Tech Talk
Skype
Columnist: Michael E. Duffy
August, 2006 Issue
I’ve been using Skype (rhymes with “ripe”) for a couple of months now, and it’s time to tell you about my experiences using this service. If you travel a lot with a laptop, have friends in faraway places or kids in college, you owe it to yourself to check out Skype.
First, let me describe it. With a personal computer, some speakers, a microphone and an Internet connection, you can call other Skype-equipped friends over the Internet. If you add a Web camera for $50 to $100, you can have “picture phone” conversations with them. All for free.
OK, but all your friends have regular phones. No problem. Skype offers a SkypeOut service, which lets you call regular phones from your computer (sorry, no video phone calls). In computer telephony jargon, SkypeOut provides a gateway from the Internet to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), which is also called POTS (the Plain Old Telephone System). SkypeOut normally costs about two cents a minute domestically, but through the end of 2006, calls to numbers in the United States and Canada are free (it still costs money to dial overseas).
Even cooler, SkypeIn lets you purchase a regular telephone number that will ring your computer (wherever it happens to be connected to the Internet). Better yet, you can specify the country and area code for that telephone number. So, your favorite Aunt Tessie in Tuscaloosa can make a local telephone call that rings your computer in your hotel room in Hawaii (or Spain) or at home in your den, depending on where you’re connected to the Internet.
Obviously for this magic to work, whatever computer you’re using has to have Skype installed on it, and you need to be signed in to Skype so it knows where to find you to properly route calls. If you use the same computer all the time, all this is automatic and invisible.
Basically, Skype turns your computer into a phone. If you have a laptop, it’s a portable phone. I know, you already have a cell phone. And Skype isn’t going to replace it. The strengths of Skype are that it lets you call almost any phone in the world for cheap, and that it lets you have video phone calls (a broadband connection to the Internet is required).
The biggest hassle for most people is the whole speakers-and-a-microphone setup. Most Windows PCs don’t come equipped with a microphone (even though they have a place to plug one in). Skype offers a starter kit for $10 that includes an inexpensive monaural earbud and microphone (much like you get with a cell phone), but for my money, the answer is to get a Logitech Internet Chat Headset ($25 retail, $13 at Amazon.com). It’s what I use every day. Skype also sells telephone handsets that plug into a USB port on your computer (about $40). Aunt Tessie in Tuscaloosa may be most comfortable with this solution.
Once you have that issue out of the way, it’s easy to get started using Skype by visiting www.skype.com and downloading the application. It’s about 10 megabytes of data, which shouldn’t take more than five minutes on a broadband connection. The setup process is simple and well thought out. Skype even provides an automated user that you can call to check your connection: it plays a recorded message, and then records your message and plays it back, verifying that you can both hear and be heard—a nicely executed idea that really helps users get set up.
Since SkypeOut is currently free for calls in the United States and Canada, you can immediately dial up your friends and get some experience with the system. Most people I call don’t know I’m calling from my computer. Some calls are crystal clear, some sound a bit more like cell phone connections, but generally I’ve been pleased with the quality of the connection, whether to another computer or an actual POTS number.
Skype is an application of the Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (or VoIP, pronounced “voip”). The information in a telephone call (the audio signal) is digitized by your computer’s sound card, broken down into “packets” of data and sent out over the Internet. If you’re calling another Skype-equipped computer, those data packets are reassembled at the receiving end and translated back into an audio signal that plays over the receiving computer’s speakers. If you’re calling a phone, the SkypeOut gateway reassembles the packets and passes the audio signal into the PSTN voice network.
This underlying mechanism also leads to the most frequent problem with VoIP calls: a lack of quality. Since these packets are being sent over the Internet, they’re subject to whatever delays exist between your computer and the receiving end. For the most part, all packets are equal on the Internet (the current “network neutrality” debate going on in Congress), so there’s no special treatment for packets of voice data. Unfortunately, this can lead to dropouts or delays. On lower-speed connections (even DSL), I don’t recommend trying to check your e-mail or surf the Web when Skyping someone.
Video calls only work for computer-to-computer connections, but they’re a lot of fun. I’ve successfully used a Logitech Quickcam Messenger that Comcast gave me for free when I signed up for cable Internet (list price is about $30). A somewhat better choice is the Logitech Quickcam Fusion, which Amazon is presently selling for about $79 (list price is $99). Like many webcams, these both have built-in microphones, which eliminate the need for a headset. The Fusion also comes with face-tracking software that lets you replace your image with an avatar of a shark, alien or several other animated characters that mimic your facial movements.
On a more serious side, if you’re working with someone remotely, the face-to-face element of a video call is useful. If both parties have a camera that’s mounted correctly, a Skype video call has much the feel of talking in person. This is a great way to stay in touch with telecommuters, freelancers and even grandparents. Due to travel, I’m presently typing this in Texas, but I’ll be doing a Skype video call with my family a little bit later when I get to my hotel and its broadband connection.
Whether for business or personal use, Skype is worth investigating. If you give it a try, feel free to Skype me (med2033) and tell me your thoughts.
Back to article list | Top of page |
Michael E. Duffy