Make your own video baby monitor with skype

Now you can create your very own video baby monitor using Skype. If you have the infrastructure in your home already then you wont have any expenses. Meaning that your baby monitor will be free.

1. First things first. Set up your webcam on your PC or netbook. If you have a webcam you most probably would have done this already. Make sure that the audio is also enabled.
2. Download and install skype. You can also download it to your Android phone or any phone that can run Skype. Create an Skype account for your baby.
3. Sign in with the account you created for you baby. Now you have to customize your Skype settings. Go to tools and then options.

•  Under General Settings, choose "Start Skype when I start Windows" This is dependant on your operating system. 

• Under Video Settings, choose "Automatically receive video and screen sharing from...people in my Contact list only."

• Under Privacy settings, choose to only allow people in your contact list. Then click on the "Show Advanced Options" button.
  

• Now in the advanced privacy settings select "people in my Contact list only" for all settings.

• Now click on the Call Settings tab and select "Only allow people on my Contact list to call me". After that click on "Show Advanced Options" button.

• Select "Answer incoming calls automatically" and "Start my video automatically when I am in a call".

• Do not forget to save all the settings, otherwise all your work will be in vain.

   4. You must add your own Skype account to the contact list of your baby`s account and vise versa
 
You might want to keep the volume low on the computer that will be in the baby`s room as you do not want to wake him or her up when they are sleeping.

You can now phone your baby and it should answer the call and start the video stream if everything was set up correctly. There are some other things you can do to make this whole system work nicely in your favour. If you have a phone that can run Skype like a Blackberry or Android phone you could use the phone as a mobile baby monitor wherever you are as long as you have a wifi connection or a 3G signal.You could also monitor your baby from your home office so you can get some work done or you could keep an eye on the little one from work, basically anywhere there is an internet connection and a PC. You can also place a Skype enabled phone in the baby`s room of a computer is too noisy.

Hopefully this will help you to keep a better eye on your baby and give you that extra peace of mind.

Article source and pictures from wikihow.com .