Does anyone know if it would be possible to turn an old desktop pc into a server to allow me to view a webcam stream over my own network and possibly over the internet.

Yes, http://www.vwlowen.co.uk/

its a local radio ham and he has some free software for what your looking for.

Sure, if the cam has broadcast capabilities.

You'd have to bear in mind the security implications of having an open cam on the internet and of course the forwarding of incoming connections through your firewall/router.

The cam is just an ordinary webcam security I can worry about when its set up as I want it to look at birds on my bird table.

You can use bambuser or camstreams. Both are web based

Cheers wheels I just want to use the pc tower and access it remotely as space is an issue. I was looking at a ip camera but havent got the fundage to get one and thought the old pc and webcam could be used in a similar fashion.