FREE Internet Phone calls

roostaman · Post by **roostaman** » 27 April 05 10:30 pm

Yes [b]FREE[/b] Internet phone calls. Has anybody seen & used this -
[url]www.skype.com[/url] ???

It is much like many other voice chats, but much better.
Give it a try if you have not seen or tried it yet.
It could make contact with the other side of Oz or the world much more common.

And yes you can find me in the users if you search for 'Roosterman'.

Roostaman.

dcr · Post by **dcr** » 27 April 05 10:51 pm

A couple of the standout that showed up in my investigation of this product were;

What are the security implications?
Most companies probably wouldn't be to keen to sign off on the EULA for this product (brought to you by the guys who produced Kazaa with its rather fun load of adware). This won't worry a lot of home users; but then again the clauses in the EULA for Kazza created the breakaway Kazaa-LITE.

What are the network implications?
If you have a good connection and keep the client running, your bandwidth and idle cycles can be used to assist bandwith limited users as a type of "supernode". Be aware of this if you see you bandwith usage growing for inexplained reasons.

If you are using IE and MSN Messenger, then this is only going to raise your risk profile by a minor margin. If you have a tighter, more secure Standard Operating Environment (SOE) you may want to look at other VoIP offerings.

cheers Darren

(My investigations were for an area with a reasonable secure SOE)

roostaman · Post by **roostaman** » 27 April 05 11:05 pm

And yes, I meant to show it as - http://www.skype.com
(how do I get these url tags to work):(
Anyway, I would agree for the average home user, with a good AntiVirus program, a good Firewall & AdAware running, there should be few problems.
It definitely cuts the cost of long distance phone calls to $0.

Roostaman

Richary · Post by **Richary** » 28 April 05 12:34 pm

We have been using it a bit at work. Mainly to talk to some of our overseas suppliers. It seems fairly reliable though occasionally sound quality is a bit poor and you need to try again.

Then again, we have a nice 2MB wireless net connection here up to Internode's backbone.

crew 153 · Post by **crew 153** » 28 April 05 1:28 pm

We are also using it at work to talk to our branch in Hong Kong. Sound quality is good with no perceptible delay (unlike MSN). Very occasional drop outs. You can also use it for cheap connections to the phone network in the other countries. I'm not sure that the IT people are too impressed with the additional bandwidth used though.

Slider & Smurf · Post by **Slider & Smurf** » 28 April 05 2:20 pm

We used it a couple of times to call home after we moved into our house - had cable internet online the same day, but the phone took another week!! <p>
Contrary to previous posts, we found the delay to be quite annoying - and this was on a 3Mb cable link. It achieved the aim, however ... guess you get what you pay for

Team Piggy · Post by **Team Piggy** » 29 April 05 12:49 am

richary wrote:It seems fairly reliable though occasionally sound quality is a bit poor and you need to try again.

Then again, we have a nice 2MB wireless net connection here up to Internode's backbone.

Yep, that would explain the crap quality

An@l-probe internet !

Bronze · Post by **Bronze** » 29 April 05 5:56 pm

Mrs Bronze uses it but I can be barely bothered to answer the phone let alone the computer as well. The only phone I get up for is the mobile.

Mrs Bronze is fairly impressed with it although we have has sound card difficulties which cost us a new head set before we figured.

The Bronze.
"Where is here?"

Devar · Post by **Devar** » 29 April 05 6:17 pm

Skype is great fun.

Especially big conference calls. Uses next to no bandwidth, which surprised me when I monitored what it goes through on an average call.

Gotta have fun calling random people from all over the world. Ã‚Â¬_Ã‚Â¬

Ebenezer · Post by **Ebenezer** » 04 May 05 11:24 am

I have been thinking of installing it. Are there any issues with receiving calls from behind a NAT router?

Richary · Post by **Richary** » 04 May 05 1:19 pm

Ebenezer wrote:I have been thinking of installing it. Are there any issues with receiving calls from behind a NAT router?

Works through our work firewall/router system etc.

TEAM WOMBAT · Post by **TEAM WOMBAT** » 07 May 05 2:03 pm

Been using this for a couple of months now, no problems for me, I connect lopcally and to the UK, so far no dropouts and the line is very clear.

Team Wombat

Bronze · Post by **Bronze** » 08 May 05 12:58 pm

My skype address is 'thebronze' - happy to chat anythime about

* Volkswagens
* Pink Floyd
* Guitar
* Bonsai
* oh and Geocaching (e.g. Gold Rush)

The Bronze.
"I have the best wife in the world".

dcr · Post by **dcr** » 09 May 05 1:07 pm

dcr wrote:If you are using IE and MSN Messenger, then this is only going to raise your risk profile by a minor margin. If you have a tighter, more secure Standard Operating Environment (SOE) you may want to look at other VoIP offerings.

Rather than summarising some of the articles, as I was going to do, there is a nice intro to some of the Skye issues here;
Skype: be afraid: Corante :: Get Real
cheers Darren

Geocaching Australia

FREE Internet Phone calls

FREE Internet Phone calls

Skype

Skye Security