Vinny van Gogh

I have set up with Skype and a webcam for when our daughter gets to Sydney...June 2nd as many will now know!

The problem is ..I have tried it out across town and its ace...But I would like to try using the system to speak to somebody in Australia..before our daughter flies out.

I can sort the web cam out later on Netmeeting or whatever Bill Gates is dominant over in the catagory..but any advise is welcome.

binbird

We have successfully held skype conversations with my hubby's brother in Australia - Sydney to be exact.

And we communicate via skype with my sister in New Zealand.

Bit of a time delay sometimes but on the whole, good.

Binbird

Carruss

Just out of interest, have you got a proper phone (designed for Skype) attached to your PC?

I have seen these for sale for £30.00 and would be interested to see if they are actually any good or not etc.

R.

spalen

I know this is slightly off topic - but - here in Aus you can buy a phone card from the post-office for eg for 20$ that lets you phone UK extraordinarily cheap, a 30 or so minute calll to uk just cost me 35p . It works on any phone has a free access number etc practically free.

In UK we found a number that is about 1-2p per minute again no prior registration required just dialling a special number it was posted on this forum.

Only saying this because we thought phone costs would be prohibitiive and looked at Skype etc but it turns out the normal phone is actually pretty good value.

Vinny van Gogh

Hi,

Yes I know aboiut the phone cards - we were amazed while in Oz December 2004 that for very little cost we could call home easily and cheaply.
I actually suggested to my better half that she should call her friends. Perth to Manchester for 2 hours and plenty of time left on the card. Hotels made a charge for using the line mind you!

Apart from the telphone aspect of Skype, my wife wants to be able to see her little girl on a daily basis! So the web cam thing is included ( not in Skype I add) which means..PC,s

Vinny van Gogh

No...as yet not got the Skype phone unit. Thats one of the reason fro the post..to find out the best way to set things up.
I know there is no web cam facility in Skype ..yet but I want to combine the two so we can see our daughter also!

Carruss

We are on Broadband and the relatives only use a dial-up connection still and we have the web cam set up which is not too bad considering. Just have to make sure the kids sit still and there is that annoying delay but you get this over the phone anyway.

Do you have broadband?

Why not just use this instead?

R.

wmoore

I've used it from UK to US (broadband at each end) and it's crystal clear, even with webcam running in MSN at the same time. It's pretty poor connecting to dial-up though, wherver it may be.

MrsDagboy

Dagboy & I used it just last week, Aust to NZ with laptops on broadband - just used the built-in mic in the laptop both end. Absolutely no problem, in fact we had a "conference call" with our builders - I took the laptop to where they were working & Dagboy answered questions that they asked while they stood around the laptop .

Very easy to use & brilliantly clear & no lag etc. 100 times better than we used to endure using Netmeeting when Dagboy still lived in the UK :scared: .

Wahroonga Boy

I use Skype for talking to my companny back in London and on the whole it works very well. I've not tried it with a web cam yet as my desktop and rest of my computer stuff hasn't cleared customs yet. If you want, send me a private message and I'll give you my Skype details and we can try it out. I am going to get a headset or other type of headphones as I don't want my conversations broadcast round the house. THere's quite a few on ebay.

Neil S

Does everyone know there's a new version of MSN Messenger thats free to download. It's been upgraded from 6.2 to 7.0 now. Tho the changes from what I can see are purely cosmetic.

Homer

Does it take longer for your pc to clear customs compared to your other stuff and if yes why my wife will go mad if it takes longer to get the pc back lol

Wahroonga Boy

No, it's just bundled in with everything else. It’s cleared quarantine, we’re just waiting for customs clearance. There’s nothing strange in there, just seems to be taking an age

Homer

Good wife would go mad if she has to wait to long to speak to family

GLR

I use Skype everyday to call the UK from Oz for work calls. I've also got one of the cheap international calling cards but I generally find that the quality on Skype is better than the quality when calling via landlines. You've also got the added advantage of knowing when the other person is online and able to take the call. That helps greatly when calling the UK as I'll often want to call at about 8am and at least with Skype you know that they're in the office and ready to go.

I do regret buying a cheap headset from Officeworks though - I can hear the other end fine but they tend to get a bit of echo from me. Probably worth investing in a decent one if you're going to use it a lot.

The international calling cards are still stunning value though. I bought a $20 card and it lasted for about a month and that was with daily calls to the UK.

Cheers

GLR