Anybody ditch their landline/VoIP for Skype on their Mac?

6540 Views 32 Replies 14 Participants Last post by GratuitousApplesauce, Jun 27, 2007

Betty Woo

Discussion Starter · Jun 18, 2007

I was browsing over at Skype and, having used the service a couple of times with fellow Skypers (and getting totally fed up with restarting this hellish router; the only reason I have it being needing a VOiP adapter), I'm wondering if it may be what I need.

I don't talk much, actually. I'd say, maybe, an hour a week local (if that) and maybe two hours long distance within BC and to the States at the most a week?

I'm trying to get a grip on how much such usage would actually come out to in SkypeIn, SkypeOut, blah-blah-blah. Of course, I would like call display and voicemail (preferably voicemail that also goes to an email address as an .mp3?) but, you know, call display and any type of voicemail would be fine... .

If I can get things under $40 a month, that would be great. I might even consider a pay-as-you-go cellphone if I can get the $40-ish price.

Anybody out there totally ditch their landlines and most of their cellphones and gone Skype?

1 - 20 of 33 Posts

gmug

· #2 · Jun 18, 2007

Have ditched the Landline for Skype

Betty Woo said:
I was browsing over at Skype and...snip

Anybody out there totally ditch their landlines & most of their cellphones & gone Skype?

I have ditched the Landline for Skype FYI

John Clay

· #3 · Jun 18, 2007

I wouldn't suggest ditching your landline (Unless you have a cell) for Skype any time soon - Skype doesn't offer 911 services.

Betty Woo

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jun 18, 2007

gmug said:
I have ditched the Landline for Skype FYI

I was just reading... and confused.

If I get a SkypeIn phone number so people can call in to me, I can't get a Canadian number yet?

So I'd have to get a US number and my friend three blocks away would have to call the long distance number to call me if he's only on a landline?

Betty Woo

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jun 18, 2007

John Clay said:
I wouldn't suggest ditching your landline (Unless you have a cell) for Skype any time soon - Skype doesn't offer 911 services.

Yeah. That's why I figured a pay-as-you-go cellphone with #1 speed dial being the 911 equivalent for my area would be a great excuse to get one of them things

harzack86

· #6 · Jun 18, 2007

I'm using Skype out for calls in Europe mainly. I kept the landline for local calls and NA (I had an offer for 12 months, I may also use Skype for NA then after).
I like the landline for 911, keeping my local phone number, etc...
I'm still waiting for a decent IP phone to be sold in Canada (like this one...) and I may use Skype even more.

The sound quality and lag are sometime annoying when using Skype too.

Betty Woo

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jun 18, 2007

harzack86 said:
I'm using Skype out for calls in Europe mainly. I kept the landline for local calls and NA (I had an offer for 12 months, I may also use Skype for NA then after).
I like the landline for 911, keeping my local phone number, etc...
I'm still waiting for a decent IP phone to be sold in Canada (like this one...) and I may use Skype even more.

The sound quality and lag are sometime annoying when using Skype too.

The main reason why I'm still with the landline is because VoIP just wasn't doing it for me because of sound issues and some flakeyness... then I got a new router and it was better... but now the new router periodically needs a reset and that causes havoc so I would just love to ditch the whole thing, get my $80 back, put that towards Skype (just had another conference call between Kobe, Japan and two American cities and the sound quality was great) and get a pay-as-you-go cellphone.

I've actually trained everyone NOT to call me on my landline. I don't even have the phone plugged in unless I want to make an outgoing long distance call (which is still cheaper than my VOiP deal)... .

I'm just trying to figure out now how much or if it's even possible to get a local area code so people within my area code calling me on Skype from their landlines don't get hit with long distance charges... .

I'm thinking this is really the only stumbling block unless I hear of a lot of other Canadian Skype users who have had problems.

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9780

· #8 · Jun 18, 2007

Betty Woo said:
I was just reading... and confused.

If I get a SkypeIn phone number so people can call in to me, I can't get a Canadian number yet?

So I'd have to get a US number and my friend three blocks away would have to call the long distance number to call me if he's only on a landline?

Try the Gizmo Project, it's very similar to Skype but uses the open protocol SIP, which means it's more compatible. Though Gizmo now offers canadian phone numbers, it used to not be available so I got it through another service (for a mere 6 USD/month) and forwarded that easily to Gizmo. Voila!

Let's also mention the free gizmo voicemail, that sends the message via email as a .wav file, the Free Calls program (that won't expire unless the company changes their policy lol) - and (good or bad?) the fact it was started by Michael Robertson, same guy who started mp3.com and Lindows aka Linspire. And very good Mac support, too!

Patrix.

Betty Woo

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jun 18, 2007

You mean... you bought a DID World Wide Canadian call-forwarding phone number that you can map to your Skype or Gizmo Project name/number?

Huh. I've been looking at DIDWW - seems like it's getting mixed reviews from Canadians using it... . But it's a great interim idea, if it works dependably

mr.steevo

· #10 · Jun 18, 2007

Hi,

I have VOIP and it is pretty bad at times. I have the most issues between 3-6pm. If you own the router you could go for this VOIP option for $10 a month. If you are going to have crappy, it may as well be cheap.

s.

lewdvig

· #11 · Jun 18, 2007

I ditched it for my cell phone about 3 years ago.

Consumer grade VoIP is fun for kicks and giggles, but I would not rely on it too much.

e911 being the most obvious reason.

Without dedicating at least a portion of your bandwidth to it, you will always get mixed results. I like IP trunking to a Central Office like Cybersurf and Terrago (beta) are doing.

