# Skype - what do you really need?



## onekeano (30 Sep 2005)

Did a search on AAM re: Skype but still have a few questions perhaps some existing users might help me with.....
- Do you need to use a headset or can you just make calls using a normal phone (I have broadband via UTV)
- Do you keep your normal phone number?
- I make very few international calls and am wondering if this negates the benefits of Skype - any examples of how Irsh calls to landlines and mobiles are more efficient?

Thanks
Roy


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## blacknight (30 Sep 2005)

Roy

You can use a headset or buy a dedicated Skype handset.
if you want people to call you then you need to get a number from Skype which currently costs €30 per annum
You don't need the number to make calls
At present you can make calls to any other skype user for free and international calls are very economical.

HTH

Michele


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## tiger (30 Sep 2005)

You're getting a few things mixed up here.

- Skype is VoIP (voice over IP), with a proprietary technology.  (I think SIP is the open standard)
- calls to other skype users are free
- you do not get a land line no. so it does not replace your normal phone and only other skype users can call you.
- you can call other land lines by paying for "skype out"
- The easiest way to use it is on a PC with a microphone & speakers (or a headset).  The PC needs to be on to make & receive calls.
- you can get skype handsets.  Alot of them seem to run off PCs as well.  They're not cheap.

If you're interested in VoIP another solution might be with someone like
www.blueface.ie (A friend is using them).  They give you a local Irish no. also (Dublin or Waterford last I heard)


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## blacknight (30 Sep 2005)

tiger said:
			
		

> - you do not get a land line no. so it does not replace your normal phone and only other skype users can call you.



You can get one by getting "skypein"


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## tiger (30 Sep 2005)

blacknight said:
			
		

> You can get one by getting "skypein"


 
Hadn't heard of skypein, wasn't there when I signed up.

Very useful if you have friends/relatives in a foreign country who don't use a PC.  By having a skypein no. in their local area they can call you cheaply.

I'm guessing it's not possible to have an Irish skype in no. but I haven't checked.


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## blacknight (30 Sep 2005)

They don't offer Irish numbers at the moment. I was looking at it the other night and you could choose from US, UK and a few other places


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## car (30 Sep 2005)

As always when skype is mentioned, I suggest to try a competitor called babble.  
I have no affiliation with skype or babble other then Ive used both, they both do the same thing with the same equipment and Ive found  babble slightly easier to use.  Also....
skype 1.7c per minute
babble 1p sterling = 1.46c per minute making it cheaper.


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## podgerodge (30 Sep 2005)

I don't know how long the think I'm using will last but you should try it while you can:

Voipcheap (in beta testing at the moment) currently allows you to dial landlines in Ireland, UK, France and a couple of other European countries, and Australia for FREE FREE FREE at any time of the day or night.

All you need is a headset.

The "catch" is that to register you have to make a payment of £5 sterling via Credit card or Paypal.  Not so bad though as you can use up this credit to ring for instance Irish mobiles - at 14p a minute or 22 cent approx - no great deal but not much different than Eircom, or use it to ring any countries not covered by the free calls.

Having registered, ALL your Irish, UK and the other specified countries are free even at peak time.  

I signed up 3 weeks ago and have not made one landline call from my house in that time.  You'll save a fair bit especially if you use the phone during the day.  It's too good to last forever I guess!

www.voipcheap.co.uk

Oh, and apart from ringing landlines, as with other VOIP services, you can VOIP from one voipcheap user to another for free obviously.


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## car (30 Sep 2005)

nice one podge.  babble had the same intro offer last year, it lasted about 4-5 months.


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## stuart (30 Sep 2005)

I downloaded the software but cannot make a phonecall for more than 60 seconds

I thought as yousaid you need to credit your account but I cannot see anything on their website about it

stuart@buyingtolet.ie


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## podgerodge (30 Sep 2005)

The 60 seconds facility can be used without registering at all.

If you want to get rid of the limit, you have to download and run the application - and register a username.  Then you sign in on the website and buy credit - it only offers the £5 option I think - once you've paid by visa or paypal close and open the application - you should now be ok.

Whenever you login afterwards you can check all calls made by you as well with cost if any.


