! Next time your computer boots, Netcam Watcher will start up immediately, before anyone logs on. We encourage you to edit Netcam Watcher in AlwaysUp and check out the many other settings that may be appropriate for your environment.

Netcam Watcher Professional not working properly as a Windows Service?

• From AlwaysUp, select Application > Report Activity > Today... to bring up a HTML report detailing the interaction between AlwaysUp and your application. The AlwaysUp Event Log Messages page explains the more obscure messages.
• Consult the AlwaysUp FAQ or the Netcam Watcher Professional FAQ for answers to commonly asked questions and troubleshooting tips
• Contact the friendly and helpful folks at Beausoft, the makers of Netcam Watcher Professional.
• Contact us and we will be happy to help!