Free talking to anyone anywhere

i dont know if im the only person to just find out about this but it appears to be pretty damn cool...

www.skype.com ... its basically like hotmail except you can talk to people anywhere in the world via your computer and theirs for absoltuely no money WHAT SO EVER!!

ive not got to grips with it yet as i dont have a headset.. but everyone tells me its amazing. apparently you can even call mobile fones for next to nothing... 2 cent per minute to a russian mobile. wow. cheapness, sounds pretty damn good!

hope you all get a good use out of it!!

Yip, been around a long time. But you can go one better...

ICQ

With a webcam. You're OLD well OLD if you're not using that!

But it's great. OFten have exchanges with my brother down under, for sweet nothing. But you do need broadband!

Never tried ICQ, but have been using skype for a while.

Least hassle way of "connecting up" I found is a bluetooth headset from a mobile, as long as you have a bluetooth capable pc (eg with a dongle) it works great.

I'm on Skype and use MSN audio - have been using both for ages, no problems with either. Downloaded Google Talk as well but not got round to trying it yet.

There are a few threads on similar topics in this forum that you might want to check out Chloe

skype is just great, you can even hook up a webcam now.
I tried it last night with my folks in england.

GOD. i really AM behind arent i?! lol

true story,

I used to rent a room to one of my mates in Brum and he was always telling me how great Skype was. One day I was in his bedroom having a chat and asked him what he was doing. He said,

"I'm using SKype, it's great... "

"Where's the microphone"

"I haven't got one"

"Oh."

"So you just listen to the other person?"

"Usually, but there's something wrong with my speakers"

"So you can't hear them then?"

"No"

"Or talk to them?"

"No"

"What do you do then?"

"You can type in the little windows here look"

"But isn't that just like messenger?"

At which point he gave me a slightly offended look!!

Well I've never tried it but some of my mates love it, particularly good if you need to talk lots for business and want to keep the cost down.

@JDee I've just read your post out to the rest of the office and you have had us all in stitches.

At work everyone is on Skype, the project commitee have 'officially' adopted it and it has turned out to be quite handy for meetings - feels a bit strange sometimes when you are talking to someone on another continent and somebody else sat in the same room as you at the same time

what is the difference between skype and msn with voice then?

You can phone someone on a proper phone with skype.

Costs 1.4 cents a minute to phone the UK.

Dunno if thats possible with msn.

and phone mobiles

also I think MSN is just one-to-one audio, whereas, you can talk to more than one person at the same time with Skype.

I think Skype is multi-platform, with MSN being a Microsoft creation it automatically shares resources and links with other Microsoft programmes... even if you manually unlink it can still bugger up other applications - it really messed up my email which is why I switched to open source.

SKYPE + Video is great !!!

And I can talk for free with my folks, and see them too.
I wonder what Jannik ist going to say this eve when he can he his granny on the screen whilst talking.

@JRD : only 1.4ct ? well, the other 0.3ct is worth it for me, as I have a cordless phone, and can roam round the house whilst talking. sitting at the pc to use the phone is a bit like "the old days" where phones meant leads.

As I said, use a BT headset. Plus no-one is likely to see you looking like an utter cock, as you tend to do whilst wearing one of these things...

headset is definitely the best option, my Dad uses separate speakers and a mic which can cause feedback if they are too close together.

Cordless phones are great but headsets are hands-free.

I use Skype and have no problems.
Spent an hour last weekend talking to my friend in Canada.
One question though... where does it say about webcam. I have been on there site and cant find a thing about it.

Ok found it!!

Just a few questions:

Will any buetooth headset be compatible?
Is a dongle all I need to make my PC Bluetooth compatible?

I've heard that a bluetooth headset will take over my sound card meaning that I will have to keep reconfiguring it. Does anyone no anything about this?

Skype is easy to set up and run, only problem is the microphone won't work on my PC so its a whole lot of one way calls.

I think any bluetooth headset will work. You just have to pair it with the pc.

I think it does take over the sound whilst you are in a call. As soon as you disconnect it your pc automatically reconfigures though.

SKYPE is just great.
The video is a bit slow and out of synch, but what can you expect for free ??

Actually I just remembered this.

Skype Headset

Its a little addin for skype which sets the headset up, and automatically connects and disconnects the audio for you.

Only problem is you need to pay for it.

Many thanks JRD

Skype isn't a bad system, especially if you want to place calls to landline numbers, but for sheer quality of conversation, you can't beat Googletalk. It is quite literally telephone quality.

not tried GoogleTalk yet, not long signed up and I've only just managed to get people to download Skype... don't think they'll be to impressed if I make them change again

Is it really that good Neil? Thought the quality on Skype was fairly reasonable...

I found that Skype suffered from quite severe time delays and broken speech.

Because Googletalk is a simple, no whistles or bells VOIP programme it concentrates on getting the important things right rather than adding fancy videoconferencing facilities.

It took me a while to get family and friends moved over as well, but it's worth it, especially when I see how low my phone bill is.

suppose I best get them all sorted with an email account first

Does anyone know if you can set GoogleTalk up for new message alerts from more than one email account?

Hi

We don't use Skype, we use Tiscalli Voice over IP (Hardware) we pay Tiscalli € 1 a month and this gives us all national calls for free, and to phone the UK i just use the cheapest prefix number which at the moment is 1.49c using 10126.
The Computer does not have to be on either, as it is all done through thr "Fritz Box Fon" which Tiscalli sent me for nothing, this is also the DSL Modem & router. With the Fritz Box Fon you can plug in upto 2 telephons/fax machine, so you just use your normal house phone, and the quality is just as it is with the normal phone system. I do keep a ISDN phone plugged in to the ISDN NTBA just incase the DSL line goes down, but that has not happened yet.

Tony

I'm waiting for this bit of kit to become available before I pile into Skype: Netgear Skype Phone
It frees you from the computer as it connects directly to a WLAN access point.

If you get a Bluetooth dongle, make sure it supports the Headset or Handsfree profiles - this is usually indicated with logos on the box. Load the drivers and associated software that comes with the dongle you should be able to pair with any Bluetooth headset.

the wife just got an email today banning skype on all computers, her's is not the first company to do that, I guess they are worried about regulatory issues and the fact that skype uses up server space.

On a personal note we use skype and webcams to call our family all the time, while the quality isn't always 100% it has revolutionized our phone calls, feel like almost there.

The issue that companies have with Skype is to do with how it works. It uses technology similar to that used in peer to peer file sharing which means that if you are running Skype, it can be routing calls for other Skype users. The problem is therefore that, like P2P file sharing, Skype tends to eat up Internet bandwidth - a handful of Skype users in one company could use up a substantial chunk of the link to the Internet. This could impact things like access to the companies web or email servers.

At home, this is not really an issue as the Internet bandwidth is yours to use...

Just seen that the Skype phone can be pre-ordered in US on Amazon.

we all got an email round last year suggesting that we use Skype rather than the phone - has saved the projects a fortune as all of us are always online regardless of which country we're in.