I moved out to sunny So Cal about a year ago. Though I’m “gunning” for my MD/PhD at UCSD/SF/LA/Irvine/Davis, last year, I managed to book a flight back to NYC, 12/24 through 12/27 at the last minute, surprising all 40 members of my mom’s (never mind my dad’s) extended family. This year, it looks like I missed out on my chance to fly back. I was considering, as an extended present to my mom (obviously the more heartbroken of the now 41), having one of my more tech savvy sisters setting up a web cam/videocam type things on their laptops. What the hell am I supposed to do In this regard. They get a webcam, I get a webcam, I get that much. But is there a service I am supposed to subscribe to?
It’s been a long time since I’ve used a webcam, but most of them come with software that is made for “broadcasting”. There was one service I paid for originally, but I remember eventually figuring out that I could be doing it for free.
I think, but someone who uses MS Messenger will have to chime in, but if I remember correctly, you can use your webcams with Messenger. I don’t remember how. It was all free, though - it’s how me and my ex-fiance used to keep in touch from 3000 miles away.
Good luck, hopefully someone can come in here and either back me up or add some useful information. But I do think it’s all free.
You can use webcams with Yahoo messanger too. Good luck. Maybe you can even get some kind of microphone hookup if their computer and yours will support it? So you can talk to each other as well. 