Skype - Keep closed when not in use.

[DougNoTronik]

After reading a couple articles about skype, I am a bit concerned. There are reports of it being discovered to have been reading serial numbers off of motherboards (which can be used as a unique ID)

Furthermore in their terms of services and privacy notice mumbo jumbo, they make it clear that they have the right to share your conversations with certain parties.

Finally, and THIS one really ticked me off as it explains certain internet bandwidth problems I have been experienceing off and on... is that since SkypeNet is peer to peer, it means that traffic is shared among the clients. However, many clients become what is known as a supernode thus completely hoarding your bandwidth for its own uses. Ever wonder why any web page you go to isn't loading and you frustratingly restart your router, modem, or pc in the hopes that it will go away. Before you do that, bring up a windows command window (start->run: cmd) and type "netstat -b" and see what is going on with skype.exe.

My recommendation is to leave skype closed at all time unless you are using it.

I already bought skype for a year, and am stuck with it, but man I had no idea.

[xstatic]

awwww. Boooooo! >:C

[abrannan]

Note: Netstat -b will only work on Windows XP SP2 or greater. Anyone running Windows 2000 will have to fall back to Downloading and running Fport.

[Spooty Biscuit]

Excuse my cluelessness... what's skype?

[Ixi0n]

It's a VoIP program that lets you call other users for free plus it has alot of features that normal phones have, It's pretty nifty.

[legend]

why don't you just use a phone?

[DougNoTronik]

legend said:

why don't you just use a phone?

cuz we don't live with our parents.

[jeans]

Also, Skype works for situations where using a phone would just be too expensive--for example, when my father goes overseas for business, he calls us on Skype for free.

[legend]

dougnotronik said:

legend said:

why don't you just use a phone?

cuz we don't live with our parents.

hey I'm only 14, thats a low shot.

[abrannan]

It may be a low shot, but it's also true. When you're 14, you don't think about things like phone bills, and long distance and international charges. Once you have your own place, and you start to realize how much everyday living costs, you start to find ways to make it cheaper.


Shoot, it was only about 10 years ago that the first 5 cents/minute long distance plans came about. A one-hour call, a 5 cents a minute is $3. If you're in a long distance relationship, or have a loved one that travels a lot, that can mean an hour long call every weeknight, or $15/week $60/month.

Things have changed a lot since then, with cell plans offering free long distance (but still only a limited number of minutes each month), but international calling is still expensive (particularly cross-oceanic calls). Using services like Skype to handle the calls for free over the internet (there are no long distance charges to send a packet to Europe) can save a ton of money in the long run.

[DougNoTronik]

legend said:

dougnotronik said:

cuz we don't live with our parents.

hey I'm only 14, thats a low shot.

no offense intended... just laziness to explain with minimal words... but abrannan, the king of explanation has cleared up what I meant.

[xstatic]

abrannan said:

abrannan
Director
*****
The King of Explanation
member is offline

BAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[DougNoTronik]

lollipappas

[Ixi0n]

That's fantastic.

[robbinssports]

I use Skype all the time, and I haven't noticed those issues. It especially comes in handy when you have to communicate with people in another country. I'll have to check out what you've said about those issues and see if there's some truth to it or if it's just hearsay.

[DougNoTronik]

lol, I still occasionally had a huge performance issue... and found another easily missed networking issue.

apparently, once I turned on media sharing with media player and my xbox360, I was just asking for trouble. The windows process that handles that transaction was semi-regularly using 99% of my cpu for no reason. After googling, I saw that sometimes this would happen due to certain incompatibilities with certain routers. Long story short, I disabled media player 11 from sharing with the 360 and it doesn't happen any more.

So after coralling skype and wmp, I finally have a fatter pipe on my nic and my cpu.

The End.

[The Charming Canuck]

So Skype sounds like a good deal to me, seeing as you can call virtually anywhere for pretty cheap. But do I have to pay for in and out? My brother and I were a bit confused on that. 25 euro for skype out and 25 euro for skype in so it would be 50 euro? I know that is probably the dumbest question ever but it wasn't really clear on that, or at least I wasn't comprehending it...

[abrannan]

Skype can be a good deal, depending on your calling habits. Do a lot of international calls? Skype is good. Almost exclusively outbound calls (telemarketing)? Skype is good. Calling other people who have Skype? Fantastic. Good old regular US calls in and out? Meh, it's about equivalent to what you'd pay for an unlimited long distance plan from your local phone company, but without the 911 service or ability to work when you lose power.


Edit:the numbers are per year, not month, so it can actually be a good deal.

[The Charming Canuck]

Well I have been making calls to Canada so it would be a good deal for me that I know and my friend was looking at getting it as well.

[xstatic]

well...if your friend downloads skype you two can just talk for free.