Author Topic: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?  (Read 20293 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Stratocaster

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
    • WU Station ID INEWPROV18
What many of us feared is apparently coming true. Leaves me with a bad taste since I bought my cam from a link on WU's own site. So they got a % of that sale  :roll:

So, my question:
As someone who is not really a computer geek, how does one go about setting up the Ambient Weather (aka Foscam) IP camera to upload to a site where it can be displayed?
Can it be done on AmbientWeather.org's own site?
Or do we need to purchase a website domain and somehow make our cam appear there?

Any and all suggestions welcomed! Thanks....
Mike
WU Station ID INEWPROV18
Nassau, Bahamas

Offline ocala

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 4383
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #1 on: November 12, 2017, 11:53:56 AM »
Wow I didn't know that.
They are certainly opening up or getting rid  of bandwidth with discontinuing Wunder Photos, Weather Radio, and Webcams.
The blues had a baby and they named it Rock & Roll

Online PaulMy

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 5509
    • KomokaWeather
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #2 on: November 12, 2017, 12:03:17 PM »
There are other sites that do display webcams like
https://www.webcams.travel/webcam/1325004000-Weather-Komoka%2C-ON-Canada-Komoka
http://www.webcamgalore.com/EN/webcam/Canada/Komoka/24859.html
The image is uploaded to my site and Webcams.travel uses the URL to my image www.komokaweather.com/weather/wu/image_wu.jpg.  And, if I recall correctly, it can use the external IP address through your router instead of a website URL i.e. http://99.239.0.131:8888

Those aren't geared to weather and have a lot of advertising.

Enjoy,
Paul

Offline Bushman

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 7549
    • Eagle Bay Weather
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #3 on: November 12, 2017, 12:14:28 PM »
No loss AFAIAC.  There are lots of weather-oriented webcam sites out there.  Like weatherusa.com or weather-webcam.com
Need low cost IP monitoring?  http://wirelesstag.net/wta.aspx?link=NisJxz6FhUa4V67/cwCRWA or PM me for 50% off Wirelesstags!!

Offline Stratocaster

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
    • WU Station ID INEWPROV18
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #4 on: November 12, 2017, 12:51:39 PM »
Yes but I have an IP cam, which is a little more complicated (ironically!).
Mike
WU Station ID INEWPROV18
Nassau, Bahamas

Offline ValentineWeather

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6364
    • Valentine Nebraska's Real-Time Weather
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #5 on: November 12, 2017, 01:45:55 PM »
Well that will sure cut down on complaints about WU dramatically.  =D>
I've know for long time they were overextended on bandwidth and stopped sending images.

Randy

Offline saratogaWX

  • Administrator
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 9257
  • Saratoga, CA, USA Weather - free PHP scripts
    • Saratoga-Weather.org
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #6 on: November 12, 2017, 03:35:07 PM »
I switched from FTP to WU-get-the-image today.  I noticed that ImageSalsa was showing FTP upload errors and it was due to concurrent connections -- over 200 were trying and only 50 were allowed.  I think they squeezed back the FTP server's connection limit and that is what is causing so many upload failures.

It is genuinely sad that they're discontinuing the webcam service in December.  Oh well, one less thing to upload.
Ken True/Saratoga, CA, USA main site: saratoga-weather.org
Davis VP1+ FARS, Blitzortung RED, GRLevel3, WD, WL, VWS, Cumulus, Meteobridge
Free weather PHP scripts/website templates - update notifications on Twitter saratogaWXPHP

Offline ConligWX

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 836
  • #conligwx
    • conligwx.org
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #7 on: November 12, 2017, 04:33:46 PM »
Personally I am glad it is going, they never had it running consistently. WU have only themselves to blame.
Regards Simon
Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus (6162UK) • Daytime FARS • WeatherLink Live • AirLink • PurpleAir PA-II-SD • CumulusMX •


Offline antstrafer

  • Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 125
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #8 on: November 12, 2017, 05:23:53 PM »
Personally I am glad it is going, they never had it running consistently. WU have only themselves to blame.


Ditto
Davis Vantage Pro2 plus     Meteobridge

CWOP FW5142    PWS THAI817    MADIS F5142
WU KTXTHALI2    AWEKAS           weatherobs

Offline Mapantz

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 756
    • Wareham Weather
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #9 on: November 12, 2017, 06:40:58 PM »
Yes but I have an IP cam

Me too. No problems sending my webcam image to MetOffice WoW and WeatherCloud. The MetOffice also combine your images for a timelapse for each day, at 15 minute intervals. I use a tiny php script to get my CGIProxy.fcgi image from my Foscam, then just supply those networks with a link to the page.

I also do the same as Paul, provide the link to webcams.travel


Offline ValentineWeather

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6364
    • Valentine Nebraska's Real-Time Weather
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #10 on: November 12, 2017, 08:17:31 PM »
Any link or statement from WU confirming this is true? Weather Underground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15
Randy

Offline opsmanager

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 5
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #11 on: November 13, 2017, 06:03:47 AM »
Is there a link to this news somewhere?  I can't seem to find any evidence that webcams are going away...  Thanks

Offline Stratocaster

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
    • WU Station ID INEWPROV18
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #12 on: November 13, 2017, 06:19:39 AM »
Is there a link to this news somewhere?  I can't seem to find any evidence that webcams are going away...  Thanks

Post #127 in this thread: http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=32830.msg336184#new
« Last Edit: November 13, 2017, 06:29:37 AM by Stratocaster »
Mike
WU Station ID INEWPROV18
Nassau, Bahamas

Offline Stratocaster

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
    • WU Station ID INEWPROV18
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #13 on: November 13, 2017, 06:45:35 AM »
It seems to me that there is an easy solution that WU could try before simply cutting the cord.

