Chatting and Webcams

[ThisKittyKat]

I'll be honest, I'm not sure is this is a sex question or a technological one... I met a guy on Lit Chat, and we now chat on Yahoo Messenger. He wants to use a webcam so I can see him, I don't want to use one, and won't. The thing is, I don't really know how it will all work. He tells me that if I've got a mic in my laptop he'll be able to hear me on some facility of some kind on Messenger - is this right? I can see the attraction of this, and it might save my phone bills! I know all of you are going to laugh at how naive I am, but for those of you who might use Messenger and cams, please can you give me some sort of idiot's guide?

Thanks so much for your help,

Kitty Kat

 

[SweetErika]

Sure, you can voice chat with people online. My husband and I use Skype, but there's probably a way to do it in Yahoo Messenger as well. Most newer laptops come with webcams and mics, but if your computer doesn't have a mic or good speakers, you can buy a headset for almost nothing and just plug it into the mic port on your computer.

 

[Artfuldos]

Yes you can still video chat with him and share audio even if you have no cam.

He'll start the video call, you'll be able to see and hear him but he cant see you. Your laptop should have a mic installed on it, most do these days.

Yahoo will try to auto check and level the mic if it's your first time using it.

 

[ouchfeelsgood]

I use Yahoo messenger for audio chatting -- it works quite well with a headset equipped with a microphone.

 

[SweetErika]

I'll add a few more notes on the cam and phone bill thing:

- If you do use your cam with anyone, don't show anything that you're not prepared to have shared with others, or even plastered all over the 'net. People can capture what your webcam is streaming, then share or post that video elsewhere.

- If you want to be SURE your cam isn't broadcasting anything interesting while you're chatting, put a small piece of opaque tape (electrical tape is good, since it comes off easily), or even a sticky note over the lens.

And on the phone bill issue, have you looked into VOIP phone, like MagicJack or Vonage? MagicJack is like $20 for the device (which can be used with any phone), and then just $20 per YEAR. If you're spending more than $20/year on long distance or overage charges, that might be a good option for you. Vonage is about $30/month all told, but that includes unlimited calls, long distance, and a whole bunch of features, so it's much cheaper than going through your local phone company. We use Ooma, which is a device that's about $200 up front, but there's no phone bill. I liked the features and stuff of Vonage better, but it's nice to never have any bill. We'd probably use MagicJack instead if we had Windows instead of Linux on our computers.

But if you're calling people who have computers, Skype is probably your best bet, and it's totally free. You can use it to call phones at really low rates, too. It's pretty cool to be able to call (and webcam, if you want) around the world for free.