Skype

It has saved our relationship!!!!!

I also used it when my sister was in Australia to ring her mobile because it was cheap.

I've used it everyday since June and used to talk to SO via webcam for up to 4 hours in the days I worked part time. Its great for DS as he won't use a phone nut talks to my parents from here in Boston and then when we are home he talks to SO too

Feel free to ask any questions.

Several months ago we gave webcams to both sets of grandparents.....undoubtedly, the best money we have ever spent. Even though they live far away, our families were able to watch DS learn to crawl, take his first steps, sign/speak his first words. Priceless!

I've been meaning to check out Skype, but as of now we just do our video calls through Messenger and haven't had any problems. We also send video emails back and forth and those have worked great for when we can't catch each other live.

One tip is to consider a wireless webcam...it would come in handy with young ones who are always on the move and can't be bothered with sitting in front of the computer. I'm not sure how much you would need one with older kids, though.

[madeintaiwan]

webcams are great!! we use ichat (we have a mac) and yahoo messenger. it was great when DH was on his away rotation for a month and we use it to see family in CA and KS. i think it is money well spent. it is so neat to see them rather than just hear their voice.

Skype is free. you just download it and off you go, the same for messenger but if either of you have a MAC messenger won't work for webcam.

just go to http://www.skype.com and download it. If you call a landline from your skype inside of the USA its free but anywhere else its $0.01 a min, mobiles are more expensive but still waaaaaay cheaper than landlines

We each need webcams

Yes. You will need a webcam on your end and your folks will need one as well. They would make a nice Christmas gift!

We have Windows Messenger on our computer and the grandparents have the same. We have the g'parents listed as contacts in our Messenger and they did the same with us. Whenever I get ready to make a call, I just click on the contact's name, then click the video call button, and a pop-up will appear on their computer notifying them that I am initiating a video call. They click on the pop-up and, voila, we have video and sound! It's very simple.

[SuzySunshine]

For all of you that have do both ends have high speed? I know that seems like an archaic question but my parents are still on dial up.

We have cable and our families have dsl.

Don't take my word for it (since I know next to nothing about computers), but I'm guessing that dial up would be too slow for video calls. You should still be able to send video emails, although they may take forever for your parents to download.

[MissCrabette]

I can't say enough good things about Skype. I use it all the time to chat with my fiance and to call his cell phone in Ecuador. It's actually cheaper than Vonage and with Vonage I had to pay a monthly fee and the voice quality was sketchy. The one thing that bugs me about Skype though is that I have to charge the acount, like a prepaid card. It doesn't just take the funds out of my account at the end of the month. But I guess that doesn't make a difference if you're only using it for cam to cam chatting. Let us know how it goes. I think it's a great idea for the grandparents.