How to Communicate Over Long Distances

If we ever want to become an interstellar species, we're going to have to be able to communicate over a long distance. I don't know how they do it in star wards or star trackaus. In star wards, you just have the little hologram thing, and it's all real time from half a galaxy away. At least they add n a litle bit of distortion to make it look like itsomtes, sort of hardo.