I use MSN messenger to talk and see my brother in another city via webcams through MSN. A smaller window appears on the side of my computer’s MSN home page that shows who is or is not logged into Messenger. I can see who is logged in and then I can double click that person’s name and another window comes up showing options that include a webcam that allows us to communicate via webcams. My wife’s work laptop has a webcam installed and she also has access to a MSN account that comes up like mine as it is based on the MSN messenger home page. She does not see who is or is not logged into MSN messenger. When I try to connect with her and her webcam she does not receive the nudge or anything. What needs to change on her computer? She cannot get the webcam to work.

Work Restrictions

Since this is your wife’s work computer, it is possible that the IT department may have restricted access to MSN or even disabled the webcam. Because of this possibility, your wife may want to read up on the company’s computer usage policy to make sure that this isn’t by design. If there are no restrictions, then let’s look at other possibilities.

MSN Messenger Settings

Assuming your wife’s MSN Messenger is set up with a list of contacts, the first thing to do is look at your wife’s MSN Messenger’s settings. Launch MSN Messenger and then click the “Change Contact Layout List Layout icon. It’s the second icon next to the “Search Contacts” bar. This opens the Options screen. Once the Options screen is opened, you can change a variety of settings including alerts and nudges. First, click on Personal and make sure that “Allow others to see that I have a webcam” is marked.

Next, click on Alerts. Make sure that the option for “Display alerts when contacts come online” is marked. Once that’s selected, click on Sounds and choose a sound for “nudge” that will get your wife’s attention.

Now, click on Privacy and add yourself to the list of allowed contacts. If the box that says “Only people in my Allow List can see my status and send me messages” is marked, then you must be listed in this area or else you will automatically be blocked and your wife will never know that you are trying to contact her.

Finally, close this options box and then click on the next icon which is the “Show Menu” icon. Click Tools > Audio and Video setup. Here, you will set up the webcam. The first screen tests the speaker and microphone settings. Go ahead and click Next to open the webcam. You should see the default webcam’s image on screen. If not, click the dropdown box to find the laptop’s webcam. Click Finish once it’s set up.

Webcam Troubleshooting

Most likely, one of the above settings will do the trick and allow you and your wife to communicate via MSN and your webcams. If you think the webcam is not functioning, you may need to check it out in the Device Manager. Go to the Control Panel, click on System followed by Device Manager. Go to the Imaging Devices category and expand it. Double-click the webcam and see if any error messages show up. If you want to try updating its device driver, click the Driver tab followed by Update Driver. Follow the prompts.

Celeste Stewart | September 9th, 2009
Tags: MSN Messenger Settings, share messenger, webcam with messenger
Categories: Instant Messaging

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