We just set up a web cam for the pups! They have a doggie door and come in/out when they please (to the back porch area, not the house). I want to be able to keep an eye on them and on our property when we're not there.
It was easy to set up and be able to view it within our network at home (via my iphone) - but being able to see it online took a short call to tech support. So far, it's pretty good. Refreshes every 3 seconds. Panasonic provides a URL to host it at, for free.
We got this one because we need to mount 2 cameras to see the entire yard (it's an L shape) and need to mount it outdoors. This is the outdoors version, sadly more expensive than indoors ones. We're watching this one for a few days before we buy camera 2. Seems pretty easy to add up to 16 cameras to the system. It's powered through the network cable, so only one cable to run outdoors. I'm thinking of getting a 3rd one to watch their crates when they're indoors.
It definitely looks waaay better in daylight than when I had it pointing at the dogs in the kitchen at night under artificial light (still clear but washed out color).
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-BL-C140A-Outdoor-MPEG-4-Network/dp/B001BBR546
Anyone else have any webcam suggestions?