Skype users, what do you think of the service? reliable, worth it..?

[chupacabra]

hey all, just wanted to see if any here use the Skype VoIP service, especially for international calliing... i'm most interested in how reliable the service is when relying upon it for overseas calls (from asia to the US and vice-versa, some european calls as well), i understand that a big part of it has to do w/ how good a connection i am on when placing the call but just for the sake of this inquiry lets assume that the connections in question are good and fast...

i always travel w/ my laptops so am looking mostly at the 'SkypeOut' service to use through my laptop, possibly w/ either a bluetooth headset or one of the USB Skype phone options i've seen online... the prices look really great for calls to pretty much everwhere i'd be wanting to call, but if the service is unreliable or affords poor quality (voice, latency, etc.) then i don't want to bank on it when heading out of the country.

any input or opinion would be greatly appreciated, thx in advance all..!

[Juicy D. Links]

its ok i used it for awhile but no longer

[Eservices2k3]

It's so cheap it would be foolish not to at least give it a shot. And of course if the person on the other end has it, it's free. It has problems from time to time just like anything else, but overall, I love skype.

[FleshJoe2005]

Its great computer<->computer, I use it all the time. I've used it for POTS<->computer calls in the USA, not abroad. For what I used it, it works great. You can't call any cheaper than that, at least USA long distance.

Voice quality is uniformly good but sometimes its 2-3 second laggy which makes conversation a bit difficult. People tend to get used to it after a few minutes and develop a simplex protocol (as opposed to full duplex you get when talking POTS<->POTS.

[stickyfingerz]

See sig!

[swedguy]

I have both SkypeIn and SkypeOut and use it mostly for Sweden->US calls and it's ok. Far from crystal clear, but I have no problems with it.

[Saeun]

I use a few times every week, calling from my computer in Europe, to a landline in Asia. Use it for both family and business.

I've had 2 hour conversations with no problem. Never, ever have I been cut off, or had a dead line. It works perfecltly, and it's sooo fucking cheap. Approx. 1 out of 20 calls I get 1-2 second lag. Just hang up, wait 10 seconds, redial, and the lag is gone. Of course, when calling from a computer to a telephone... the sound will be telephone quality. Not a problem, just that it is more noticable when listening through computer speakers or headphones. If you can find a nice freeware program, another advantage is that you can record conversations... good for doing business, or recording conversations with family and putting them on CDs.

Go for it, you can't go wrong... at all. I also use a Hong Kong local number, so suppliers can contact me at local call rates.

[Pornwolf]

Using the paid calling to a phone is ok. The computer to computer sucks major monkeyballs IMHO. I will wait for the next generation of VOIP services.

Until then, I have the international plan on my Sprint cellphone and also some calling cards for calling certain countries.

[media]

I love skype... I wish more webmasters would use the shit..

[I LOVE Little Brown Asses]

i've used skype for a while and i like it very much. i use it in conjunction with a bluetooth headset paired to my computer, and don't have too many problems. if i'm using a shitty internet connection, i experience some delays and pauses in conversation, but that's my fault for not using dsl. i know quite a few webmasters who are on it, too. frankly, i'm about to kill my aim and msn accounts and just go to skype and icq.

computer to computer is great. skypein (buy a phone number for $30 a yewar and all incoming calls are free), is genius, and skypeout is like $0.017 per minute. plus you can forward it to any other phone.

i can't WAIT to see the next generation of VoiP.