Mobile Internet, Skype, Messenger and Life

[Dizeee]

I am sick to fking death of nothing working. Why release software and hardware onto the market that simply is not ready to be released yet by virtue of constant failings and failures to work.

Skype. I have spent / wasted a great deal of time trying to Skype my wife from work over the past year. Logging in, circle circle circle, unable to log in, logging in, unable to log in. Eventually when you have logged in, you then try and call someone. Rings and rings and rings and rings your end, doesn't do anything the other end. Other end calls you and it rings and rings and rings their end, nothing happens your end. Rinse and repeat and that is the experience. Maybe one in ten times you may get it to work, otherwise, just problems. And before anyone asks this is from multiple London locations to a plugged in desktop. It has worked a couple of times successfully, yet despite nothing changing, the majority of times, it just fails for any number of reasons. I am persistant and usually when it has worked, it has been on the back of countless attempts over time periods of 10 to 20 minutes. fking useless, waste of time.

Facebook messenger. Exactly the same, but worse. Rings and rings one end, nothing the other, same vice versa. Then it says one end that the other caller doesn't have video calling capability, but at the other end it say's the same thing. Both callers have the video switched on and operating as normal at the time of making the call. Sometimes it connects then instantly disconnects, saying " reconnecting" over and over and over again, without actually doing so. fking useless, waste of time.

Mobile internet. Works fine for hours, then stops working. Internet connection unavailable. ( Despite having full bars and full 4G coverage and not having moved position). Continued trying gets you nowhere until you either remove the phone battery or put it into and out of flight mode. This seems to "shock" the system back into working. Had all this on an old HTC phone in 2013, thought it was the phone, nope, 6 phones later and they all do it. fking useless, waste of time.

I'm done with it all.

[TonyRPH]

5/10, not enough swearing.

But seriously.. It sounds as though you have firewall or broadband issues, as Skype usually works flawlessly for me (both chat and calling).

I don't use Facebook so can't comment on that - but my o/h uses Facebook (chat only) and that too always seems to work fine for her.

[andy-xr]

I used to work for a security vendor, number 1 thing people asked us 4-5 years ago 'how can I block skype'



I've found most of the time it's easier to start a voice call and then switch to video, but this thread sounds more like a ranty rant than looking for answers

[megaphone]

Skype has worked fine for me for years, from all over the world. Only time I've had issues is when using via a corporate network, because of the firewalls blocking connections. Or one end having a poor network speed.

I don't use Facebook. FaceTime works well for me.

Maybe your wife doesn't want to speak to you?

[Vaud]

My mobile internet works fine.

Skype works fine outside of work (though work block it through most of the VPNs)

You may find that it is your work applying controls to avoid bandwidth issues and protect against security issues.

[Dizeee]

Im not using work internet its just 3g or 4g. Because it has worked and therefore I know it can work it makes it si frustrating when it continually doesnt

[Funk]

Try WhatsApp calls. Work brilliantly for me.

[ZesPak]

Skype usually works great for me when abroad.

Though friend of mine was in areas with pretty poor internet (Mongolia and the like), and "Hangouts" seemed to work better then.

[MarkRSi]

Skype does have a habit of going into an endless cycle of trying to login, then asking for my details (again), and repeat... oddly this only happens when trying to connect from a laptop connected to a UK broadband - seems to work better abroad (assuming it isn't blocked - Middle East etc.), on 3G etc...

Think I've tried alternative video callers (Facebook Messager, Viber?) but never got them to work IIRC.


What mobile network you using?

[ZesPak]

MarkRSi said:

Think I've tried alternative video callers (Facebook Messager, Viber?) but never got them to work IIRC.

Try hangouts, it works fine for video or just voice. Big pro is that it's pre-installed on all Android devices. My biggest gripe is that there's no windows phone app for it.

[George111]

Dizeee said:

I am sick to fking death of nothing working. Why release software and hardware onto the market that simply is not ready to be released yet by virtue of constant failings and failures to work.

Skype. I have spent / wasted a great deal of time trying to Skype my wife from work over the past year. Logging in, circle circle circle, unable to log in, logging in, unable to log in. Eventually when you have logged in, you then try and call someone. Rings and rings and rings and rings your end, doesn't do anything the other end. Other end calls you and it rings and rings and rings their end, nothing happens your end. Rinse and repeat and that is the experience. Maybe one in ten times you may get it to work, otherwise, just problems. And before anyone asks this is from multiple London locations to a plugged in desktop. It has worked a couple of times successfully, yet despite nothing changing, the majority of times, it just fails for any number of reasons. I am persistant and usually when it has worked, it has been on the back of countless attempts over time periods of 10 to 20 minutes. fking useless, waste of time.

Facebook messenger. Exactly the same, but worse. Rings and rings one end, nothing the other, same vice versa. Then it says one end that the other caller doesn't have video calling capability, but at the other end it say's the same thing. Both callers have the video switched on and operating as normal at the time of making the call. Sometimes it connects then instantly disconnects, saying " reconnecting" over and over and over again, without actually doing so. fking useless, waste of time.

Mobile internet. Works fine for hours, then stops working. Internet connection unavailable. ( Despite having full bars and full 4G coverage and not having moved position). Continued trying gets you nowhere until you either remove the phone battery or put it into and out of flight mode. This seems to "shock" the system back into working. Had all this on an old HTC phone in 2013, thought it was the phone, nope, 6 phones later and they all do it. fking useless, waste of time.

