Free Phone Calls
Discussion
Do not know if I am allowed to plug skype.com but I have nothing to gain but everything to share. Go to their website, download the programme, register and get yourself a microphone/headset. It is free!
Hey presto. FREE telephone calls anywhere in the world to your contacts. It probably only works with broadband (not tried dialup).
Wifey and I have just registered and called each other. WOW. It is every bit as good as a normal phone and we were quite amused by the telephone ringing sounds.
I do a lot of travelling and often have free internet access. This will save us hundreds of pounds in hotel phone calls.
You know it makes sense.
Hey presto. FREE telephone calls anywhere in the world to your contacts. It probably only works with broadband (not tried dialup).
Wifey and I have just registered and called each other. WOW. It is every bit as good as a normal phone and we were quite amused by the telephone ringing sounds.
I do a lot of travelling and often have free internet access. This will save us hundreds of pounds in hotel phone calls.
You know it makes sense.
Coincidentally I was recommended Skype this week and tried it, ableit from Esher to Cobham and it worked great.
Forget headsets we both ran the conversation using laptops and the built in speakers/mics. Try this with Yahoo or MSN and the echo makes it unusable, but it was fine with Skype.
I thus persuaded a colleague based in the Phillipines to load it to save us voice callcosts. Sadly the connection was just about useless - constant dropping of the conversation, a 5 second delay (makes conversation nearly impossible).
I'm guessing that demand is currently exceeding supply and their servers were overloaded.
Hope they fix capacity soon as it has the potential to be a really good service.
Phil.
Forget headsets we both ran the conversation using laptops and the built in speakers/mics. Try this with Yahoo or MSN and the echo makes it unusable, but it was fine with Skype.
I thus persuaded a colleague based in the Phillipines to load it to save us voice callcosts. Sadly the connection was just about useless - constant dropping of the conversation, a 5 second delay (makes conversation nearly impossible).
I'm guessing that demand is currently exceeding supply and their servers were overloaded.
Hope they fix capacity soon as it has the potential to be a really good service.
Phil.
simpo two said:
Interesting but I don't see anything about a free mic/headset...?
You skinflint Simpo - they are less than £3 from most respectible PC stores.!
Also, I have sucessfully held 3 way conference calls using SkyPE (2 people in the UK and 1 in Canada) with no perceived delay!
The only problem with Skype is that you can't call people on other VoIP services (eg. sipgate, gossiptel), whereas the other services use SIP which is a recognised protocol for doing this kind of thing.
My recommendation is www.sipgate.co.uk - cheap calls to landlines, free calls to other SIP phones etc. and you get a REAL 01 or 02 phone number for most UK area codes.
I use it with a Cisco 7960 (like they use on "24") but you can use X-Lite or other PC software, or an analogue phone adapter like the Sipura 2000 or Cisco ATA series.
The other cool thing with SIP is that you can have two phones logged in at different locations and they will both ring when the number is called.
Gareth
My recommendation is www.sipgate.co.uk - cheap calls to landlines, free calls to other SIP phones etc. and you get a REAL 01 or 02 phone number for most UK area codes.
I use it with a Cisco 7960 (like they use on "24") but you can use X-Lite or other PC software, or an analogue phone adapter like the Sipura 2000 or Cisco ATA series.
The other cool thing with SIP is that you can have two phones logged in at different locations and they will both ring when the number is called.
Gareth
I also use SIP in the form of a hardware handset that plugs directly into my router. For the most part it is ok, but when I encounter PC software-based users, there is the unbearable echo!
In case anyone is interested, this is where I got mine from:- www.sipphone.com
In case anyone is interested, this is where I got mine from:- www.sipphone.com
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