Bengyboo

When (if) we go I am planning to set family/friends up with SKYPE.

Has anyone else had much experience with it to try and keep in touch from Oz??

Any problems with Broadband service providers. Or is it better in theory than in practice?

BB

wmoore

I'm still in the UK but I regularly Skype my mate in New York and it's bloody good! The sound is crystal clear, breaking up very occasionally. We even usually have the webcam running in MSN at the same time and it's fine.

He also uses SkypeOut (that lets you call regular phones) to speak to family and has no bother with that either.

saraliz

I use Skype to speak to my parents - it's brilliant! It's dead easy to set up, and the quality is fantastic with broadband on each end (much better sound quality than the cheap phone cards I was using before!). I love it!!!

Bengyboo

I have heard rumours of Telecom based ISP's banning these services through their connections because it may cost them so much.

But I spend more on Broadband a month than I do international calls.

mand8002

We use skype to UK and it is excellent. I sounds as good as a local call in UK. I use it to ring my mum. It does not work well on dial up though, you really need broadband.

steveyp

Yep, I use it daily for at least an hour to talk to the UK.
I also use the skype out to call land lines @ less than a penny a minute.
In fact I have not 'paid' for an international call in 5 months.
You need broadband though.

Aus4us

We have found it brilliant!! Skype out is really great too, excellent sound quality. Just can't wait to try it out over in Aus!!

gsb

Hi there

We use Skype to chat to friends in Oz and the reception is excellent, but I would probably not consider using it for anything less that Broadband.

The reception was, from our experience, excellent.

And u pay bugger all!!

G

Mick-12

New to this I Want ONE PLEASE can you tell me more as someone who knows nothing??? Sounds like just what we want
Thanks
George ( aka Georgina Micks other half)

zzzzzz

================================================== ==

We SKYPE between the UK and the US. It's pretty good. We just downloaded it for free. All you need is a headset with a microphone,
or if you have a mic built-in to your PC, say as in a laptop, you don't
really even need that.

Most of the time, it's better quality transmission than on our cell phones.
A few times, we have had problems with the connection, where the speech is lagging. We tried it again later, and it worked fine.

They offer a for-pay option of using SKYPE to call a land line phone # directly.

Hope that helps.

lesleys

It works with ISDN as well as broadband.

Lesley

Un-Co

I installed it at work but had to uninstall it because random people kept calling me (they had names like HOTDESIRE4U :scared: ) and it freaked me out!!!

saraliz

It's all here: http://www.skype.com

SuperSeagulls

Yep - I use it and it is great (within UK and to Singapore) - but will defo use it in Oz to contact the UK.

SS

ad4ozz

I found works great...you can STOP random people calling you in options by clicking on PRIVACEY and then on ALLOW ONLY AUTHORIZED PEOPLE TO CALL ME and also ALLOW ONLY AUTHORISZED PEOPLE TO CHAT WITH ME. Same as AOL etc. then you only put the names of people you know in your list so they are the only people who can talk to you.

PC world do good USB Skype mic for £20 thicker wire than normal and straight in USB port no faffing around on back of computer.