DARIM VISION VIDEOSPIDER PVE400 edition User manual

VideoSpider
Multi-channel digital video surveillance system
(PVE400 edition)
INSTALLATION GUIDE
Rev. 8.2
Printed 2007-10-17
Darim Vision Corp.

VideoSpider Installation Guide 2
User’s Notice
The information in this document is subject to change without prior notice in order to improve reliability,
design, or function and does not represent a commitment on the part of this company.
In no event will we be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages arising out of
the use or the inability to use the product or documentation, even if advised of the possibility of such
damages.
Copyright © 2007 Darim Vision Corp
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this guide may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written permission of this company.
Throughout this guide, we make reference to product names that are trademarks of other companies. We
are using these names for identification purposes only, with no intention of infringement of the trademarks.
Changes or modifications not expressly approved in writing by Darim Vision Co. Ltd. may void the user's
authority to operate this equipment.
Limited Warranty
Our company warrants this product against defects in materials and workmanship for a period of one year
from the date of purchase. During the warranty period, products determined by us to be defective in form
or function will be repaired or replaced at our option, at no charge. This warranty does not apply if the
product has been damaged by accident, abuse, misuse, or as a result of service or modification other than
by us.
This warranty is in lieu of any other warranty expressed or implied. In no event shall we be held liable for
incidental or consequential damages, such as lost revenue or lost business opportunities arising from the
purchase of this product.

VideoSpider Installation Guide 3
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................................................5
1.1 HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL............................................................................................................5
2. GETTING STARTED........................................................................................................................9
2.1 INSTALLATION CONCEPTS AND SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ...............................................................9
2.1.1 System requirements for Video Spider software .................................................................10
2.1.2 Networked servers: Set up user access and security rights.................................................10
2.1.3 Client stations: Set up access to Spider servers..................................................................11
2.1.4 Setting up and configuring Spider software........................................................................11
3. THE INSTALLATION PROCEDURE IN DETAIL.....................................................................13
3.1 SETTING UP USER ACCOUNTS AND ACCESS RIGHTS ......................................................................13
3.1.1 Creating user accounts and group using standard Windows tools.....................................13
3.1.1.1 Creating a new user group ..............................................................................................14
3.1.1.2 Creating a new user account...........................................................................................15
3.1.2 Adding Spider stations to the Windows network domain....................................................19
3.2 SPIDER SOFTWARE PVE 400 SETUP PROGRAM IN DETAIL ............................................................22
3.2.1 The Client component and its subcomponents....................................................................23
3.2.2 The Server component and its subcomponents ...................................................................24
3.2.3 Spider service access properties.........................................................................................25
3.2.4 Spider resource parameters................................................................................................28
3.2.5 File Storage settings ...........................................................................................................30
3.2.6 Finalizing the installation...................................................................................................32
4. INITIAL SPIDER CONFIGURATION .........................................................................................35
5. UNINSTALLING AND UPGRADING SPIDER...........................................................................39
5.1 UPGRADING SPIDER SOFTWARE...................................................................................................39
5.1.1 Common upgrading procedure...........................................................................................39
5.2 UNINSTALLING SPIDER SOFTWARE..............................................................................................41
6. TROUBLESHOOTING...................................................................................................................42
6.1 REMOTE ACCESS PROBLEMS ........................................................................................................42
6.1.1 Verifying generic accessibility of the Spider Server system................................................42
6.1.2 Checking/modifying the DCOM properties in Windows XP...............................................43
6.2 MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES AND CONSIDERATIONS..........................................................................44
6.2.1 Setup/maintenance program issues.....................................................................................44
6.2.2 Storage space considerations for video recording..............................................................46
7. APPENDIX........................................................................................................................................47

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7.1 COMMON RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NETWORK CONFIGURATION .................................................47
7.1.1 Network connections and configuration considerations.....................................................47
7.1.2 Network access rights considerations.................................................................................48
7.1.3 Network bandwidth considerations.....................................................................................49
7.1.4 Locating Spider stations in the network..............................................................................50
7.2 TECHNICAL SUPPORT CONTACT INFORMATION ............................................................................52
7.3 LIST OF TABLES...........................................................................................................................53
7.4 LIST OF FIGURES..........................................................................................................................53

