Webcam questions
 

I am looking into buying two webcams, one for me and one for my daughter who lives 3000 thousand miles away. Does anyone have any advice, experience etc? What is a good one without breaking the bank? The ones I buy will need built in microphones. I am using Vista and she is using XP if that matters.

Shouldnt be too tough.

get one with at least 640x480 resolution (as high as affordable really). If it has an internal microphone that will free you up from having to plug in a desk microphone. They should all be USB, dont bother with anything else.

Wife and I just did this for my trip to Iraq, I forget the brand and model, but they cost less than $45 each.

Like everything else, it'll probably come with a stack of "bloatware" (webcam capture tools" and "video editing" stuff. - try not to install it, it usually isnt worth much. If XP can auto-detect and support most any webcam without installing new software, I'm sure that Vista can also.

IMHO
-John

I've had pretty good luck with Logitech cams, including sending one to a relative in NJ and doing a setup over the phone. The units with "tracking" are nice since the image sensor will follow your face around automatically without the need for a pan/tilt mechanism.

I've got a microsoft vx3000, or something, works fine.