SkypeIN (new numbers released)

[Crevette]

There are many new SkypeIN numbers released today which cost 10 Euros/3 months subscription or 30 Euros/year subscription (they work just like regular phone numbers but you receive the calls via skype).

Seems a good idea - if the service is good then I may consider cancelling the main france telecom line (I have a mobile for emergencies).

-Rob-

[Clair]

Re SKYPE, looking at their website, I cannot quite figure out if it's worthwhile using them on a dial-up connection...

My area is "dégroupée", but I am with Tiscali and, as only Wanado is offering ADSL here, I'd have to change my ISP to get it.

Can anyone offer any experience of SKYPE with dial-up?

Thanks

Clair

[Opel Fruit<P><BR>Opel Fruit, Dept. 53<P>]

In a nutshell, garbage.

I use SKYPE only between ADSL users, and it is always fine. My one contact who has dial-up (basically because he is a tightwad) is a joke. ECHO ECHO!

[Stevehudson]

"Seems a good idea - if the service is good then I may consider cancelling the main france telecom line (I have a mobile for emergencies)."

Mmmm.......seems to me that if you cancel your France telecom line you won't have a broadband connection and therefore no Skype.

Steve

[Deimos]

I have found that whilst Skype for voice (i.e. PC to PC voice) is fine, the SkypeOut (paid-for PC to telephone) quality is very variable and one is often disconnected part way through a call. I know its their systems from the error codes returned (which Skype do not document but can be found out). I have given up using it but been totally unsuccessful in getting any money back from them. Seems with Skype, give them any money and wave goodbye to it – you may or may not get what you have paid for but you will not get any money refunded. Also, other low cost normal telephone providers in France are now quite a bit cheaper than SkypeOut anyway. Many SIP providers are now cheaper than Skype as well.

Using your PC for incoming calls – how long do you spend in front of your PC. For me, receiving calls on your PC is not particularly useful (made worse by the fact that Skype’s client status display for “Available”, ”Idle”, “Away”, etc.) does not work properly. Don’t forget you may need to subscribe to their answerphone service as well (more costs ?)

The quality of SkypeOut (PC to telephone paid service) got so bad at one point that Skype had to start investigating and you will probably find with the more recent versions of the software will occasionally pop-up a browser with a questionnaire after you complete a SkypeOut call.

Also, before committing to much (i.e. getting and giving out a new telephone number) it may be an idea to wait and see what eBay intend to do with the company (now that they are buying it). Sykpe has actually been loss making for its entire existence and eBay paid way over the odds to buy it (eBays own share price dropped when they announced what they were paying !). eBay may have their own uses which might not include all Skype’s current services (which are loss making). I guess nobody will know for a bit.

[Deimos]

Quote/Question: “Can anyone offer any experience of SKYPE with dial-up?”

It does work but not very well. As to being cost effective – that would depend on your ISP contract. Most people just use Skype for the free PC to PC calls.

Another hint – I would be careful about what information you publish in your “details” section. Skype is not very good on the privacy options and initially I stupidly entered everything (including that language: English and location: France). I then ended up with quite a few abusive messages being send from the US (probably extremist nutters who held a strong dislike of the French after political/military events of the last few years – presumably because the language being English they thought I would understand what they were writing). To stop them I needed to go through weird (and not decently published) routes to remove the personal details (because it’s a peer-to-peer network, your details are held all over the place and thus cannot be deleted centrally or quickly).

[Clair]

[quote]Quote/Question: “Can anyone offer any experience of SKYPE with dial-up?”It does work but not very well. As to being cost effective – that would depend on your ISP contract. Most people just use Skyp...[/quote]

Thanks Deimos for the very useful warning re privacy.

Having read and digested the comments made here and previoulsy, I'll stick to FT, BudgetTelecom and Tele2!

Clair

[Deimos]

I have found TeleRabis very cheap for calls to UK (US, Australia, etc.) for off-peak times. No accounts need to be setup, no bills, etc. Just use it when you want. Prefix number is a bit of a “pain” but it is very cheap) http://www.telerabais.com/index2.php

(Not commercially connected to them in any way, no “kick-back from them, nothing, just a user sometimes).

Ian

[daryl-et-elaine]

[quote]Re SKYPE, looking at their website, I cannot quite figure out if it's worthwhile using them on a dial-up connection...My area is "dégroupée", but I am with Tiscali and, as only Wanado is offering ADSL...[/quote]

I regularly use Skype both from the UK and France. The early versions did have a lot of obvious echo but to be fair, the latest software appears to have fixed the problem.

I use PC to PC and also PC to landline and mobile, I also have a French answerphone number and have never experienced any of the problems described within the mailings.

In France I use mobile Wi-Fi access and again, I can sit in the car park of a Villages or Etap hotel and remotely connect with no problem to anywhere on the globe. I feel that many of the problems experienced are simply down to slow connections, and to be fair I've never used Skype on anything other than high speed broadband or via Wi-Fi.

Another point in its favour is the cheapness of making telephone calls. It literally costs a pittance to call the UK and I'm hard pushed to use up the credit on my account!

