Skype...Random Questions

[melon]

Just happened to finally take the time to investigate Skype, and I was wondering a few things.

1) For calling your friends within the Skype network (or whatever), it's free right? And that covers the entire world?
2) For calling outside numbers not within Skype, it costs money, right?
3) Is it "secure"?
4) Does it even work like it's advertised? As in, if I was making calls on it, would it flow like a natural phone call, or would it be choppy?
5) Oh and what kind of hardware peripheral would you need to do this? There wouldn't happen to be wireless headsets out there (i.e., the headset would transmit to a Wi-Fi card in your computer and then out to the internet)?

I'd be interested in your opinions.

Melon

 

[SPeedY_B]

1) Skype -> Skype Calls are completely free, just like sending a message over AiM/MSNM.

2) Skype -> Real Phones is VOIP, and therefore costs money, however they offer very cheap rates on international calling (Christ I sound like an advert).

3) How so? There's been no vulnerabilities with it yet that I know of.

4) Depends how much bandwidth you feed it, however it takes considerably less bandwidth than other audio-chat applications such as Netmeeting. Using it whilst maxing you line out with a torrent for example will result in choppy audio.

5) Hardware would be a mic and seakers. If you have a bluetooth enabled computer and a bluetooth headset, you can use that, there are also proper phones you can hook up to your computer to use with the service. Only really beneficial if you use the SkypeOut/In (phone calling basically) features.

 

[Evil Marge]

Very good post Speedy,don't think there's anymore to be said :up:

 

[melon]

Thanks. I am very new to "audio-chat" on computers. Period. I've never even used a microphone on my computer, because I've never needed to.

But now I have a very good friend going to France for a year, and I have a couple other friends in the UK, so realizing that everyone I know these days is abroad, I have to think about affordable options to make international calls.

I'm also considering standard VoIP through Lingo, as this is the only VoIP service I've seen that actually includes Western Europe in its local service territory. Plus, with both Skype and Lingo, I can get a second, European phone number, so calls will be local for them.

It's really a matter now of how hardcore I want to go.

Melon

 

[NetRyder]

3) How so? There's been no vulnerabilities with it yet that I know of.

Perhaps he meant: does it offer a secure communication channel? The answer to that would be yes - it uses 256-bit AES encryption for chat, file transfers and voice calls.