Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Skype

Is anyone on Skype? My sister and I have been thinking about signing up because neither of us has a land line, and Vancouver-London cell phone connections are shite, not to mention expensive.

Is it any good? What kind of headset would you recommend? Any and all advice welcome!

p.s. doing my bit for Expelled Exposed's Google ranking.
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13 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 15, 2008 at 4:59 p.m.

    I have been on Skype for maybe four years now. Voice quality is excellent, video reasonable. I am hardly making any regular phone calls overseas anymore (don't ask me if I made many before :-), and much of my communication across this continent is also on Skype.
    You can use Skype to call landlines and cell phones as well, at a very reasonable rates.
    Yu can also use it as a chat client and to send files.
    Strongly recommend it. Enjoy it !

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  2. CuttlefishApril 15, 2008 at 6:22 p.m.

    I have Skyped for a few years. 4 years ago (roughly) it was very spotty and frustrating. Last week, to a location within a couple hundred miles of the exact opposite point on the globe from me, we had a couple of glitches, and that was frankly unusual.

    There are any number of perfectly acceptable headsets (some inexpensive ones come with Skype coupons, if you ever intend to use Skype to talk to a land line instead of another computer).

    It has worked best (for me) on the built-in cam on a Mac.... second best, a camcorder firewire connection to a non-viddy mac. Both were perfectly acceptable... especially since there is no way I could afford to just pick up the phone and call.

    It makes half a world away into about a quarter second of lag time. Strongly Strongly Strongly recommend it.

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  3. CuttlefishApril 15, 2008 at 6:23 p.m.

    I should add... third best on a pc, but that was several years ago, and at the time neither the PC nor the Mac was a reliable Skyper.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousApril 15, 2008 at 8:45 p.m.

    I'm on Skype RIGHT NOW with Digital Cuttlefish - 1.09.55 says the clock and counting! :D It's great, only one glitch so far in terms of sound breaking up and I was directed to this site after we began talking about your site and your interest in Skype! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. infinite scienceApril 15, 2008 at 8:56 p.m.

    Dave and I regularly use Skype (ok, he regularly uses it for his 3+ hr conferences for his course with people across the province), and I use it when calling my parents. We pay $30 for UNLIMITED long distance. He's got a decent headset - it was cheap and it works.

    In fact, he's calling me in 5 min in my hotel room in San Diego - gotta run!

    ReplyDelete
  6. hggApril 15, 2008 at 11:28 p.m.

    Skype is great, but it may not work so well if you're on a wireless connection or the network is generally busy. I surely have had a better time away from my family since I got it installed.

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  7. AnonymousApril 16, 2008 at 12:34 a.m.

    Yeah, Skype needs a good internet connection. We used Shaw Cable internet and made sure we were plugged in rather than wireless. Skype to landline isn't too bad but Dr R and I found Skype to Skype Canada to England could be a little frustrating if the internet connection was poor. Still, its cheaper than standard phone calls (as in free) and you can put up with a bit of hassle for that.

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  8. Cath@VWXYNot?April 16, 2008 at 7:10 a.m.

    OK, six votes for Skype! Thanks everyone! I'll look for headsets at the weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  9. makitaApril 17, 2008 at 6:58 a.m.

    Hi CAE,
    If you do, let me know. I'd love to chat! I'm on Skype, but not very regularly. Gotta work on that. But now that my mother is getting a good internet connection next month, I think I'll be using it a lot more.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Cath@VWXYNot?April 17, 2008 at 10:36 a.m.

    The odds of me getting my parents to sign up are very long indeed. They're only just getting to grips with email.

    Sure, I'll let people know when I've figured the whole system out, and then people who want to chat can get in touch via email to set it up!

    ReplyDelete
  11. UnknownApril 18, 2008 at 9:02 a.m.

    There are other alternatives out there, CAE. If your sister in London signs up to Vonage all she would need is a broadband connection and a touch tone phone - with Vonage there is simply no need for any headset to be plugged in to a PC.

    For just £7.99 a month she could make unlimited landline calls within the UK and to 14 other countries including Canada. Details can be found at http://www.vonage.co.uk/call-plans/vplan2/ Another important factor to take into consideration is the call quality you are prepared to accept. Our call quality is fantastic and Vonage to Vonage calls are free whichever country you are in - so if you both signed up you would be able to call each other for free.

    We are offering a 30 day money back guarantee so by all means give us a try.

    ReplyDelete
  12. challApril 18, 2008 at 11:54 a.m.

    I use skype too - cheaper since it is for free between other skyping people. THe connection is usually good, or as good as IP phone get down in the south of US (kind of a rural feeling every once in a while).

    Out skype is definetly worth it if they, as my parents, wouldn't know where to start with the skype and computers.

    I bought a cheap headset with adjustable volume and then I was ready to go. Would have loved to have acamera but sadly my computer is too old for techistuff like that ;)

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  13. Cath@VWXYNot?April 18, 2008 at 3:23 p.m.

    Ooh, a webcam. There's an idea. Not sure if my sister's budget stretches to that, but I'll ask her!

    ReplyDelete

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