VideoSpider Installation Guide 5
1. INTRODUCTION
Thank you for purchasing Darim's VideoSpider! VideoSpider is a powerful video surveillance and
security system. VideoSpider is designed for simple and intuitive operation by users with little or no
experience with using computers. However, VideoSpider installation and configuration task could not be
possibly simplified to that level. This task does require general computer fluency and a reasonable
amount of knowledge about Microsoft Windows XP Professional operating systems, their installation,
configuration and administration.
Furthermore, if VideoSpider is to be used in a networked environment rather than as a standalone station,
the system administrator must be familiar with TCP/IP networking concepts and configuration
parameters. This includes familiarity with one or more (preferably all) of the following topics:
•Manual IP address, subnet mask and gateway assignment
•DHCP server configuration
•WINS server configuration
Chapter 2of this guide will help you to install VideoSpider in the most simple and straightforward way
thus avoiding potential problems associated with the entire system operation, reliability and performance.
1.1 How to use this manual
For the purposes of simplicity and overall clarity, we will be using the following conventions when
referring to certain things and people.
All information of the manual is divided into Sections (numbered correspondingly), which are in their
turn structured up to the fourth nesting level. For the subsections, the numbering sequence restarts at the
beginning of every other.
All information in this manual is divided into numbered sections and subsections. The numbers for
sections (chapters) and subsections will be referred to when we want the reader to find additional
pertinent information.
Proper names will be shortened throughout the manual. The following naming conventions will be used
throughout this manual:
•VideoSpider will be referred to simply as Spider.
•A person performing installation and configuration of Windows OS and VideoSpider software
will be referred to as Spider Administrator or Spider Operator.

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•An end user that will routinely operate VideoSpider under normal conditions will be referred to as
Spider User.
Additional conventions used throughout the guide are as follows:
Mouse:
When you have to choose an icon or a Menu item with your mouse, you may be asked to "select", to
"click" or "click on." For all these instructions you should select an item with mouse cursor while holding
down the left mouse button.
Similarly, "right click" means to use the right mouse button.
Procedures and steps to follow:
In various sections of the Spider Installation Guide, you are instructed to follow a series of menu
commands. This format explains those instructions:
ResourcesÆDisplayÆConnect
This indicates: Go and select the Resources option from the main menu, then select Display item from
the pop-up menu and finally choose Connect command. This will give you the appropriate command to
perform the desired Spider function.
The following table lists the most general typographic conventions used throughout this guide:
Table 1. List of general typographic conventions
Conventions Description Example
Text in Bold -User interface elements (field names
from the dialogs)
-Objects, methods, properties
-Menu-paths
-Names of figures, tables
-Emphasis, notes
-Hot keys combinations
-OK, Cancel
-Figure 3.1 – Open File dialog
-File->Open
-Note: Keep remembering…
-Ctrl+F4
Courier
New font -Code
-Command-line commands that must
be typed exactly as shown
-..\..\SpiderLog\.
Underlined
text
-Special emphasis - Do not mix cards of different
type and different revision number in
one system!

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Conventions Description Example
Italics -Placeholders representing
conditional information that must be
inserted (such as <install directory>)
-Parameters, variables
-Names of dialog boxes, reference to
chapters and manual’s other (sub)sections,
etc.
-Repeatable proper nouns
-Refer to section 1.1 How to use
this manual
-Spider client program
[Text] in
square
brackets
-User interface elements such as
buttons
-Supplements to instructions
…choose the [Connect] button
9Ticks list List of instructions necessary to be
undertaken to achieve certain results To connect a local resource, try the steps as follows:
9Click the Resources menu...
9Choose the item Add …
•Round
bullets List of items/points There are the following resources our
VideoSpider system supports
effectively:
•File Storage
•Spider
•…
Numbered list
1, 2, 3, … Sequential steps The VideoSpider software package
consists of the following parts:
1. SpiderAdmin
2. Spider client program
3. ….
Images:
Normally, all user graphical interface buttons (actually their icons used for clarity) are represented within
this manual along with their corresponding heading like this: “Finally, click the [Update]
button…”. They are as a rule interrelated with equivalent menu commands.
There are also some specific graphical icons, highlighting information that might be of special importance
for the user. All Notes and Important Notes are marked with a pencil icon, like follows:
Important Notes:
<The content itself typed a point bigger for distinction>

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As for the Cautions, those are marked by the exclamation mark inside a blackened triangle
correspondingly.
Caution:
<The warning message body typed a point bigger for distinction>
Please be sure to read this guide thoroughly before installing Spider software to
avoid potential problems that can result from an incorrect installation procedure.

