minimum bandwidth for webcam performance

[VorpalBunny]

With the holidays approaching, I bought three webcams (Logitech Webcam Pro 9000) for the family. The immediate family lives a number of states away from each another. We really enjoy talking over the conventional phone and this will upgrade us to something like Skype where the family can talk/conference over the internet.

I'm not really worried over my internet connection. I'm on a very fast (20-30mbps) connection through the cable company. However, we have some in the family that have DSL and they are only getting 3mbps.

What's the likelihood of getting a good picture without jumpy frames? Do we need to upgrade the bottleneck mentioned to 10mbps?

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

It's more the upload that you should be worried about. That and the lag. Do a speedtest/pingtest to find out if it'll be fine.

 

[JDub02]

I have the same webcam. Skype works just fine on the 3meg/768k DSL that I had through Verizon. As was stated, the upload rate is your limiting factor since it's generally much slower than the d/l rate.

 

[onza]

on an unrelated note - http://gizmodo.com/5431190/hp-face%20tracking-webcams-dont-recognize-black-people

 

[VorpalBunny]

Looks like there are some tools through http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest

Has anyone used an online tool like this to check their upload speed? Is there a tool you would recommend instead? I'm hesitant about using a tool offered by the provider.

 

[Rifter]

www.speedtest.org