New version of Skype is out
Location: Forum - Internet - New version of Skype is out
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Author: robvdl
User type: Administrator
Posts: 122
Date: June 15, 2006, 6:25 p.m.A new version of Skype has just been released. Skype is a free online telephone, that allows you to talk to other Skype users over the internet for free 😉. You can even ring normal phones or receive calls from normal phones for a small charge.
The new Skype 2.5 includes:
- Easier to call ordinary phones
- Send SMS messages
- View and call Outlook contacts directly
- See who you are talking to with free video calls
- Chat with up to 100 people in group chats
- Conference call with up to four people for free
Download: Skype 2.5
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Author: Keith
User type: Standard User
Posts: 5
Date: June 15, 2006, 8:57 p.m.Yep sure is out now, I use this one all the time, but they said it only for adsl or cable 🙄
Keith
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Author: robvdl
User type: Administrator
Posts: 122
Date: June 15, 2006, 10:51 p.m.Skype does work on dialup, I've seen it being used on dialup and goes quite well. The requirements simply say: Internet Connection (Broadband works best).
However, I am not sure how well video chatting would perform on dialup, video chatting on dialup might lag a bit. Dialup is just too slow these days 🙂, and with all the cool new technologies coming out lately, such as YouTube dialup users are eventually going to be left behind unfortunately.
Luckily though, with Telecom being forced to "unbundle" the lines lately, broadband pricing has dropped dramatically. Companies like Slingshot have got ADSL plans available as low as $29.95 for 3 Gigs of bandwidth. 🙂
Comparing this to Telecom's $29.95 plan, they only offer 200 Mb of bandwidth, which is quite useless really, considering I can use this up in just two days simply browsing (not even downloading anything).
I have been considering posting an article about broadband plans, to show people the difference and help people choose the correct plan for their needs.
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Author: (Shane) Ubuntu
User type: Administrator
Posts: 35
Date: June 21, 2006, 8:22 a.m.Yeah I can confirm that skype works using modems and skype's website merely express that "broadband is best". I can also say if you throw a vidcam into the mix then skype becomes choppy, It actually still becomes choppy if you have broadband, I guess we have to blame telecom for that, 😂 if broadband was further down the track with higher speeds that most users could afford then yeah! I have noticed if users do use modems to take advantage of skype that some can experience choppy connections as well, but this is due to a bad connection somewhere, mainly because most users are unaware that their telephone system "cabling I'm referring to" through their house is bad, but in some cases it can be anywhere between the exchange and the users house, if "exchange" is the word? telephone companies have to guarantee a specific baudrate to the users house, which is a bit hard with some users that don't understand this though. I only know this because I have helped users get the best out of their modems for years, since I have cleaned many jackpoints from corrosion and man I have even seen telephone lines just barely hanging in there. 😂 but I'm not one to go by grey results and have actually troubleshooted my way to white results to have my opinion about all this.
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Author: robvdl
User type: Administrator
Posts: 122
Date: June 21, 2006, 10:29 a.m.I've worked for over 5 years as a computer technician in a small computer company, before I also became a full time web developer, and I have learned quite a lot about connection problems and noisy phone line conditions during that time.
If people get a bad dialup connection speed, there's several things they can do to improve this issue:
- Dynalink provide a special extra heavy duty modem for use in the country and with noisy line conditions, it's an external modem and they call this their 'country modem'. This modem can help a lot with bad line conditions, but is a little pricey.
- User can ask their telecommunications company to convert their line to '2 wire' and fit a 'noise suppressor' as they seem to call it, I have seen huge differences when this work has been done to the lines.
Off course, as Shane said, having a corroded jackpoint or one that is barely hanging in is not good, and doesn't help at all. 🙁
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Author: Uber_deathworld
User type: Standard User
Posts: 58
Date: July 1, 2006, 9:56 p.m."Luckily though, with Telecom being forced to "unbundle" the lines lately"
Robvdl
It's about time isn't it how many years have we been waiting for the lines to be unbundled .. this is typical of telecoms greed .. and it shows in there so called "xtra-ordinary broadband" prices, Telecom is one company i seriously dislike .. somebody should attack there DNS servers and hijack there webpage =D .. that should set them back a couple of thousand dollars 👿
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Author: robvdl
User type: Administrator
Posts: 122
Date: July 1, 2006, 10:57 p.m.I'm very happy that the lines have been unbundled, and I am sure a lot of other NZ'ers on the net would have rejoiced too. But hacking isn't really the answer in my opinion. There are better ways in which this can be dealt with. For example, letting new users know the truth about Telecom's new pricing plans:
- For $30 on Telecom, you get 200Mb per month, that's 0.2Gb
- For $30 on Slingshot you get 3000Mb per month, that's 3gb
...or 15x the amount of pages, emails, or stuff you can download in easier terms.
Here's just a small example of how little 200Mb really is. I have watched some kids play on Flash based Internet games over a weekend, in two days this chewed up almost 500Mb. No additional downloading was performed. So in other words, if someone had kids, they can't even use Telecoms plans at all, because the 200Mb could be used up in one day. It appears to me, that the whole idea behind these new $30 plans is to get people to use more data than their plan allows, then recommend them to upgrade their plan. This is just my personal opinion, I do not know Telecom's real motives off course.
However, people still sign up with Telecom today, because not everyone understands the difference in plans, how much you get for your money. I believe a more positive approach would be to help educate the people and show them the real facts. I think when people are informed and know the facts, they will think differently when signing up for broadband. The more people that sign up with other companies like Slingshot, the more money Telecom will lose, but no hacking is performed to achieve this.
