Karmic Konsumer

I live a fairly modern lifestyle. I’m physically far away from most of the people I love but I remain connected via modern technology. This is closest to my heart because my son lives in another state and I want to stay close to him. This stuff is awesome to keep in contact with parents, kids, grandparents or old friends you might have moved away from - or to make new friends from far away.

Internet conferencing is God’s gift to those far away. :) However, there are a ton of solutions out there. Which one to choose? Out of the available free solutions, Here’s what I’ve found with a few of them :

Yahoo : Yahoo is renound for offering a ton of peronalized free services. You can get email, personalized pages, email groups, messenger, travel plan manager, etc etc. However, where they fall short is often quality. Yahoo Messenger is no exception. Although it allows for webcam and voice conferenceing, the quality of the picture is shoddy with a very low frame rate. Frame rate is the number of images you see of the other person in a certain amount of time. The more frames, the more fluid the video. The fewer frames you get, the choppier it is. With Yahoo Messenger, it is often SO slow that it’s like viewing a slideshow rather than a video. Most of the time those images are fuzzy to boot.. so you are viewing a fuzzy slideshow. It isnt like a face to face conversation at all.

MSN : MSN is another one of those free-for-all services which also offers a messenger. Although yahoo is my email account of choice, MSN Messenger is heads above Yahoo in the video conferencing department. The video streams much faster and the images are as clear as your cam will allow. However, I have yet to get audio working reliably. Something about firewalls and such and I don’t really want to lower my security to allow for audio. Even if I were to do that though, the audio, while clear, has a delay and occassionally an echo, which makes it difficult to keep up with a conversation if you are waiting 10 seconds before responding.

Skype : The audio solution. Their tagline is ‘ Free Internet telephony that just works.’ And that’s it. It just works. No hoops to jump through and no irritations when you use it. Sign up for a free account and call anyone else who has an account. Sign up for paid services and call from your computer to a regular phone line for super cheap. The audio is as good as your equipment. I have had NO trouble out of it. it was easy to install and easy to use.

Although they dont have to be the best in the world, I recommend using headphones rather than speakers while on internet voice chat to minimize interferance from sounds coming out of the speakers and going back into the mic.

As a quick scenario, last night I was talking to a friend who is in Korea over cams. We started out on Yahoo with voice and cams. It was so bad that I would have rathered to pick up a phone and talk without the cam. I can’t believe I used to do virtual visitation like that! So while we were online, on my advice, he downloaded Skype and MSN Messenger and created accounts (5 minutes). We hung up on yahoo and had a wonderful visit via MSN cams and Skype voice. It was like having him and his kids there in the office with me.

Cingular : My son’s father and I both have Cingular. Although we live across the country from each other, we have free long distance so I talk to my son without all the charges. What about minutes, you ask? Not only do we have free nights and weekends but we have free mobile to mobile on our phones. It costs us $5 a month each and we aren’t charged minutes for talking to other Cingular customers - even across the country. Therefore, my son and I stay in voice contact for free - even without the internet. My boyfriend and I are on a family plan so we each get mobile to mobile and my phone was only an additional 10 bucks a month. Good deals all around. If you are interested in Cingular, use this link to sign up one phone line and this link to activate one for you and one for a friend and you will help support this site as well as getting a $25 gift card for yourself. Not bad, huh? :)