Hi Lars.... I�ve been using Skype for years now, since it came out. I have a schedule to meet every Sunday at 12 noon Pacific time (which is 8 pm my time in Tenerife) with my brother and one daughter on Vancouver Island and my other daughter in Calgary, so we have a 4-way conversation going. Most of the time we have perfect sound and conditions. We don�t yet pay for video conferencing, but when there are just two of us starting up the conversation we can see and hear each other with our videocams. For a three-way or more people video conversation, Skype wants you to pay for the service, so we just talk without seeing each other, sometimes for over two hours. If one of us has a problem with their microphone, they can still type in the lower part of the box to communicate their problem with the rest of us until they get sorted and are back on voice. My daughters still use headsets on tabletop computers. At the moment I�m on a laptop with video and mic incorporated, as my big computer is in the repair center. International phone calls to landlines are also very cheap. I use Skype to telephone friends in England from Tenerife and the cost is just pennies for a ten or 15 minute chat. You just dial in the number from a numberpad on the screen and the sound is even better than using a standard phone. If I can help in any way Lars, just ask. Nice to talk to you again, SharonCb

Exactly, azinoh. Microwaves do cause interference, An audio signal like Skype doesn't take much bandwidth but any interference can cause a disconnect. Here's some info lifted from a Cisco webpage "In reality, the many other types of devices emitting in the unlicensed band dwarf the number of 802.11 devices. These devices include microwave ovens, cordless phones, Bluetooth devices, wireless video cameras, outdoor microwave links, wireless game controllers, Zigbee devices, fluorescent lights, WiMAX, and so on. Even bad electrical connections can cause broad RF spectrum emissions. These non-802.11 types of interference typically don't work cooperatively with 802.11 devices, and can cause significant loss of throughput. In addition, they can cause secondary effects such as rate back-off, in which retransmissions caused by interference trick the 802.11 devices into thinking that they should use lower data rates than appropriate. "

Like kayjones above I have my webcam on top of my monitor and it has the mic built in. Works great. However if you have others in the home who may want to watch television or whatever then a headset is better. Logitech do a very nice headset with mic and speakers for under $25 here. There are many others of course. A word of caution, do not set a standalone mic in front of your speakers otherwise the sound coming from the speakers goes right back into the mic and can be more than annoying. Not sure that type of mic is still available but just in case.....

"Yeah, Snidely, my sister also just told me this is what I'm going to have to do--how ridiculous. " Why do you think it's ridiculous? That's a frequent and easy solution to forgotten or otherwise inaccessible logins. I'm not sure why you think it matters. I'd think your end objective is to USE Skype, not to solve the problem in one specific way. Following my suggestion will give you access to Skype in less than 5 minutes. As an alternative, you can also use Google Talk. It has many of the same features as Skype - free user to user audio and video sessions plus free and unlimited US calling. Google Talk allows that free and unlimited calling to US numbers even when you're outside the US, you just need an internet connection to originate the call. Using it requires having a gmail email account. Also something you need to sign up for. There are even more alternatives you may want to consider. Good luck.