Skype?

[bruce]

Anyone else using this program to make internet phone calls?

[106-1194218389]

My "real life" job right now is technical support for Qwest Communications in their Broadband Department. Just could not make enough money in the automotive world here in Salt Lake City, Utah. The secret to any of the VOIP products is the speed and quality of you broadband connection and the power of your computer. I had a gentleman call me at work one time from Brazil. He was using Skype from his computer. It was perfectly clear with great volume. It was like he was standing next to me. He had a super powerful laptop with a very good headset hooked to it and was on a hotels broadband. So will it work? You bet if you have the proper setup. I takes a lot of resources so if you are trying to use Photoshop at the same time you are calling with VOIP it may get jittery. Also a Win 98 computer with a 256k DSL may not work. :;):

John

[86rocco1]

I use it occasionally. I'm using a cheap 2 year old laptop, a $5 headset and a normal residential DSL connection and I've been fairly pleased with the quality of the service most of the time it's not quite as good as a normal landline telephone but it's adequate.

[bruce]

My thoughts were simply as a way to communicate with forum members on the cheap ie free. I have Verizon cell phone and can talk with some forum members that way Verizon to Verizon and not have any cost.

[77-1212596771]

I am using skype from time to time, when I am talking with friends a long duration (because I are trying to get programming issues solved, or making a collection order). I really like the superb voice quality which is often better or same good as talking on the real phone line.

I am using my Macbook ( 2.2 Ghz processor), or my standard PC (Linux in general, but sometimes Windows) which is a 2 Ghz System. However I sucessfully used Skype also with a 700 Mhz VIA C3 Mini-computer and old Athlon 1000 Mhz systems.
If you have more than a dial up line (so 64k or more) the voice quality is very nice.

I would be happy to communicate with you forum guys via skype too. It makes the world much smaller

Cheers,

Daniel

[Moriniman]

I make all of my overseas calls using Skype-Out.

This allows you to call a land-line from Skype at a pretty good rate.

The quality of a Skype call is very dependent on the original voice quality. If you've got background noise, you start eating bandwidth and/or losing quality. Use a noise cancelling microphone at least. Better still use an ordinary phone. They restrict the audio bandwith to the frequencies most needed to understand speach.

I run my system with an 'Internet Phone Wizard' using a dedicated PC. The whole house phone system plugs into the Wizard and then any of the handsets can make and receive both ordinary and Skype calls.