Want to keep track of things at home when you're not there? Rather than spending thousands of dollars to have a professional video security system installed, you can build one yourself for about US$250 per camera. Logitech International SA's WiLife Video Security System cameras can be strategically placed throughout your home or office to keep an eye on things and alert you when something's amiss.

The beauty of the Video Security System is that you can mix and match its cameras depending on where you want them. In addition to an indoor video camera, there's a weatherproof outdoor device as well as a spy camera that looks like a digital alarm clock. The cameras sell for $230 to $250 each. You can also purchase fuller "systems." For example, the Indoor Video Security Master System, includes a camera (plus additional hardware such as a window mount and a USB receiver for your computer) and Logitech's Command Center software for $300.

While the cameras capture the action, the Command Center software not only connects each camera to a monitoring screen, but also lets you view any of them remotely via a connected computer. All the cameras create 640- by 480-pixel video streams at up to 15 frames per second.

I tried out the $230 Indoor Camera and the $250 Spy Camera (which, as I mentioned, is disguised as an alarm clock). Unlike other surveillance cameras I've used in the past, such as the D-Link DCS-2100+ and the Linksys WVC54GC, the WiLife devices were a snap to set up and configure.

Logitech uses the HomePlug standard to send the video over a building's electrical lines. The camera plugs into the nearest wall socket; at the other end, the receiver plugs (on one end) into another wall socket and (on the other) a USB port on your computer. The only restriction is that you need to plug each camera directly into an outlet and avoid using surge suppressors, which can disrupt the signal.

The hardest part of the process? Setting the clock-camera's time.

After running the included CD -- which includes the drivers, the Command Center monitoring software and a program for putting it all online in a secure manner -- I was asked to choose how much of my computer's hard drive to devote to recorded video. The software then searched for the cameras, which required a couple of tries to accomplish. Once the software found them, new firmware was loaded onto the cameras and automatically sent to them (via the HomePlug-enabled connections) and they were watching over my office about 15 minutes after I started.

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