Free Phone Calls

Have you been meaning to try Skype? Now might be a good time, as calls from Skype in Canada and the US to regular phones in Canada and the US are free until the end of the year. Free!

Skype (rhymes with “pipe”) is an internet telephony network. You download a free program, install it and run it, and you can make free telephone calls from your computer to anyone else using the Skype program on their computer. So, computer-to-computer calls on Skype are always free, and the quality is generally very good.

Free calls from computers to phones
The big news is Skype announced Monday that calls on Skype that originate in Canada and the US and terminate to regular phones in Canada and the US are free until the end of the year. And it’s true. As soon as I read about it, I used Skype to call a friend in California. The quality was so good that she asked me WHY the quality was so good!

You can download the free Skype software and learn more about Skype service here: http://www.skype.com/. You need to download and install the software and create an account. Once you’ve done that, plug in your headset or headphones and microphones, and fire up Skype. Before you make your first call, take a quick look at the settings. In the Skype window, click Tools, then Options, then Sound Devices. Use the link on the bottom of the window to make a test call. It only takes a few seconds, and it’s well worth the effort.

Now click on Advanced, and check the Startup section. Some people want Skype to start up whenever they start Windows, and others … not so much. Check (or clear) the “Start Skype when I start Windows” box according to your preference. Click on Save, and you are good to go. (You can always come back and edit the other settings any time by clicking on Tools and then on Options.)

If you’re ready to make a call to a telephone, you can either enter the information in the box above the green phone icon, or click on Contacts, then on Add a Contact, then on “To add a SkypeOut contact, click here.”

In the lower set of boxes, enter the name of your contact. It could be a real name, or “Dad” or anything at all that you’ll recognize later. Next, enter the phone number…but wait. You have to enter a plus sign and the digit “1” and then the ten-digit phone number. (Remember, this has nothing to do with how you dial your telephone this is in a format Skype can understand.) The plus sign(“+”) is next to the Backspace key at the end of the keys with numbers on them. It’s above the equal sign (“=”), so you have to hold the Shift key and the plus sign key. After that, it’s just entering the digit “1” and the phone number. When you’re ready, click on Add Contact.

Now in your Skype window, you’ll see the contact you’ve just added. When you double-click on that contact, or highlight that contact and click on the green phone icon, Skype will place the call. Try setting yourself up as a contact and placing a call to you. Just remember to talk to yourself when you answer the phone! When you’re ready to end the call, click on the red phone icon and you’ll be disconnected.

Much more
There is a lot more to Skype than just being able to connect to a regular phone. If your friends and family also use Skype, you can connect free computer to computer to anywhere in the world. The quality is at least as good as a long distance phone call. As long as the two of you have internet connectivity, you can use Skype. You can also make conference calls this way, and that is also free.

Skype also lets you text chat, like AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. And, like those services, you can use Skype to exchange files with those you know and trust. If you have a webcam, you can use it with Skype. (That works best when both parties have a fast connection like cable or DSL.)

Help
Skype has a good, clear, well-written series of help pages on their website. I recommend a quick look through the User Guides, here: http://www.skype.com/help/guides/ to get a feel for what you can do. If you have specific questions, there is a searchable Knowledge Base, here: http://support.skype.com/?_a=knowledgebase. But the easiest thing is to just take Skype out for a spin and see if you have any problems. If you do, Help is there for you.

Equipment
According to the Skype website, you can use the built in speakers and mic on your computer and everything will work fine. Technically, that’s true, but if you do that the conversation will be audible to everyone within earshot of your computer. If I’m alone, I might use Skype that way, but if there are others around me, I use headphones.

You can use any headphones that plug into your computer --- they don’t have to be a special phones/mic combination (but you do need a mic, either built-in or plug-in). I have been known to use the ear buds from my mp3 player if those happen to be the closest things to me when the Skype phone rings. Eventually I bought an inexpensive phones/mic combination headset at a computer place here in town, and that works just fine.

Catch up
Is there someone you haven’t spoken with in a long time? Does s/he live in Canada or the US? Well, I’m a computer expert, not a relationship expert, so it’s entirely up to you. But it wouldn’t’ cost you anything to “Skype” them!

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.