They have been acquired by eBay as of last week and it will be very interesting to see how things go from here. On the question of privacy, this only becomes a problem if you open your Skype connection as "Online" or "SkypeMe". You can connect as "invisible" which in effect stops any unwarranted or abusive calls.

Hope this helps.

Daryl 

[Deimos]

Quote: “Another point in its favour is the cheapness of making telephone calls. It literally costs a pittance to call the UK and I'm hard pushed to use up the credit on my account!”

The costs may be low, but there are landline providers who are now significantly cheaper than SkypeOut to UK, Australia, US, etc. If price is what you are interested in then Skype if far from the best when contacting a normal telephone. Similarly, if you like using your PC for calls, many of the the US SIP providers are cheaper than Skype (even some Germany ones now and they are starting to get there in the UK as well – and they give you a UK phone number for free as well). Similarly, if you want to provide a UK local rate telephone number for people to call you in France without BT type costs, these are available for free and can be routed to most countries (all at no cost to you and local rate costs to the UK based caller).

Quote: “The early versions did have a lot of obvious echo but to be fair, the latest software appears to have fixed the problem.”

The echo problems are often caused by settings that take default values and cannot be changed from the Skype client. This is quite variable according to the sound card you are using and does not really relate to the connections speed. To change the settings you need to edit the CONFIG.XML configuration file which is a bit involved (but you can normally solve echos – see an earlier post about solving Skype Echo problems). I have experienced most of the problems over a fixed cabled ADSL 1MB line so line speed is not a big deal.

Quote: “On the question of privacy, this only becomes a problem if you open your Skype connection as "Online" or "SkypeMe". You can connect as "invisible" which in effect stops any unwarranted or abusive calls”

You can connect as invisible, but your directory entry can still be searched for and returned – though people will not be able to see your status. In practice, Skype’s security is very weak and making changes can take being offline for 72 hours (which is the duration super-nodes require to have “not seen you” before they will discard your information.). MSN, Yahoo, etc. take privacy somewhat more seriously than Skype. I have abusive IM’s and have never used SkypeMe nor the like. There is no setting in the Skype “directory (My Profile” that allows you to exclude yourself from searches by others. They can message you in most statues where the client is running (because I’ve done it as well though not with abusive messages !!). Also, if you connect as invisible, others who you might want to see your status cannot see you (but in practice the status updates don’t actually work properly so it is maybe not such an issue).

Skype’s main strength is their client base. eBay will need to do something radical as Skype are commercially being “out-completed” by others. For example, most of their competitors do not chanrge for the real phone number for inbound calls (SkypeIn makes an ongoing subscription charge), competitors generally do not charge for voicemail (Skype charges for this), etc. People will start to realise there are cheaper options that are just as good and start moving – hence eBay’s need to do something quickly.

Ian

[daryl-et-elaine]

"The costs may be low, but there are landline providers who are now significantly cheaper than SkypeOut to UK, Australia, US, etc. If price is what you are interested in then Skype if far from the best when contacting a normal telephone."

That may well be the case Deimos however, I need to be "mobile" and rely heavily on Wi-Fi connections. I don't actually have landline capability in my French residence (but that's due to change next week!). The cost of making a call via Skype on a Wi-Fi connection using Skype's Global Rate is 0.017 Euro Cent per minute. Prior to taking Skype, I looked at other providers and they couldn't compete pricewise. I would welcome your recommendation for a provider who can offer a lower rate!

"To change the settings you need to edit the CONFIG.XML configuration file which is a bit involved".

Exactly - a bit involved!

"You can connect as invisible, but your directory entry can still be searched for and returned."

Simple answer is don't complete anything in the directory entry which you don't want  anyone to see. If you only have your Skype name available to view, you are providing less information than you would be with a listing in your telephone directory. You can also amend your directory information with immediate affect.

While others may offer "free" services, it usually works out they will recover a cost via another means, but I have an open mind and welcome any recommendations for a more cost effective, efficient service.

Daryl

[Deimos]

Firstly, you need to be careful with “quoted costs” because Skype’s famous €0,017 is actually €0,020 (they always like to quote priced excluding TVA/VAT which most people cannot reclaim).

I did a quick scan the rates of a few companies and found more of them were cheaper than Skype than were more expensive (i.e. Skype is in the upper half of the pricing range).

I no longer tend to make recommendations as I am fed up with the “bun-fights” that seem to often ensue. However, I think a good example of “better value” might be voipbuster – where you can use your PC to call a UK landline for free (significantly undercutting Skype).

Re: Security.

If you put something in your Skype directory entry (as I did initially), then you must log-out of your Skype client and stay logged-out for 72 hours to make sure all the super-nodes discard cached information about you. Most French telephone directories are not given to “nerds” in the US and a standard telephone service does not provide IM capability, thus the problem does not arise then (i.e. with standard telephone directories),

Re: Editing the CONFIG.XML

The configuration options you need to change in the CONFIG.XML are still not available from the normal “Options” dialogs. Thus if you suffer from the problems (i.e. your particular sound card) etc. then you don’t have a lot of choice. It would be nice if Skype did something about it. They have been told but at the moment their priority is parting you from your money as, prior to eBay buying them they had got rather short on cash.

Ian