Alert settings

i-Catcher Console supports a number of different types of alert that can be generated when motion is detected. When alerts are generated most types are dispatched to a separate application called i-Catcher Alert which processes the alert type and the information it contains and takes the appropriate action.

Alerts can be configured two ways. Feed alert settings are accessed by right-clicking on the feed in the tree list and selecting "Alerts" or by clicking on the bell icon on the tool bar of the feed window.

Global Alert Settings are accessed by clicking the "Alert settings" button on the main i-Catcher Console menu bar.

Any feed that is set to "Use Global Settings" for a particular alert type will inherit its settings from the equivalent global alert configuration, including whether that alert should be enabled or not.

Audio Alerts

This is the simplest form of alert, and will cause i-Catcher Console to play a chosen audio file when motion is detected. A sample file "Alarm.wav" is included and features an "intruder alert" style alarm sound. Any audio file can be selected to play on motion.

Windows Messages

This feature sends a network message via the Windows Network messaging system. This will cause the chosen message to be sent to the chosen PC, user or user group when motion is detected. If the destination has Windows Messaging enabled, then this will be shown as a pop-up message window.

The message can contain Macros which include dynamic information such as the feed name. Please see the Macros help for more information.

Note: Windows Message alerts are not available for Windows Vista or newer versions of Windows, as this feature has been removed. Windows XP has the Windows Messaging service disabled by default, and will need to be enabled for this to operate. The service can be enabled via Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services. Locate and select the Windows Messaging service and then double-click to show the service properties. Change the startup type to "Automatic" then click "Start" followed by "OK".

SMS Alerts

This alert sends the chosen text message to the specified telephone number. The primary mechanism for this is via the i-Catcher SMS service, which requires additional registration via the i-Catcher Web Site.

Text Messages use credits when a message is sent, and the number of credits used varies by the destination network. Additional credits can be purchased via the i-Catcher CCTV Shop, where you can find more information about pricing and registration.

The message can contain Macros which include dynamic information such as the feed name. Please see the Macros help for more information.

Text message alerts can be configured to hold off sending a message if another message has already been sent recently. The minimum time between messages setting determines how much time must have elapsed since the last message before a new message can be sent.

Email Alerts

i-Catcher Console can send an email when motion is detected, and attach recent images to show the event as it happens.

Console has two methods for sending emails: The main mechanism is to use your Internet Service Provider's (ISP) mail server details. This will work will all setups and configurations, however you will need to obtain from your ISP details on your outgoing mail server (called an SMTP server). Further information is available in the section on configuring i-Catcher Alert.

Alternatively, if you have Microsoft Outlook installed, i-Catcher Console can use the mail client to send emails. Note that this does not apply to Outlook Express which is a different Microsoft product.

Note: Recent versions of Outlook (2000 and later) will not send emails automatically from 3rd party applications such as i-Catcher Console. As a security measure, Outlook will ask for user confirmation before sending emails, making it unsuitable for unattended security operation. In this instance, please use the SMTP server mechanism details above and in the section on configuring i-Catcher Alert.

Email alerts require a destination email address to send to, a subject for the email, and message contents. The subject and message can contain Macros to include dynamic information such as the feed name. Please see the Macros help for more information.

Minimum time between emails is a "buffer time" between sending emails to prevent a cascade of alerts caused by the time taken to send one email. The default for this is 300 seconds (5 minutes), which means after sending one alert email, Console will not send another until motion is detected after 5 minutes.

If you want to attach images to the email, you can specify the amount, and a spacing between them. If the feed is running slower than this rate, then there will be no gap between the images.

FTP Web Page / Generation

As an off-site backup measure, i-Catcher Console can upload images of a motion event to a website when motion is detected. This can be an FTP upload, or the images can be sent to a locally accessible folder (this could be a mapped network drive over a VPN (Virtual Private Network) link).

Use FTP: When using FTP uploads, you will need to specify the server hostname or IP address, login username and password. These details will have been provided to you by your web space provider, such as a web hosting company or your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Directory: For FTP uploads, the is the directory on the FTP server where the alert should be stored. For local "uploads" this will be the folder to copy the images to.

Maximum images stored on the server: By default, i-Catcher Console will automatically delete the oldest images to ensure there are no more than 50 images on the server/in the folder specified. This figure can be adjusted as required.

Create a summary page showing all images and Create a page with the images for each feed: i-Catcher Console will by default create web pages that provide an index for viewing in web browsers. The summary page will show all images from all feeds, and the "images for each feed" page will create additional per-feed index pages that will be linked from the summary page. If web pages are not required, these options can be disabled.

Save a single still image containing the last motion: If you have another system monitoring the uploaded images, i-Catcher Console can save the latest image under a fixed filename of feedname.jpg, where feedname is the name of the feed on which the alert was generated.

Minimum time between uploads: is a "buffer time" between uploads to prevent a cascade of alerts caused by the time taken to upload one alert. The default for this is 300 seconds (5 minutes), which means after uploading one alert, Console will not send another image set to the server until motion is detected after 5 minutes.

Actions

i-Catcher can be configured to execute a set of actions when motion is detected on a given feed. This is controlled via the Actions tab of the feeds alert settings. The set of actions available is the same as those available from I/O device actions. Please see the Actions help for more information.

Admin alerts

i-Catcher Console can use the email alert system to send alerts when certain critical events occur. To do this, the "Send admin alert emails" option on the Admin Alerts tab of the global settings needs to be checked.

When a feed loses contact with i-Catcher Console (in extreme circumstances) an email can be sent to notify the system administrator. The "Loss of feed" setting determines how long contact must be lost for in order for this to happen. This can be adjusted if you are running a particularly slow or loaded system where contact is lost temporarily due to heavy processing load, however on almost all systems the default of 15 seconds is adequate.

i-Catcher Console can be configured to either send the alert to the same email address configured for the normal email alerts for a given feed (or global alert settings if the feed is set to use them), or admin alerts can be set to send to a different address entirely (e.g. a system administrator rather than a CCTV operator). The "Send admin alerts to the email address for the feed" and "Admin alert email address" settings configure the destination for admin alerts.