Stevandiane

Hi All

Diane and I have been regular readers of this forum for some time now. We have just, (this week) had our Visa's OK'd

Anyhow, I just thought if anyone was planning to move to Oz and wanted to know anything computer related they might want to ask here.

I have worked in IT for some time and I thought that I may be able to help out if I can. Well you never know!

Stevan
:lecture:

paulf

Whats wrong with my floppy?

Stevandiane

Hi

Presuming of course you are referring to your computers floppy drive??? J

What seems to be the problem?
Are there any error messages?

Stevan

Sindy

Ease up on the beer and cigs

Bill

Sindy

Thanks for the offer Stevan,

I have a question,

Many of us, me included, are planning to keep in touch by using webcams/camcorders for video conferencing. I have tried the facilities on Messenger but have experienced problems, as have others.

What method/software would you recommend for this?

Thanks

Bill

Diane&Bob

Im looking into this as well - any suggestions as to how to do it.

Using Windows 98

Also price of laptops cheaper UK or Oz? Usually buy my computer bits from ebuyer

Bob

mashiraz

I've managed to set up Messenger with Netmeeting and communicate now with 3 people. Apart from a bit of echo, works fine. With one set of peeps who are on Windows XP we have to do the requesting video chat, but we always start with a voice chat first. It works in the UK, lets hope it still works from Oz.

Mash...

r.bartlett

is this right?? ;-)

cheers

richard

Stevandiane

Hi All
Sorry it's taken so long to reply.
Been busy sorting out our stuff before the big day, boy do we have a lot of junk!

As we have relatives in Oz I've used a web cam a few times, the camera I use is digital camera which doubles as a web cam, I think you can get them now for about £40 ish and up.

Our relative uses a standard logitech type webcam, again you can get them for about £30 and up.

We use NetMeeting as well, because it's free, best sort of software to use :-)

We get OK results considering we both use a 56k modem! The images are about 2-3 inches square and a bit like watching a video on slow motion that jumps frames every few seconds. We find that the audio is OK as long only one of us talk at once.

I'm sure that the quality would improve with broadband and better equipment but then you need to be looking at stuff like video capture cards and the like which may start to stretch your funds a bit. That sort of stuff costs £100's rather than £10's. Even if you already own a camcorder.

If you are really flash and have one of those digital camcorders you may not need a video capture card but as I don't actually have one I can't say for sure.

The first time we tried NetMeeting I was using Windows 98
If you have windows 98 and want to update your NetMeeting you can get it from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/net...d/nm301x86.asp

Last time I used it I was using Windows 2000 and it worked fine. Even though is was a bit rough image wise as I said before.

If the problems you were referring to was the image quality, there’s not a great deal you can do about it, but it is free :-)
Cheaper than a phone call and you get to see friends faces again,(even if you don't want to).


There are also heaps of PC-to-telephone services on the internet.
These let you call people on their telephone from your PC even if they have no computer; again most of them are free :-)

I just done a quick search on www.google.com and found this one:
http://www.phonefree.com/

I haven't tried this one but they usually work more or less the same way. All you need is a mike and headphones. Speakers really mess them up as your mike picks up what is being sent to your speakers. It gets confusing.
The only draw back is that you usually have to talk one at a time, you know like on a two way radio..........over.


You could also try a company in the UK, (for calling OZ) called Onetel. Their services can be used with your existing telephone company, all you do is type in a onetel code number, then the number you want to call.... easy.
You can call Oz for 4p per min. Oh by the way I have nothing to do with this company, it's just we use it all the time. I thought others may no know about it.
You can get more info on onetel from:

http://www.onetel.co.uk/index.php


Getting back to computers and stuff, re: laptops.

It's really hard to say if they are cheaper here or in Oz. it depends a lot on the exchange rate. Last time I was there they were about the same price as the UK but this was about 3-4 years ago.
I did notice that they were a lot cheaper in Singapore if you are getting a stop over?

What you would have to check in Singapore is that it has an international guarantee. Some times you get one sometimes you don't.

I suppose the questions to ask are: If I have a laptop here that’s getting a bit old can I sell it?

If I buy a laptop here, (or anywhere except Oz) and take it to Oz am I bothered that it may not have a guarantee?

Hope this helps rather than confuses.

Stevan

Sindy

Some good information people, thanks

Mash,

Hi and thanks for the info on the messenger service. Our problems have all been with other users on XP which is why we have been looking for alternatives. Good to hear that you seem to have got yours working. Lets hope we can all crack this one in Oz.

Richard,

What can I say except, good one made me laugh. Although I am not sure the ladies will appreciate it as much.

Stevan,

Thanks for your input and interesting information on calling phones from the PC. Will be looking into that one. Thanks again.

Bill (Sindy's Husband)

ps how is your floppy Paul ?

Diane&Bob

Thanks Stevan.

I have loaded Netmeeting and will try it out soon. I'm glad someone else likes free software, I use free legit virus checker, firewall and Unzip package - now I need free windows - ha ha ha!

Regards

Bob:

Stevandiane

Have you heard of Linux ?

It's a free source version of Unix. Works quite well on a PC and is very stable.
http://www.linux.org/

You can also get Star Office (6.1b) for free it's Sun's version of MS office and totally compatible with MS office documents so you don't even need to convert your docs!
http://wwws.sun.com/software/star/st...eta/index.html


With these and Netscape, Who needs Microsoft! ! :-)

Whoops, I forgot about net meeting :-)

Seriously though the only drawbacks to this stuff is a smaller driver set for Linux. If you have any obscure hardware; like a 10 year old external hand scanner or the like, you might find it tough to get a driver but newer stuff is all covered.

Interesting to read about though, well sort of. But not quite as much as how cheap houses are in Perth ! ! GRIN :-)

Stevandiane

For an alternative to NetMeeting have a look at the following:


http://www.truetech.com/webcam/freeware.html

http://www.tucows.com/preview/193602.html

http://downloads.zdnet.co.uk/downloa...8-8529176.html

http://www.tucows.com/preview/228749.html

They are all supposed to work with XP but I haven't tried them

Stevan

jah4reds

Linux is still not as user-friendly as Windows 9x,2000,XP etc. Unless you're technically minded or have lots of time to play - it's still probably best to stay clear at the moment. Best options for linux are:
1. Redhat - www.redhat.com
2. Suse - www.suse.com

Use OpenOffice v1.1 (which is free) - as the latest versions of Star Office are not free (but still much cheaper than MS Office).

The last review I read about messenger products on Windows - recommended Yahoo Messenger above MS Messenger and AIM (AOL messenger). However, I don't have any experience with messenger products. (FYI Steve - you can use GnomeMeeting on Linux as a replacement).

AnydH.

Vanou

Hi there,
We're at the medicals stage but hope that the visa will come fast afterwards(end of June quotas)... anyway, I was wondering if, being in IT like me, U had some let's say 'not really legal' software like photoshop and such that you want to bring along with U? And if yes, do you fear the customs might look into your stuff ?

By-bye