webcam/mic recommendations?

[Simon]

SIP is an alternative to the protocol that Skype uses.  Because
Skype's protocol is closed, you can't work with it with any clients
other than Skype.  On the other hand, with SIP, you can use it with a
variety of software and hardware SIP clients, which can take the form
of phones, and analogue telephone adapters that you can hook up an
ordinary phone into to make calls with.  I have  a box next to me that
can bridge a landline and VoIP call, letting me dial the landline, and
make an outgoing long distance call over the internet through the box
for next to nothing ( plus the cost of the landline, of course).  SIP
is not tied to Linux at all, so your best bet is to try to get your
Windows using friends to switch to a SIP client.  According to Ekiga's
wiki there is video support in NetMeeting and in Windows Messenger (
oddly enough ), so you can try those two.  I just tried using SIP with
Windows Messenger and it seems quite easy to set up (I wasn't there
though, I'm on the Linux end), so try that:

0. Make sure everyone has the latest version of Windows Messenger (and
note that this is NOT MSN Messenger)
1. Get SIP addresses for each person from ekiga.net.
2. Configure their Windows Messengers to use their SIP addresses, and
your Ekiga to use yours. Sign in, of course..
3. Make a call to the address of the person you want to reach. I just
tested this with a friend using SIP addresses from Ekiga.net, and it
works with both audio and video.  The audio was bad, but I think it
was the bandwidth, and I can't really fix that right now, bad internet
connection.  Hopefully it will work well enough for you.
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