I'm done with it all.

You've just found out why Apple is so popular

[Funk]

George111 said:

You've just found out why Apple is so popular

Hah, I know people tearing their hair out with Apple..

It's all much of a muchness these days.

Also Facetime only works if both parties are on Apple does it not? Everything else listed is cross-platform for the most part.

Edited by Funk on Tuesday 30th June 18:50

[George111]

Funk said:

George111 said:

You've just found out why Apple is so popular

Hah, I know people tearing their hair out with Apple..

It's all much of a muchness these days.

Also Facetime only works if both parties are on Apple does it not? Everything else listed is cross-platform for the most part.

Edited by Funk on Tuesday 30th June 18:50

Facetime does only work on Apple devices as far as I know, but it's so much more reliable than Skype. Facetime works well enough for OAPs, children and everybody in between to use it, it even works acceptably over 3G if you have a bar or two of signal. But it's part of the Apple software and cloud eco-system which has been developed and tested probably more than any other software these days. It's what you pay Apple for

In my experience with Android and Apple in the family, Apple just works . . . Android often crashes or just doesn't do what it's supposed to. There's a world of difference.

[Dizeee]

George111 said:

In my experience with Android and Apple in the family, Apple just works . . . Android often crashes or just doesn't do what it's supposed to. There's a world of difference.

If I could have a penny for every time I have heard this.

Maybe the issue is just me!

[ZesPak]

George111 said:

In my experience with Android and Apple in the family, Apple just works . . . Android often crashes or just doesn't do what it's supposed to. There's a world of difference.

Sorry, it's your experience and I believe it is.
But no tested enviroment back up your claim, quite the contrary. It's time and time shown again that, for example, apps on iOS crash a lot more than on Android.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/02/02/...

As for facetime, you're right it's gotten 3G support just last year iirc (before that it was wifi only). But IME it's far from as reliable as Skype or Hangouts.
Also, ease of use? Like no oap can operate Skype or anything similar?

Anyway, you take your preference and you obviously have, but you're very much talking in "feeling" non-quantitive terms and you make them sound like general statements. If you truly believe things like facetime have been tested more than, for example, Skype, you should really really think about it for a second.

[Vaud]

ZesPak said:

Sorry, it's your experience and I believe it is.
But no tested enviroment back up your claim, quite the contrary. It's time and time shown again that, for example, apps on iOS crash a lot more than on Android.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/02/02/...

As for facetime, you're right it's gotten 3G support just last year iirc (before that it was wifi only). But IME it's far from as reliable as Skype or Hangouts.
Also, ease of use? Like no oap can operate Skype or anything similar?

Anyway, you take your preference and you obviously have, but you're very much talking in "feeling" non-quantitive terms and you make them sound like general statements. If you truly believe things like facetime have been tested more than, for example, Skype, you should really really think about it for a second.

If you are going down the quantitative route, it should be noted that you have provided stats from early 2012. A comparison with 2015 apps (and underlying OS) would be more appropriate.

e.g.
http://bgr.com/2015/02/13/ios-8-vs-android-5-0-lol...

Which shows a different picture - and that recent Android versions crashed MORE than IOS7. IOS 8 and Android 5 are pretty comparable of app stability (2.2% vs 2%)...

Edited by Vaud on Thursday 2nd July 07:06

[ZesPak]

Vaud said:

If you are going down the quantitative route, it should be noted that you have provided stats from early 2012. A comparison with 2015 apps (and underlying OS) would be more appropriate.

e.g.
http://bgr.com/2015/02/13/ios-8-vs-android-5-0-lol...

Which shows a different picture - and that recent Android versions crashed MORE than IOS7. IOS 8 and Android 5 are pretty comparable of app stability (2.2% vs 2%)...

?

article said:

Both iOS 8 and Android 5.0 crash, and a new study from Crittercism reveals that it’s Google’s OS that is more stable than Apple’s.

Anyway, my point still stands. There's no way to state "android crashes way more".
What you're saying is basically "yeah, but iOS once had a more stable version"? Hardly a great defence, don't you think?
I'm not slaggin off iOS, its a good system and it did a lot to the market, but people spouting constant non-informed bs like it's the second coming gets on my tits a bit. I think it's due to the fact that when you pay over the odds for hardware, you have to start believe it's the best thing ever as that is what you effectively paid for.

[Vaud]

My point was more that your article was not representative (2012) and the differences in crash rates is negligible.

I like both - personally my frustration with Android is the massive fragmentation and inconsistent user experience, but that is the price of an open model.

[ZesPak]

Vaud said:

My point was more that your article was not representative (2012) and the differences in crash rates is negligible.

I like both - personally my frustration with Android is the massive fragmentation and inconsistent user experience, but that is the price of an open model.

Point taken, but ime it's an nonexistent problem if you stay with one manufacturer and even the differences between most manufacturers are pretty small tbh.

I agree that the crash rates are negligible, if any, I was just pointing out the incorrectness of Ändroid crashes a lot more".

[JayBM]

Could it be that you've actually only got one issue here and that's your network provider's 3/4g network? I'm with EE and I know that very often when the phone is showing full signal HSDPA I end up with really bad connectivity with browser, messenger etc all playing up. Could you have a similar issue perhaps related to the capacity of your providers network!