YaHoo Instant Messenger

[elcajongr]

I find that YaHoo Instant Messenger is a very economical way to communicate with the better half in China. We spend 90 to 120 free minutes each day which is greatly improving her English skills. My biggest concern is how to prove that we spend this much time chatting with each other. Any suggestions from anyone that may be familiar with YaHoo messenger?

[frank1538]

I find that YaHoo Instant Messenger is  a very economical  way to communicate with the better half in China.  We spend 90 to 120  free minutes each day which is greatly improving her English skills. My biggest concern is how to prove that we spend this much time chatting  with each other.  Any suggestions from anyone that may be familiar with YaHoo messenger?

You can archive your written chats so you will have a record. Also, if you have a camcorder, you can tape the conversations as well. I did both, but the VO didn't ask for this proof.

 

There is also a utility out there that is supposed capture the webcam. You might take a look at the following link and see if it might help.

 

http://www.andy.w2s.co.uk/yahoo/CamGrab2/camgrab2.htm

[John & Hai Yan]

I was planning on asking the same question. Hai Yan and I communicate almost exclusively on Yahoo mesenger, because there are no additional costs once you have a web camera and are connected to the internet. But I have been unable to print out complete logs of archived messages with a date. The best I can do, is get a printout of a partial log with a time stamp. If you take Video of Yahoo messenger, maybe you can print the date on your camcorder, but at any rate this seems a cumbersome and questionable method of verifying communication.

 

I submitted some of these partial logs with my I-129F along with some limited phone bills and lots of pictures. The I-129F was approved at USCIS, but I am concerned that the level of proof might be higher at Ghongzhou.

 

Any other ideas about proving you have an ongoing relationship when you only use Yahoo messenger? What is the level of proof required?

 

Personally I have lots of pictures since I spent 3 1/2 weeks in China. I am also planing another trip in October during the National Day holiday season. But what will be needed to satisfy Ghongzhou?

 

This is a good question elcajongr!!!

[elcajongr]

After a little more thought here is what I have decided to do. I will use my screen capture program to capture a picture of the screen daily showing our video pictures and the YaHoo menu. The typed text can be saved as a text file. This would be another source of proof. I will send copies of these to my Hai Yan.

[John & Hai Yan]

I will have to ask someone with a little more computer knowledge than I about printing the screen with the webcam on. I'm sure there is a way, but it is beyond my skill level. Is this a seperate software program?

 

Anyone have additional suggestions?

[Jeikun]

I'm in the same boat. Jun and I almost exclusively talk by Yahoo instead of snail mail, but the relatively poor audio quality moved us to also make fairly regular phone calls.

 

I agree with Don. Write some real letters, send cards, make phone calls. That will add more weight to your proof.

 

As far as your screen shot... Hold down the <ctrl> button, while holding it down, press the <print screen> key (it's just to the right of the F12 key). Then open a graphics editor (the "Paint" freebie program bundled with windows will do just fine), paste it (from the edit menu, pressing <ctrl> v, however you like), then save it to a file. viola!

 

I agree that bringing in 20 reams of paper showing all of your chats is excessive, but a few screen caps won't hurt, so why not?

[ghostrider]

Just to add my 2 cents.

 

I'm in school right now and I have no money so I have to find the cheap way to do everything.

 

I talk to my wife exclusively on Yahoo Messenger. I think it's much better than talking on the phone.

 

For one thing, it's free. (Besides the cost of having an internet connection.) Secondly, I can see her on the webcam when I'm talking to her. (My webcam only cost $10 and it works just fine.) Finally, when we run out of things to talk about, we can play games.

 

Sometimes there can be connection problems or long lag times, but I think it's pretty good when you consider that it's free and you can see the person you're talking to.

 

As far as documenting our talks, I just archive our messages. Then, once a month, I open all the Messenger windows on my desktop then do a print screen, like Jeikun described.

 

Then I'll print that out. So, that printout will show the archive list (the date for every time we talked) and each of our webcams.

 

I figure that's good enough for Mr. Big Bad VO.

