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08/08/2004 |
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Skype Iain Laskey has seen the future of telephony - Skype
For some years now IP telephony has been becoming more and more popular in the corporate market. IP telephony uses existing computer networks to send voice calls by digitising the audio data and breaking it in to chunks before sending it off down the wires as if it were any other bit of data. The technology was expensive to implement but offered low running costs once it was set up. With the arrival of cheap broadband in the home the time is now right for similar technologies to be used by home users. Download and go There are already a number of home IP telephony products, most are reasonably priced. The market has just had a huge shake up though with the release of Skype. Skype has been developed by the same people who wrote the popular Kazaa file downloading tool. They have taken their skills in developing peer to peer (P2P) software and used them to provide the software needed to let broadband (and optimistic modem) users make free phone calls via the Internet. Skype is a 6MB download. Once installed, you set up your personal details and at that point you are available to all other Skype users. You can create an address book of friends and family that use Skype or if you fancy talking to a complete stranger you can use the search function to look for people by area, birth date and any number of other parameters.
At this point things aren’t so different to using the voice mode in Microsoft Messenger. However, Messenger can be a nightmare to get working properly through a well configured firewall. Unless you’re prepared to open up a lot of ports, it isn’t going to work. The good news with Skype is that it just works. On the test system it worked without having to change anything new in the firewall. For this alone it’s worth getting. Once we started using it for calls it also became apparent the audio quality was a cut above the norm. However, modem users must expect rather less impressive results. We found talking to a modem user produced very tinny and strange sounding audio. Testing was carried out using a headset consisting of headphones with a microphone attached. It was slightly odd to have the voice sounding as if it was above your head instead of in the ear as with a telephone but once we’d got used to that it was all very usable. Skype also supports USB based handsets. These look and work just like a normal telephone but plug in to your PC’s USB ports. The Skype web site has custom drivers for these although they do note that if you have one they’ll probably work anyway. When a call comes in or you make a call, you get a nice digitised sound of a telephone ringing until the call is picked up. From that point on it’s just like using a normal telephone except the call is totally and utterly free (broadband charges notwithstanding) no matter where in the world you are calling. Features Skype isn’t quite awash with features but it does have a few good tricks. As it is in development, (it’s still in beta) not all the functions work yet such as the ability to store a photo of yourself that people will see when calling you. All calls are encrypted allowing a good measure of privacy should anyone be snooping on your calls. You can set your current status as being away, busy and so on. Any calls you miss are noted as are calls you have made or received so you have a handy log of all your Skype activities. Anyone in your address book who is currently online is shown on the main screen providing an easy way to see who’s available. New to the latest release is conference calling. This option allows you to talk to up to five friends at once. Very handy for planning those nights out! All in all Skype was a pleasure to use and works very well. The fact it is free makes it a startling product and must be frightening the heck out of the telephone companies. Once beta testing has finished, the developers have indicated they will start to charge for some of the features though. On the downside, it is reliant on Skype’s P2P network. Any problems with that will stop your calls working. Also, obviously you can only talk to people who have their PCs fired up and online. In reality these are small quibbles though. Conclusion If you use broadband and to a lesser extent a modem, you really need to investigate Skype. You may need to invest in a microphone or headset of some sort to use it but it’s an investment that will repay itself very quickly if you have more than a few friends online.
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