Slim Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Anyone here use Skype? Apparently they are offering a 'call free anywhere in the US and Canada' promotion through the end of 2006. Are there any security concerns? Any other things to be aware of before trying this service? Thanks. 'Preciate any info you might be able to offer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobdea Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 it's good and works fine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonerider Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Anyone here use Skype? Apparently they are offering a 'call free anywhere in the US and Canada' promotion through the end of 2006.Are there any security concerns? Any other things to be aware of before trying this service? Thanks. 'Preciate any info you might be able to offer. No security concerns, actually VOIP is "probably" more secure that your landline or cellphone (while I am in computers, I don't specialize in internet protocols). My family uses it to talk to people in Taiwan. I use to to talk to a girl in Hong Kong. Main issue is the lag for around the world calls - like it takes around 1.5 seconds to get to them, and then another 1.5 second to get back, so there will be like a 3-4 second gap between what you say and the reply... this is worse for overseas calls, I would expect local calls to not have such an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skatha Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Be careful, there's no 911 service available....as in "enhanced 911"-like a reverse caller-id, you call in and the dispatcher knows immediately where you are... Vonnage got sued for not having 911 capability.... Actually, I think the best service is whatever Halliburton is using. My ex- literally sounds like he's in town when he calls, not Baghdad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinecure Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 I spoke to Australia on Skype last night. It was fine. That was a skype to skype call and they are always free. The "free" skype stuff you are talking about is a promotion for what is called "Skype Out" which allows you to use Skype to dial any phone number. Skype technically is not VOIP, although its just as easy to call it that. Technically it is a custom version of a protocol called SIP. Yahoo's Voice product and another called Gizmo (www.gizmoproject.com) are standards-compliant SIP phone products. They work basically the same way as Skype. Security-wise you don't need to be worried about the applications. Like with IM or email, other people can send you files via Skype and you should take the ordinary precautions against opening something unexpected, or from someone you don't know. Most of the services that offer free calls to Europe have some caveats. In Europe the mobile phone business is more of a "caller pays" model than what we have here (where you pay for both inbound and outbound minutes). As a result it is unusual to see anyone offer free calls to European mobile phone numbers. My Vonage service gives me free calling in North America and some of Western Europe, but only to landlines. If someone offer free calling to cell phones in Europe, I'd expect to see that as a promotion, not a long-term strategy. At least until the European carriers change their billing model. Overall I think VOIP (e.g. Vonage, Lingo - which has free calling to much of western europe, Speakeasy, CallVantage, etc.) is a great thing overall. I use Vonage for my business phone and love it. My partner uses Lingo (we wanted to compare the two since we do Telecom consulting) and loves it. The 911 precautions are important to understand, but not a big deal for the most part. Skype is useful for IM type activities and talking to people in far-flung places if both of you have high-speed internet connections and speakers/mics in your computers. One of my favorite things about VOIP is its portability. My vonage box is just a small router that connects to my internet connection (wired). I can unplug the box and take it to our ski house. Then my office phone rings in the ski house - enabling me to "work" from the ski house. My phone number stays the same, people can call me and I can call them. I did it a lot last season. I even brought it with me to London on a business trip. Its pretty cool to make a local call from your hotel room in London to talk to your kids in California. The only catch there is that you need to remember to turn it off at night since people assume they are calling your number on a US time zone. Regardless of how you look at it, all these technologies and calling plans have made our voice phone service really cheap these days. I pay $25/month for unlimited calling nearly everywhere I ever call. That's amazing. If you do a search on Skype, you'll find a thread where lots of BOL members posted their screen names. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinecure Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Be careful, there's no 911 service available....as in "enhanced 911"-like a reverse caller-id, you call in and the dispatcher knows immediately where you are...Vonnage got sued for not having 911 capability.. That's almost all fixed. It is incumbent on you as the user to tell them where you phone is, but once you do that, they'll route the calls to the right dispatcher. So if you take your phone with you like I describe above, don't expect to get that local PD unless you've notified Vonage of the change in location. The bigger issue to keep in mind is that your phone won't work if you lose power or your internet connection goes down. If you are a serious disaster preparedness freak, you probably still want a traditional land line phone for emergencies and power outages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonerider Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 Skype technically is not VOIP, although its just as easy to call it that. Technically it is a custom version of a protocol called SIP. Yahoo's Voice product and another called Gizmo (www.gizmoproject.com) are standards-compliant SIP phone products. They work basically the same way as Skype. I think SIP is a type of VOIP since VOIP (Voice-over-Interet-Protocol) itself is not an actual internet protocol but a description of any such protocol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skatha Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 That's almost all fixed. It is incumbent on you as the user to tell them where you phone is, but once you do that, they'll route the calls to the right dispatcher. So if you take your phone with you like I describe above, don't expect to get that local PD unless you've notified Vonage of the change in location. The bigger issue to keep in mind is that your phone won't work if you lose power or your internet connection goes down. If you are a serious disaster preparedness freak, you probably still want a traditional land line phone for emergencies and power outages. Well, in my hurricane prone neighborhood, being prepared for a disaster doesn't make you a freak.... ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinecure Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 I think SIP is a type of VOIP since VOIP (Voice-over-Interet-Protocol) itself is not an actual internet protocol but a description of any such protocol. You are right, well we both are. Except I shouldn't have said that its NOT VOIP. It is a form of VOIP, but at least in the industry VOIP has become synonymous with services that require hardware, like Vonage. SIP phones, like Skype or Gizmo, are software applications that sit on your PC. They are all transmitting voice over the internet, but they use different protocols to do it. Either way, Skype wasn't worth anything near what Ebay paid for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike T Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 You are right, well we both are. Except I shouldn't have said that its NOT VOIP. It is a form of VOIP, but at least in the industry VOIP has become synonymous with services that require hardware, like Vonage. SIP phones, like Skype or Gizmo, are software applications that sit on your PC. They are all transmitting voice over the internet, but they use different protocols to do it. Either way, Skype wasn't worth anything near what Ebay paid for it. Security-wise the only problem with SIP is that it's text-based. Obviously audio is packetized and sent as a bitstream but the details of the SIP protocol are more concerned with setting up and tearing down conversations, and it is possible for someone to find out some information about who is calling who (phone numbers and the like) witha sniffer. Many proprietary implementations add encryption; some are actually binary implementations in the "spirit of SIP" and are pretty tough to crack. Yes, you're both correct that SIP is a particular protocol under the VoIP umbrella. I am personally involved on the enterprise end of things - entire multi-site, multi-national office systems that combine VoIP with analog lines, traditional PBX features, etc. (including working 911 and its equivalent in other supported countries) and don't use any of the consumer stuff like Skype or Vonage. Although it sucks to see Vonage take such a beating in the market because the uneducated will compare my employer to them when it's our turn to IPO... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonerider Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 You are right, well we both are. Except I shouldn't have said that its NOT VOIP. It is a form of VOIP, but at least in the industry VOIP has become synonymous with services that require hardware, like Vonage. SIP phones, like Skype or Gizmo, are software applications that sit on your PC. They are all transmitting voice over the internet, but they use different protocols to do it. Either way, Skype wasn't worth anything near what Ebay paid for it. I see. Cool. So do any of you know if the lag that I get with skype due to simple network latency and the system buffering some packets to get smoother sound, or is it related to the protocol itself? (skatha mentions one version that doesn't have a roundtrip lag). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skatha Posted July 21, 2006 Report Share Posted July 21, 2006 I'll ask him next time he calls....he doesn't have his own phone anymore and the time difference makes it hard to just call-I have no idea if anyone will be around to pick up the phone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcross.au Posted July 23, 2006 Report Share Posted July 23, 2006 skype's fine from AUS to US, i called a couple of stores last week trying to trace a new helmet and worked well, no lag at all. Free aswell so thats the best part Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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