VideoSpider Installation Guide 9
2. GETTING STARTED
The first part of this chapter is intended to provide Spider administrators and advanced users with
installation concepts and system requirements that must be taken into account when a reliable and
efficient Spider software meeting all your requirements to surveillance systems.
The second part gives the step-by-step detailed instructions on how to install, configure Spider. Please
follow the applicable instructions carefully to avoid error messages and other abnormal situations during
installation and operation of Spider software.
The information given here assumes that you are already familiar with basic installation process of
Microsoft Windows XP operating systems. This guide does not cover or attempt to explain usage of any
system component, configuration or utility program supplied standard with the given version of Windows
OS. Refer to the relevant Microsoft or third party literature for more information if necessary.
2.1 Installation concepts and system requirements
The VideoSpider software has the highly scalable client - server architecture. The VideoSpider Server
and Client applications can be installed on the same laptop with MEA card as a simple scenario. In this
case an operator can monitor several PVE400 devices on the same screen and record video data locally
(PVE400’s picture – laptop).
If the dedicated server is used with LAN connection to other client computers, then video from the
PVE400 devices can be monitored from different locations without affecting the wireless traffic. The
Spider Server software operates as Windows NT service, as a background application. It will start
automatically on system boot (PVE400’s picture – Server – Clients).
The Spider software can be installed in several different configurations depending on your needs. The
possible Spider configurations are as follows:
Standalone - a self-contained Spider station capable of real time video monitoring, storage and
playback. Standalone stations neither require nor support any network connectivity.
Spider Server - a network-enabled Spider station designed to provide live surveillance video data to
other stations for remote real time viewing and/or storage. This type of installation is not generally
used for local (on-site) video viewing.
Storage Server - a version of Spider Server which is similar to a regular network file server except
that it has an additional ability to allow the Spider Servers to store data on the designated hard disk
and tape. Spider Clients may also access this data for playback purposes.

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Client - a networked Spider station designed to receive and display a live video feed from one or
more Spider Servers and/or play recorded video files from any available Storage Servers.
Server/Client - a combination of the Spider Server and Client stations in one computer system. This
combo can perform real time video transmission and monitoring as well as simultaneous recording
and playback operations. Unlike Standalone stations, this type of installation is an active participant of
a Spider surveillance network.
The following sub-sections specify the system requirements needed to operate the Spider stations.
For network-enabled configurations, make sure to carefully read and understand the Common
recommendations for network configuration section given in the Appendix on page 47.
2.1.1 System requirements for Video Spider software
9Intel® Pentium IV™ 1 GHz CPU or faster
91024 MB of system RAM or higher
9Video card 128MB or more
9Ethernet 10/100 BaseT or proper wireless adapter
9Microsoft® Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 2003 Server.
9Microsoft® DirectX 9.0c or higher
2.1.2 Networked servers: Set up user access and security rights
If you are installing Spider server that will be accessed remotely from Spider Client stations over the
network, it is very important to grant clients proper access to the system in order for them to use various
resources on the server(s). As it is outlined in section 7.1.2, this task can be greatly simplified by adding
all server and client computers to a single Windows XP domain. This would allow you to perform the
following step only once on the Windows Server machine acting as a primary backup controller.
Otherwise, if the domain configuration cannot be used, the following required step would have to be
performed on each Spider Server or Storage Server station as described below.
STEP 1. Create one new user account with administrative privileges for Spider Operator
and one or more accounts with normal privileges for each Spider User. In
addition, to make the access rights assignment and control easier, create a Spider
Users group and make all existing and future user accounts related to Spider
members of this group.

VideoSpider Installation Guide 11
[See section 3.1.1 for more detailed information on how to do this using standard
Windows XP Computer Management program.]
For Spider system’s servers, this operation completes the operating system installation and configuration
phase. Now you are ready to proceed with Spider software installation as explained in the following
sections.
2.1.3 Client stations: Set up access to Spider servers
To access remote Spider and File Storage servers you need to perform the following step.
STEP 2. Configure your system to participate in the Windows XP network domain (as
described in detail in section 3.1.2). Alternatively, if the domain is not available,
use Computer Management program to create one or more user accounts exactly as
were specified on the Spider server that you intend to connect to. Login to the
system using one of these accounts (for example, Spider Operator or Spider User)
to enable a transparent access to one or more servers in the network and their
Spider-related resources. [The Spider Operator and Spider User accounts should be
created within the domain or on the given server during the Spider system installation
process described in section 3.1.1.]
Now you have completed the operating system installation and configuration phase. It is time to proceed
with Spider software installation as explained in section 2.1.4.
2.1.4 Setting up and configuring Spider software
STEP 3. Install Spider software by running the required SPxxxVyyy.EXE self-installable
package supplied on the CD-ROM or downloaded from the product support page
on the Internet. [See section 3.2 for a very detailed description on how to use the Spider
Setup program.]
Although the Spider software installation has been made very user friendly and straightforward, it is
imperative to provide the correct information to the each onscreen dialog in order to complete it properly.
The following steps are optional but recommended and may be done after the software installation is
complete and the system is restarted.
STEP 4. Use Windows XP Event Viewer program to examine Application event logs for
errors or warning messages related to Spider software. [The Application log may

