I'm a late arrival to videoconferencing. I've been skeptical of the picture quality, for one thing. If I want to see someone moving around underwater, I'll watch an old Jacques Cousteau documentary, thank you.

But recent advances in image quality, as well as expanded offerings for individuals and small-to-midsize businesses, promise to make video chat more appealing. As broadband connectivity proliferates in hotels, professionals on the road can go online and see their loved ones back home. You might even skip the trip entirely and conduct that important client meeting via videoconferencing instead. Best of all, Webcams--which capture the video--are often under $100. At the same time, many video chat services cost nothing.

This week: a beginner's guide to videoconferencing. Next week: Hands-on with Skype 3.6's free "high-definition" video chat client, accomplished with Logitech's QuickCam Pro 9000 (about $68 online) on a desktop PC and QuickCam Pro for Notebooks on a laptop (also about $68).

What You Need

To conduct a video chat session, each participant needs a Webcam.

Some consumer laptops from Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, and others feature built-in Webcams. If your laptop doesn't have one, you can easily add it. Portable models are compact and inexpensive (usually under $100). They connect to a USB port and clip to the top of your laptop screen. Some, like Logitech's QuickCam Pro for Notebooks, include a foldable stand.

Before buying a Webcam, check its resolution. Some Webcams offer low-resolution image quality. For example, the built-in Webcam on HP's Pavilion dv6500t has 0.3 megapixel resolution.

For the best-quality video chats, look for a Webcam with a 2.0 megapixel sensor, such as the aforementioned Logitech models. And make sure the Webcam's top resolution is true and not interpolated--a method that tries to trick the eye into seeing more visual information than the image really offers. Interpolated resolution just doesn't look as good as true resolution.

Also, pay attention to the Webcam's frames per second. This is an indication of how fluidly motion will be captured. The best consumer-level Webcams today offer 30 fps.

Many Webcams have a built-in microphone, but not all. For ideal audio quality, you might want to use a separate microphone, because it can be placed closer to your mouth.

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