Spam:***, Re: [X4U] Video conferencing on a PC

[Scott McCulloch]

On Feb 24, 2005, at 3:36 AM, Stroller wrote:

>
> On Feb 24, 2005, at 7:20 am, Scott McCulloch wrote:
>
>> Does anyone here have any recent experience doing video conferencing 
>> on a PC?
>> ...So, what I'm wondering is whether there's anything that is even 
>> remotely comparable to iChat on the PC side...
>
> AOL's Instant Messenger software is videochat-compatible with iChatAV 
> - details at <http://www.aol.co.uk/aim/aim55.html>.
>
> I haven't tried it, so I don't know what the video quality is like - I 
> wouldn't be surprised if it was just the same - but the interface is 
> nowhere near so professional as iChatAV - it's full of adverts & 
> horrible little icons.

Yeah, that's kinda what I figured. I think our clients would rather 
stay away from all the "extras".

>
> If your business can afford it, I do like the idea of loaner Apple 
> laptops - assuming you can get the clients to give them back when the 
> job is done, of course!!
> iBooks might be a better value proposition than refurbished Powerbooks 
> - if you buy new you can get 3-year AppleCare including telephone 
> support for your customers, and you will be able to run Tiger on them 
> later this year for multi-way conferences.

Good thinking - getting the AppleCare in this case would probably be a 
very good idea.

>
> Whichever solution you use, beware that some of your customers' 
> firewalls may need tweaking to allow iChats to work. Smaller companies 
> who are just behind a NAT router will be able to just plug-&-go, 
> however larger SMEs may have decent firewalling in place to prevent 
> their employees instant-messaging their mates during working hours. It 
> shouldn't take their IT departments long to accommodate your iChatAV 
> requirements, however.

Ah yes, good point. Well, whatever we end up doing, I'm sure we'll have 
to get it approved by the IT departments of our client organizations.

Thanks,
Scott