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How many of you Skype?

Do you Skype?

  • Skype...never heard of it!

    Votes: 39 70.9%
  • I skype sometimes...

    Votes: 12 21.8%
  • I'm in love with Skype!

    Votes: 2 3.6%
  • I hate Skype!

    Votes: 2 3.6%

  • Total voters
    55

Jr_Bullit

I'm sooo teenie weenie!!!
Sep 8, 2001
2,028
0
North of Oz
Just curious...

I'm using it for business purposes, but I think it'll rapidly become my main mode of communication with family/friends too...
 

Jr_Bullit

I'm sooo teenie weenie!!!
Sep 8, 2001
2,028
0
North of Oz
It's way cheaper than either Steve's or my Cell plans...unfortunately, we still need our cell phones. But, considering it's free for the VOIP features, it makes it worthwhile.
But $35/year for all inbound calls plus voicemail, and .02 cents per minute for outbound calls, makes it very tempting to upgrade and use it for my regular landline stuff too...
 

Jr_Bullit

I'm sooo teenie weenie!!!
Sep 8, 2001
2,028
0
North of Oz
I used the older version of Skype shortly before leaving my previous position...made life extremely easy when combined with BT Conferencing for work purposes, and saved a ****eload for me and the school district in question for the two hour long conference. :) This new version looks like it should work a ton better on Mac's too...
 

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
10,484
7,531
Exit, CO
Transcend held me down and forced me to Skype last week by duct taping me to a rabid midget and tickling me with a feather... and boy am I glad he did! Skype is the coolest thing I have done on the intarweb in a long time!
 

Changleen

Paranoid Member
Jan 9, 2004
14,335
2,448
Hypernormality
There's Google Talk now too, (G-Talk) which is pretty good, but you have to start every conversation wit': "Yo what up my nigga?" or it doesn't work properly.
 

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
40,941
13,135
Portland, OR
I have been using Vonage for my land line for about a year. It comes with "soft phone" that is installed on my wifes laptop. It's a cool feature.

We also used the call forward feature when we went on vacation and had all the calls routed to her cell.
 

Transcend

My Nuts Are Flat
Apr 18, 2002
18,040
3
Towing the party line.
jimmydean said:
I have been using Vonage for my land line for about a year. It comes with "soft phone" that is installed on my wifes laptop. It's a cool feature.

We also used the call forward feature when we went on vacation and had all the calls routed to her cell.
Is the soft phone free for you? It is an extra $ in Canada. :mumble:
 

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
40,941
13,135
Portland, OR
Transcend said:
Is the soft phone free for you? It is an extra $ in Canada. :mumble:
It was, I haven't used it in a while, I guess I need to check. I have the unlimited plan, so that might have something to do with it.

<edit> My bad, you are correct sir. It is $10 a month. I ran Linux before I started this job, now I run OS X. So I never used it. I had installed it on my wifes machine about a year ago when we first got the service and it WAS free then. She used it a few times, but I wouldn't spend $10 for it.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
I've had a couple friends who use Skype a lot and like the free service of computer-to-computer calling.

I went with Vonage for my phone because I'm in an area where Sprint rapes you with a $40/month charge just for a dial tone, which I refuse to pay. I love the Vonage setup - haven't had a single problem with it. I had one instance of a telephone call to my dad having some funny echoes in 6 months of use, and haven't heard anything like that before or since.
 
J

JRB

Guest
I feel like skaredsh*thead here. I have heard of skype, but never looked into it. I don't want to talk to people anyway.
 

Jr_Bullit

I'm sooo teenie weenie!!!
Sep 8, 2001
2,028
0
North of Oz
Echo said:
I have it because my sister lives overseas. I only run it on the rare occasion I wanna talk to her though.
I confused...why does having a sister living overseas make you hate it? Seems like it would be a great way to talk to her - even if you called it's like 2 cents/minute anywhere you call to...I've been trying to find a friend of ours who lives in Belgium but is currently on a trip in New Zealand...he hasn't been onlien though - too busy having fun I guess.
 

Jr_Bullit

I'm sooo teenie weenie!!!
Sep 8, 2001
2,028
0
North of Oz
Correct me if I'm wrong - but don't Vonage and Teliphone both charge you to use the VOIP feature - or go vonage to vonage or teli to teli?
 

bikenweed

Turbo Monkey
Oct 21, 2004
2,432
0
Los Osos
WTF so I just got a Skype account, like a half hour ago, and called a bud in the states. We chatted for almost two minutes, but the connection was pretty bad. I'm hoping it's only because the internal mic on my iBook isn't uber high quality.

Here's my problem:
I've talked with three people so far, but all of a sudden I no longer get a dialtone when I call people, and when I call myself and answer from my cell phone, I can't hear a thing. Since it's only 2 cents a minute, there is no way my 10 bucks is already used up.

Any ideas on how to get this to work? Where did the dial tone go? My speakers are working fine and the computer volume is at a normal level. And with a Mac iBook G4, would upgrading to an aftermarket, extrernal mic/headset make a huge difference in quality?
 

Jr_Bullit

I'm sooo teenie weenie!!!
Sep 8, 2001
2,028
0
North of Oz
So far I only go skype to skype - haven't worked with the whole call to phones or have phones call to me. skype to skype, I use a headset currently and have a great connection at all times - no static or anything...

How's about going to their help page and asking them to splain themselves?
http://support.skype.com/
 

Changleen

Paranoid Member
Jan 9, 2004
14,335
2,448
Hypernormality
bikenweed said:
WTF so I just got a Skype account, like a half hour ago, and called a bud in the states. We chatted for almost two minutes, but the connection was pretty bad. I'm hoping it's only because the internal mic on my iBook isn't uber high quality.

Here's my problem:
I've talked with three people so far, but all of a sudden I no longer get a dialtone when I call people, and when I call myself and answer from my cell phone, I can't hear a thing. Since it's only 2 cents a minute, there is no way my 10 bucks is already used up.

Any ideas on how to get this to work? Where did the dial tone go? My speakers are working fine and the computer volume is at a normal level. And with a Mac iBook G4, would upgrading to an aftermarket, extrernal mic/headset make a huge difference in quality?
You pretty much need to use a headset with a mic for any serious use of skype. It's annoying as hell for people on the other end if not - They hear themselves as an echo.

If you get a low quality line, try just disconnecting and reconnecting.