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What is Skype? Download Skype for free!Recently Ebay plunked down a few BILLION $$ to buy a company called Skype. What is Skype (rhymes with "pipe")? "Skype is the Global P2P Telephony Company that is changing the telecommunications world by offering consumers free, superior-quality calling worldwide." OK, that is their description. What is Skype? It is a peer to peer internet telephony network. Skype is mainly a piece of free software that lets you make "phone calls" using a microphone and speakers or a headset, using your computer, over the internet, to anyone else who has the Skype software installed. It's basically real-time voice chat instead of text messaging. And did we mention it's free? That makes it a big hit, especially overseas, where international phone calls can be very expensive. Why pay $1 per minute to chat with someone in Europe when you can talk for 20 minutes for free with Skype?
How to use SkypeUsing Skype is easy. First, visit their site: Skype.comOne word of note - we assume you have a broadband connection, otherwise you won't have enough bandwidth for real-time VOIP phone conversations. That being said, next, download the free Skype software, register it (setup your ID info so people can contact you), install it on your PC or Mac, plug in your mic and speakers, and call a friend who also has Skype. There are no firewall configuration tricks, no special tricks. Just talk, and you get better-than-telephone sound quality and normal response time for easy conversations - no walkie-talkie pause and echo effect. Making a call is easy - just open up your contact list and click on the name of the person you want to talk to, and click the big green phone button at the bottom of the screen. On their end, the Skype Window will pop-up showing a call from you, they click the button to begin talking. When done, click the red hangup button, and you are done. It works best if you have a headset with mic and earphones, but mic and computer speakers work fine as well. They even make USB plug-in phones that look like a normal phone handset but work through your computer and work perfectly with Skype. They also offer SkypeOut which lets you use Skype to call normal telephone lines (ie, real world phones). You DO have to pay for SkypeOut if you want to call real phones (their SkypeOut Global rate is less than 3 cents per minute), but it is pretty cheap. You can also forward incoming Skype calls to your mobile phone or work phone, and you pay the same SkypeOut low rates for all calls you take. You can also easily transfer files to other Skype users - large video or data files are no problem with their secure connections. Free SkypeWill Skype always be free? Up until now, Skype has always been a free software download and a free computer to computer communication service. Now that Ebay owns it, no one knows for sure how it will change or what it will evolve into. Let's keep our fingers crossed that they keep all the good stuff we love about Skype, and only make it better!
So if you haven't already done so, give Skype a try. All you need is a computer with a broadband connection, a little microphone and some speakers, and the free Skype software. Now that talk is free, you'll have to excuse not to call your friends, wherever they are!
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