Messengers via internet

utahmule · Mar 11, 2003

I'l second the recommend on Spybot. If you really want to stick your fingers in the pie, try jv Power Tools, @ jv16.org . Big beware though. If you thought Spyware could do damage with a misstep, try monkeying w/ the Registry w/o knowing what you're doing. Can you say reinstall, everything? /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Rowski · Mar 11, 2003

They claim you can talk to each other via the computer. Does this work well?

Bird · Mar 11, 2003

Derek, if you have a microphone and speakers, you can use MSN Messenger to carry on audible oral conversations instead of typing. And since it's through the Internet, no long distance charges. When we lived in the country I used it to talk to our daughters and a nephew. It's still hooked up, but since I haven't used that feature now for several months, I don't even know whether it's still working. In fact, I guess if you have a camera you can also have a "video conversation" since that's one of the options available.

gator · Mar 11, 2003

Derek,
Have not used that function in ICQ or MSN Messenger, but I would trust Birds response on those. My experience with voice on the net was dialup connection not to good audio, but broadband (Cable Modem, etc..) is great. Used to use a program to call wifes parents in Ohio for free via the net , and with Cable Modem it was fantastic audio, better than phone to phone.
I'm pretty sure you can talk (or text chat) with people in other countries. I know they work accross the U.S.A.
Sorry I couldn't help anymore but I think Bird covered it well.

Inspector507 · Mar 11, 2003

They work anywhere the other party has an internet connection.

Bird · Mar 11, 2003

Wally, I'm going to have to try it again now that I have a cable modem. When I was using it all we had was 24k to 26.4k dialup connection and it worked pretty well, not quite as good as regular telephone, but not bad.

BillG_in_TX · Mar 11, 2003

When my daughter and her family were in Malawi, Africa for a year, we used Eyeball Chat to visit with them. Video and audio was very good to poor, depending on their connection, and was always better than NetMeeting. It was worth every penny (since it was free /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif) to see and visit with the grandkids every week or so.

It seemed kinda "star-trekie" to be able to pull that off with just a couple of laptop computers and $50 cameras. Eyeball Chat also integrates several of the messenger programs into it's program.

Rowski · Mar 17, 2003

Well, I wen't with MSN messenger. I've got is set up on my father's XP pro machine and my own machine 300hz win98se. Hopefully by weeks end my sister in Vail will have hers on line, my two cousins in NYC, and my uncle in Germany. We'll see! I would really like to get into video and voice conversation, seems like that would be pretty neat.

Any recommendations on cheap but good web cams (USB)?

Many thanks for all you input!