Purley

Yep - thanks a lot - that did the trick. No more Skype on startup!!

All I got was the Weather network window telling me that it is -1 and there are ice pellets. I guess that is another name for the freezing rain that is coming down out there. What a crappy year for weather here.

I was just talking to my sister in Kent and she said it was thundering and the rain was coming down like knitting needles! Rather have that than the slippery mess WE have out there.

I have a funny story - nothing to do with Skype however. My brother in law just got a knee replacement done in a private hospital in Maidstone. So yesterday my sister was out all day and he was being discharged from the hospital - on crutches. So he gets a taxi home - they live in a big house up a long driveway and they have over an acre of land - my Mom had locked all the doors and couldn't hear him ringing the doorbell!! So he had to direct the taxi driver how to find his way around their large garden - down to the garden shed and, using a flashlight (torch to the Brits) find the spare key hidden there - so my brother in law didn't have to sit on the step until my sister got home at midnight!!!

I can just picture my brother in law balanced on his crutches yelling " No, No - round to the right a bit - mind the washing line - woops - I guess that was the clothes prop . . . "

(Of course my Mom always insists she hears the doorbell!)

Brodel

ah yes, I have been watching the few webcams that I can find in Regina and have seen the snow and rain...although the two at the University I have been watching are all blurred with rain right now haha.
these are the ones I have if you are interested, id like to see more if you know of any others.

http://webcam1.is.uregina.ca/view/view.shtml

http://webcam2.is.uregina.ca/view/view.shtml

http://www.yqr.ca/cam.htm

http://users.accesscomm.ca/saskweather/webcam.htm

http://www.wascanalake.com/cam1.cfm

and a site that has photographs of a lot of streets there too

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/streetsofregina/index.html

they are probably of little interest to you, but I am lapping up as much as I can

Pommy Expat

Well, why not get a VoIP service in which you plug your phone into an adapter and then into your router/modem, like Vonage? You don't even need your PC on! With Stanaphone I use my own adapter, and I get a free number, so my Caller ID shows up in North America as New York 914. I call the US, Canada, and the UK for US$0.02 a minute.

There are going to be similar services from the UK that give you a UK geographic number. iConnectHere and Lingo already offer London numbers that people can reach you on from the UK - so if they have BT Together or some other such package, calls to your number will be included.

Purley

I was interested in that and I actually asked a few people, but I guess I asked the wrong people. So - can you tell me how it works and does it work from Canada?

I checked the Vonage site and it said you had to be a Vonage customer. Does that mean you have to have a cellphone or something from Vonage because they don't operate here.

I would be really interested in learning more.

Deadmeat

Glad you got it sorted.

Your sister isn't wrong about the weather, it was pretty wild out there last night (well as wild as it gets here!).

Hope your brother-in-law makes a quick recovery, nice place, Maidstone.

Cheers
Matt

Pommy Expat

If you scroll down, you'll see 'Canadian Residents click here', and it takes you to Vonage Canada With luck, they'll be operating in the UK too by the end of the year, so you can get someone to send you the adapter from the UK. Lingo don't ship outside the US.

These systems work from anywhere with a broadband connection. I use Stanaphone in the UK with no problems. I bought my own adapter and have configured it for use with different services. If you want, you can change the dialling pattern to what you're used to, so I just dial a UK number in domestic format as, say 02070000000 and it sends it as 011442070000000. From North America you can do it the other way around, although if you have a UK number it will still show up in the UK as your caller ID. The adapter I use connects to your ordinary phoneline as well, so 911 will go out over your phone line as normal, and if your broadband connection's down, you can still use your phone handset.

Purley

Sorry if I am being dim, but I find those sites kinda hard to understand and you obviously know what they are all about.

I would like to know if there is a voip site where I can hook up a telephone to my computer router or wherever so that I don't have to sit here and talk through a microphone - I need one that works when I am in Canada and my friends and relatives are in Canada and the UK.

Is there such a thing? And what would I need? I guess I need an adapter that the phone would plug into. Can I plug a cordless phone into such adapter? And what about the person on the other end - I take it that they just answer their phone like normal.

Do Vonage and StanaPhone work like the above.

Can you enlighten me about all this please?

