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Why
You Need To Buy a Web Cam
by my-tech-guide.com
With
the internet, there has come ease of connection to those
from whom you live far away. You can email, instant message,
or talk over a voice connection for only the price of your
internet service. However, you can make it more real. Web
cams are becoming a bigger and bigger craze on the internet,
and if you are willing to get one hooked up and running,
you can add more realism and a better connection with your
distant loved ones. There are two fairly simple
steps in making it all happen for you.
First
of all, you will need to get a web cam. Pretty much
any web cam will work, and there are a ton of brands and
types out there. Just find the one that is right
for you. A lot of them can be bought for under $50, which
is a reasonable price for what you will get out of the experience.
If, though, you are seeking a better image quality you may
have to spend a little more. It’s up to you and your own
standards.
With
a video camera, you can use it instead with the proper
connection to your computer. It is a much more
complicated and difficult process if you don’t know what
you are doing or already have web cam experience, so you
will probably be better off buying a standard computer
web cam right off the bat.
Once
you have purchased the camera, you will need to install
whatever software came with it. Once you have done
that, you are ready to move on. Make sure, though, that you
do read over the directions first. There are some web cams
that require that you install the drivers first, but there
are others that require that you plug in the camera before
installing the drivers. Doing it in the wrong order can result
in you not being able to get your new web cam up and working
at all.
Second, you
will need to choose a delivery system for your images. There
are really three basic ways to get your images out there.
You will need to do some research on your own to figure
out which is best for you, but it is important that you
know what your options are.
You
could use a web cam service offered by many free email and
search engine providers on the internet. This way is probably
the simplest for someone that has not had a lot of experience
with web cams. However, using this method will require that
the person to whom you are sending your images install the
same service. It is also the method that often gives the
poorest image quality. If you do some research, you will
find there are also a lot of pay web cam services out there,
but cost versus what you get is something you will need to
figure out for yourself.
Another
option is to FTP to your website. You can use
web cam software that uploads pictures to websites via
File Transfer Protocol, or FTP. Using this method is more
complicated than a free service and you will need to have
a website that is FTP accessible. This is likely the best
way to go if you are using a dial up internet connection
and anticipate a lot of people uploading simultaneously.
The
third option for getting your images out there is using
an in house server. For this method you will use
web cam software that uses your computer like a web server.
This is probably not a good method to go with if you are
a complete beginner because the setup is complicated and
there are security issues with an in house server of any
type. On the other hand, this is certainly the method that
can, in most cases, deliver the best image quality. It
can also offer a much quicker refresh rate for your images
than the free service of the FTP method. This all, however,
is dependent on you having a high speed internet connection
of some sort.
As
you can see, getting your web cam and getting it hooked up
is not a difficult process. For just a few dollars and a
little bit of your time, you can add a certain realism and
excitement to your email or IM experience. So what
are you waiting for, get real with your web cam and step
into something exciting.
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