OT This just works and it's free

[bidkev]

Read somewhere that Aussies use more domestic international calls per capita than anywhere else in the world so I thought some may be interested in this.

http://www.skype.com/

If you have a headset and a microphone you can call another computer with similar for free, anywhere in the world.

I tried it and the reception is better than the phone line.

Calling a land line anywhere only costs about 2 cents a minute.

The programme is free and there is no spyware or addware.

Call your whingeing Pomm rellies :-)

cheers

kev

[Zeeke]

Ahh, but.. do you have dialup or ADSL.. i think u'll find if your with dialup, your internet connection wont be fast enough to transfer voice and receive voice fast enough..

Tim

[Big_Muddie]

Here's another one - http://www.freshtel.net

This one is the FireFly client. The underlying FireFly technology is VOIP (Voice over IP) whereas Skype is P2P (Peer to Peer - like Kazaa, Ares etc).

FireFly has a pretty low bandwidth overhead (around 23K) so it's probably quite suitable for Dialup connections.

Skype claims between 3 and 16Kbps bandwidth required for voice calls, depending on the other party and uses a proprietary protocol.

I've been using FireFly for PC to PC calls (free) for a while now - very impressive. My son-in-law has purchased credits to allow "PC to Phone" type calls - also impressive.

Some advice for those on dialup considering this type of software, be aware that your upload bandwidth (that bandwidth which carries your voice from your PC) is limited to 33.6 Kbps unless you have a V92 modem and your ISP fully supports the V92 protocol. In the latter case you may get more upload speed but not necessarily the same as your download speed.