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so can you use it to talk to people not on skype?? ie computer to ordinary phone type calls???

 

and what's the point when you're all fast asleep when i'm awake at stupid o'clock!!! :)

 

You can talk PC to PC for free, or PC to Skype phone for free (Skype phone plugs into computer network and replaces PC).

 

You can also get a Skype number so people with normal phone can ring you.

 

And also ring from Skype to real phone, but this costs. Skype calls are fairly cheap as they buy their airtime in bulk.

 

I don't want to make this post too long, but I doubt that Skype is a long term solution and there will have to be some major changes in the voice over IP world fairly soon.

 

Skype, along with some other VOIP solutions, rely on there being spare bandwidth. If a network is very busy the voice traffic does not have any higher status and gets delayed as do other data packets. But live audio and video is very 'sensitive' to breaks in the data flow. You can survive if your e-mail has the odd half second break in flow but not in a phone call.

 

The problem is Skype becomes a self fulfilling failure. It uses the Skype software installed on each persons machine to create a pathway. It looks for connections that are not busy at the moment and the routes that way and there fore that previously empty route starts to fill. People suddenly realise that there is a lot of traffic going through their connection, particularly those that have a 'cap' on the amount of data they can transfer, and put firewalls in place so Skype finds it harder to find a route.

 

A better solution would be to 'come clean' and mark VOIP traffic and then route it using 'Quality of Service' so that it gets a higher priority through more guaranteed pathways. But then the companies would be able to charge for the voice traffic and we're back to square one.

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Well, of course it has its limitations, but it wins on price everytime. On my trip to Egypt last week I used it exclusively as a) my company have turned of roaming on my mobile :) , and :D the centre on the beach had free wireless internet for those suitably equipped.

 

I made a lot of calls using 'Skype out' to UK mobiles and land lines, and still have 6 Euro credit out of 10 Euro I started with. Last year the same trip put about £40 on my mobile bill...... go figure.

 

Top tip for a bit of fun, go to the lookup member page then search for those that have skype me turned on: never takes long for the oldest hobby / profession to adopt new technology :D

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All,

 

Please be mindful that Skype is not the most ethical piece of software in the world!

 

If you read the licence agreement, by using their software you give them the right to use your machine in order to dsitribute any other electronic communications on the behalf of their network whenever they see fit.

 

This can include, but is not limited to:

 

using your machine as a spam relay

using your machine to relay other peoples calls

delivering you advertising whenever they deem appropriate

using your skype client (and possibly your ID?) to deliver adds to other users (maybe by capturing your contacts list).

Using your skype traffic for profiling you and what you like and then directing advertising to you or

Selling your details to other companies

 

And much other stuff. Unless of course they have changed it since it passed over to eBay ownership.

 

You also have no right to privacy, they can store and regurgitate you messages, use them to profile you etc.

 

Does anyone here actually READ what they are agreeing to when they install software? My experience would suggest that less than one percent of computer users actually do and so they end up giving up their rights and privacy by default.

 

Also, it is worth pointing out that voice calling is NOT new, many other IM programs or dedicated VOIP clients have offered this functionality for years, WITHOUT the requirement to give up your rights and freedoms.

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Here's a Skype Privacy FAQ, and other legal documentation including the EULA and privacy policywebfishrune mentioned. I think there's a certain amount of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt in his statements, but if you follow the links, you can make your own judgement.

 

Hope that's useful :)

 

This thread should be closed, it's off topic and webfishrune is in danger of making it go further off topic into the land of arguments :D

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alistair... Simple, Geocachers (or anyone else) can talk to each other for free, within the limitations described in several posts above. It is a magical system which we've had since it came out.

I don’t think I made my question clear. I like many have a Skype ID (actually one of the early ones as well) but never use it. I was just wondering how many people here actually did regularly. To be honest I was wondering if a geocacher was more or less likely to accept using such a technology.

 

using your machine as a spam relay

using your machine to relay other peoples calls

delivering you advertising whenever they deem appropriate

using your skype client (and possibly your ID?) to deliver adds to other users (maybe by capturing your contacts list).

Using your skype traffic for profiling you and what you like and then directing advertising to you or

Selling your details to other companies

An interesting interpretation. ;)

 

I am guessing the section that upsets you is actually required to keep Skype working without having to relay all calls through a central machine, that intern would need to be paid for somewhere down the line.

 

In summary (and a very simplified summary) not all machines on the Internet can see all other machines on the Internet. Skype gets around this problem by getting the two machines to connect to a machine they can both see and relay the call through that.

 

I would address the other points but this is a forum about Geocaching so is not the place. If anyone wants me to waffle on more then feel free to contact me off list.

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There is of course the Gizmo Project which is a Free Skype-a-like replacement. Sound quality pwns Skype, and even allows one or more parties to record to a WAV file. We've even used it for recording podcasts remotely (4 parties, 2 in UK, 1 in US, 1 in Germany, and no lag/echoes). Conference calling is arranged more like a dial-in conference, so each party can easily come and go at will.

http://www.gizmoproject.com

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YES this is geocaching related just as much as emails and the like it is a way that we can and as some have already proved to set up a FREE chatting network to talk to other cachers around the globe and here ther voices if you doubting folk dont belive me take a look i have posted my skype noame up there on the first thread and had some other GEOCACHERS contact me who would not other wise be able to i do appologise for not saying geocaching.com in every sentence but i just assumed that folk would understand wat this thread is about

 

SO :laughing:

Edited by Tupperware Hunters
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