Skype?

[hingyfan]

My brother is in Mexico and he is trying out the Internet antenna he bought on ebay. I dont know what this means but he is always looking to save money, hence he has a beach house in Mexico. He also wants me to open a Skype account so i can video conference with him. This i am vaguely interested in. What is Skype, how do i get it, does it cost money (not that i want to sound like my brother), do i need hardware, etc.
Thanks!

[Bruce_F]

Go their web site HERE.

The basic Skpe that you need to connect with your brother is FREE to use.

[hingyfan]

Is this video conferencing? That's all im interested in. Unlike my rich brother, im not too cheap to make a phone call.

[kbeartx]

eye dunno fer sure, but the last I checked, Skype's Mac development was lagging far behind their peasea development, and many features that were already deployed for peaseas were not even available in their latest Mac beta release.

I think videoconferencing was one of them [but this was a year or so back].

I believe it's possible to videoconference between an AOL-equipped peasea and a Mac w/ iChat...

KBear  

[hingyfan]

Uh, what is peasea?

[sandbox]

Hingy, yes there is video the high quality version is better, the Pro option of Skype is worth it.

peasea= PC

[sandbox]

Hingy, I forgot to add ADIUM to your options.

If he has a PC and you run a Mac, this software will allow you to ichat. It's free.

I've had it for a while now, I don't use it much since I acquired a VoIP phone and X-Lite softphone, but it does work well, and it's free.

If you go the Skype route, a lot depends on the amount of calls and conferences. A pro account with a Skpe-in phone number will cost you about $65 the first year, $95 the following years. A stand alone VoIP # or a Skype # is about $60 per year.

The number is used as a local call. You would purchase the number for your brothers area code and he could call you directly. If he already has a Skype account he could buy the additional number in your area code, and you could call him with a 7 digit number. I had a number in Estonia 2 years ago for friend that works for Cisco, I could reroute the numbers to forward to calls to my cell or to his brothers house, anywhere really.

The cheapest avenue for you to take if video chatting is all you need is to download Adium, and connect to his selected video conference software.

Good Luck

<edit> to add this link for creating an iChat AV link with a PC. http://www.mvldesign.com/video_conference_tutorial.html

Optional software> Trillion $25.00