Skype

[Tubal Cain]

Is there anyone on the forum who is familiar with skype? I wish to set up video conferencing on my computer so that my wife can talk to her relatives.

Any information and advice would be gratefully received.

Gerald

[Brian]

Tried it some time ago now to talk with Oscar, Think it could have been my old Windows 98 system but it did not seem to work very well.

Think Oscar or Mike have had a bit of experience with it.

[Oscar]

Is there anyone on the forum who is familiar with skype? I wish to set up video conferencing on my computer so that my wife can talk to her relatives. Any information and advice would be gratefully received.Gerald

It's very simple. Both your wife and her relatives are to download Skype from www.skype.com. Install it, create a user_id for yourself and you're ready. A USB headset with an integrated mic would help, you can get those for around $15,-.

When both your wife and her relatives are behind their computers at the same time, then you can talk for free (PC to PC), regardless if where you are located (it does not matter one bit if your wife's relatives are at the other end of the world). If you use a webcam, then you can even see each other in real-time (I do this all the time when I am travelling - it allows me to see my wife and kids and vice versa). If only your wife is online, then you can buy Skype Out credits with which you can make phone calls to any landline number in the world, through your computer, at extremely low costs (typically a few dollarcents per minute). Making calls to cellphones is slightly mor expensive.

I once bought €10,- Skype Out credits and have used that to do hours and hours of phone calls from Holland to places like India, Australia and Canada. It took me 15 hours of calling to deplete those 10 euros.

[Tubal Cain]

Oscar,

Thankyou for the explanation, I will get the necessary hardware and give it a go.

Best regards.

Gerald

[RossM]

Skpe is a fantastic tool. My mum uses it all the time to talk to my sister and nephew who live in the states. My nephew phones my mum and says "Grandma, lets skype" and puts the phone down, they they log on and talk for as long as they like at no cost.

Every sunday when I go round for tea i get the latest story of how they've skype'd and my nephew has done this that and the other!! Lastweek they skype'd and my sister took the laptop outside to show my mum and dad some work they'd had done on the garden, as she was moving the laptop round to show the garden my mum spotted my nephew (he's 3 yrs old) peeing up a tree!!!!

[Mike Kuscher]

Yes, it's pretty good.
Once set up, all you need is an internet link and away you go.
I carry an HP handheld iPAQ with me, you can even get Skype for that or more modern mobile phones.
I then find myself a WiFi 'hotspot' to connect to and it's just like using a mobile, but for free. The iPAQ is only slightly larger than my Blackberry.
Do it, you'll like it.
My dad constantly uses it to speak with my brother, who lives and works in Holland and dad's nearly 85.

Mike

[Oscar]

I carry an HP handheld iPAQ with me, you can even get Skype for that or more modern mobile phones.

Sadly, there's no Skype available (yet?) for my Nokia E51 .