Originally Posted by Ken Howell
Originally Posted by APDDSN0864
� Do you Skype? Perhaps (given good cell phone coverage) we can place a Skype video call from the Gathering so you can at least join in via cyberspace!

What's Skype?

Could we perhaps have something like a Skype station set-up, so that curious far-flung absentees can schmooze with the specific renegades whom they're curious about?


Skype is a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) program for your computer or smartphone (I know, your phone is so dumb it only makes and receives calls... laugh ) and allows video calls that Dick Tracy could only dream about. Both parties have to have Skype loaded onto their computers. Skype basic is free and allows audio and video calls to one person at a time, while Skype Premium allows video conference calls.

Both plans allow you to buy call time so you can make audio-only calls to cell phones and landlines. The call quality greatly exceeds that of a cellphone when you have a good computer connection. Plus, it currently costs $0.023 (2.3 cents) per minute to make long distance calls to Europe, Canada, and anywhere in the US.

I use it to train folks and troubleshoot gear, as well as seeing how much my grandsons, nieces, and nephews have grown. grin

I have had as many as four video calls going at once in conference call mode, but it really sucks bandwidth! A cellular IP connection might not be able to handle that kind of load, so one at a time would be best.

The major danger to using Skype is to remember how you are dressed (or not dressed, as the case may be grin ) before choosing to answer a call in either audio-only or a video call.

Ed

"Not in an open forum, where truth has less value than opinions, where all opinions are equally welcome regardless of their origins, rationale, inanity, or truth, where opinions are neither of equal value nor decisive." Ken Howell