[MarkD]

Bulent's Screen Recorder

 

This free program can capture your IM video, audio, and your chats at the same time and save it as a video or as pictures. You select a region on your screen to save so it can be used with any program, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, NetMeeting, etc.

[elcajongr]

hi ghostrider, I like the archive list idea. The Print Screen feature is one way to get the listing. Another is to use a "Directory Listing" program. I have over 300 emails (600 counting hers and mine) and it is not realistic to copy and carry all of those to Guangzhou. The Directory listing progams allows one to print a list of all emails in the directory along with a few selected email copies for the interview. I would hope this is adequate? One free "Directory Listing" program is available at:

http://widgetech.com/freeware/printdir3_1.shtml

[se_lang]

hi ghostrider, I like the archive list idea.  The Print Screen feature is one way to get the listing. Another is to use a  "Directory Listing" program.  I have over 300 emails (600 counting hers and mine) and it is not realistic to copy and carry all of those to Guangzhou.  The Directory listing progams allows  one to print a list of all emails in the directory along with a few selected email copies for the interview. I would hope this is adequate? One free  "Directory Listing" program is available at: 

http://widgetech.com/freeware/printdir3_1.shtml     

My MM has save all our email there is over 3000 even the directory listing would be pages long and most the emails are 1 liners we use email to my mobile phone when I am at work so it is like a chat session.

[LENJIA]

I am glad you brought this topic up. Jennifer used to talk to her parents all of the time with the Yahoo Voice Chat. It seams now when she tries to connect it says that the server is having trouble connecting and that it is trying to reconnect, but never does. Has anyone else had this problem? How did you fix it?

 

Thanks a million,

[se_lang]

I am glad you brought this topic up.  Jennifer used to talk to her parents all of the time with the Yahoo Voice Chat.  It seams now when she tries to connect it says that the server is having trouble connecting and that it is trying to reconnect, but never does.  Has anyone else had this problem?  How did you fix it?

 

Thanks a million,

Are you behind a firewall?

[elcajongr]

I am glad you brought this topic up.  Jennifer used to talk to her parents all of the time with the Yahoo Voice Chat.  It seams now when she tries to connect it says that the server is having trouble connecting and that it is trying to reconnect, but never does.  Has anyone else had this problem?  How did you fix it?

 

Thanks a million,

If you are using version 5.6 you can go to the following YaHoo Help page for a few suggestions;

http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mesg/twin/twin-02.html

[LENJIA]

I am glad you brought this topic up.  Jennifer used to talk to her parents all of the time with the Yahoo Voice Chat.  It seams now when she tries to connect it says that the server is having trouble connecting and that it is trying to reconnect, but never does.  Has anyone else had this problem?  How did you fix it?

 

Thanks a million,

Are you behind a firewall?

Yea, thats the problem. Yahoo has told me that it is the firewall, but I dont have any idea how to config it for the Yahoo Voice Chat, any ideas? I have written Nortin and asked for a manual of how to config there program, but havent gotten a response back yet. I am going to guess that they are going to tell me to use there online support page, but that takes me back to square one again, I dont have any idea how to do these type of things.

 

I went to that web page that you had the link for, am I supposed to do this:

If neither of the above options work, you're probably behind a firewall or proxy server that requires you to enter its address. Follow these steps:

 

Open the Login menu in Messenger.

Click on Preferences, then click on the Connection tab.

Click on Use proxies. Here you can enter your firewall and/or proxy server's address and port number. Contact your network administrator (if you're at work), or your Internet service provider (if you're at home) to determine the correct firewall and proxy settings.

 

If I am, I dont have any idea how to do this Have any of you had to do this to get the Yahoo Voice Chat to work?

[elcajongr]

I have been using Yahoo Messenger behind a router mechanical firewall for about three years without any problems. Here is how my Yahoo connection is setup. Open the Yahoo Messenger menu and click on LOGIN, then Preferences, then Connection. Now select "no proxies"

This works for me. It may or may not work behind a software firewall such as the one builtin to XP. If you have a router and Xp I believe the XP firewall must be turned OFF. Maybe a XP user would know. If you have the XP firewall you might try turning it OFF very briefly to see if that is the problem. Don't leave the firewall turned OFF any longer then needed.