I need to set up some videoconferencing sessions with a friend of mine, through our home PCs. Any recommendations on how we should do this?
We want to do this as cheaply as possible. I have a broadband connection at home, but she only has a dial-up connection, which complicates matters.
I’ve had some success using Polycom’s ViaVideo equipment. Read all about it at: http://www.polycom.com/products_services/products_categories/0,,pw-186-152-219,00.html
I believe the cost is reasonable, keeping in mind that with this kind of stuff you largely get what you pay for.
The dial-up is going to slow things up considerably. I’ve only used ViaVideo over broadband at both ends, so I can’t speak to exactly how well it will work over a modem. Maybe worth a shot, though.
Yahoo Chat has a video conference that’s pretty neat. Free.
You didn’t say what camera you have so I don’t know if it works with Yahoo Chat.
I believe that Yahoo Chat requires a broadband connection, though.
Thanks for the tip regarding Polycom. Let me look into that. I’d prefer an option where we don’t have to buy much (or any) extra equipment, though.
Yahoo Chat doesn’t require that, I use it with a 56k modem.
Also, MS has Netmeeting, free. All the major ISPs should have some form of them. A huge selection can be found at download.com, which is a free/shareware site.
One nice plus of Yahoo Messenger is that it works thru a firewall/NAT router. Netmeeting and others that conform to the video conf. standard are difficult to impossible to set up thru such a link.