Anyone Using Skype?

I happened to be surfing around and downloaded Skype the other day. Anyway, if you make lots of phone calls, here’s the scoop on skype in this neck of the woods:
[i]
Calling regular phone numbers.
You can make free calls within the US and Canada to both landlines and mobile phones until the end of the year. It’s really easy; there are no contract fees, no line rentals. All you need is Skype and a phone number you want to call.

If that wasn’t enough, we have a little thing called SkypeOut which lets you make international calls to old-fashioned phone numbers. From landlines to mobile phones… it works with almost all of them. SkypeOut calls abroad are not free, but they?re pretty cheap, actually. Please read our Terms of Service regarding using this product.
[/i]
If you want to give it a try, here is their download page:

http://www.skype.com/download/

If you aren’t using skype, are you using any other Internet telephone technologies (not plain chat)?

I have used skype for the last 6 month or so. It works pretty well if you have a decent microphone for your computer. I like it because I can chat with my dad (who likes to go on and on) without having to use up my cell phone minutes or type.

I use skype for international calls. All you need is a set of cheap headphones for use as a mic. I use the American Airlines ones, just plug it into the mic plug and it works!

Yeah I use it. More or less because of the fact that it’s free to talk to other Skype users. But for the current offer of free Skype Out calling, I should point out that you’re not going to see a number on the caller id.
It will be NO DATA or some odd number representing the switch it came off last, so you could get mistaken for a telemarketer.

Yeah vroom i’ve tried out skype. I don’t think that i like the VOIP stuff because its slightly harder to communicate, because you get a blank sound when nobody is saying anything versus the usual background noise when you have a land line/cellphone.

I like that back ground noise personally…the cheap price ain’t worth it for me.

btw , is it still like that or have they gotten better lately?

I use and love Ventrilo. It is free and has great sound quality. However, it doesn’t call normal phone lines.

-Fireplug

I still use skypeout but I didn’t renew my skypein number when it expired. It was fairly convenient and a good deal but I don’t have cell capable of running it and the wrong numbers were excessive.

Use it all the time. Works great.

I use it to call my family in Germany and my girl in Italy for free, sometimes. Usually I just use MSN messenger. You can do live webcam/conversation over the internet on MSN for free. It does wonders for a relationship with 10,000 miles between it

I use it, as many of my friends are back in Germany, and my oldest friend is in the states.

Hell, I even use it for cross-atlantic role-playing sessions (stuff like this works well in my Star Trek game).

Makkun

I’ve been using Vonage for about 2 years now, and have been extremely happy with it. Unlimited long distance to US and Canada, all the voicemail and Call ID stuff, for $25/month. Not too shabby.

I have skype and have used to it to call other skype users, but have never used it to call cell and landline numbers. In fact, it tells me I need to buy skype credits to call non-skype numbers. I don’t understand how or why you say it is free.

[EDIT: I just read the website. I didn’t realize I needed to dial a country code.]

It gives me the same notice, that I need to buy skypeout credits or such, but ignoring it and dialing my own home phone number works just fine…

I have alot of friends Internationally can anyone tell me if the int. Calls on Skype are that much of a savings or just flat out how much they average I would mostly be calling the UK and Ireland.

Thanks

P.S. My Wife Signed us up for Vonage at my Office but we haven’t received the set up yet so I can’t say how that works.

Bump!