Home › Forums › Archives › Computer Support › Web Cams › supercam? Best software for webcams?
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December 20, 2002 at 11:04 pm #7628aeroParticipant
here’s the deal
1) I’ve just gotten three webcams (logitech quickcam zooms).
2) I wish to use them for my wife and daughter in the US to live cam and audio with her mom and dad in spain.
3) We have all got DSL and reasonably fresh win-pc boxes 2@98, 1@xp).
4) I do not expect to connect to more then one at a time since “mom” and “dad” ain’t speaking.
5) I will be in spain to set up their respective cams and whatever software i will be using.
6) I am certain the two in spain are dynamic ips, not sure of what security. I imagine not much, so i may install zone alarm freeware.
7) As I have a static ip I have got a hard firewall (ugate -plus)which allows me to set up preset open ports and am am fairly familiar with this as I once pulled a few all nighters to successfully configure for online gaming. the firewall masks ip but they are static and I know what it is. I can also temporarily open a pc’s ip to the internet. I also have zone alarm pro which seems pretty flexible, and which can be taken off line if needed.
8) I expect us to use this twice a week for 15 minutes or so.So here are my priorities:
a) given the fat bandwidth all around I would like to go highest res/refresh rate possible
b) inlaws are not exactly compute experts so I would like to use reasonably friendly/robost software.
c) I don’t mind messing with my firewall security, but I certainly do not wish to physiclally jump the firewall router.Less important:
1) It isn’t too important at this point to have video chat available to others outside this group of three people.
2) Initiating with im would be great but it isn’t a deal breaker.
3) I don’t wish to spend the money on pro-videoconf software.So, yahoo messenger with supercam looks good, but a quick look on newsgroups indicates somepeople having trouble with firewalls. I have to say: WTF? supercam requires fat pipe, and who with fat pipe doesnt have a firewall?
IMHO yahoo supercam help pages are not really specific. For example I would like to know if exposing the pc’s ip to the net (which I can do through easy preset in ugate software) will be sufficient (i am not freaked as this would be short lived and zone alarm would still be running). if yahoo messenger is sniffing my ip it will still see firewall ip (incorrect ip) but I will know and can give ip to my inlaws. I’ve hosted online gaming sessions with a few friends and even though teir software sniffs incorrect ip mos tgames allow them to input correct ip.
so as video is my priority, do i try yahoo supercam? or fall back on something else wiht less refresh rate despite the dsl’s all around?
If you have read this and have some educated insights, I thank you in advance.
December 21, 2002 at 12:10 am #65576Jeff HesterKeymasterYahoo Supercam has a bigger problem with routers than it does with firewalls. Theoretically you can open the necessary ports on the firewall (or router, for that matter) and it should work, but there are known problems getting through most routers, even with the correct ports opened.
On the bright side, if Yahoo detects that it can’t do the Supercam mode, it drops down to “normal” which is about one frame per second. It’s not all bad, but certainly not smooth, and it’s definitely the easiest video chat to setup.
Another very smooth one that works with MSN Messenger or AOL Instant Messenger is Logitech Video Companion. This free app uses a small video window, but the video is very smooth (15-20 fps) and it can be pretty easily configured to work through a firewall/router. It does only video, but then both AIM and MSN allow audio already, and so you use this little add-on for the video, and the native IM application for text and/or voice chat.
If everyone is already on Windows XP, you could look at Windows Messenger 4.7 (only available on XP). It allows video chat with other Windows Messenger users, but not MSN Messenger users.
Those are the easiest solutions. There are others, but they get more complex.
December 21, 2002 at 2:38 am #65577aeroParticipantThank you very much Jeff.
I think I will give the yahoo setup the college try and if it won’t work on the high refresh rate supercam I will go with the logitech overlaid on msn or aol messenger (any reason to pick one or the other)?
For those interested in more detail I will report what happens. Interstingly from reading about others problems with the on a number of sites (dslreports.com etc) I see people are having problems with supercam and routers but my main question isn’t answered.
More than 90% of the home users have dynamic ip numbers. A lot of software, (like those I used a couple of years ago with : early radio voice chats, multiplayer combat flight simulator) would theoretically have a problem with routers because the reporting of the pc’s ip was wrong (intentionally masked by the hardware firewall/router) but all the programs we used allowed for users on the other end to input the actual ip (you just needed to trust that you weren’t dealing with hackers giving out your ip).
So the technical question I would have is if with yahoo messenger one can tell the program which ip you are communicating with (since it is known to the user buyt not the program). Of course one can always find out one’s own dynamically assigned ip, my advantage is the ip is always the same and if I can just input in once it would be done.
Thanks again.
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