msn messenger

[austin3707]

I signed up MSN messenger and now I am about to buy a webcam from Logitec. On the MSN messenger website, it says that I can use video and audio to talk to friends and family. On the same web, thay also talk about ,net phone service where you can make a phone call from your computer with lower rate. Now my question is that if you have a webcam with microphone installed, who would join .net phone service to talk to friends and family and pay for the long distance call? My understanding is that with webcam with audio capability, you can talk and see friends and family using MSN messenger and there is no need to join .net phone service and pay for the long distance service just to talk to friends and family. Am I understanding correctly? If someone knows the difference, please let me know.

Thank you.

Tom

[Zooooot]

Always mistrust everything you read from a microsoft site. Quite a few different programs have conferencing capability given an available internet connection.

[cudaman]

there are also some free programs to make phone calls on i believe, no video on these though i saw someone using one once.

[austin3707]

I bought a webcam (logitech's quickcam orbit) and installed it. The in stallation went fine. On the MSN Messnger 6.1, I can see the cam. But there is still no sound. I cannot do a voice chat. I do not understand. This cam is microphone installed. I turned off firewall. But it still does not work for voice chat. Please help

[Zooooot]

Firewalls are a pain in the butt when doing voice and video chat, that might be what's going on.

[Tulatin]

no need. Just plug in the cam, and a mic, and you're good to go.

[austin3707]

I had problem with MSN Messenger 6.1. I could hear my friend but my friend could not hear me for some reason. So I downloaded Microsoft Portrait to use with MSN Messenger 6.1 and now the voice is two-way and fixed. My question is: Is this Microsoft Portrait not actually calling my friend? It is PC-to-PC connection so there is no actual phone charge or anything, right? On the MS Portrait, click the Buddy button then, the MSN Buddy list shows up )the same list of friends I have in MSN Messenger) on the right side. Then, choose the person you want to ommunicate and click the call button on the right bottom. Then, the small popup says, "calling~". On the left side, there is a IP address or something shown. (such as 10.09..... ). I just want to make sure that this is a free service and does not cost anything. I downloaded this program simply because that MSN Messenger was not working property in terems of audio.

Thanks.