Over 1,000,000 images are uploaded from webcams every day.

This overloads their servers. So, bandwidth and storage are the issue.

Why not do two things:
1. Every webcam can only upload one image every 15 minutes. That would cut traffic by 75%.
2. DON'T store videos of all the day's (or month's, or year's)  images.

This would (speaking as a layman) make sense to try before simply abandoning such an important feature.
Mike
WU Station ID INEWPROV18
Nassau, Bahamas

Offline ValentineWeather

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6364
    • Valentine Nebraska's Real-Time Weather
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #14 on: November 13, 2017, 10:05:53 AM »
Here is the email dated November 11, 2017 to one of the members saying announcement will be Wednesday November 15, 2017 .

"Hi David, thanks for all your reporting of issues with webcams over the past few months. Due to the difficulty we've had maintaining this feature, its negative ROI, and the downsizing of our staff, it has been decided to drop the webcam feature from WU on December 15. An announcement will go up on our webcam page on Wednesday. I'm sorry to see this feature go."
Randy

Offline Bushman

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 7549
    • Eagle Bay Weather
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #15 on: November 13, 2017, 11:17:59 AM »
"Negative ROI " says it all.
Need low cost IP monitoring?  http://wirelesstag.net/wta.aspx?link=NisJxz6FhUa4V67/cwCRWA or PM me for 50% off Wirelesstags!!

Offline jpk1018

  • Senior Contributor
  • ****
  • Posts: 202
  • http://www.madrussianweather.com/#
    • Mad Russian
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #16 on: November 13, 2017, 12:02:02 PM »
I say F*** them never had any intentions of keeping it the way it was when they bought it. Oh but they sure like your data.

Offline waiukuweather

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1072
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #17 on: November 13, 2017, 01:14:49 PM »
I suspect more changes at WU to come yet

Offline Jáchym

  • Meteotemplate Developer
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 8605
    • Meteotemplate
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #18 on: November 13, 2017, 01:36:53 PM »
If their goal is to shut down all services which are buggy and unreliable I think they could call it a day altogether

Offline antstrafer

  • Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 125
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #19 on: November 13, 2017, 01:50:10 PM »
No, no it's all about ..........well: R    O     I
Davis Vantage Pro2 plus     Meteobridge

CWOP FW5142    PWS THAI817    MADIS F5142
WU KTXTHALI2    AWEKAS           weatherobs

Offline DaveG

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 8
    • Highland Lakes Weather
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #20 on: November 13, 2017, 06:28:50 PM »
I agree with Jachym.  I'm trying to figure out exactly what WU is trying to accomplish now besides generating advertising revenue.  Today I changed my Foscam cameras so they now upload to my own host server rather than to WU.  Foscam offers limited control to the directory to which the images upload, and less control of the file name.  With Jachym's help I'm using a php script to rename the newest upload file to something I can use, and then the script deletes the Foscam generated images from the directory leaving just the current image.  I did change my cameras from ftp to URL on WU, and after several hours they approved the change and put them back up active for the first time in days.  The difference is now I control the images instead of depending on WU ftp to get them.  For now I'm still sending data, but for how long?  I haven't decided yet.

Offline Joel

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 82
    • PWS Lobbes
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #21 on: November 14, 2017, 01:55:18 AM »
I switched from FTP to WU-get-the-image today.

I did the same this weekend.   After validation, my webcam is displayed again on their website.

Offline Stratocaster

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
    • WU Station ID INEWPROV18
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #22 on: November 14, 2017, 05:51:53 AM »
I switched from FTP to WU-get-the-image today.

I did the same this weekend.   After validation, my webcam is displayed again on their website.

Wish I could figure out how to get my images to my own website (I do have a godaddy domain but as yet, don't know what to do with it!)
Mike
WU Station ID INEWPROV18
Nassau, Bahamas

Offline Bushman

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 7549
    • Eagle Bay Weather
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #23 on: November 14, 2017, 09:48:06 AM »
If you havea  GoDaddy domain name, you merely have to point the domain name to a web storage location - GoDaddy's or the one from your own ISP.  IT is a simple redirect.  I use the subdomain to get webcam.MYSITEATGODADDY.com to point to where my camera uploads.
Need low cost IP monitoring?  http://wirelesstag.net/wta.aspx?link=NisJxz6FhUa4V67/cwCRWA or PM me for 50% off Wirelesstags!!

Offline Soweather

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 7
Re: So...WeatherUnderground is discontinuing webcams Dec 15 - options?
« Reply #24 on: November 14, 2017, 11:56:56 PM »
I'm of the opinion, no webcams, no wx data either.   My data from 5 very rural and unique stations will start being directed at Weathercloud, exclusive of WU.