Nice to talk with Bob again today

[Dennis Leahy]

A couple of weeks ago, Bob Connor called me and I enjoyed my conversation with him, but had a bit of a fight with cell-phon-itis, making me ask Bob to repeat himself a few times.

This morning (for me), late last evening (for Bob), Bob contacted me via Skype, and we turned on our headsets and had a tremendous connection - much better than a cell phone, and better that most "land-line" calls.

Skype is pretty cool. If you're not familiar with it, it's free computer-to-computer phone calling, with text chat, file transfer, and even video capability. Did I mention free?

At one point, Bob mentioned a particular Celtic composer, and I was not familiar with the name. Bob grabbed his guitar, and played a couple of bars of it. Now, tell me that's not cool!

Again, audio quality was fantastic, though it is somewhat hit or miss and I have had just a few Skype conversations over the past couple of years where I had to hang up and try a new connection. But it really is usually better sound quality than a phone. With a web video camera (about $20 to $50 US) it would also give luthiers in different parts of the world the ability to show something (no, not that wood!), a jig, a guitar part, a sketch... in real-time to share some things more easily (or mo betta) than you could in a posted photo. Granted, it becomes one-on-one, which is not the same as sharing stuff to everyone on a forum, but there are times when that would be fine.

Anyway, download and install Skype for free (http://www.skype.com), immediately set all your privacy settings to "people in my contact list" (so you only can get calls from someone you gave your Skype ID to), and have some fun with it.

Bob, it was a pleasure! Did we solve the world's problems?

Dennis

[obmit]

im on skype

[Lillian]

My brother and sister-in-law have been keeping in touch using Skype for this last trip to the sandbox. It has its moments of stalls and hangs, but I couldn't tell you if that's because of his location/ISP or Skype in general.

What's it like going civilian to civilian?

[kiwigeo]

Im not on Skype. Since Im currently building a Renaissance lute Ive decided to adopt communication standards of the time.

If anyone wants to contact me then get yourself a duck feather pen and some parchment paper and write me a letter.....and it had better be ye olde English or Im not reading it!!

[Nick]

Im not on Skype. Since Im currently building a Renaissance lute Ive decided to adopt communication standards of the time.

If anyone wants to contact me then get yourself a duck feather pen and some parchment paper and write me a letter.....and it had better be ye olde English or Im not reading it!!

Renaissance Snob for-sooth, surely sir you jest? For tis it nobler to suffer the slings and lutes of outrageous courses than to bear witness to ye modern Dreadnought and Skype?

[J.F. Custom]

Im not on Skype. Since Im currently building a Renaissance lute Ive decided to adopt communication standards of the time.

If anyone wants to contact me then get yourself a duck feather pen and some parchment paper and write me a letter.....and it had better be ye olde English or Im not reading it!!

Meh. Bloody modernists. S'pose you think your 'trendy' with your new fangled feather pen and parchment...

Me, hand chiseled stone tablets all the way...

Granted, it does take a while.

[Allen]

I just changed ISP's and phone company as the last one kept jacking up the rates and dropping the service.

We're on iiNet now with Voip service. Free calls anywhere in Australia and 5 cents a minute most everywhere else. If you're looking for a change I highly recommend them. Very helpful when you call them. Service is so good, you wonder why everyone isn't with them.

[Dennis Leahy]

I just changed ISP's and phone company as the last one kept jacking up the rates and dropping the service.

We're on iiNet now with Voip service. Free calls anywhere in Australia and 5 cents a minute most everywhere else. If you're looking for a change I highly recommend them. Very helpful when you call them. Service is so good, you wonder why everyone isn't with them.

Allen, even with VOIP (which lets you call land-lines), you can sign up for the free Skype (ignore the functionality they offer, for a fee, to call land lines.) Then for any friend that has Skype in their computer, just call computer-to-computer with a headset (and optionally, a web video camera), and you won't have any charge for those calls.

Dennis

[Localele]

Is it possible to use the hard wired lines around the house and to the shed with a Voip type modem to utilise the existing handsets?

[Bob Connor]

Is it possible to use the hard wired lines around the house and to the shed with a Voip type modem to utilise the existing handsets?

This what I've got through Engin Michael.

$20 a month gets me free local, national and international calls to 8 countries.

[Dennis Leahy]

Is it possible to use the hard wired lines around the house and to the shed with a Voip type modem to utilise the existing handsets?

Hi Michael,

If that question is for me, I don't know VOIP. Bob and/or Kim can probably answer that.

