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More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: kiwi on November 21, 2003, 07:38:41 am

Title: OT: Skype, has anyone tried it?
Post by: kiwi on November 21, 2003, 07:38:41 am
Has anyone tried it?

http://www.skype.com (http://www.skype.com)

I just installed it and have had some success talking to people in the states from NZ.  The sound quality actually seems pretty reasonable.

I'd be interested to hear other people's experiences.

kiwi
Title: Re:OT: Skype, has anyone tried it?
Post by: 8thNote on November 21, 2003, 12:23:19 pm
I like it, and am now recommending it to all my friends. I haven't tested it on dialup yet, but it does work behind a firewall!
Title: Re:OT: Skype, has anyone tried it?
Post by: LisaRCT on November 21, 2003, 03:13:11 pm
The interface looks GREAT, but I cannot get it to play any audio . . .  it looks for some Winamp component and I cannot find anyplace to set soundcard preferences   ?
But yes I wish HairStyle was like this . . .  can it be used as a MC 'front-end'??
Title: Re:OT: Skype, has anyone tried it?
Post by: sraymond on November 21, 2003, 04:20:23 pm
The interface looks GREAT, but I cannot get it to play any audio . . .  it looks for some Winamp component and I cannot find anyplace to set soundcard preferences   ?
But yes I wish HairStyle was like this . . .  can it be used as a MC 'front-end'??

Me thinks Lisa is talking about a different product.

Scott-
Title: Re:OT: Skype, has anyone tried it?
Post by: LisaRCT on November 21, 2003, 06:54:34 pm
ROFL . . .  ummm,
welll, I . .   err, umm . . .
yup   8)
Title: Re:OT: Skype, has anyone tried it?
Post by: jleerigby on November 21, 2003, 07:01:49 pm
LMAO    ;D.

Title: Re:OT: Skype, has anyone tried it?
Post by: hit_ny on November 22, 2003, 01:41:08 am
Havr not tried skype yet....but have had success with this

http://www.vitez.it/picophone/operation.html


it only needs one port to be forwarded/fire-walled instead of loads like the major IMs for voice.

its also only 150k, no install reqd. and provides a choices of codec, its can also support conference calls ( have not tested this out yet)
Title: Re:OT: Skype, has anyone tried it?
Post by: aleka77 on November 22, 2003, 09:14:53 am
Been using skype for a while now to call from China to Australia and it generally works fine, nearly like using a real phone.  Have used it with someone on dialup but had problems when there connection wasn't so good but otherwise it worked.

I'm looking at changing though after doing some system monitoring I noticed skype constantly writes to the registry and sends,receive something over the net but I'm yet to find out what.  I have also noticed some memory issues.

I'll probably change to a sip softphone from xten  and use fwd server but still looking into this.
Title: Re:OT: Skype, has anyone tried it?
Post by: sraymond on November 22, 2003, 10:40:55 am
aleka77,

Xten looks quite interesting...  are you looking a X-Lite?  I want to get away from the server-based model of Windows Messenger and do something that's more P2P.  Skype didn't work for me (probably a NAT problem on my end) - but maybe that was a good thing!

I'd be curious to learn how you like Xten if you end up installing it.

Scott-
Title: Re:OT: Skype, has anyone tried it?
Post by: kiwi on November 22, 2003, 04:01:22 pm
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I haven't tested it on dialup yet

I don't believe that they have that functionality working yet.  They are planning on that, but at the moment, it's only pc2pc.

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I'm looking at changing though after doing some system monitoring I noticed skype constantly writes to the registry and sends,receive something over the net but I'm yet to find out what.  I have also noticed some memory issues.

Don't know what it's writing to the registry, but the developers say that the stuff going out over the net is one of two things.  First, the client needs to communicate and let others know that you are connected, otherwise people couldn't call you.  Secondly, I believe that they use non-NAT'd nodes to help route traffic from NAT'd nodes.  It's p2p software, and I believe that the p2p side of things is this routing of data through these other computers.  That said, the signals are end to end encrypted, so it doesn't really matter if it goes through some middlemen.

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Skype didn't work for me (probably a NAT problem on my end) - but maybe that was a good thing!

That's interesting.  It seems to have no problems going through my setup which (unfortunately) goes through 2 NATs.  (Yuck, but I have a DSL modem/router and a Netgear FVS318 switch.  I need to have the switch... and I haven't gone out and found a cheap DSL modem sans router)

Here's the skype forum:
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http://forum.skype.com/bb/