Skype - Montana Owners Club

Jim · 10-28-2006, 05:44 PM

We have downloaded the site for Skype. We bought a set of headphones for the computer and we can talk to anyone in North America until Dec. 31 for free, as long as we have a computer hook up. We are on WiFi now and talk to the family back in Canada as it is our second day of our five months on the road. Don't know how much it will be after it is free, but the price is right for now.

JH Sechelt · 10-28-2006, 08:44 PM

Hi Jim & Dagmar,

It's free until the end of the year. 2 1/2 cents a minute (anywhere to anywhere)in North America starting Jan 1st, 2007

J&D

padredw · 10-29-2006, 01:40 AM

I have been using Skype to talk with a friend in Adelaide, South Australia for a year or two. The voice quality is better than most phone connections. It is as if he were sitting right in the room with me. He and his wife have just returned home after a cruise through the Panama Canal (Los Angeles to New Orleans) and a visit to our home here in East Texas. While here he bought an inexpensive video camera (web camera) and now we both have "video phone". It works amazingly well.

And I am making full use of the "free" calls in the US. Before that promotional plan it cost me exactly the same to call here in town as it did to call my friend in Australia. Just to be clear I would "call" his phone number ONLY when he was not online. When we are both online, computer to computer is the way to go.

Jim · 10-30-2006, 02:10 PM

JH Sechelt - I hear Skype just got bought out by eBay. My guess is that after Jan 1 it will still be free as eBay will try to find a way to support it with advertising. Hope so but we will wait and see. In the meantime we will use it as much as possible to call home when we head south.

JH Sechelt · 10-30-2006, 07:21 PM

That's good to hear, Jim. My oldest daughter and now my youngest daughter both live in Kelowna (your neck of the woods). Will save me some $$, specially if I can ever talk my youngest one into using the lap top I gave her for University instead of the telephone.

J&D

toolmanroy · 10-31-2006, 04:07 AM

We used Skype for some time, then we downloaded and tried Windows Live Messenger. It is far superior video and voice quality as it is computer to computer (we had problems with Skype with delay). It is free as long as it is to another computer. The only charge is when you call a phone number.

richfaa · 11-01-2006, 05:59 AM

We installed skype..it is ok but there is a delay that is annoying..We will look at Windows live messenger. My guess is that the skype dely is caused by "satellite delay" that is the time it takes for the signal to travel 22,500 miles up then 22,500 miles down , then too you... If you have local channels on your satellite dish as well as the locals on your home tv antenna switch between the two and you will note the delay..it is considerable..2 or 3 seconds..maybe more.

padredw · 11-01-2006, 06:41 AM

We have no noticable delay in Skype, even with video. Sattelyte lag would affect any IM program, no more Skype than any other IMO.

One thing though: Skype requires a broadband connection for good communication. If you have dialup I would not recommend it at all. Just for the record, I have Yahoo and MSN installed and use them occasionally for contacts who are not on Skype. But in my experience (and clearly that of others is different) Skype is superior.

richfaa · 11-02-2006, 03:21 AM

To this point we have nothing to compare against..We will install Windows live messenger and compare..we do use the Yahoo program for video conferencing and it is acceptable.You are correct the sat lag is not very noticeable real time. technology improves almost overnight it seems and you have to really keep up to stay at the cutting edge. You can notice the sat lag on the evening news when the news person in the states asks a question to the news person in downtown Bagdad and it takes a few seconds for him to answer.The improvement in audio and video technology over the last very few years is amazing. We have a T1 connection here at home ans wonder how it will work on the road with a aircard??/

padredw · 11-02-2006, 06:35 AM

Rich,

I do not have an aircard, so I can't comment on that aspect of using Skype, but I have used it on many different WIFI connections in campgrounds with very good results--of course, I am speaking of "vocal" communication. Sound quality was as good as here at home.

One thing I suspect about Skype: when a connection is made it somehow puts a "hold" on the bandwidth you have and reserves it for the vocal communication. My evidence for that is that if I attempt to send or receive email while talking on Skype, it is obvious that the email slows to a crawl. The same thing happens if I attempt a file transfer using Skype itself. On "Chat" (typing, not vocal) the file transfer is many times faster than it is while a vocal communication is going on.

This is a very good feature, it seems to me, since the vocal communication is the most valuable aspect of Skype. So, if dI have a connection, I will get the best vocal communication possible with that bandwidth.

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