As for Skype: Not knowing what a VOIP-type modem is, I'd say if you have a computer in the shed or the house, and you can connect to the Internet, then you can use the free Skype to call other computers with Skype, or if you pay a fee to Skype, you could use Skype to call a land line.

Dennis

[Localele]

We should talk Bob to check on hardware and handsets.

[Allen]

I've got Skype on my computer as well Denis, and the wife has been using it to talk to her sister in Canada. But one day the call is crystal clear, and the next its crap, and they have to hang up and try again. For 5 cents a minute to Canada or most other places for that matter, I'm not concerned. The call is always like a land line. And the phone and internet package that I've got now is less than I was paying before, with way more features, and no SURPRISE costs that Telstra and Optus like to spring on you.

On my setup, the land line plugs into the back of the wireless router. We have our old phone number, that still rings through as it always did. We also have a new VOIP number that will ring through on the same hand set. If we go to make a call, if the power is on, and internet is working, then the call goes out by VOIP. There is a different dial tone, so you can tell the difference. If the power has gone out, or internet is down, you can still call out on the standard phone line to make a call, such as in an emergency.

In your case Micheal, if you had a wireless phone hooked up in the house, and the range was good enough for another wireless hand set in your shed, then it'll work.

[Localele]

Did you get a wireless handset Allen or a desktop phone that has dual capabilities?

[Steve]

Michael - sounds like I've got the same set-up as Allen. We just had a standard wireless home telephone (nothing special for internet or anything). When we got broadband, I bought a VOIP enabled modem, & our old phone just plugs straight into it, & hey-presto we've got VOIP. Our set-up only needs the modem to be turned on for it to work - we don't need to power up the computer. And, like Allen, if the modem's not turned on, it just goes through our land-line company. If the reception is crappy, we just dial *, & can ring out on our land-line too, but haven't had to do that too much. Most people complain that occasionally the quality drops during a call & ends of words get clipped off, similar to talking to someone on a mobile phone.
You can set it up so that it defaults to your VOIP company for whichever calls you want. We've got all our local/STD/International calls going through it, but things like 13 numbers & 000 going through our land-line phone company because those guys use caller ID for locating you.
Steve

[Localele]

Thanks Steve , I am starting to get the hang of it.

[Allen]

It's the same phone that we always had. Just a wireless handset. Nothing special. Unlike Steve, I've not noticed any difference in the quality of calls, nor have the people that we've called said that they could hear a difference.

I had anticipated getting this all set up and working correctly would be a huge pain in the ass, but all computers and phones where working flawlessly within 1/2 hour. Had 1 question of iinet's tech support concerning the VOIP, and the guy on the other end asked me if I had it set up already. When I told him no, he said that he'd walk me through connecting each of the cables and no problem if I needed to put the phone down while I did this.

Also of note if you are on a Mac, as we are, they've got their instillation software set up for Macs. In fact, as most of us know, setting up a Mac is much easier than a MS Windows box, but it's sure nice to see a company supporting this platform.

Terrific customer service from this company. They even emailed us a few days ago to say that they bumped up our limit at no cost to us. Just to let us know we had another 5 gigs free. Don't reckon you'd get that out of Telstra.

[Localele]

Steve, The quality seems to be to do with speed and 512k is only just enough. What speed are you on?
Second problem is running two phones,1 in the house and 1 in the shed.I can get a multi phone adapter and pay for an extra voip number ($10 each) but this comes as a business setup for $110 mth Total plus back to 15cent calls.Sort of defeats the purpose.

[Steve]

The quality is still pretty good for us - it's only very occasionally that we get comments about ends of words being clipped off. On our end it's flawless, so no real problem, right?:lol: We've got a pretty quick connection (1500 kbs), so I don't think that's a problem. Maybe it's our VOIP provider (Netscape)? Don't know. Either way, I'd still say the same as Allen - the value for money is miles in front of anything Telstra was offering us.
Not sure what you've got in the way of a home phone, but our's had a couple of extra handsets that came with it, so you have a base-unit that plugs into the phone-connection, plus a couple of other handsets that just sit on chargers around the house & talk to the base-unit wirelessly. If your shed is close enough to your house, one of those extra handsets could sit in your shed. Since it all goes through one base unit that's plugged into your modem, it's one VOIP account. If you only have one handset, I know when we bought our phone there was an option to buy extra handsets.
Steve

[Localele]

Phones are like that Steve but with a base station in the shed as well.House phone won't work in the shed and shed phone won't work in the house.Might just try a bit of wiring together of the phone lines and see if that works out of one Voip port.Cheers.