Add a webcam to your computer and you have a whole new way of communicating with the world. Now when you are chatting with your favorite IM tool, your friends and family can see you as well as hearing you or just reading your words. But a webcam can be used for much more than this, including being used as a great security tool for keeping an eye on your home. The best type of webcam for this purpose would normally be a network camera, but webcamXP enables you to also use a USB camera.

If you do own a network camera, this can also be used with webcamXP, but there is wide ranging support for a number of different makes and models of cameras of various types. The program can be used in a number of ways. The first option is to stream the footage captured by the camera directly to a web site – this is a great option for remote monitoring of premises. For camera with more advanced features, the software can be used to remotely control options such as pan and tilt as well as zoom, but you do not need to be using the most cutting edge hardware to take advantage of webcamXP.

The program can also be used to record still images or video footage only when movement is detected, and this can then be automatically sent to you via email or uploaded to an FTP server of you choosing. There are a number of different formats to choose from when it comes to both saving and streaming video so you can tailor the software to suit the devices that are going to be used – such as mobile devices.

This is a delightful program that is genuinely useful; the fact that it is free of charge is a bonus. The free version of the program has one key limitation – it is only possible to use the software with one camera. The software can be initially installed as a 60 day trial of the Pro version, but once this period is up it will revert to the standard free edition.