VideoSpider Installation Guide 12
contain errors related to service and application level of Spider software such as service
startup failure, etc.]
Under the normal conditions there should be no errors related to Spider in any of
these logs.
During the installation you will be offered to make settings for various Spider resources (recording,
playback and so on). This step is not usually required and is usually safe to skip. However, advanced
users may want to configure existing or map additional network resources, change communication
protocol, etc. Also you may refuse to make them, complete the installation but after that, return to these
settings by performing the STEP 5.
STEP 5. Run the SpiderAdmin program if necessary to review and change settings for
various Spider resources. [See Spider Online Help for more information on the
SpiderAdmin program and how to use it.]
Congratulations! If you have followed all of the above instructions carefully, you have just successfully
completed the entire installation procedure of all types of Spider stations. Please refer to Spider Online
Help electronic documentation and/or User’s Guide for more information on how to operate the Spider
software.

VideoSpider Installation Guide 13
3. THE INSTALLATION PROCEDURE IN DETAIL
This chapter is intended to provide deeper insight view of various installation steps outlined in the
previous chapter. The explanations given here are often related to operating system components and their
usage, rather than Spider software. However, it is important to remember that Spider software is working
in tight cooperation with operating system and the overall success of installing a working Spider system
depends on how precisely these instructions were followed.
3.1 Setting up user accounts and access rights
Before the users actually begin working with Spider, the Spider Operator in charge of the server
installation needs to create an account with administrative privileges for him/herself and one or more
accounts for other Spider Users with regular privileges. Except for some unusual circumstances, it is not
recommended to use the built-in Administrator account to operate the Spider system. This introduces an
even greater security risk in the networked environment.
The following two sections mostly concern the case of the network-enabled Spider system where one or
more Spider servers must be accessed remotely by one or more client stations. In that case, it is
imperative for the remote client to get proper authentication in order to access Spider server. The clients
(no matter which version of Windows they run) must use the exact same user account names and
passwords as were defined on the server side or inside the Windows XP network domain. Make sure to
follow instructions in section 3.1.1 carefully in order to avoid problems such as users’ inability to connect
to Spider servers.
3.1.1 Creating user accounts and group using standard Windows tools
This section describes specifics of creating the Spider Operator account and a group for all Spider users
using the standard Windows XP Computer Management program. One or more (any number) of regular
non-privileged users accounts can be created in a similar way. Finally, all Spider-related user accounts
should be included into the newly created Spider Users group to simplify access rights management.
Additional details about the Computer Management program as well as general concepts of user and
group management can be found in the electronic or printed documentation that describes Windows XP
administration. It is available from Microsoft and third party publishers.
Note:
Unless all Spider Server and/or Standalone stations have been established as
members of Windows network domain, the exactly same procedure described here

VideoSpider Installation Guide 14
needs to be performed on every Spider server connected with the network. If a
domain is used, the described procedure needs to be performed only once on the
Primary Domain Controller machine. Section 3.1.2 starting on page 19 describes
how other computers running various versions of Windows can be added to or
authenticated within the domain.
For the purpose of this explanation, we assume that you are logged into Windows XP system as the
Administrator. Launch Control Panel; click the Administrative Tools icon there, and then on the
Computer Management icon. After that, in the components tree pane on the left expand the System Tools
branch and double-click the Local Users and Groups line. The right pane should show two folders
named Users and Groups respectively.
It is not critical whether new user accounts or the new group to be created first. However, since having
the corresponding user accounts is required while the group is optional, the next subsection will begin by
explaining how to create a new user group.
3.1.1.1 Creating a new user group
The creation of user group is optional, but a recommended step in setting up user access rights on Spider
servers. Experienced network administrators know that it is much easier to assign certain privileges to a
group of users once and then simply add newly created users to the group rather than assign the same
privileges to every user individually.
To create a new user group, right-click on the Groups folder and select the New Group command from
the pop-up menu. You will see a dialog similar to an example shown in Figure 1.

