Skype

I discovered the benefit of Skype when my son went off to college. It was easy to set up, we practiced it before he left and so we were set. It was so much more satisfying to see his face when we were talking. We usually initiated it through AIM IM (instant message). We would see through AIM that we were both online, send him an IM and agree to Skype. Then it was a matter of starting it up and initiating the call or waiting for him to call. If you want the video you click it on. You can still Skype without it but we prefer to see each other. We can see our faces in a small window at the bottom left of the screen and his face fills up the rest of the screen. We love it. I would recommend it to anyone. A friend of ours uses it with a friend from Denmark and they have a little more trouble connecting because they pick a time each week to be online to Skype but sometimes they just can't connect. AIM makes it so much easier because it notifies you when any of your friends and family are online. We both have webcams built into our laptops but webcams are inexpensive and easy to add on to your computer. So really all you need is to both have webcams, an internet connection and to download the Skype software for free and set up an account. It is easy and it is very satisfying. Try it.