G

· #12 · Jun 18, 2007

I ditched my land-line for VoIP .. I get my service from a wholesaler in Ottawa and I have had little to no problems at all in the last 6 months. I have a Toronto number, full AIX2 support (asterisk) so I trunk my server with theirs directly and great tech support... oh ya, and it's $2.50/mnth + usage

As for Skype-In and Skype-Out it's pretty hit and miss. Much worse quality than proper VoIP ... and it can change very very quickly (Skype uses p2p style networking, so one person in the mix drops out you go boom).

http://www.unlimitel.ca

Also if you use a qos enabled network you shouldn't run into any problems using VoIP (as long as you have a decent amount of upstream bandwidth). Most consumer routers support qos these days, as do lots of the software VoIP phones (I use JackenAIX and X-Lite and have no dropouts at all, ever).

steadfast

· #13 · Jun 18, 2007

When we use Skype ( the free one ) to talk to our daughter in Egypt we get about 28 minutes of audio from our end and then she can't hear us although we receive her load and clear. I always wondered if our iSight overheads or wether it is Skype's problem?

Vexel

· #14 · Jun 18, 2007

mguertin said:
I ditched my land-line for VoIP .. I get my service from a wholesaler in Ottawa and I have had little to no problems at all in the last 6 months. I have a Toronto number, full AIX2 support (asterisk) so I trunk my server with theirs directly and great tech support... oh ya, and it's $2.50/mnth + usage

As for Skype-In and Skype-Out it's pretty hit and miss. Much worse quality than proper VoIP ... and it can change very very quickly (Skype uses p2p style networking, so one person in the mix drops out you go boom).

Unlimitel Inc.

Also if you use a qos enabled network you shouldn't run into any problems using VoIP (as long as you have a decent amount of upstream bandwidth). Most consumer routers support qos these days, as do lots of the software VoIP phones (I use JackenAIX and X-Lite and have no dropouts at all, ever).

Thanks Mark, I've been looking into VoIP services to replace my landline here in Ottawa.. I'll definitely have a look at Unlimitel.

mr.steevo

· #15 · Jun 19, 2007

Hi,

VOIP makes you dance?

s.

G

· #16 · Jun 19, 2007

it's a very fancy dance .. makes me think of john cleese for some reason

KardnalForgotHisPassword

· #17 · Jun 19, 2007

I've been using SkyOut for the last 6-8 months or so. Primarily for long distance, but also during the day when my cell doesn't have free calling. For the $20/year I spent on it, I have no complaints. The audio quality is hit or miss though. My girlfriend doesn't mind/notice, but my father hates it when I call him fro Skype (And can tell instantly.)

Anyway, for me, it's not quite there yet to replace a landline completely, but it's a great way to make cheap long distance calls if you don't care too much about the audio fidelity...

G

· #18 · Jun 19, 2007

steadfast said:
When we use Skype ( the free one ) to talk to our daughter in Egypt we get about 28 minutes of audio from our end and then she can't hear us although we receive her load and clear. I always wondered if our iSight overheads or wether it is Skype's problem?

That's an odd one, hard to say which is to blame :/ You might be able to see if it's a memory usage thing by looking at Utilities->Activity Monitor and see if your memory is maxing out on skype when it happens.

Betty Woo

Discussion Starter · #19 · Jun 19, 2007

mguertin said:
That's an odd one, hard to say which is to blame :/ You might be able to see if it's a memory usage thing by looking at Utilities->Activity Monitor and see if your memory is maxing out on skype when it happens.

In my case, the thing to blame was the router. It was a D-Link 604. Tough ol' bird but the Linksys WRT56G, with built-in ability to allow VoIP workloads to take priority over regular downloads, seemed to improve the sound quality a lot.

Unfortunately, after spending five hours from Thursday to yesterday and another two hours today talking to Linkysys tech people, it seems the router's not giving out it's MAC address (and won't) so it's going back tomorrow to the VOiP people that I bought it from about three weeks ago.

Since it always seems to be the router that's the fly in the ointment, the logical conclusion is to get a system that bypasses it completely. Which is to say, dump VoIP since it requires a router and adapter and go for Skype (even *with* having to pay a 3rd party $5 a month for a Vancouver forwarding phone number).

We'll see how my VOiP company handles this.

It's just strange that I'm seeing my iMac as a TV-recording, phone-talking, usual computing system. Poor baby... .

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9780

· #20 · Jun 19, 2007

Betty Woo said:
You mean... you bought a DID World Wide Canadian call-forwarding phone number that you can map to your Skype or Gizmo Project name/number?

Huh. I've been looking at DIDWW - seems like it's getting mixed reviews from Canadians using it... . But it's a great interim idea, if it works dependably

No I never heard of DIDWW... I bought a callcentric number. Callcentric themselves are a VOIP provider, but they also allow free call forwarding to any other SIP (read: open standards VOIP protocol used by just about everyone except Skype) URL. Gizmo supports SIP redirection (read: they can receive SIP forwarded calls), and Gizmo has a free account, free voicemail, cheap call rates, some free calls, paypal support, etc

Of course, now Gizmo themselves offer Canadian DIDs, so I wouldn't need such a setup anymore.

Another advantage of SIP-based services: if you're tired of using your computer to talk, you can always use an _unlocked_ SIP router or adapter and configure it to connect to whichever SIP server you use and then use a real phone connected to the router/adapter and chat away like that! Never done it though, plenty have.

Patrix.

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