msn messenger connection via modem

my mother lives in the middle of nowhere and i know their phone system is
ancient! She can run messenger7 using a dial up modem and typing is slow but
just about ok. When trying to use video the picture quality is really really
bad and the audio unuseable ..... could this be all down to the phone line?
If so how do i prove that? Or is there something i missed in messenger /
modem set up?

My mother also used a modem to connect to internet and used messenger most
for typing. Audio was so-so, acceptable I can say. About VideoI don't know,
never tried. After she installed an ADSL modem all features work just fine.
Including video and remote assistance.

--
Name: Vitalie Ciobanu
Nickname: AISBERG
Homepage: http://aisberg.rau.ro


"Eli" wrote in message
...
my mother lives in the middle of nowhere and i know their phone system is
ancient! She can run messenger7 using a dial up modem and typing is slow
but
just about ok. When trying to use video the picture quality is really
really
bad and the audio unuseable ..... could this be all down to the phone
line?
If so how do i prove that? Or is there something i missed in messenger /
modem set up?

Hi,

Messenger uses a dynamic codec which allows it to automatically change bitrates for voice and
video, thereby supporting both fast and slower connections automatically with no
configuration. However, both features do require a moderately powered CPU, so for instance
if she's using an older PC that would've come with say, Windows 98, it probably doesn't have
the computing power to correctly compress the audio in real-time (and you'll end up with
garble).

As well, the latency (that is, the time between her PC compressing her audio stream, sending
it to your across the network and your PC decoding it) over narrowband connections is
extremely high and you can expect at least 1 second of delay or more.

Broadband (or at least 128bkps+) is typically recommended to this obviously, and especially
if you're trying to do both voice and video at the same time.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2006 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
--


"Eli" wrote in message
...
my mother lives in the middle of nowhere and i know their phone system is
ancient! She can run messenger7 using a dial up modem and typing is slow but
just about ok. When trying to use video the picture quality is really really
bad and the audio unuseable ..... could this be all down to the phone line?
If so how do i prove that? Or is there something i missed in messenger /
modem set up?