VideoSpider Installation Guide 15
Figure 1 – Creating the Spider Group
Enter the required Group Name and optionally its Description in the corresponding fields. You may
click the [Add…] button now to define group members from the existing accounts. Finally, click [OK] to
create the group. It will be shown inside the Groups folder.
You can modify the group membership at any time in a group-centric fashion by double-clicking the
group’s name in the list and clicking the [Add…] or [Remove] buttons to add or remove existing user
accounts. Another way to do this (in a user-centric fashion) is to modify new or existing user account as
shown in Figure 3 and explained on page 17.
3.1.1.2 Creating a new user account
To create a new user account, right-click on the Users folder and select the New User command from the
pop-up menu. You will see dialog similar to an example shown in Figure 2.

VideoSpider Installation Guide 16
Figure 2 – Creating a new user account for Spider Operator in Windows XP
Fill out the required information for the Username, Password and Confirm Password fields. Make sure
to memorize the password or write it down in a secure place. Clear the User Must Change Password at
Next Logon checkbox and optionally check the Password Never Expires box. You may also fill out the
optional Full Name and Description fields with whatever information that would help you identify the
owner of this user account. Click the [Create] button. After that, repeat the creating procedure for a new
user account or click the [Close] button.
To add existing user account into a group or change other properties, open the Users folder in the right
pane of the Computer Management window and double-click the account name. Then click the Member
Of tab to see the screen similar to one shown in Figure 3.

VideoSpider Installation Guide 17
Figure 3 – Defining group membership for Spider Operator
Click the [Add] button. If you run Windows XP, the dialog shown below in Figure 4 will appear. In the
editing field enter the name of the group you want to join and click the [Check Names] button. The
system will check the group name automatically. If you are not sure in the group name, click the
[Advanced] button and try to find the group by clicking the [Find now] button. In the groups list appeared
select the group and click [OK] twice.

VideoSpider Installation Guide 18
Figure 4 – Adding Spider Operator as a member of some group in Windows XP
Repeat all actions listed in this section as many times as required to create one or more regular (non-
privileged) accounts for every Spider user that will be accessing the system. There will be one very
important difference, though.
Important Note:
Do not include ordinary Spider user accounts into the Administrators group to
prevent unauthorized management of the Spider system and the entire machine or
network domain!
Ignoring this principle will defeat the whole purpose of access rights control for local (on site) as well as
remote (over network) access. It may also introduce management conflict problems in a networked
Spider environment (for example, if a several privileged users attempt to issue conflicting commands to
the Spider server).
When all desired user accounts and the user group are correctly configured, close the Computer
Management program, log out the Administrator and try to re-login using the newly created Spider
Operator account.

VideoSpider Installation Guide 19
3.1.2 Adding Spider stations to the Windows network domain
Whenever any computer network grows in excess of just one or two servers, the task of managing user
accounts, groups and access rights may become very complicated and tedious. The same is also true for
Spider security networks. Fortunately, the existence of Windows network domain can greatly simplify
this matter. With the Windows network domain, user accounts, groups and permissions are created only
once and stored at a central location called primary domain controller. Other computers may share the
same user accounts, permissions by joining the domain. Finally, in large networks, the primary domain
controller may be supported by one or more backup domain controllers, which have replicas of the entire
domain configuration and can support the network if the primary domain controller fails or becomes
inaccessible.
While this book is not trying to describe the concept or the installation procedure of Windows network
domains in general, it may be beneficial to the Spider Operator to know how to make computers running
different versions of Windows OS part of the domain. This applies to Spider Server and Storage Server
configurations as well as all kinds of Spider Clients. If all Spider stations join the same network domain,
the procedure of user account and group creation described in section 3.1.1 would need to be performed
only once, at the machine acting as a primary domain controller.
Computers running Windows XP Professional can become full members of the network domain and have
access to all of its shared resources as well as share their own. Each Windows XP machine that wants to
join the domain must have a special computer account for it created by the domain manager or an
authorized person with access to a privileged user account.
To have the Windows XP computer join an existing network domain, launch Windows Control Panel and
click the System icon. Alternatively, you may right-click on the My Computer icon on your desktop and
select the Properties command from the pop-up menu. Then, choose the Computer Name in Windows
XP to see a dialog similar to the example shown in Figure 5.

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Figure 5 – Modifying the Properties in Windows XP
Click the [Change] button in Windows XP OS to modify the existing values. You will get a dialog
similar to Figure 6.