Voice over IP free phones: good experience shared

Re: Skype

Just a small correction. I've just checked the international mobile rates, and they do vary wildly. Many are a few pence but some are much more.

Peter Scott

Yes. with efficient bandwith usage, and multiplexing done by the magic of IP and not by hugely expensive exhange kit, this is the way voice will go eventually.

Actualy, you shopuld be paying almost nothing to connect to another IP based phone - this service is interim stuff. Eventually we will all simply have dial-by-IP address.

Dedicated IP phones are still expensive though. Wait a little.

This transformation - from IP over voice circuits to voice over IP cuircuits has taken a few years to become reality. Its got a lot further to go though,

Some useful info....

Skype sells a USB 'CyberPhone' (yuk) at just under 40 ukp. So things are moving on rapidly.

Peter Scott

In message , Peter Scott writes

this one by any chance? (GBP35 at dabs)

No I saw it as a link from Skype's own site but the Dabs one is cheaper. Trouble is I had a lot of hassle with Dabs a while back. They delivered a faulty processor and flatly refused to replace insisting that it had to be returned to AMD. Explaining the law to them had no effect and in the end the manager became quite offensive. Actually I meant to do them under the Data Pro Act because they failed to remove my data from their system. But I never got a round tuit. Hmmph!

Its tempting to use them but pride comes in here somewhere.

Peter Scott

than Dabs.

Peter Scott

It's not pride - don't reward poor service with more custom! How will you feel if they send you a faulty phone and you have to go through the same mess again?

Trading Standards time, I think?

You are right of course. But I am a busy person and sometimes it is not worth the inevitable time- and energy-consuming battle.

Peter Scott

I suggest that you drop an email to the Dab's owner (forgotten his name) ,

When I had a problem a few years back I found him to be very approachable and helpful.

Very little stress + little time = complete satisfaction

Sadly neither of the phones offered on the Skype site is Mac-compatible.

Not wanting to hijack the thread but...

Has anyone tried using skype over a dial-up connection? Does it work?

Colin

Absolutley nothing to do with this thread - but if that was my experience of a company I would refuse to ever do business with them again. Full stop. I doubt it will change the company's working practices, but it makes me feel better.

It does... Voice quality is fine (at least as good as a ordinary land line call - as opposed to skype over broadband where the voice quality seems better than a landline). There is a GSM Mobile esque delay to the voice however, which makes conversation slightly less "comfortable".

Can be handy when you need to chat at the same time as use the modem and there is only one line.

Should almost do. But of course it will fully occupy it. And sound a bit dire.

person or the other person cannot hear me during a VoIP call? A. You are accessing the Internet through a Firewall, Proxy or NAT system. Generally these allow outgoing data without interference, but with only 'recognised' data types being allowed back in. Hence they hear you but you can't hear them. "

I guess that would be a symptom of SPI?

You need about 21kb/sec for decent quality. So if you are using a V90/92 modem you ought to only be using about half of your available bandwidth. If you are running the VoIP along with another application that can saturate the link however, you will need something that can do traffic shaping otherwise you may glitch the audio.