voice over IP

[joshf2]

anyone here use SKYPE?

find it any good or useful?

[MO]

I've heard its good value...if your prepared to to pay a bit more.

Cuts ph bill dramatically.

[max^power]

my brother is over in USA/Spain at the moment and we use a program called VOIP Buster, you can call land lines free for a few minutes, or you can buy 1 euro credit and have unlimited calls. It's not terribly reliable, but its free, and you can always just redial if the connection drops

better than paying hellstra a bucket load each time!


used skype pc to pc, not via land line. great software.

[clontarf_x]

get iiNet's VoIP bundle :P

Its great but I wouldn't disconnect the landline just yet(assuming you can and still have the net running)

In the case of an emergency while the powers out, your only hope is the landline, or hope your neighbours home.

[Walkinshaw]

Originally Posted by BlackLS

Its great but I wouldn't disconnect the landline just yet(assuming you can and still have the net running)

In the case of an emergency while the powers out, your only hope is the landline, or hope your neighbours home.

usualy when your cable goes out so does your power and phone

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by BlackLS

Its great but I wouldn't disconnect the landline just yet(assuming you can and still have the net running)

Need the landline to get ADSL broadband at least. Disconnect the landline and you disconnect ADSL.

[MO]

Originally Posted by Walkinshaw

usualy when your cable goes out so does your power and phone

If you are using normal ph landline it will not go out it runs on an entirely different system...which is why our cable free system is backed by a normal Telstra handset ready to plug in if power goes out!

[Kapn_Kiwi]

Originally Posted by Walkinshaw

usualy when your cable goes out so does your power and phone

My cable has dropped out fairly often, but powercuts are few and far between, and I haven't had the phone drop out ever, so far as I know...

[Mechan1k]

Phone runs it's own power through the standard line ... minute voltage though (hence why you should not use the telephone during a storm). Does not rely on your normal electricity feed.

[max^power]

i dont see great value in the home voip plans on offer yet, from ISPs at least. iinet can be fairly deceptive in their advertising... read the fine print.

[Mechan1k]

VOIP is very unreliable ... we use it at work ... well ... our customers use it ... but it's not the best system ... needs MANY bugs ironed out ... network connections aren't that reliable that VOIP can run perfectly 99.9 percent of the time.

Copper landline is still the MOST reliable way of voice communication ... followed by Mobile.

[joshf2]

and here i was still using a tin can and a piece of string.....

so far im using to talk to the oldies on the other side of the country, and it hasnt seemed to be too bad so far...

[Group C]

Originally Posted by Mechan1k

minute voltage though

While it's a much lower voltage than power, it still has enuf to give a good belt. Trust me, I know....

Ohh, for interest sake, a normal PSTN (private subscriber telephone network) line, like you have at home, has 50v DC on it when idle or in use, and 80v AC is superimposed on it for the ring tone/ringing circuit. It's only in milli-amps, but you can see why you'd get a shock when 80v AC is on it!!
Also, an ISDN (intergrated services digital network) service, like Telstra's 'OnRamp', has 100v AC on it, but this is usually fed on optic fibre these days, so shocks from it are 'almost' unheard of.

[Lagom]

Skype's great, but I use it to supplant the phone line, basically using it for long distance calls and conference calls. The voice quality is actually better than a normal PSTN line. It's free from computer to computer and from computer to phone lines, it's around 3c/minute (€0.017/min).

Naturally you need good connections at both ends of the conversation if you're doing a computer to computer chat. The latest Skype version has video as well.