Pommy Expat

No problem. Vonage works exactly the way you've suggested. (StanaPhone does too, but you need to order the adapter separately.) It pretty much is 'plug and play'- see diagram. As long as you've got DSL or cable broadband, or access to it, which a city like yours probably does, you should be OK.

You'll get a Canadian number with the area code of your choice, which comes in handy for people living on the other side of the country, as it'll be a local call for them when they call you. You can also get a 'virtual' number with a US area code, and pretty soon they'll be doing UK area codes, although Libretel already do those.

I'm in touch with a UK company that can probably give you a number with an area code in Kent, but BT Together and other such packages already charge the same for a national call as a local call, so whatever UK area code you have will be included.

Purley

Ok - so if I go to the Vonage Canada website, I can sign up and if I want to call my sister in Vancouver (604) or my friend in the Okanagan (750 - or is it 705 - I forget) anyway, then I can call my sister as if it was a local call and my friend in the Okanagan as if it was a long distance call but as its all in BC it should be cheap.

Then I buy an adapter from Vonage and I hook that up to my router - there are still two spaces open on my router. Then I just plug my cordless phone into the adapter and away we go (I hope).

I had to have help hooking up my router. Do you need to fiddle around with a load of settings to get this adapter to work?

And then can I have another number in England as well?

Am I going to end up with one Saskatchewan number for local calls - one Vancouver number for Canadian long distance and a Kent number for UK calls?

When I want to phone my sister in Vancouver - do I dial 604?

When I dial the phone - how does it know if its making a local call to Regina or a local call to Vancouver? Or do I just have to keep the phone that is hooked up to the adapter for the local Vancouver calls and the calls to the Okanagan? And then have my other phones that are Regina phones?

I believe you said that Vonage doesn't have UK numbers yet did you?

Still, if I could even make calls to Canada that would cut my costs. My Sprint account is 7 cents a minute to Canada 24/7

I only pay 5 cents a minute to the UK 24/7 with Sprint right now.

Pommy Expat

With the Province Unlimited plan, those calls will be charged the same. With the Premium Unlimited plan, all calls to Canada and the US are included in the monthly fee.

No, it should be pretty much plug and play.

Only through Libretel Once you've got a UK number (say London +44 20 xxxx xxxx) you then point it at your Vonage number (say Vancouver +1 604 xxx xxxx) The one-off charge is US$12 and then US$10 a month. iConnectHere charge US$15 a month for a London number and you need to have an account with them.

Vonage don't offer Saskatchewan area codes yet, and so won't port your existing number. Your existing line will remain totally separate from the Vonage one, which it's advisable to keep, as Vonage do not yet offer 911 access in Canada. Libretel don't do area codes in Kent, so London will be the next best thing (again, the gap between UK national and local calls is narrowing, so it doesn't make that much difference).

I think you will be able to dial the seven digit number, but otherwise it's 1 604, as with any call in North America. Your Caller ID will show up as 604 xxx xxxx. Call Return is free with Vonage (as it is in the UK) so if your sister phones and you want to return the call, it won't cost you anything.

Your Vonage phone will be a phone line in Vancouver, so unless you get the Premium Unlimited plan which covers both Canada and the US, calls to Regina will be chargeable.

That's right. This should change, as they are going to offer them pretty soon in anticipation of launching in the UK, just as they did with Canadian numbers prior to their launch in Canada in April this year.

Vonage charge 4 cents a minute to UK landlines, so not a huge saving, but as you say, for calls in Canada and the US it should be worth it.

Purley

"I think you will be able to dial the seven digit number, but otherwise it's 1 604, as with any call in North America. Your Caller ID will show up as 604 xxx xxxx. Call Return is free with Vonage (as it is in the UK) so if your sister phones and you want to return the call, it won't cost you anything."

What is "Call return"? If my sister wants to call me - wont that be a local call for her to my 604 number??



"Your Vonage phone will be a phone line in Vancouver, so unless you get the Premium Unlimited plan which covers both Canada and the US, calls to Regina will be chargeable. "

Yes - but I would only use the Vonage phone for calls to BC. My regular phone would be used to make local calls and calls to the UK.

Right?

BTW - I sent you a couple of pms on all this - seemed to be too specific to interest others.