MystBlade
Premium
join:2002-10-21
Lacey, WA
clubs: | Cool
Kinda like Free_Phone IP I will dl and test it out too yeah! |
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Rob
In Deo speramus, God Bless the USA
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL | So the only good thing..
So the only good thing about Skype is that it's encrypted? I use Yahoo! messenger to speak to friends, broadband users as well as dialup users can talk to me using Yahoo! Voice. And it's free. |
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justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY | No the other good thing is the voice quality is much better than Yahoo messenger. |
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Rob
In Deo speramus, God Bless the USA
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
 ·Comcast
| said by justin  :
No the other good thing is the voice quality is much better than Yahoo messenger.
Different PCS, different connections, different equipment will make the quality appear better/worse. For me, the quality on yahoo is very good. For others, it isn't. Same goes for the CEO of Vonage who felt the quality of Skype was bad.. you had different opinons.
None the less, excellent review! And excellent website Justin! Keep up the great work! |
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Corvus
Flaming Tards Since 2003
Premium,VIP
join:2003-11-26 |  Ok for voice...
But I'm still waiting for webcam support before swicthing! |
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justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY
Host:
IPv6
Business Connectiv..
Home/Office setup ..
Console/Handheld g..
Console Tech
| reply to Rob
Re: So the only good thing..
no that isn't quite right. All these voice over IP products pick a certain codec and the bitrate of that codec determines how good the quality is. No VOIP products have yet gone to 128kbit, as far as I know. They all have maximum rates less than that.
The vonage guy who said skype sounds bad probably had a bad connection. If you have a good connection, 128k is easy to hit, but only if the software is there to go that high. |
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graysonf
Premium,MVM
join:1999-07-16
Fort Lauderdale, FL
| Nothing really new
Maybe this is just the next one of these things to come along but nothing really new.
Speak-Freely predates it by years, and PGP-Phone by almost a decade, although neither of these really caught on. But the same thing can also be said for dozens of other, albeit non-encrypted soft phones that have come and gone over the years.
In fact, the one that started it all, and also fell by the wayside was IPhone by Volcaltec that used to employ none other than the current VoIP guru Jeff Pulver. |
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Cougar311
join:2002-07-18
USA
| reply to Corvus
Re: Ok for voice...
iChat (»www.apple.com/ichat/) does that. You can do video and voice all for free and it works amazingly good!
You would need a Mac though. I would think there would be something like that for the PC?? |
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Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC | Great
This is nice and all, but I'm not really paranoid enough to need my calls encrypted.
Aside from the fact I don't use my HOME phone very often, much less talk to people online via voice.
--
Edwards in 2004 |
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Wiz4rd
join:2001-12-26
Omak, WA | I'm not sure why they say it requires a broadband connection. I use it and talk to people all over the world on my 56k and it works and sounds great. Just don't go downloading and surfing the net while doing it. |
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Moonjo
Premium
join:2001-10-29
Aurora, CO
·Comcast
 ·Qwest.net
| Qualtiy is really superb!
The quality of service with Skype is very good if not excellent. Consider this, the current version is still beta and it's free. I've used RogerWilco for playing online and TeamSpeak. Skype's quality out distances both those. The big draw back for Skype with playing online is that it is only a 1-to-1 connection, making it unsuitable for multiplayer voice chats. But multi-user voice chat is coming, or so the makers of Skype say.
The quality of Skype is better than my mobile phone service (I have Verizon) when I call my cousin in Vegas. At the very least it's worth a try.  |
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heels_fan
1.20.09 The start of Socialism
Premium
join:2003-02-07
Columbia, TN
| XP only PLEASE
skype will only work for WinXP correct?
Minimum System Requirements:
PC running Windows 2000 or XP
400 MHz processor
128 MB RAM
10 MB free disk space on your hard drive
Sound Card, speakers and microphone
Internet Connection (either dial-up: minimum 36.6 Kbps modem, or any broadband: cable, DSL, etc.)
Recommended System Requirements:
PC running Windows 2000 or XP
1 GHz processor
256 MB RAM
30 MB free space on your hard drive
Full duplex sound card (most sound cards made after 1998), headset
Cable, DSL or equivalent broadband connection to Internet
--
This space for sale. Acquire within |
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Buzzzzer
@209.36.x.x
|  reply to Moonjo
Re: Qualtiy is really superb!
SKYPE is great as voice quality and as innovation. Is first of all a P2P, and the fact that is encrypted is a + . I have used it over a dial-up connection all over the world, from US and to US, and the quality of sound on a scale from 1-10 would be a 9 ! Yahoo is not bad, but is no near SKYPE. The only drawback with SKYPE is that you may have "a third party" in your computer - see other posts on BBR. |
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Authority
Obama Biden '12
join:2000-03-29
Beverly Hills, CA | "wireless and bluetooth"
> my USB headset (perhaps to one that is wireless and
> bluetooth
Have you seen one?? |
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Sebastian
Premium
join:2000-12-22
New Haven, CT
| reply to justin
Re: So the only good thing..
Thanks for the review.
I have got a couple of friends to try this. it sounds great. We currently use ventrilo (»www.ventrilo.com) which is similar to Team-speak but only a lot better in terms of sound quality. Skype's sound quality is just as good as Ventrilo.
As for using Skype as a tool for online-gamers to communicate. I would wonder how much bandwidth is used, more so upstream bandwidth. I would guess if it's 'near' 128bit mp3 quality then the bandwidth it uses would be quite high, Even more so during a conference call? Unless you're all connected to some Skype server and using some of their bandwidth to transmit.
--
BBR Gaming Server Admin.
gaming.broadbandreports.com |
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justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY | reply to Moonjo
Re: Qualtiy is really superb!
they added 5 way calling this week. |
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justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY
Host:
IPv6
Business Connectiv..
Home/Office setup ..
Console/Handheld g..
Console Tech
| reply to Authority
Re: "wireless and bluetooth"
said by Authority :
> my USB headset (perhaps to one that is wireless and
> bluetooth
Have you seen one??
If you buy a bluetooth USB dongle, you can use many of the cool bluetooth phone headsets that normally work with nokias and SE phones, drivers willing. |
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tonekilla
Pipe Dreams
Premium
join:2003-07-26
Gunnison, MS
clubs:
| reply to Wiz4rd
Re: Great
ok, let's see...
56k modem, 56kilobits... we'll say you connect at 49,333, or 49kb/s. Now, the review says that the codec runs at 128kilobit. The quality has to be VERY degraded.
--
Gotta love SBC's 6000/608 plan for $44.99! |
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Wiz4rd
join:2001-12-26
Omak, WA
| reply to justin
Re: "wireless and bluetooth"
Even though I use 56k to use skype now it sounds just fine. I had cable a month ago and moved to a non broadband area. Skype sounded and worked exactly the same on cable as it does on my 56k. So don't be fooled its not only for broadband it works well with whatever you have but they reccomend broadband. |
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averagedude
join:2002-01-30
Mesa, AZ | reply to MystBlade
Re: Cool
I have been using it off and on for a month.
It works thru nat-routers WITHOUT having to create a DMZ or to open all ports. |
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