I am not sure what is going on here. I can talk to my son in Korea and my daughter in Victoria but I cannot see them. They can see me. And they can see each other. I am selecting video call when dialing or accepting calls.
We have been using Skype for a few months now and we have never had this problem. I tried restarting the computer which helped in the case of my son, but shortly after the picture froze and then disappeared.
Has anybody had this problem before?
When you say “see me” you mean the video? Or see that you are online in the contacts list?
You just reformatted your computer, didn’t you? Might need the latest video drivers or version of directx? Run Windows update?
Whatever the problem, it’s on your end, not theirs, since they can see each other just fine.
I am almost certain we have used Skype since the reformatting. Around this time on our Saturday is the best time to catch my son due to the time difference and his work schedule, but last week was the power outage, so I can’t say for sure and I can’t get in touch with them right now. I will keep playing.
What happens when you run windows update? Any video updates show up?
Also, is it the video that they can’t see? Can you type back and forth? Does audio work?
Finally, do you know if your camera works with other apps?
I have the same problem with my friend on skype, he can’t see me online and I can’t see him online. But sometimes I can call him, and sometimes he can call me, it’s weird. Sometimes if we re add eachother, it will work for a few days, but then it goes back to seeing eachother offline. He says he has the same problem with other people on his list too. It must be skype, if it’s happening to you too.
Kind of annoying, it didn’t happen before the last update of skype.
I think we’re talking about two different problems. “Seeing” someone on your contact list (ie: if they’re online or not) and “seeing” someone’s video when you initiate or answer a call. One is usually caused by weird network settings and routers, the other is sometimes caused by video drivers, etc.
Just to clarify.
My son and I talked last week. He showed me a picture and I showed him the dog. Quality wasn’t great but we could talk and view just like we have been for the past three months.
This week we could hear each other. He could see me and the dog. I couldn’t see him at all except for those few minutes after restarting the computer. But the picture was frozen. Then it disappeared. The same with my daughter in Victoria. She can hear me and see me. I can only hear her. We can type to each other. My camera seems to be working because my picture is in the little box at the bottom of the screen. I can see what they can see. They can see their little picture at their end but I am not receiving it. When they talk/view each other they have no problem.
I checked windows updates but saw nothing about video.
It’s a glitch that just happened this week after three months of no problems.
I might just shut my whole system down. Maybe reinstall skype. Don’t need it untli next weekend so I have lots of time. Just curious if anybody had a similar problem and how it got resolved.
Thanks for the help.
Well maybe it’s a similar problem. Something to do with skype.
Actually sounds like a bandwidth issue!
Could be bandwidth. Dwhite do you have a cable modem?
Go to speedtest.net and do a speedtest to Vancouver – what’s your upload speed?
I have digital cable from citywest.
download speed - 4.33
upload speed - 0.24 I assume that is not very good.
Sounds like jase is right. Your upload speed is pretty slow. Has your connection changed recently?
Here’s how you would find out if that’s the cause or not: either have someone who has skype working on their computer use your connection, or bring your computer to someone else’s house and try it.
The only recent disconnection was the power outage if that counts. The last time I used Skype successfully was before the power outage.
Thanks for the advice.
Not that it’s impossible, But 0.24 Megabit/sec is 0.24 * 1024 = 245 Kbit/sec or roughly 30 KBytes / sec.
So yeah, Skype will work with that kind of upload speed, but not very well. And often not at all. If it does work, the other side might not see you moving much, or moving every few seconds.
As a comparison, the upload speed on my phone is 1.5 Megabit/sec, or roughly 200 KBytes/sec.
I tried my daughter in Victoria. Couldn’t see her.
So I shut everything off including the power bar.
Turned everything back on a few minutes later, tried again and no problems.
Quality wasn’t great but in the 20 minutes there was no lagging, no freezing, and no disappearing. Did the speedtest again and it was actually lower at .12 instead of .24.
I will see what happens on the weekend when I check Korea.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for helping out.
[quote=“DWhite”]I tried my daughter in Victoria. Couldn’t see her.
So I shut everything off including the power bar.
Turned everything back on a few minutes later, tried again and no problems.
Quality wasn’t great but in the 20 minutes there was no lagging, no freezing, and no disappearing. Did the speedtest again and it was actually lower at .12 instead of .24.
I will see what happens on the weekend when I check Korea.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for helping out.[/quote]
I wouldn’t really turn off the power bar every time, that really isn’t solving any thing. Is your cable modem plugged into it ? It wold be best to leave it on, pretty sure that this issue you are having are related to the bandwidth into your house, video requires a good chunk of speed for in and out traffic. Is this a laptop or a desktop ? Is it plugged into a router or direct to the cable modem ?
j’
Being a techno moron, I shut the power bar off, to make sure everything - the modem, the router,etc - would reset if that is possible. Everything was put back to the way it was, when I restarted.
The computer is a desktop. It is plugged into the router. With the kids at school, it is now the only computer in the house. Would it make a difference if I bypassed the router?
[quote=“DWhite”]Being a techno moron, I shut the power bar off, to make sure everything - the modem, the router,etc - would reset if that is possible. Everything was put back to the way it was, when I restarted.
The computer is a desktop. It is plugged into the router. With the kids at school, it is now the only computer in the house. Would it make a difference if I bypassed the router?[/quote]
Depends how the router is setup, is your wireless wide open ? Id stay behind the router, but have it setup properly. You might have your router not even setup properly and its open to the public, for them to steal all your internet.