My son just got a new Mac book and it has a built in camera and microphone so he is able to video call (I don't know what it is actually called .  He sent me his old (a year and a half old...Gateway 17' screen laptop...oh yeah, I gotta send him $ so he can pay off the new one...grrrr.)  I would like to do the video telephone thing with him also.  I know that back in Texas I have an old web cam but am not sure I still have the software, and I also think that it wouldn't work in Vista anyways.  What would be the best low cost web cam and mike to get for a lap top.  Do I need to have special software to do this type of thing?  I know that the free pc telephone service offers video phone service,can't remember the name right now.  Any suggestions are welcome.

thanks
Dennise

Hey Dennise,

You shouldn't need anything special if you want to do a video chat. You could use whatever software Vista contains for instant messaging and then you can activate the camera. I've not used Vista, but the Mac will do this right out of the box, so I would think Vista must have something similar. If you want to do voice, you'll need a microphone (dirt cheap) and you both can download Skype. The software is free and the calls are also free. You can get the skinny on it here: http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/videocall/ .

When I worked at Willow Creek Community Church, our overseas missions staff used Skype to keep in touch. It's easy to use.