Need Help on Microphone Input for Laptop

[ALAN E NORTH]

I just installed Hoster-lite and find the software easy to work with, etc.

I am not a professional KJ or DJ-I just like to fool around with this stuff for Karaoke parties.

No trouble hooking my new laptop up to a second monitor (TV) and the songs play beautifuly from the laptop.

But, I cant' seem to get a microphone to work! Perhaps I just don't understand what is needed.

I simply plugged the microphone from my karoke player into the mike input jack on the laptop. Apparently, this isn't the way to do it as the mike was dead.

I searched the 'help' menu in Vista-no help. The 'adjustments' found in the Realteck driver info seem to be for recording and not for live broadcasting.

Is there any way that I can get the microphone to output along with Hoster ?

Do I need a different kind of microphone ? I'm wondering if I need a self powered mike-since the one I have apparently gets its power from the karaoke machine.

This is probably very basic for you guys-but is a problem for me.

Any help would be appreciated.

Al North