How calibrate my monitor?

How do i calibrate my pc monitor so image is the same as my camera and for printing?

• I have recently bought a digital SLR camera (nikon D3100). I have taken some pictures and have been messing about with them with view NX2 and photoshop elements. but then the thought cam to me that i may be wasting my time fiddling with the white balance and such if my monitors contrast, gamma whatsits and other settings are not going to be the same as the cameras or where ever i get prints done. Does it matter. If so is there any easy way to calibrate. i have had a look at a few articles on line but they have given me a confused headache. thanks

• Answer:

  well in the monitor you can do a color calibration ie mess with red green blue and contrast until it looks the same as the paper. but again.... you might wish to buy some third party software that has Color management, if your GPU supports it it comes with this built in to most of them it just take alot of tweaking until you find it.