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## machalla (3 Oct 2005)

I noticed you mentioned you were with UTV.  If I remember correctly they insist you take their phone package with the broadband.  That package lets you make calls to any Irish or UK landline for free up to an hour per call.  If you get near the hour you hangup and ring again at no cost.  This is I think from 6pm to 8am the following day.  So unless you make international calls skype isn't going to much for you that will make things cheaper.  Unless you can make pc to pc calls which are completely free.


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## dam099 (3 Oct 2005)

Interesting device for Skype I stumbled across today:

[broken link removed]

No idea of whether it is any good but the concept seems interesting.


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## car (4 Oct 2005)

Some laptops/PCs have pretty basic mics (or none at all) so arent always practical.  If you think about it, all you have to do is find a way of getting your voice on to the pc when you have skype running, so in theory any device with PC recording capabilities could be used as it would have to have a mic.  I cant see why youd need the skype SW running on the device as its would be running on the PC anyway.   
Before recently acquiring a headset, I quite happily used my laptops mic and an ordinary pair of walkman headphones.


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## tiger (4 Oct 2005)

My laptop doesn't have a mic but I was able to buy a mini one that sticks in the jack for about E13.  Works fine.  Something like this:
[broken link removed]


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## kellysayers (27 Oct 2005)

I have wireless broadband and I find my calls break up a lot when using skype. Anyone have any solutions?


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## dam099 (27 Oct 2005)

kellysayers said:
			
		

> I have wireless broadband and I find my calls break up a lot when using skype. Anyone have any solutions?


 
You probably need to ping and tracert a few sites to see what your response times are like (I'm not sure if you can ping anything in particular for Skype due to its decentralised P2P nature). Try a few Irish, UK and US sites. They should get progressively higher for the UK and US but for most Irish sites anything consistently over 50ms and I'd say start complaining to your ISP and see if they can do anything. Beyond that you may need to look at Cable or DSL for your ISP as they are generally better in pings.

I can get Blueface (slightly different type of VOIP technology) to work quite well with pings of 160-220ms but I am overseas, if I was in Ireland I would expect to be pinging them in the 50ms range. 

I use a wireless ISP whose technology seems to be the same as Clearwire are using and I get pings of about 20ms to my ISP, the rest of my ping is between them and Ireland which routes via the US.


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## kellysayers (28 Oct 2005)

What!!  Please translate into English! I don't know a lot about computers newer mind pings and Pongs!!


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## dam099 (28 Oct 2005)

Ping is utility that shows you how fast the reponse time if from you to a particular server, tracert shows you the route from you to a particular server.

If you have XP press Start, then Run. In the open box that pops up type command and hit open. This will start up a command line box.

Type: 

ping www.askaboutmoney.com 
will show the response time from you to this site

tracert www.askaboutmoney.com 
will show you the route to this site along with the response time from each step along the way

For more details on what the results will look like and what they mean check out here:

[broken link removed]

If the traceroute shows high numbers for the first few steps (and in particular the first step) through your ISP's routers (sometimes they will have names that hint at this such as abbreviations of your ISP's name) you may have a problem with your wireless connection.

High pings won't necessarily impact as much on web browsing (though there may be a slightly percepible fractions of a second delay opening webpages) and email as it does on some other applications such as VOIP like Skype and online gaming so you may not notice the adverse effects so much until you try to use something like Skype. 

If this is all too technical try and get a friend to help out. You could just try ringing your ISP and complaining about the quality of your connection but it might not be their fault, if it is the information from the utilities above may help identify where the problem lies.


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## ClubMan (28 Oct 2005)

I suspect that wireless and satellite broadband might not be that suitable to stuff like voice applications until such time as protocols that guarantee quality of service and/or lower latencies become more common.


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## dam099 (31 Oct 2005)

ClubMan said:
			
		

> I suspect that wireless and satellite broadband might not be that suitable to stuff like voice applications until such time as protocols that guarantee quality of service and/or lower latencies become more common.


 
I know satellite can be a problem and wireless is reputed to be troublesome too but in the main my VOIP works pretty well over wireless, though occasionally it does act up. A previous VOIP provider I used tried to blame some problems I was having on my wireless setup but I eventually traced the problem to another cause unrelated to my using wireless. You probably do need a good reliable wireless service though so if their are issues with your ISP (such as a certain Irish wireless one seems to have) you might have trouble.


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