Webcam freezes while Skyping

Question

Hi Everybody!
I have a pretty annoying problem with my macbook pro. Lately these days I've noticed that during a skype conversation, the green light beside the webcam turns off for a sec and then turns on again. After this, the my webcam image on Skype freezes and keeps doing the same repetitive movements forever. Then I have to return the call and do another one. Why's that? It happens more often when the internet connection is not really good. But I tried with another computer on the same connection and it doesn't freeze. Could it be a problem with drivers? How can I solve it? Thanks for your answers. Have a nice day. Marco.

Answer 1

Hi,
I tried Skype when it first came out and was independently owned.
I use Little Snitch to check where and on what ports an App is calling.
For instance iChat using just an AIM Login will contact about 4 servers during the login process.
These deal with the actual Login, the Buddy List (which finds out who is On  Line), the Buddy pic server and the one that deals with Status Messages (they all  tend to be separate).
Of course you may have multiple AIM logins and also Jabber ones and the server count will go up.
However the time I tired Skype I got to about 40 alerts from Little Snitch about servers all over the place.
Skype does not use a central server system and seems to rely on the bandwidth of the people logged in to spread the load.
A Buddy of mine claimed he allowed it to continue and got to over a hundred connections.
That would seem to make things very vulnerable.
So I have not trusted Skype for many years.
Now it is owned by Microsoft  and I have not really followed the progress it may have made.
I would tend to check the Skype web site and then the App Store to see if the "Latest" appear to match.
I would not like to guess at the time it takes to get any Update listed on the App Store.
I did see this on the Skype site
Skype for Mac
1GHz Intel processor.
Mac OS X Snow Leopard and above.
100 MB free disk space.
Either USB or regular headset if your Mac does not have a built-in microphone.
Download drivers if you are using an external webcam.
For voice calls recommend broadband connection with 100 kbps down / 100 kbps up.
For group video calling everyone on the call needs Skype 5.0 for Windows or Mac or higher plus webcams, and at least one person needs a group video calling subscription. For best quality we recommend you use a high-speed broadband connection of 4Mbps down/512kbps up and a computer with a Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz processor. As a minimum you’ll need a high-speed broad connection of 512kbps down/128kbps up and a computer with a 1 GHz processor.
The Mac running OS 10.6.8 has drivers included  for all USB 2.0 USB Video Class (UVC) cameras that you could plugin.
The drivers the link points to are for USB 1.1 cameras which would be very difficult to even find nowadays  (pre OS X 10.4.8 OS-wise or around the time of Vista  on Windows machines).
The Minimum Speeds exceed those needed for iChat or Messages in 4 way Video Chats.
It seems to suggest the version is number 5.
9:09 PM      Sunday; May 26, 2013
  iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.3)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously