Skype Guide

Alternatives to personalise Skype shop

2011-05-31T23:07:00.000-07:00

Instead of buying pictures and ringtones from the Skype shop, you can download free pictures and ringtones from the web, or you can make your own. The latter option is the ultimate in personalization!
Here are some suggestions for personalizing your Skype softphone:

􀁕 Free pictures and ringtones: Enter “Free Skype (pictures OR sounds OR ringtones)” into any search engine and you are sure to get a lot of useful hits. But to get you started, I’m going to suggest a few websites. For free Skype-compatible pictures and ringtones try: www.themeskype.com, gallery.mobile9.com/c/wavringtones/ 1, and www.voipfaq.net.

􀁕 Make your own pictures: You can make your own picture for use with Skype using any application that can make, or convert, pictures to .png, .jpg, or .bmp formats. Perhaps the simplest way to do this is to use Microsoft Paint, which comes bundled with your Windows operating system (Start: All Programs: Accessories: Paint). In Paint, go to Image: Attributes, and in the popup window that appears select Pixels under Units, set both the width and height of your image to 96, and then click the OK button. Use the drawing tools of Paint to create the picture you want. When you’re satisfied with the result, go to Paint: File: Save As … and in the window that appears, navigate to My Documents\My Skype Pictures. From the Save as type pull-down menu, select PNG, and type a file name for your picture. Click the Save button and your picture will be added to those already available for use by Skype. To use the picture you created in your Skype profile, follow the instructions that come later in this chapter for adding a picture to your online profile.

􀁕 Make your own sounds: Sounds and ringtones for Skype are small .wav files. Any application that can generate mono .wav files can be used to create a custom sound or ringtone for use with Skype. Perhaps the easiest way for Windows users to create such sounds is to use the Sound Recorder program that is bundled with Windows (Start: All Programs: Accessories: Entertainment: Sound Recorder). Using Sound Recorder you can record sounds you make through your microphone and even mix them with sounds from other .wav files you have on disk (Sound Recorder:Edit: Mix With File …). Sound Recorder even comes with some very basic tools for modifying sounds, such as Add Echo and Reverse, available from the Effects menu. Once you’re happy with the sound you have made, which should be 30 seconds or less in length, go to Sound Recorder: Save As … and in the window that pops up, navigate to My Documents\My Skype Content. If the format for the file you are about to save isn’t some flavor of mono, click on the Change … button and make it so. Enter a file name for your sound, and then click on the Save button. This will make your new sound available to Skype.

Personalise skype shop

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You can buy pictures and ringtones from the Personalise Skype shop at http://personal.skype.com. Pictures and ringtones cost $1.20 (1 ) apiece. Note that before you can buy pictures or ringtones from the Personalise Skype shop, you must have some Skype credits.
To buy a Skype picture, go to http://personal.skype.com. This displays a page featuring pictures and ringtones. Click on the Pictures link that appears on the left side of the page. This displays pictures grouped by category. Click on the name of any picture to see that picture, or click on one of the categories to see all pictures for that category. To purchase a picture displayed in a preview page, click on the Buy now link. This takes you to the Skype sign in page, where you must enter your Skype name and password to proceed. Follow the instructions to purchase and download the picture.
Once you have successfully downloaded the picture, a My Pictures window will pop up. Double-click on your newly purchased picture and it will be added to your Skype profile. To buy a Skype sound or ringtone, return to http://personal.skype. com. This once again displays the pictures and ringtones page. Click on the Ringtones or Ministry of Sound links on the left side of the page. This displays some popular ringtones, and also shows categories (such as Classics, Swing, Chill Out and so on) for ringtones. Pick a ringtone, and then click on the listen button to listen to it, or click on a category name to display all the sounds in that category. Once you have found and listened to a sound you want to buy, click on the Buy now button. This will take you to the sign in page for Skype; enter your Skype name and password, then click on the Sign me in button. On the next web page, put a check mark in the box accepting the terms and conditions of your purchase, then click on the Confirm purchase button. Follow the instructions to download, and your new sound will be added to the My Sound Library list in the Sounds page of your Skype Options window, which should open automatically when your download is complete, as shown in the next figure. You are now free to use your new ringtone sound to signal one or more of Skype’s many events, including incoming calls.

Adding pictures and avatar in Skype

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Adding pictures or avatars to your Skype profile gives you a visible online persona (go to Skype: File: Edit My Profile …, and in the window that opens, click on the Change … button). It is the primary means by which you are seen and recognized by others in the Skype online community. Because your Skype picture can be any image, you are free to let your imagination—and ego—run wild!
Skype also allows you to personalize your interaction with the Skype softphone by associating different sounds with different events (go to Skype: Tools: Options …, and in the window that opens, click on the category Sounds). Skype comes with a wide variety of sounds and ringtones but you can also add your own. You can download sounds and ringtones from the Internet or you can create your own.

Using mood message in Skype

2011-04-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

A mood message is any short message that people who have you in their contacts list can see. Even though it’s called a mood message, the message doesn’t have to convey your mood. To set your mood message, click on your name in the notification bar of the Skype softphone and enter a short message in the field opposite your picture,

How to Make an Interesting Skype Name?

2011-04-30T21:19:00.000-07:00

You can decorate your online profile name to make it stand out from other names in a contact list. You can even exert some control over where you appear in those lists: toward the top, or toward the bottom. To decorate the name others will see for you in their contacts lists (unless, of course, they manually rename your entry in their lists, see Chapter 10), open a word processor such as Microsoft Word. In the word processor, using the keyboard and the symbol box (Insert:
Symbol …), construct a name. Remember that, in addition to the letters A through Z and numbers, you can incorporate punctuation marks and nonstandard characters, as shown in the following figure.
Once you’ve created a name, copy it to the clipboard (for example, in Microsoft Word, use the keyboard to type Ctrl+A followed by Ctrl+C; that is, hold down the Control key and press A then C). Next, open your Skype profile by going to Skype: File: Edit My Profile … and paste your decorated name into the field labeled Full Name (click on the field and hit the Shift+Ins keys). Then click on the Update button.
Congratulations, you now have a name that stands out from the crowd in the contact lists of other Skype users, as shown in the following figure. Note that not all nonstandard characters will work when pasted into the Full Name of your profile, so you’ll have to experiment a little. Also, bear in mind that decorated names that begin with any of these characters ! “ # $ % & ‘ ( ) * + ,—. / will appear at the top of a contact list, even before names that begin with a digit. Alternatively, a decorated name that begins with a nonstandard character, such as one of these, 􀀸 􀀿 􀀾 § £, will appear at or near the bottom of someone’s contact list.

Archiving Skype Contacts

2011-03-31T23:02:00.001-07:00

Your contacts list is stored on the Skype network. However, for peace of mind, you might want to create a backup archive of all your contacts to store on your PC. Skype archives your contacts list in vCard format, and this is also a good way to export your contacts to another application, many of which can import contacts in vCard format.
To backup your contacts list, go to
Skype>Tools>Archive Contacts>Backup Contacts to File …, and in the window that opens, choose a location and filename under which to store your contacts list and click on the Save button.
To restore deleted contacts, go to Skype>Tools> Archive Contacts>Restore Contacts from File …,
and in the window that opens, navigate to the file in which you stored your contacts list and click on the Open button.

Sharing Your Skype Contacts

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You can share selected contacts from your contacts list by sending them to others. This is a nice way to build a community with common interests; for example, a club, family, or work group. You can use either of two methods to send your contacts list, or a subset of it, to other Skype users:

You can go to Skype: Contacts: Send Contacts …, which displays a window in which you can form a list of your contacts to send to a specified list of Skype recipients (a comma-separated list of Skype user names).
You can selectively choose multiple entries in your contacts list by left-clicking on them while holding down the control key on your keyboard, and then right-clicking on one of the highlighted entries. From the popup menu that appears, choose Send Contacts …, which displays the same window as before, but with the Send contacts to field filled in with a comma- (or semicolon-) separated list of the names you selected, as shown in the following figure.

After you’ve created a list of contacts, click on the Send button. Each recipient of your contacts list will then be asked, via a window that lists the contacts you are sending, whether he or she wants to accept the contacts and add them to his or her contact list. Recipients can choose to accept the whole list or just specific users in the list.

Hiding Contacts in Skype

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As a further aid to organizing your contacts list, you can shorten it by choosing to hide users who are offline, or users who are not sharing their contact details with you, or both kinds of users. To hide contacts, go to Skype: View: Hide Contacts That Are, and put a check mark against Offline or Not Sharing Details. This is a simple, quick, and effective way to trim the length of your contacts list.

Managing Group Contacts in Skype

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You can group your contacts lists into various categories only if you have enabled Show Contact Groups. To enable contact grouping, go to Skype: View and put a check mark against Show Contact Groups. Contact grouping adds a group-management bar to the top of the panel displayed when you click on the Contacts tab, as shown in the following figure.
Using the contact groups bar you can create new groups and selectively display groups of contacts in your contacts list. To create a new group click on the small round button with a “+” on it, and to selectively display groups simply click on the small round button with a “>>“ on it; both buttons can be found on the far right of the contact groups bar. In the case of the previous figure, groups named “People and Friends” and “Skype Testing” are used. However, you are free to choose how many groups you want, and how they are named.
In addition to filtering and organizing your contacts list, another useful feature of contact groups is that you can carry out group actions on them. By selecting a group and right-clicking on it, you can then use the popup menu that appears to carry out actions for all the contacts in that group: Start Conference Call, Start Group Chat, Send File to Group, Send Contacts to Group, and Send Group which sends only those contacts in that group to a list of named Skype users. Also, using this popup menu, you can Rename and Remove existing groups. In short, contact groups are a great way to organize your contacts list and to carry out actions for a group that would otherwise be tedious and cumbersome.

Removing contacts in Skype

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To remove an entry from your contacts list, right-click on that entry, and from the popup menu that appears choose Remove From Contacts. It’s as simple as that!

Renaming Contacts in Skype

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When you add a Skype user to your contacts list, the name that is displayed by default is the full name from the person’s Skype profile, or if no such name exists, his or her Skype user name. If you are a SkypeOut subscriber, you are asked to name phone numbers as you add them to your contacts list. In either case, you can change the name of any contact to a name of your choice to help you better organize your contacts list.
To rename a contact, right-click on it in your contacts list. Then, from the popup list that appears, choose Rename …, and type in a new name then press the enter key or click elsewhere with your mouse. The name will change and the entry will reposition itself in your contacts list based on alphabetical ordering (within the group to which it belongs.

Searching and Adding Contacts in Skype

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To search for other Skype users to add to your contact list, either click on the Search icon on the Skype softphone toolbar, or go to Skype:

Contacts: Search for Skype Users.
Search for other Skype users.

Using the search window, you can filter the list of all users in the Skype online community down to only those people you are interested in and that you might want to add to your contacts list. Note that the users you are searching for don’t need to be signed in to Skype for you to find them and add them to your contact list. When you find someone you want to add to your list, highlight her entry in the list and then click on the Add Selected Contact button. When you’re finished adding new Skype contacts, click on the Close button. An alternative way to search for, and add, new Skype contacts is to click on the Add Contact icon on the toolbar of the Skype softphone.
Alternatively, you can go to Skype: Contacts: Add a Contact ….
Either method will display the Add a Contact window, as shown in the following figure.
If you are a SkypeOut subscriber, the preceding method is the only way you can add regular and mobile phone contacts to your contacts list without first making a call. In the Add a Contact window, just click on the link To add a SkypeOut contact, click here (this link is only displayed if you are a SkypeOut subscriber). Otherwise, when you hang up after dialing a phone number not in your contacts list, you will be invited by Skype to add that number to your list. Using the Add a Contact window, you can search for a Skype user by Skype user name, full name, or e-mail address. Entering a search string and clicking the Search button (or the Search Again button if you are conducting additional searches) presents you with a list of matching Skype users. Again, simply highlight a name and click on the Add Selected Contact button to add the name to your contacts list. Alternatively, if you are a SkypeOut subscriber, clicking on the link To add a SkypeOut contact, click here enables you to enter a name and a regular phone number for that name.
By whatever method you add a new Skype contact to your contacts list, when adding the contact, you will be given the opportunity to send him a personal message, as shown in the next figure. In the interests of everyone’s privacy, just adding a contact to your list does not automatically give you access to that person’s contact details (for example, that person’s online status). A person you invite to join your contact list can choose to accept the invitation, ignore it, or block you from contacting him ever again. If a contact accepts your invitation to share his contact details with you, his entry in your contacts list will provide more information; if not, all you will see next to his name is a gray icon with a question mark on it, and when you mouse over his entry in your contact list you will see a message saying, “This user has not shared his/her details with you”.

Importing Skype in Contact

2011-01-31T20:06:00.000-08:00

Your contact list is a tiny subset of the Skype online community with whom you communicate more often. If you are a SkypeOut subscriber, you can add SkypeOut contacts as well. Contact names are displayed in your Skype softphone for convenience and ease of use. You can also call or chat with someone not in your contact list by using her Skype user name or phone number by manually entering in the address bar her name or number each time you want to communicate with her. However, organizing and managing your contacts list can be a real productivity boost!
Skype is unlikely to be the first application you run on your PC that maintains a list of contacts. So to help get you started, Skype has a tool for importing contacts that already exist on your computer. It will import, if you so choose, contacts into Skype from the following applications:
Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, Microsoft
MSN Messenger, and Opera (www.opera.com). To import your existing contacts into Skype, go to Skype: Contacts: Import Contacts …, and follow the instructions of Skype’s contact import wizard tool.

Understanding Skype Online Status

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Before discussing how to change your online status, you should know what each status means:

Offline The Skype user is offline. Being Offline means that the user has disconnected from the Skype network.

Online The Skype user is online. Online means that the Skype user is ready to make and receive calls, chat, and voicemail. It also means that the user can send and receive files.

Skype-Me The Skype user is in Skype-Me mode. Skype-Me mode means, in effect, that you are making yourself available to the wider Skype community, because while in this mode your privacy settings are ignored. Anyone can call you while you are in Skype-Me mode.

Away The Skype user is away from Skype. Online status changes to away when the PC on which Skype is running has been inactive for a period of time that you can specify the default is five minutes.

Not Available The Skype user is not available. This online status is similar to Away, but indicates that the user has stepped away from the PC running Skype for a prolonged period. You can specify the period of inactivity before Skype switches to Not Available the default is 20 minutes.

Do Not Disturb The Skype user does not want to be disturbed. While in this mode, you won’t be pestered by popup notifications of incoming calls or chat.
Invisible The Skype user has chosen not to make his or her online status visible to others. However, when online the privacy settings for that Skype user remain in effect.
Skype>File>Change My Online Status, and then choose the online status you want. Or you can use the pull-down menu at the bottom left of Skype’s softphone main window.

Understanding Skype Offline Status

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To change the details of your online profile at any time, go to Skype>
File> Edit My Profile …. This displays the My Profile form in a window, as shown in the figure.

The details of your online profile are divided into three categories:

Details that all Skype users will see
Details that only your contacts will see
Private details

Most of the fields in the My Profile form are self explanatory, but there are a couple of things worthy of note.
First, you can add a picture to your profile. When you call or chat with another Skype user, this picture appears in his Skype softphone. Skype comes with a set of default pictures that you can use, or you can purchase more using the Personalise Skype service. To change the picture for your profile, simply click on the Change … button and a window titled My Pictures will pop up with a list of available pictures. Click on a picture and then click the OK button to change the picture in your online profile. Second, including a valid e-mail address in your profile has both advantages and disadvantages. A valid e-mail address is necessary in order to reset your password should you forget your current password, and it also means that you will get 30-day and 7-day warnings when your SkypeOut credits are in danger of expiring. On the other hand, adding an e-mail address to your online profile also enables others to search for you using this e-mail address; that is, a Skype search using your e-mail address will return your Skype user name. This means that friends who know your e-mail address, but not your Skype user name, can find you. But it also means that people who you don’t want to talk with can find your Skype user name if they know your e-mail address.

Paying Tax for SKype Service

2010-12-31T22:14:00.000-08:00

If you use only the free features of Skype, you need not pay any taxes.
Period.
However, if you are a subscriber to one or more of Skype’s fee-based services, you might be obligated to pay taxes. Subscribers whose billing address is in a country that is a member of the European Union will be charged Value Added Tax (VAT) when they purchase services. But subscribers elsewhere, including the United States, will not be charged any taxes. This, however, does not necessarily mean you don’t owe taxes on payments for those services!
In the United States a form of tax called the Sales & Use tax is levied at the state level, and sometimes the local level, on goods and services you purchase outside of your home state. If such a tax is not collected by the seller, then you—the buyer—are required by law to pay it. This is a complex issue beyond the scope of this book, and so you should check with your local tax authority or seek professional tax advice regarding the rules for making Skype purchases.
If you subscribe to Skype’s fee-based services and live somewhere other than the European Union or the United States, you will need to determine the tax status of Skype purchases for yourself by checking with the tax authorities for your jurisdiction.

How to Get a Refund from Skype?

2010-11-30T18:13:00.000-08:00

You can cancel SkypeOut, SkypeIn, or Skype Voicemail at any time and get a refund. Here’s what you do for each service:

􀁕 SkypeOut: If you have spent less than 1 ($1.20) of your last subscription payment, Skype will refund the whole amount of that payment. If you spent more than 1 , Skype will refund only the remaining balance.
􀁕 SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail: If you ask for a refund within
30 days of your last subscription payment, Skype will refund the whole amount of that payment. After more than 30 days, Skype will refund only the amount remaining for your subscription on a pro-rata basis.
Refunds take five to seven business days to appear on your online financial statements.
You can’t get a refund for Skype Zones, but there’s no long-term contract or exit fee either!

Canceling Skype Service

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To cancel SkypeOut, SkypeIn, or Skype Voicemail service, you need simply submit a support request. Go to support.skype.com and click on the link Submit Support Request.
To cancel Skype Zones service, e-mail zonessupport@skype.net or call Boingo at 1-866-526-4646 (1-310-460-3906 outside the United States) at least five days before your next billing date.

Seven Skype Alternatives

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Skype isn’t the only game in town! Other Internet telephony providers are even cheaper than Skype for some types of calls. You can mix and match alternatives to Skype to get the overall best deal. Don’t be afraid to shop around for the best deal. Using the tips that follow, and by searching using an Internet search engine such as Google (using search terms such as “VoIP” and “softphone”), you will quickly find plenty—and in some cases cheaper—alternatives to Skype. However, a few words of caution. When considering alternatives to Skype, be sure to consider issues such as voice quality (Skype’s voice quality is very good), privacy, security, ease of use, support for advanced features such as video and chat, and software and hardware compatibility with your PC.
To get you started, here are some alternatives to Skype:

􀁕 www.voipstunt.com is a softphone that you install on your PC which allows you to make free calls to other VoIPStunt users. In addition, it allows you to make free calls to regular landline phones in several countries, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Even more amazing is the fact that you can also call mobile phones for free in some of these countries, including the United States and China. More amazing still is that you can get a free regular dial-in number, although the list of countries for which you can get them is more restricted.
􀁕 www.voipbuster.com offers free calls to regular landline phone numbers in the following countries: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Monaco, Mongolia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, and Venezuela. Like VoIPStunt, VoIPBuster offers free regular dial-in numbers for some countries. Check the VoIPBuster website for details and restrictions.
􀁕 www.gizmoproject.com is a softphone with features and services that are very similar to Skype.
􀁕 www.freeworlddialup.com is a service that is based on open standards and so can work with different softphones. It offers free softphone-to-softphone calls, and free calls to some regular phones.
􀁕 www.google.com/talk is a softphone from the folks at Google. It enables you to speak for free with other Google Talk users, and supports instant message chat. Unlike Skype, you can use Google Talk to chat with other chat message client programs.
􀁕 messenger.yahoo.com is an instant messaging chat client that also supports free PC-to-PC voice calls. It also offers low perminute rates for calls to regular phones.
􀁕 messenger.msn.com is a softphone that supports voice calls, video, and chat messaging.

Money Saving Advices on Skype

2010-10-31T11:16:00.000-07:00

In addition to reducing the per-minute cost of your calls and reducing or eliminating fixed charges and taxes, there are other money-saving strategies you can employ by using Skype. I’ll skip the fatuous advice, such as “make fewer calls,” or “use e-mail instead,” because this chapter is about saving money by using Skype, or alternatives to Skype. Though I must say, “make fewer calls” has worked wonders in my family, and was accompanied by a family-wide sigh of relief!

Remember that you can call anyone who uses Skype for free. That means that if you convince people you call frequently, such as family members, friends, and even business contacts, to join Skype, you could save a lot of money. For example, suppose you spent $50 last year speaking to Uncle Tom on a land line. This year, however, you both decide to join Skype. That means you’ll save $50 this coming year, and each and every year beyond that. Indeed, you needn’t watch the clock any longer, and so can speak with Uncle Tom more often and for longer. In short, the more people you convert to Skype, the more money you will save.

Using Skype, you can even reduce the regular phone bills of others. You can do this by subscribing to one or more SkypeIn numbers.

How you do this is best illustrated using an example. Suppose you live in Baltimore, but have a lot of friends and family in London, England. By choosing a London number for SkypeIn, those same friends and family can call you in Baltimore for the cost of a local call—instead of an international call. Indeed, you can have several dial-in numbers (up to 10) dotted around the globe. Friends and family anywhere can then call what is a local number for them at their local rate (sometimes for free), and these calls will then be routed for free (courtesy of the Skype P2P network) to wherever you happen to be signed in to Skype. This way, friends and family can save money by calling your SkypeIn numbers at their local rates, while you can receive such calls anywhere on the planet!

Of course, this strategy will save money for others but not for you, as you will have to pay to subscribe to SkypeIn numbers. But think of all the goodwill it will buy you!

Saving on Taxes and Fixed Charge

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The only really meaningful way to attack your fixed charges and taxes is to eliminate one or more phone lines. For example, suppose you have two telephone lines, and your monthly fixed charges and taxes are $50. If you eliminate one telephone line and replace the other with Skype, you will save about $25 a month on fixed costs alone.
The bottom line is this: you can’t start attacking fixed charges and taxes unless you can shed phone lines. If you are able to eliminate one or more lines, sum all the monthly fixed charges and taxes on your phone bill, and then divide that sum by the number of phone lines you have. This will give you the fixed charges and taxes per phone line per month. For each phone line you can eliminate, you will save about that much money, every month.

Determining Saving on Cost of Skype Calls

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Look at your most recent phone bill, or bills, as maybe you have both a regular phone and mobile phone. Or better yet, if you still have them, gather several months’ worth of bills. From your itemized list of calls, pick out the 10 most expensive calls.
Now go to the Skype Dialing Wizard at www.skype.com/products/ skypeout/rates/dialing.html, and for each call you have chosen, enter the telephone number and note down the per-minute call rate that the Skype Dialing Wizard gives you. An example of how to get the per minute call rate for a specific number, using the Skype Dialing Wizard, is as shown in the following figure.
Next, round the call duration of each of your chosen calls so that they’re expressed in whole minutes. For example, round a 45-second call up to 1 minute, and round a 5-minute, 25-second call up to 6 minutes. Now multiply these whole-minute call durations by the corresponding SkypeOut call rates you obtained from the Skype Dialing Wizard. Compare these totals with the actual cost of each of the calls on your phone bill. If your calculated numbers are less than your actual numbers from your phone bill, you would have saved money using Skype. And, provided your calling habits don’t change much, you will most likely save money if you use Skype in the future. It’s as simple as that. Keep in mind that there’s no concept of local, long distance, interstate, or international calling in Skype. All call rates are global rates, in the sense that a SkypeOut call rate for a particular destination is good when dialing from anywhere on the planet. If you make a lot of local, toll-free calls—calls that are not itemized on your regular phone bill—then making these calls using Skype will cost you money. Toll-free local calls become toll calls when dialed from Skype. This should be factored into your cost-saving calculations. To estimate your cost of local calls if you were to fully switch to Skype, estimate your monthly minutes of local calling and multiply that number by the SkypeOut rate for your locality (country code plus area code). There’s nothing stopping you from keeping a regular phone for local calls and switching only your long distance and international calls to Skype.

Economic Considerations on Skype

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Your regular and mobile phone bill is normally made up of two parts: cost of calls, and fixed charges and taxes. You can use Skype to reduce the overall cost of your phone calls, and reduce—in some cases even eliminate—your fixed charges and taxes.
The cost of an individual call is the duration of the call, measured in minutes (and sometimes fractions thereof), multiplied by the call rate. For example, a 7 minute call at a call rate of 5 cents per minute will cost you 35 cents. The lower the call rate for a given destination, the lower your cost of calls to that destination. You can use Skype’s very low per minute call rates to save money on your overall cost of calls.
Over the years, most people have seen their phone bills accumulate lots of fixed charges and taxes. Indeed, before I switched to Skype, fixed charges and taxes amounted to 56 percent of my regular telephone bill! Some taxes relate to your cost of calls and so decline as your cost of calls decrease. But most are truly fixed, in the sense that even if you don’t make a single call during any given month, you still have to pay them. To eliminate the fixed charges and taxes, you’d need to reduce the number of phone lines entering your home or eliminate them altogether. By using Skype you can do this and so avoid many fixed charges and taxes—and it’s all legal!

Connecting Skype Access Point

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Once you’ve located an access point, it’s time to connect to Skype Zones. First, make sure you are running the Skype Zones client program (Start: All Programs: Skype Zones: Skype Zones). When you run
Skype Zones and are in range of a Skype Zones access point, a window should pop up that invites you to sign in to the Skype Zones network. Alternatively, you can open the Skype Zones client (right-click on the Skype Zones icon in the Windows system tray and choose Open Skype Zones), and then click on the link Available Signals.
This should display the Available Wireless Networks page in the Skype Zones client. To connect to a specific access point, simply click on the blue Connect button opposite the desired wireless network name. To disconnect, just click on the green Connected button. If the wireless access point is part of the Skype Zones network, you will be prompted to sign in when you connect. Once connected, your online status in the Skype softphone will change to Online and you can start using Skype as you would from any regular Internet connection.

Finding Skype Zones Access Point

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To use the Skype Zones client program to search for access points, first open the client by going to Start: All Programs: Skype Zones: Skype Zones. Next, click on the link Find A Location, which displays a search page, as shown in the figure. Frankly, the only advantage of using the search facility in the Skype Zones client program is that it works even when you are not connected to the Internet (the list of available access points is downloaded to your PC and is periodically updated). However, it doesn’t always have the most up-to-date list of available access points.

Using Skype zone

2010-08-31T23:01:00.000-07:00

To find an access point using a web browser, first go to www.skype. com. Click on the Skype Zones link, which can be found toward the bottom of the home page. On the Skype Zones web page that appears next, clicking on the link Find Skype Zones will display the web page shown in the figure above.
Suppose you’ll be in Madrid, Spain, some time during the next few days and you want to find out where you can access Skype Zones. Type “Madrid” in the city search criteria, and then click on Search. You will be given the list of Skype Zones available in Madrid, as shown in the figure.

Sign up for Skype Zones

2010-08-31T22:59:00.000-07:00

To sign up for Skype Zones, complete the following steps:

1. Go to www.skype.com and click on the Skype Zones link, which can be found towards the bottom of the home page.
2. From the Skype Zones web page that is displayed, click on the link Sign up for Skype Zones now to get started.
3. Next choose the plan you want, Unlimited or AsYouGo, put an acceptance tick in the box underneath the service agreement, and click Next.
4. Enter your personal details (name, address, and so on) into the web form that appears and click Next.
5. Because the Skype Zones service is provided by Boingo, you must next create a Skype Zones user account (a user name and password, which need not be the same as your Skype user name and password) with Boingo. Enter your desired user name and password for Skype Zones, and then click Next.
6. Enter your credit card information for billing purposes, and click Next.
7. Finally, review all the information you have entered so far. If the information is correct, click Submit.

Phew! Now you are a Skype Zones subscriber. However, there is one more thing to do before you can actually use Skype Zones: you must download and install the Skype Zones software. After clicking on the Submit button on the final page of the signup process, you will be presented with a web page from which you can download the Skype Zones software. Just click on Download Skype Zones For Windows and in the popup window that appears, click on the Run button. Follow the instructions of the Skype Zones installation program, which will install and then run the Skype Zones program, which is shown in the figure above.

Chewcking if Wireless is Enabled

2010-08-31T22:56:00.000-07:00

Before launching yourself into this chapter any farther, you should first understand that Skype Zones is a wireless network service, so your PC must be wireless enabled in order to make use of it. To check whether your PC has a wireless network adapter installed, go to Start: Control Panel and double-click on Network Connections. This should open a window that displays the available network connections for your PC. If, under the category LAN or High-Speed Internet, you have an entry named Wireless Network Connection (or something similar), you’re good to go for this chapter. If not, you’ll need to install and set up a wireless network adapter for your PC before you can use Skype Zones.

Using Call Forwarding

2010-07-31T18:48:00.000-07:00

How quickly calls are forwarded depends on your online status. The following table indicates the how quickly calls are forwarded based on your online status.
Armed with the information in this table, you can decide how best to use call forwarding. You can set your online status (Online, Skype-Me, Away, Not available, or Invisible) so that if you are at your PC you have the option of taking the call then and there; and only if you don’t pick up will Skype forward the call. Or you can set your online status (to Skype not running or Offline) so that Skype always and immediately forwards all incoming calls to the destination (or destinations) of your choice.

Setting Up Call Forwarding

2010-07-31T18:39:00.000-07:00

To set up call forwarding, go to Skype: Tools: Options …, and in the window that appears, click on Call Forwarding & Voicemail. This displays the option settings for both call forwarding and voicemail. To activate call forwarding, check the box opposite Forward calls when I’m not on Skype. The default setting, also called the basic setting for call forwarding, allows you to forward a call to one destination. Advanced call forwarding allows you to forward incoming calls to up to three different destinations. When a call is forwarded, it rings all forwarded destinations at the same time; whichever destination picks up first gets the call. You can switch between basic and advanced call forwarding settings by clicking on the links Basic Settings and Advanced Settings, respectively.

Setting Up and Using call forwarding

2010-07-31T18:30:00.000-07:00

It allows you to reroute incoming calls to other phone numbers, including Skype numbers, regular numbers, and mobile numbers. To forward calls to regular and mobile phones, you must be a subscriber to SkypeOut, and forwarded calls will be billed just as though you had personally called the forwarding destination phone from your PC using Skype. Incoming calls to your Skype account from both other Skype users and from regular and mobile phones (if you’re a SkypeIn subscriber) are forwarded in the same way.

Listening to voicemails

2010-06-30T20:35:00.000-07:00

Missed calls, like other Skype events, are flagged for your attention in the New Events tab (which is the second tab from the right) of the notification bar. Click on this tab to see recent missed events, including voicemail messages that have been left for you, as shown in the following figure.
Clicking on a voicemail event in the New Events tab of the notification bar takes you to the History tab, as shown in the next figure. Voicemails that you have not yet listened to are flagged by a red dot with a star. By clicking on the green round button with an arrow on it to the right of the voicemail item, you can listen to your voicemail using the audio-out device you have configured for Skype (for example, headphones or speakers).

How to Direct Call to Voicemail?

2010-06-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

To have unanswered incoming calls directed to your voicemail, simply put a tick in the box opposite Send Unanswered Calls to Skype Voicemail. If you want to control how and when calls are redirected to voicemail, click on the Advanced Settings link alongside Send Unanswered Calls to Skype Voicemail. This generates a window in which you can customize how your voicemail behaves, as shown in the following figure.

How to add personalized message to voicemail?

2010-06-30T20:13:00.000-07:00

By default, you are given a rather bland “The person you are trying to call is not available …” prerecorded message. This is what callers hear when they are redirected to your voicemail. However, you can replace the prerecorded message with a personalized greeting of up to sixty seconds in duration.
Go to Skype: Tools: Options …, and in the window that appears, click on Call Forwarding & Voicemail. A settings window appears, as shown in the next figure.
Look under the heading “Welcome Message” at the bottom of this page. To record a personalized greeting for your voicemail, click on the middle square button with the red circle on it. Speak into your microphone (or headset or handset) to record your greeting and then either click on the same red button again to cut the recording short, or let the recording run to the end of its allotted 60 seconds. You can now review your greeting by clicking on the green square button with an arrow on it. Now, when callers are directed to your voicemail, they will hear your personalized greeting message.
If you’re not satisfied with the greeting, you can either rerecord it by hitting the middle red square button again and repeating the recording procedure, or you can click on the red square button with a circular arrow on it to reset your greeting to the default message.

How to Get Skype VoiceMail?

2010-05-31T02:38:00.000-07:00

The easiest way to get Skype Voicemail if you are not a SkypeIn subscriber is to click on the My Account tab (which is the tab on the far right, and might have a SkypeOut credit balance amount on it if you are already a SkypeOut subscriber) of the Notification Bar in the Skype softphone. This displays a group of links, one of which is for Skype Voicemail, as shown in the following figure. Click on the link for Skype Voicemail. You will be asked to sign in to your Skype account, which requires the same username and password that you use to sign in to the Skype softphone. After signing in, you’ll see the Buy Skype Voicemail web page.
Choose a subscription period, 3 months or 12 months, and the click on the Buy this button for your choice and complete the payment process.

How to Get SkypeIn?

2010-05-31T02:37:00.000-07:00

The easiest way to get a SkypeIn dial-in number is to click on the My Account tab (which is the tab on the far right) of the Notification Bar in the Skype softphone. This displays a group of links, one of which is for SkypeIn, Click on the link for SkypeIn. This opens a browser window and presents you with a form to sign in to your Skype account, which requires the same username and password that you use to sign in to the Skype softphone. Next, you are presented with a web page giving an overview of your account.
In your account overview page, click on the link Buy SkypeIn Number. This displays a page from which you can choose a country for your dial-in number. After you select a country, you need to choose an area code prefix. You are then presented with predefined numbers for that area code. Search among the available codes until you find one that strikes your fancy, and click on it. Choose a subscription period: 3 months costs 10 ($12), and 12 months costs 30 ($36).
Next, click on the Buy selected number button, which takes you to Skype’s payment page. Follow the prompts to purchase your number.
After payment is complete, go to your Skype softphone and again click on the My Account tab (which is the tab on the far right) of the notification bar.
You should see something like what’s shown in the next figure, indicating that your newly minted dial-in number and voicemail account have been activated. Tell your friends, family, and colleagues what your new number is, and you’re ready to receive calls from regular and mobile phones. If you want additional SkypeIn dial-in numbers, just repeat the procedure described in this section.

How to Pick SkypeIn Number?

2010-05-31T02:34:00.000-07:00

When you get a regular phone number from your local telephone company, you are typically only given the option of getting a number with the local area prefix of your geographic location. That is, you are restricted to dial-in numbers for the area where you live. This is not the case with SkypeIn numbers. With SkypeIn there’s nothing stopping you from having a London, England, number, even if you live in New York. Even better, there’s nothing stopping you from getting SkypeIn numbers for London and New York; and, based on your needs, dial-in numbers dotted around the globe. Welcome to the new world of Internet telephony!
At the time of this writing, SkypeIn numbers were available for the following countries: United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Brazil, and Hong Kong. Within each of these countries you are typically given the choice of several area codes to choose from. You can choose any country and available area code within that country for your SkypeIn number; you will have to choose from a predefined list of numbers for the digits that follow the area code. By choosing the country and area code carefully, you can have a SkypeIn number that best meets your needs—for example, to allow toll-free local calls for friends and family. Indeed, following this logic, you can pick and choose several SkypeIn numbers to minimize the hassle and cost of calls for your most frequent callers. This way, for example, you can have a local dial-in number for your home in New York and a dial-in number in Seattle for the convenience of your mom and dad living in the Seattle area.

How To Have Cheap SkypeOut Rate?

2010-04-30T04:31:00.000-07:00

Many SkypeOut calls can be made at Skype’s low global rate of $0.021 (0.017 ) per minute. However, SkypeOut rates do vary by destination and the type of phone being called, and they are often more expensive when a call is made to a mobile phone. Before calling a new number, you can check the SkypeOut rate by using Skype’s Dialing Wizard, at www.skype.com/products/skypeout/rates/dialing.html. Using the Dialing Wizard you can check the SkypeOut rate for a number before making the call, which can avoid a costly mistake, as a handful of SkypeOut rates are $1.20 (1 ) or more per minute!

SkypeOut calls rounding

2010-04-30T04:29:00.000-07:00

SkypeOut calls are rounded up to the next whole minute. So, if you make lots of short calls, you will end up paying for a lot of fractions of unused minutes. This “call rounding” effect means that your effective per minute call rate can be somewhat higher—up to about 40 percent more—than the advertised per minute call rate. Even with the call rounding effect, SkypeOut’s low per-minute call rates ensure that most of your calls will nevertheless be cheap. At Skype’s lowest global calling rate of $0.021 per minute, the worst case effect of call rounding results in an effective per minute call rate of only $0.029, which is still cheap when compared with most rates for domestic inter-State and international calls of regular and mobile phone plans.
SkypeOut calls of four seconds or less are free, and the clock starts running once a call connects. If you bail out of a SkypeOut call within the first four seconds, it will cost you nothing. So, rather than wait for someone’s answering machine, hang up and save yourself some money! Note that only the first four seconds of the very first minute of call time are free. After four seconds, all calls are rounded upwards in increments of one minute.

How to buy Skypeout credit?

2010-04-30T04:24:00.000-07:00

Adding to your SkypeOut credit balance is a lot easier than the initial activation process. Just click on the Your Skype Account is Activated link, as shown in the previous figure. This opens a browser window and displays the sign-in page for your account. Sign in using your Skype username and password. This takes you to the Overview page for your account. Click the Buy More Skype Credit link and follow the payment instructions.

Anti-Fraud Scheme of SkypeOut

2010-03-31T09:49:00.000-07:00

You should be aware of some of the antifraud restrictions Skype has put in place for new SkypeOut subscribers. The first three months as a SkypeOut subscriber are a probationary period in which the following restrictions apply:

You will only be able to add to your SkypeOut credit balance if it falls below 5 ($6), or 50% of your initial purchase.
If you pay by credit card, you will be limited to buying a total of 20 ($24) SkypeOut credits per month.
If you pay using PayPal, your limit will be 30 ($36) per month.
Using other payment methods, you are limited to 100 ($120) per month.

After three months, the restrictions are lifted. However, there is another restriction that never goes away: once you use a payment method (for example, a credit card or PayPal account) for one Skype account name, it cannot be used for any other Skype name. If you try to use that same credit card or online account to buy SkypeOut credits or other services for another Skype username, payment will be rejected. You can have several alternative payment methods for a single Skype account; it’s just that those same payment methods cannot thereafter be used for any other Skype account.

Getting SkypeOut

2010-03-31T09:47:00.000-07:00

The easiest way to become a SkypeOut subscriber is to click on the My Account tab of the Notification Bar in the Skype softphone. This displays a group of links, including one for SkypeOut, as shown in the following figure. Click on the link for SkypeOut. This opens a browser window in which you are asked to sign in to your Skype account using the same user name and password that you use to sign in to the Skype softphone. After you’ve signed in you will be presented with a web page giving an overview of youraccount. Click on the link Buy Skype Credit. As a new Skype user your only option, using the Buy this button, is to buy 10 ($12) of credit to activate SkypeOut and provide some initial call time.
After clicking on the Buy this button for 10 ($12) of SkypeOut credit, you are asked to verify some information, including your e-mail address and Skype password. You must also select a preferred currency for payment purposes. Finally, you must agree to Skype’s terms of service and click the Submit button.
Skype will process your order and send a confirmation code—normally within just a few minutes—to the e-mail address you provided. Enter this confirmation code into the current web page, and then click the Submit Confirmation Code button. Make sure your preferred currency is shown, and then click the Buy this button. This takes you to a web page form that asks for your name and billing address. Fill in the form with your details. There are two buttons at the bottom of this form. The first is labeled Save and Use It Now, and the second is labeled Use This Address Only Once. If you plan to buy more SkypeOut credits in the future, click Save and Use This Now. By this time you must be wondering whether there’s an end to this process! The registration process has been set up to combat fraud and, fortunately, you only have to go through it once. So, hang in there—you’re almost done!
At this point you should be at the payment method page. Pick your preferred method of payment and click the Continue button. This takes you to the appropriate web page, operated by one of several financial institutions that process payments for Skype, based on your chosen method of payment.
Follow the instructions for your chosen payment method. After your payment is processed, you should see that SkypeOut has been activated and your account balance shown in the following figure. You are ready to start using Skype to call regular and mobile phones!

Testing Skype Video

2010-03-31T09:40:00.000-07:00

When testing Skype video, you should first test your webcam to make sure it works. You can then call someone who has a webcam and who is willing to speak with you.
To test your webcam, click on the Test Webcam button in Skype video settings. This should open a window that, if all is working properly, shows your video image, as in the following figure. Clicking on the button labeled Webcam Settings displays a window that enables you to make adjustments (brightness, contrast, and so on) to the settings of your webcam. Change these settings to optimize your video image.
To run a full-blown test of Skype video, you’ll need to find someone—either in your contacts list, or in the general Skype community—who has a webcam set up for Skype and is willing to have a video call with you. If you’re completely new to Skype and don’t know anyone who uses Skype Video, you can try to find someone in Skype-Me! mode who is willing to speak and video with you. People in Skype-Me! mode typically welcome unknown callers, and such people can be found using Skype search (click on the Search button on the toolbar), or by visiting the Skype forums at forum.skype.com/index.php and scrolling down to the Skype-Me! listing.

Configuring Skype Video

2010-02-27T07:17:00.000-08:00

Go to Skype: Tools: Options …, and click on Video to display the configuration settings for video, as shown in the following figure. Most of the configuration settings in this figure are self explanatory and, as you can see, Skype video is enabled by default when you install Skype. If you don’t want to make video calls (perhaps your bandwidth isn’t quite up to it, or you just don’t like it), you can uncheck Enable Skype Video. Alternatively, you can leave Skype video enabled, but uncheck Start my Video Automatically, which gives you control over when to make your video available to be seen by others.

Installing a Webcam

2010-02-27T06:52:00.000-08:00

A typical webcam plugs into a USB port on your PC and comes with drivers and software to make it work with Windows. Some webcams require the drivers and software to be installed on your PC before you plug in your webcam, while others do it the other way around. If you follow the instructions supplied by your webcam manufacturer, you should be fine.
To install a webcam, you will need a spare USB port. Most PCs have anywhere from two or four USB ports, but given the number of peripherals that use USB, these can fill up pretty quickly. If you need more USB ports for your PC, you can use a USB hub to give you additional ports.
To use the webcam to make Skype video calls, you will need to position it so that you can look at it while you talk. Most webcams come with a privacy shield, which can be placed over the lens to block your image when you don’t want anyone to see you. Many webcam users leave the privacy shield in place most of the time, and only flick it out of the way when they’re sure they want to be seen.

Skype Video Requirements

2010-02-27T06:03:00.000-08:00

For you to make use of Skype video, you need to meet certain minimum requirements, as detailed in the following sections.
If you want to have a good experience using video, you should double those minimum requirements. Skype recommends, as a minimum, that your processor speed be around the 1 GHz mark. As most webcams connect to your PC using USB, you will also need a spare USB port.
If you are to have anything like real-time moving pictures, puts additional demands on your Internet connection.
Specifically, you will need a good deal more available bandwidth (data transfer speed) than for plain-vanilla Skype voice calls. Skype recommends a bandwidth (send and receive) of at least 256 Kbps for Skype video to work well. Skype video will work at lower speeds, but the streaming image might be jerky and broken up.
To use Skype video, you will need a Skype-compatible webcam. You will also need to install the webcam and configure it for use by Skype.

Multi Person Chats in Skype

2010-01-31T07:24:00.000-08:00

Click on the Contacts tab to display your contacts list. While holding down the control key on your keyboard, click on the Skype users with whom you want to conduct a chat session. With multiple Skype users thus selected, click on the Chat button of the Skype toolbar; or rightclick with your mouse and choose Start Chat from the popup menu that appears. Starting a chat session in this manner will open a chat window with all the selected Skype users as active participants.

How to Search Other Skype Users?

2010-01-31T07:19:00.000-08:00

You can search for other Skype users in two different ways. First, you can click on the Add Contact button on the toolbar, which opens a new window in which you can search for a Skype user by entering that person’s real name, Skype name, or e-mail address. Second, by clicking on the Search button on the toolbar, a window opens that allows you to search for a Skype user by entering that person’s real name, Skype name, or e-mail address; but in addition, you can search using these criteria: country, state, city, language, gender, and age range; and you can also search for people whose online status is in Skype Me mode.

How to Call Other Skype Users?

2010-01-31T07:16:00.000-08:00

If the person you want to call is already in your contacts list, the simplest way to call him or her is to go to your contacts list (click on the Contacts tab to display the contacts list panel), select the contact you want by clicking on it with your mouse, and then click on the call button. This starts a call and opens a tabbed call panel for that call. Alternatively, once you have selected the contact, rather than clicking the call button, you can either double-click on the selected contact, or right-click on the selected contact and pick “Start Call” from the popup menu that appears.
If you want to call someone who is not in your contacts list, you must first enter his or her Skype username in the address bar, and then hit the enter key on your keyboard or click on the call button. This will open a tabbed call panel for that call.

Skype’s Call Panel

2009-12-31T12:30:00.000-08:00

When you make or receive a call, Skype adds a new tab panel, as shown in the following figure. In the center of the panel is a picture of the other party of the call, if they have set up their account to show their own picture; otherwise a default picture provided by Skype is shown. In the case of a conference call, pictures for all other parties to the call are tiled in the call panel. The duration of the call is displayed at the bottom of the call panel.

Skype's Tabs

2009-12-31T12:25:00.001-08:00

When there is no call in progress, Skype usually has three tabbed panels—Contacts, Dial, and History—in its main window. Only one is displayed at any given time, and you can switch between panels by clicking on the tabs.
Clicking on the Contacts tab displays your contacts list panel, as shown in the following figure. In this panel you can select an existing contact to call, chat with, or send a file to. If you have contact grouping feature turned on, you can quickly filter your list of contacts by category. As a further aid to finding a contact, in this mode the address bar acts as a filtering tool, so that as you type a Skype username (or the name you have assigned to a user for display purposes) the closest match in your contact list is highlighted.
Clicking on the Dial tab displays Skype’s dialpad, which is shown in the next figure. The dialpad emulates the functions of a keypad that you might find on a regular or mobile phone. Clicking on the buttons of Skype’s dialpad enters the digits and symbols (*, +, and #) into the address bar. You can also use the keyboard to enter names and numbers into the address bar.
Clicking on the History tab displays a history of Skype events (missed calls, incoming calls, outgoing calls, voicemails, transferred files, and chats), as shown in the following figure. When the history panel is displayed, a small pulldown menu (next to a small picture of a magnifying glass) appears on the far left of the address bar. Use this pull-down menu to filter the event history to show only those events of interest.

Skype's Graphical Interface

2009-12-31T12:22:00.000-08:00

Skype’s main window, as the next figure shows, contains quite a few graphical elements. In brief, here’s what each of Skype’s major graphical elements does:

Window title: Displayed in the title bar of Skype’s main window is the Skype username for the person who is currently signed in to Skype. In the accompanying figure, the name is “tcigtskype”, which is short for—no prizes for guessing correctly—The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Skype! This is the Skype username that will be used throughout this book. Yours will be different.
Main menu: The main menu is what gives you the most control when using or configuring Skype.
Toolbar: From the toolbar you can do things quickly and efficiently by clicking on an icon.
Notification bar: This bar is divided horizontally into four parts, from left to right: Online Status (as a small pulldown menu), Full Name (if you’ve set one up, otherwise your Skype name is displayed), Events, and My Account. Clicking on the status portion of the bar drops down a menu from which you can set your online status. Clicking on your name drops down a text box, into which you can enter a short message that others will see when you are online. Clicking on Events drops down a box that shows all events, such as missed calls, that happened while you were away from Skype. The portion of the notification bar to the far right is labeled “My Account” if you are not yet a SkypeOut subscriber; if you are already a SkypeOut subscriber, it displays the value of your remaining SkypeOut credit balance. Clicking on this portion of the notification bar drops down a box that shows your subscription status to Skype services.
Tabs: The three tabs shown can be used to display the Contacts, Dial, and History panels, respectively. These three panels are dealt with in more detail in the pages that follow. When you make or receive a call, a new panel (and tab) will appear; again, this will be described in more detail in the following pages.
Contact groups: For your convenience, you can group your contacts into either predefined categories or categories you define yourself. Using this feature, you can quickly filter your contacts list to isolate only those contacts of interest. Moreover, by using contact groups, rather than individual entries in your contacts list, you can communicate more easily when you need to interact with many people at once. Note that contact grouping has to be enabled from the main menu: go to Skype: View and check Show Contact Groups.
Selected contact: When you select a contact in your contacts list by clicking on it, it expands to show additional information.
Other contacts: Contacts that are not selected show only their Skype username or a name you have assigned to them for display purposes in your contacts list. You can also show additional information about any contact by letting your mouse pointer hover over that contact.
Address bar: You can enter a Skype username or toll-free number or a regular telephone number (if you are a SkypeOut subscriber) in the address bar to start a call.
Call & hang-up buttons: Use the green call button to start a call; use the red hang-up button to end a call.
Status bar: On the far left of the status bar is a pull-down that enables you to set your online status. The number on the far right of the status bar indicates how many users are signed onto Skype. This number has grown, and continues to grow, at a phenomenal rate. This list is meant to give you an overview of Skype’s graphical user interface. Appendix D lists the names and the purpose of all Skype buttons and icons. For now, let’s take a closer look at some of the elements you’ll be using frequently.

Skype Conference Call

2009-11-30T05:50:00.000-08:00

The more adventurous reader might want to quickly test some of the other features of Skype: conference calling, chat, and file transfer. To do that, you’ll need to have a handful of people setup in your contacts list. So get the Skype names of some friends (or use the Skype search feature [Skype: Contacts: Search for Skype Users …]) to populate your contacts list, and then try the following quick experiments. They’ll take only a few minutes and will be time well spent.
To make a conference call with Skype, select two or more people in your contacts list by holding down the Control key on your keyboard while clicking on the names with your mouse. Next, click on the Conference Call button on the toolbar, and the conference call should start in its own call tab.
To start a chat session with someone, click on their name in your contacts list and then click on the Chat button on the toolbar This opens Skype’s chat window and starts a chat session. To start a multi-chat session, just highlight more than one name in your contacts list (by holding down the Control key on your keyboard while clicking on their names with your mouse) and click on the Chat button.
Finally, try sending a file to someone. Click on a name in your contacts list and then click the Send File button on the toolbar. This opens a window which you can use to navigate to, and select, the file you want to send. Pick a file —any file—and click on the Open button. This initiates a file transfer. You can send a file to more than one person at the same time by selecting multiple names in your contact list before clicking on the Send File button.

Making First Skype Call

2009-11-30T05:47:00.000-08:00

Skype has conveniently provided a call test service that enables you to test both your Skype softphone and your sound devices, ensuring that during a call others will be able to hear you, and you will be able to hear them.
To make a test call, click on the Contacts tab in the Skype softphone. Select the contact named Skype Test Call, and then click on the large round green button with a phone on it, as shown in the next figure. This connects you to the Skype test call service.
During a Skype test call, an automated voice at the other end of the call gives you instructions on how the test works. But in essence, the test consists of you talking to the test service and the test service playing back your voice to you. If you hear your own voice clearly, everything is working and you can start using Skype.
Congratulations! You’ve just made your first Skype call.

Skype Basic Configuration

2009-11-30T05:44:00.000-08:00

Before you start using Skype, I encourage you to review the following checklist. This list covers problem areas and gotchas that often trip up new users of Skype. By casting your eyes over a short list of Skype configuration settings, you will most likely avoid any unpleasant surprises. So start Skype running, sign in, and check these items before making your first Skype call.

Skype: Tools: Options … : Privacy Check your privacy settings.Specifically, you can choose from whom you would, and would not, like to receive calls and chat.

Skype: Tools: Options … : Sound Devices Set your Audio In and Audio Out sound devices to the device or devices you wish to use with Skype. I do not recommend using the setting “Windows default device.”
Skype: Tools: Options … : Connection Make sure there’s a check mark opposite “Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections.”
Skype: Tools: Options … : Advanced Put a check mark opposite “Start Skype when I start Windows,” so that Skype will always be available when you’re using your computer.

Having worked through the checklist, you are now ready to make your first Skype call. But no matter who you call, you will no doubt want to impress them, right? Well, if so, perhaps there’s one last thing to do: make a test call.

Registering Skype Account

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If you don’t already have a Skype user name and account, you’ll have to set one up. This will give you access to all of Skype’s free services (remember, it’s completely up to you whether you want to subscribe to any of Skype’s fee-based services).
Start Skype by double-clicking on its icon on your desktop, or from the Windows menu (go to Start: All Programs: Skype: Skype). This presents you with the Sign In window shown in the next figure. Click on the link Don’t have a Skype Name?, which displays the window.
Fill in the details for the Create a new Skype Account window, and then click on the Sign In button. You are now signed in to the Skype network, and you should see the Skype softphone displayed on your screen.
You’ll use your Skype name and password to sign in to the Skype website to manage your account and sign up for Skype’s fee-based subscription services.

Running Skype

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When you run the Skype install program, you will first be presented with an introductory window that enables you to choose your preferred language, as shown in the figure that follows. This will select the language used for both the remainder of the installation process and the default language for operation of the Skype softphone. Clicking the Next button in the Setup window takes you to a window that asks you to accept (or reject) the Skype license agreement, as shown in the next figure. Select “I accept the agreement” and click Next to proceed to the final step of the installation process. (Selecting “I do not accept the agreement” aborts the installation.)

Installing Skype in Internet Explorer

2009-10-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

Clicking on the Run button will download the Skype install program to your PC. After it is downloaded, you’ll see the window shown in the next figure. Click the Run button in this popup to start the Skype install program. If you don’t want to install Skype, click Don’t Run to cancel the install process.
Clicking on the Save button will generate the popup window shown in the next figure. Using this window you can choose a folder in which to save the Skype install program. Be sure to remember where you put it, as you’ll need this piece of information for the next step. After the Skype install program has finished downloading, you must run it. The easiest way to do this is to navigate to the Skype install program using the Windows Explorer file browser, and then doubleclick on it. This will run the Skype install program, though you may be asked by Windows to confirm that you want to run this program.

Downloading and Installing Skype

2009-09-29T08:45:00.000-07:00

To download Skype, visit www.skype.com in Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) and click on the Download menu item at the top of the home page. This displays the Download Skype page. Click on the link for the Windows platform, which takes you to the download page specifically for Skype for Windows. Next, click on the Get it now button, which displays a page with helpful step-by-step instructions. Click on the Download button, which will then display the popup window shown in the following figure. This popup gives you three ways to proceed:
Run, Save, or Cancel. The third option, Cancel, is fairly obvious in that it cancels the download process. Run and Save can both be used to run the Skype setup program, but they do so in different ways, which I explain in the following sections.
Before downloading and installing the Skype softphone, you might want to familiarize yourself with the user interface—the look and feel of the Skype softphone. That way, when you run Skype, you will already know how to do some basic things with it. Check out the screenshots of the Skype softphone at www.skype.com/download/screenshots.html. Also, look at the online user guides for Skype at www.skype.com/help/guides.

Internet Requirement for Skype Connection

2009-09-29T08:41:00.000-07:00

Skype can work with a fast dial-up Internet connection over a telephone line in a pinch, but don’t expect much in the way of quality. For practical day-to-day use, you have to have a broadband connection to the Internet, such as that provided through cable or DSL. To get the most out of Skype, there are two characteristics of your broadband Internet connection that you must pay attention to:

Bandwidth, measured in bits per second, is a measure of the rate at which data can be transmitted over the connection. The higher the bandwidth, the better your Skype experience will be, as your voice will be clearer during a call.
Latency, measured in milliseconds, is the delay between when

you start speaking during a call and when the person at the other end hears your words. If this delay is too long, say, more than half a second, the other person might start talking back to you before you are done talking. A long latency means that conversations will be stuttering and awkward, as each person runs the risk of talking over the other. The shorter your latency, the better will be your Skype experience.
Most cable and DSL Internet connections are asymmetric in the sense that the rate at which you can send data is different from the rate at which you can receive data. That is, the bandwidth in each direction is asymmetric. Normally the rate at which you can send data is substantially less than the rate at which you can receive data. From Skype’s point of view, the overall quality of a voice call over the Internet will be limited by the minimum of the two bandwidths in either direction: send or receive.
To find out the bandwidth and latency for your Internet connection visit www.numion.com and click on the YourSpeed link, then click on the Quickstart link. This will run a test that will tell you your bandwidth for both send and receive, and tell you the latency for your Internet connection. For a good experience with Skype, you will need a bandwidth of at least 128 Kbps for both send and receive, and a latency less than 500 milliseconds (that is, a latency less than half a second).

Skype Alternatives

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Skype isn’t the only Internet-telephony game in town! Even though this book is primarily about Skype, you should also know that there are other Internet-telephony providers that are even cheaper than Skype for some types of call. For example, VoIP Buster offers free calls to regular landline phone numbers in the following countries: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Monaco, Mongolia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, and Venezuela. In addition, you can even get a free regular dial-in phone number for select countries. Check the VoIP Buster website, www.voipbuster.com, for details and restrictions.
You might also want to check out some of the other alternatives to Skype shown in the following table. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it’s a starting point for you to shop around for the best deal—and best features—in Internet telephony.

Skype’s fee-based features

2009-08-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

Briefly, Skype’s fee-based features include the following:

SkypeOut: Using SkypeOut, Skype users can call fixed and mobile phones at very low rates—in some cases, as low as 2¢ per minute.
SkypeIn: SkypeIn provides a dial-in number that enables regular and mobile phone users to call Skype users. A SkypeIn number—and you can have as many as you want—costs $35 per year, or $12 for 3 months.
Voicemail: Skype Voicemail ($6 for 3 months or $18 for a year) is for those times for when you are away from your PC or busy on another call and don’t want to miss any incoming calls. As an added bonus, as a Skype Voicemail subscriber, you can send voicemail messages to other Skype users, even if they aren’t voicemail subscribers themselves!
Skype Zones: If you want to use Skype while on the move, this might be for you. Skype Zones gives you access to more than 18,000 wireless Internet access points around the world from which you can make and receive Skype calls. In fact, you can use all the usual features of Skype, including any Skype services (SkypeOut, SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail) to which you have subscribed.
Skype Control Panel: Skype Control Panel is targeted at business users of Skype who want to have a central administrator for several accounts, to simplify payment and management of Skype services. This service might also appeal to individuals who maintain several Skype accounts. The Skype Control Panel and other business-oriented features of Skype are not covered in this book, but additional details can be found online at www.skype.biz.
Personalise Skype: Using this service you can buy personalized pictures to add some pizzazz to how others see you online and buy custom ringtones that make Skype more pleasant and fun to use.

Free Features of Skype

2009-08-30T22:10:00.000-07:00

Skype’s free, basic features are as follows:

Skype-to-Skype calls: Skype-to-Skype calls are free and always will be for noncommercial calls—regardless of location or duration!
Video calls: Skype allows you to see the other person during a voice call if both people have Skype-compatible video cameras and both have enabled this feature in Skype. With Skype video, you can talk face-to-face with someone else regardless of distance, and it won’t cost you a penny!
Toll-free calling: Skype users can make free calls to most tollfree numbers, whereas some other Internet telephony providers charge for such calls. As an added bonus, you can even call tollfree numbers in other countries, which is something that regular phones often can’t do!
Conference calls: You and up to four other people can conference-call together at the same time. Moreover, during a conference call, participants can also chat together and transfer files to one another (or to all participants) by simply draggingand- dropping files.
Call forwarding: Away from your PC, but don’t want to miss any important calls? No problem, just use Skype’s callforwarding feature. Using call forwarding, Skype-to-Skype calls and SkypeIn calls from regular phones can be forwarded to as many as three Skype accounts or regular phone numbers (of course, you can only forward calls to regular phones if you are a SkypeOut subscriber, in which case the call rate appropriate to the call’s destination will apply).
Chat: Using Skype’s chat feature you can exchange text messages with another Skype user in real time.
Multi-chat:Why limit yourself to one-on-one chat? With Skype’ multi-chat feature you and a bunch of friends, family members, or work colleagues (up to 50 in total) can chat online in real time so that all text messages are seen by all chat participants.
Chat emotional icons: Otherwise known as “emoticons,” these small icons can be inserted into text messages during chat sessions so that chat participants can quickly and easily express their emotional state or emotional response to chat activity in real time.
File transfer: You can transfer a file to one or more Skype users from within your contacts list at any time or with anyone during an active Skype-to-Skype call or chat session. And you can do all this with little more than a rightclick of your mouse, or by dragging-and-dropping a file.
Contact management: Add your own contacts, search Skype contacts, import existing contacts held outside Skype, share your contacts with other Skype users, and group contacts into meaningful categories for convenience and to carry out group-specific tasks, such as conference calls, with a click of the mouse.
End-to-end encryption: Skype uses encryption to scramble data so that it is unintelligible to any eavesdropper while it is being transmitted over the Internet. This means that Skype-to-Skype calls are more secure than regular or mobile phone calls! However, calls that use the public telephone network through SkypeOut and SkypeIn are not encrypted—and so are less secure than Skype-to-Skype calls—once outside the Skype network.
Privacy controls: Control who can call you, who cannot call you, or who can chat with you.
Visibility controls: Using Skype’s online status settings you can control how visible, or invisible, you are on the Skype network.
Mood messages: As part of how you are seen by others on the Skype network, you can choose to post a mood message that will be seen when another Skype user clicks on your entry in their contacts list. Mood messages can display any sort of short text message.
Skype toolbars: Skype provides productivity-enhancing toolbars for Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer that more closely integrate those applications with Skype.
Skype buttons: Using Skype buttons, you can add a clickable button to a web page, your e-mail signature, or your blog that allows others to easily interact with you though Skype.
Multi-platform support: Skype runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Pocket PC. This book focuses on Skype for PCs running Microsoft Windows.
Multi-language support: The Skype softphone is available in 27 languages.
No spyware, adware, or malware: More of a promise than a feature, this is a commitment by Skype to keep their software free from all other software that might spy on you, pester you with advertising, or otherwise maliciously interfere with your PC.

Advantages of Skype’s P2P Architecture

2009-07-30T05:52:00.000-07:00

Like all P2P networks, Skype continues to function well as it grows in size. As more and more users join Skype, they bring with them the processing power, data storage, and networking power needed to accommodate them. This is very different from traditional Internet applications, which require more and more servers and bigger and bigger network data pipes as more users join. In the traditional model of Internet applications adding more users eventually creates the need for more infrastructure, whereas, for a P2P network application such as Skype, additional users bring with them their own solution to growth! Perhaps the most important consequence of Skype’s growing, but self-sustaining, P2P network is that Skype doesn’t have to invest in and maintain large data-processing facilities of its own. This means that Skype can provide its softphone and services at very low or no cost to its users. It also helps explain how Skype can afford to give away free phone calls without going out of business: the simple answer is that it costs Skype nothing to do so—you bring the PC, data storage, and network connection and Skype merely provides a piece of (free) software. That’s why Skype can boast that Skype-to-Skype calls will always be free!

Skype's P2P Architecture

2009-07-30T05:46:00.000-07:00

The Skype network can be thought of as a mesh of computers that connect with each other over the Internet. As noted previously, Skype uses what’s known as a P2P architecture, wherein each computer—called a “node”—runs the same software and is treated equally. Some nodes in the network are designated “supernodes” and take on some of the tasks necessary to help organize and manage the network. Even though such nodes are designated “supernodes,” they still run the same software as any regular node, and a node can become a supernode at any time, and vice versa. The important concept to understand is that all the computers in a P2P network run the same software and are treated equally. When you start the Skype softphone running on your PC, it first connects to a Skype login server in order to authenticate you. After you’re authenticated, the network broadcasts your online status—that is, makes your “presence” on the network known to others—and otherwise keeps track of your activities.
When you make a Skype call, Skype first locates the other party on its network, and then attempts to establish a direct link across the Internet between the two computers. By establishing a direct and dedicated link for communication, voice call quality is improved, as there are fewer things in the way to inhibit smooth and continuous data transfer. If a direct link cannot be established, the call is routed via other nodes in the network, but call quality can sometimes suffer as a result. Skype both network and Internet savvy, so it will always do the best it can to ensure the most direct link possible in order to achieve good voice quality for a call.
Skype’s P2P network contains millions of nodes and tens—or perhaps hundreds—of thousands of supernodes. In short, Skype’s network is vast and spans the globe!

Skype's future

2009-07-30T05:41:00.000-07:00

Apart from continued improvements in the basic technologies that underpin Skype and the improvements in quality they bring with them, what’s next for Skype? For one thing, new Skype-enabled hardware and Skype-compatible hardware is being introduced. For example, Skypeenabled phones and handhelds are being sold that already have Skype installed, configured, and ready to go right out-of-the-box. We can also count on Skype continuing to add new features and services. But perhaps the biggest impact of Skype will be felt once it becomes truly mobile, in a “connect from anywhere and at any time” sense. Already, some cities in the United States are offering free city-wide WiFi Internet access. For many people, this means that a handheld or other portable wireless device running Skype is a close substitute for a mobile phone; the only difference is that calls on Skype are free (to other Skype users) or at very low rates (for calls to regular and mobile phones)!

Skype Trivias #1

2009-06-28T23:46:00.000-07:00

In October 2005, Skype was acquired by eBay, which also owns PayPal. eBay’s goal is to use Skype to enable its buyers and sellers to communicate more effectively and so reduce the “friction” inherent in buying and selling things. Overall, this is good news for Skype and for Skype users. Not only will eBay’s user base be encouraged to use Skype—significantly adding to the number of people already using the program—it gives Skype the backing of an Internet powerhouse that has lots of marketing and financial muscle.

A brief history on Skype

2009-06-28T23:45:00.000-07:00

Skype is not the first P2P software to be made widely available via the Internet and to achieve mainstream status. Indeed, the people who founded Skype, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, are the same people who created the P2P file sharing program Kazaa, which is the most downloaded (at 363 million as of September 2004) software In the history of the Internet. Skype clearly has something of a\ pedigree.
Skype was founded in 2002, but the domain names Skype.com and Skype.net weren’t registered until April 2003. August 2003 saw the release of the first public beta, or trial, version of the Skype softphone (often also referred to as the Skype client). In June 2004, Skype introduced its first fee-based service, SkypeOut, which enables Skype users to call regular phone numbers all over the world at very low rates (as low as $0.021 per minute). SkypeIn, which is a fee-based service that allows people to call Skype users from regular phones, debuted in March 2005. Skype continues to add new features and services at a rapid pace.

What SKype can Do?

2009-06-28T23:41:00.000-07:00

Skype-to-Skype calls are free, as are video calls, chat, and file transfers. So even without becoming a fee-paying Skype subscriber, you can do an awful lot for free!
Skype’s fee-based subscription services enhance Skype so that you can also make calls to, as well as receive calls from, regular and mobile phones. For additional fees, you can add on voicemail, custom ringtones, and other optional services.
Skype’s phenomenal success, in large part, is due to the rich—and growing—feature set you get simply by installing Skype on your computer. Also, Skype has received a good deal of praise for the simplicity of its user interface and its ease of use, which have done much to contribute to its success. The Skype softphone runs in a small window on your PC, with a graphical interface that is surprisingly easy to navigate given the number of features it supports, as the following figure illustrates. As mentioned previously, you can augment Skype’s basic feature set by subscribing to any of the following fee-based services:

SkypeOut: Make calls to regular and mobile phones.
SkypeIn: Receive calls from regular and mobile phones.
Voicemail: Record voice messages from callers.
Skype Zones: Use all of Skype’s services while traveling.
Personalise Skype: Add custom ringtones and pictures to the
Skype softphone.
Skype Control Panel: Manage Skype subscription services for a group of Skype users (mostly of interest to business users of Skype).

In contrast to many regular and mobile phone plans, which are typically quite inflexible about what features are included with your service plan, with Skype you only have to pay for those features you want. Plus, Skype doesn’t require you to sign any complex or longterm contracts. That’s right: you can cancel anytime—often receiving a refund for unused services. Try that with your phone company or mobile carrier!

Pamela is polite

2009-05-29T22:40:00.000-07:00

It often happens: You are away from your computer and someone sends you a chat message. A polite reply to a single chatter is, “I’m away from my computer. My personal assistant, Pam, is responding with this automated message.” This type of response is good for letting single chatters know that you’re not currently available. But in a multi-chat situation in which many people may be available to chat, this kind of automated reply can be downright rude. Pamela avoids the potential faux pas by discerning the difference between a single chat and a multi-person chat, and behaving the way you want in each situation.

Pamela is very punctual

2009-05-29T22:37:00.001-07:00

Skype gives your customers, clients, and associates easy access to you from anywhere around the globe. However, anywhere around the globe can mean that people halfway around the world could try to reach you during the middle of their day — while it happens to be 1 a.m. your time. To help manage your presence and interaction with the broader global community, Pamela has the Time Scheduling function. In this way, Pamela keeps you in touch with others while also making sure that you get your rest.

Pamela is Web savvy

2009-05-29T22:33:00.000-07:00

If you can forward email notifications and slip in a sound file, then what’s to stop you from creating an alternate Skype ID, calling Pamela, and having the message sent to some Internet server where it can be blogged or podcasted? Rather than code some geeky stuff such as XML or RSS, you can get the same results with Pamela’s built-in capabilities.
So don’t worry about the geeky stuff. Pamela has specific features that make blogging and PamCasting (Pamela’s version of podcasting) easy.

Pamela knows whom she’s talking to

2009-04-28T23:34:00.001-07:00

Want something really cool and way over the top? Try making personalized greetings for any Skype contact. That’s right! You can record a different greeting message for your husband, your boss, your favorite niece, and that annoying neighbor who feels obligated to gossip about everyone on the local school board. Figure 9-16 shows the Personal Options dialog box with Enable Personalized Voice Mail for This User selected (in this example, the user is NewbieSkyper).
If you think that personalization alone is cool, wait until you combine personalization with brains. We discuss call forwarding earlier in this chapter (see the section “Forwarding calls when you can’t answer”). So what happens if NewbieSkyper calls SeasonedSkyper, who has call forwarding turned on, and the call is punted over to TheProfessionalSkyper running Pamela? Happily, Pamela is smart enough to know who is actually doing the calling and applies the personalized greeting for NewbieSkyper.
The personalization feature may be cool, but it is also practical. Suppose you are traveling and have access only to email. During your travels, Pamela may have logged plenty of messages on your home base. But also suppose that you’re expecting a very important message from one of the people calling. Wouldn’t it be nice if recorded audio message files from only that person could be forwarded to your email address? Pamela lets you set up this email notification in either of two ways: without forwarding the audio file, or with the audio file bundled with the notification.

Pamela is attentive

2009-04-28T23:33:00.001-07:00

Imagine that during the first week of using Pamela, you record a half-dozen conversations — each about a half-hour long — with the same party. Other than by listening through each of the conversations one-by-one, how will you remember the key points and which conversation they belong to? Fear not;
Pamela to the rescue!
Pamela’s note-taking function allows you to record the date, time, and identity of the person you are speaking to, and to type in whatever notes you want. These notes are appended to the sound recordings so that, at a glance, important details and quick, on-the-spot summaries are at your fingertips. Joe Friday would be pleased with this software. Just the facts, ma’am!

Pamela has a great memory recall

2009-04-28T23:29:00.000-07:00

Pamela records voicemail messages while you are away, and she can also record any conversation as you’re making or receiving calls. With the Professional Edition of Pamela, the number of messages you can record is limited only by the amount of available disk space. Pamela is configured to record conversations using uncompressed WAV files. And although having large amounts of hard disk space at your disposal is getting less expensive these days, you may still feel the need to conserve. If you want to cut down the disk space used by a factor of 12 or so, you can install a couple of special files that make Pamela save sound recordings as MP3 files. You can find the instructions for making this change at www.pamelasystems. com/download/mp3.php.
As download links or URLs listed in this book change, we will post updated links on our Web site www.skype4dummies.com. A couple of items about Pamela’s message recording features are worth pointing out:

Pamela can automatically record all Skype conversations as you have them. Auto recording all conversations, as well as voicemail messages, imposes two burdens on you. First, your hard drive could fill up very quickly, and second, you have to figure out how to manage all those recordings (and then do it!). Alternatively, Pamela can prompt you each time you make or receive a call over Skype and ask you then whether you want it recorded. If you ignore the recording prompt for 10 seconds, Pamela assumes that you are not interested (in having the conversation recorded, that is) and closes the prompt.

Pamela can help keep your recordings legal. To help keep you in compliance with legal rules in various countries and geographic regions, Pamela can display an alert to let people know that the conversation is being recorded.

If you want, you can set up Pamela to record calls in stereo. That is, your voice is recorded on the left channel or speaker, and the person or people on the other end of the call are recorded on the right. This type of recording is great for podcasting because editing for clarity becomes easier. For example, you can safely eliminate discernable background noise on an interviewer’s side of the call while preserving the sound on the interviewee’s side.

Getting to know Pamela

2009-03-30T09:14:00.001-07:00

The seeds for Pamela were first sown during the infancy of Skype. With only 10,000 Skype users on the whole planet at that time, Skype was like a diamond in the rough. This situation offered a splendid combination of high potential, the ability to accommodate improvements, and the longing for someone to take and enhance the product. That someone was Dick Schiferli, the head of Pamela Systems. Over the last two years, both Skype and Pamela have evolved and continued to incorporate userrequested features.
Pamela is a well-thought-out tool for managing your messages. You’ll find different levels of functionality depending on which edition of the product that you use. There’s a Basic Edition that you can download for free. But rather than encourage you to go wading in that kiddy pool, we think you probably want to know (and put to use) a set of features found in the higher-end editions of Pamela. Go check out the Professional Edition; you’ll be glad you did.

Pamela is alert

2009-03-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

When you work with Skype, you’ll discover a tendency to start accumulating Skype contacts. You may also discover a tendency to overlook some of the information that’s floating around in your Skype database, but Pamela helps you realize just how much info you have.
For example, we like to experiment and tinker, so we decided to launch Pamela with a reasonable number of Skype contacts just to see how it operates. To our surprise, while Pamela loaded, it reminded us that our friend Hannes’ birthday was that day (see Figure) and prompted us to make contact. We didn’t expect this kind of volunteered information, but we certainly welcomed it! Conveniently, Pamela scours your contacts list to see whose birthday is around the corner.

Pamela Is Not Just Another Pretty Voice

2009-03-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

Named after the Skype alias of a Skype marketer’s girlfriend, Pamela is one of the first add-on programs available for Skype. Not only is Pamela (like her namesake) elegant, she’s also well designed and feature rich. Pamela comes in various editions (distinguished by varying levels of functionality) and is a handy tool for managing your Skype messages. (Check out www.pamelasystems.com for how-to information on getting Pamela.)

Rather than bore you with a list of features that you can find on numerous product data sheets online, we think it is more interesting, revealing, and in keeping with the spirit of playfulness to introduce you to the real personality of Pamela. So what can we say about Pamela? Well, Pamela is alert; she doesn’t forget anything (unless you tell her to). She is very attentive. This gal has real Web savvy and she always knows whom she’s talking to. Pamela is appropriately polite and punctual. But of course, she wouldn’t be very interesting if she didn’t have her moods.

Organizing messages

2009-02-27T04:06:00.000-08:00

When you install the Skylook plugin, the program automatically creates a Skylook Conversations folder that you can access within Outlook. The Skylook Conversations folder functions just like the folders that store your email, but it contains voicemail, chats, and recorded sessions, as well.
Consider these ideas for keeping the contents of your Skylook Conversations folder organized:

Treat the files as though they were emails. Move conversations to another folder, flag them, mark them as unread, or delete them.
Organize your archived conversations by date, category, from, for, size, subject, type, flag, email, importance, and even by conversation.
Review all communication in a particular thread, or with a particular individual, to get a snapshot of an ongoing project. Go through your messages by listening, reading, and printing chats.
Share your messages by forwarding them to friends and colleagues through email or by collecting and putting them in a public folder.

When your messages are properly sorted, you can follow up on each one more easily. You can return a Skype call, send a reply to that chat, or listen once again to a voice message or recorded conversation. You know which contacts are online because the Skype status system (the feature that shows your online Skype availability) works within Skylook. If someone’s status is Online, Available, or better yet, in Skype Me mode, by all means, make that call!

Making WAVs or, better yet, MP3s

2009-02-27T03:58:00.000-08:00

Another new productivity tool Skylook brings to Outlook is conversation recording and archiving. Suppose that you set up an Outlook appointment to skype Bob and discuss the details of an upcoming workshop. Rather than take notes during your conversation, you can use Skylook’s tools to record, preserve, and store the conversation.
To the right of the orange Skylook Tools icon on the Skylook toolbar is a small triangular “notch” for Skylook Options and Other Functions. Clicking this icon opens a menu. Select Options and click the Recording tab; from there, you can set the recording conversations features with the following choices:

To automatically record all calls. When automatic recording is active, the recording starts as soon as you make or receive a Skype call.
To record only your side or both sides of the conversation. Select either Record My Voice Only or Record All Voices. You can set this option to apply separately to Skype-to-Skype calls or to SkypeIn and SkypeOut calls.

Recording the voices of other parties may be subject to legal limitations in some jurisdictions. These limitations may require you to notify the other party that the conversation is being recorded. In some cases, recording the other party, even with notice, may not be legal. Please verify the limitations for your jurisdiction. Even though you may be recording a conversation for your own internal use, it is always good to be considerate and courteous and inform the other party that you are recording the conversation. The Skype Call Monitor is a floating window that pops up to let you know a call is being recorded. When you expand the Skype Call Monitor, it becomes a larger window that displays real-time information about the recording in progress. The information that is monitored includes the length of the recording (in minutes and seconds) as it happens and the size of the recorded file (in KB) as it grows. If you capture every Skype conversation, you may need a lot more hard drive space (and tons of free time to listen to all those conversations again).

Suppose that you schedule a meeting (that is, a Skype conversation) with your good friend Bob in Outlook. When the meeting is about to start, a screen pops up as a reminder to make your Skype call. Click the reminder icon to open your appointment window. You then select Bob’s name in the Contacts box, click the Skype Voice Call button, and you are connected over Skype to good old Bob. If you have call recording enabled, the conversation is automatically recorded and saved as an MP3 file when you log off the call. Skylook then parks the MP3 file in a Skylook Conversations folder. Voice call recording is a full-productivity-mode feature of Skylook. This feature is available in the business, home, or academic versions of Skylook. Basic Skylook, which is free, does not offer any recording tools. In addition to recording conversations, this full productivity mode adds contacts to your Skylook Toolbar, saves your voicemail messages to your Outlook Inbox, and creates a Skype Conversations folder to gather and organize Skype conversations.

When you have full-productivity mode enabled, Skylook presents you with choices in the Skylook Recorded the Conversation For You dialog box. For example, you have the option of emailing the MP3 of your just-recorded conversation to Bob. This handy option saves you from rummaging around trying to find the recording. Simply click the Email a Copy To button, and the recording is on its way.
If you don’t want to record a call, just click the Stop button in the Call Monitor toolbar. If you stop a recording during a Skylook call, the entire recording is deleted. If you want a portion of a conversation preserved, hang up and then reconnect to finish the part you don’t want recorded. The MP3 file of your recorded portion will be tucked away in the Skylook Conversations folder.
Try using Skylook’s recording feature to produce podcasts or online presentations. You can set Skylook options to make sure that you record both sides of the conversation for interviews or conferences. And if you use Skylook calling to coach, mentor, or present to a group, you can choose to record only your lecture so that you avoid capturing any noise from the others on the call.

Please leave a message . . .

2009-02-27T03:54:00.000-08:00

Outlook users tend to keep their Inbox open all the time, expecting little alert beeps when emails come in. A system that is always open like this needs to also handle messages delivered when the intended recipient is away from the desk. Outlook archives and organizes email messages, but it has limited capacity to respond automatically. Usually, the only option is a general automated email reply that answers for you when you’re on vacation or at a conference. But because Skype adds voice capabilities to the mix, Skylook adds voicemail through the Skylook Answering Machine. The Skylook Answering Machine records calls and stores voicemail messages in your Inbox, handling them just like Outlook handles emails. You control when the answering machine responds according to your choice of availability options that you find in your Skype program.
Following are some options you have for controlling the Skylook Answering Machine:

When and how to answer: If you choose, the answering machine activates when your Skype status displays Away, Not Available, or Do not Disturb. You can also choose how long to let the Skype caller ring before the answering machine picks up, even if your Web status shows you are available.
See who’s calling before you answer: Sometimes you just don’t feel like talking. Of course, because it’s a Skype call, you can see who is calling, glance at the caller’s profile, do a quick search for archived messages, and then decide whether you want to pick up.
Listen (or not) to messages coming in: If you decide not to pick up a call, you can hear the message as it’s being recorded, or you can mute the sound if you don’t want to be disturbed.
Work in conjunction with Skype Voicemail: Skylook Answering Machine works even if you have Skype Voicemail service. The two don’t fight each other to answer calls. Whichever picks up first takes the message. Whether a call comes in from Skype Voicemail or through Skylook, all incoming messages are stored in the Outlook Inbox if the program is open. If Skylook is not active, Skype Voicemail takes the messages.
Record a personal greeting for callers to hear: Skylook has a built-in voice recorder, so a simple wizard screen offers the choice to record a personalized greeting.

On the surface, the Skylook voicemail system works just like ordinary voicemail. Someone calls, hears a greeting, and leaves a message. But because these messages are digital and show up in the Outlook Inbox, you can sort, save, and even email them. And voice messages aren’t the only kind saved;
Skylook will also store missed text chat messages in your Inbox. Using Outlook with the Skylook plugin gives your clients, friends, and family even more ways to communicate with you. Direct calls, emails, text chats, and voice messages are all available — and you are no longer unreachable.

Synching with Skylook

2009-01-29T09:44:00.000-08:00

Suppose that your company has several thousand active Outlook accounts. Synching up one contact at a time would be out of the question, but using the SkySync Wizard makes this contact mapping possible. SkySync launches automatically during the Skylook setup, but if you want to update your contact links subsequently, choose Tools>SkySync to open the SkySync Wizard and select Search the Global Skype Network for More Matching Skype Users. SkySync goes through all your Outlook contacts and searches for possible matches on the Skype network. Skylook presents possible matches. For each potential match, Skylook asks you whether you want them linked. Suddenly you see that good old Bob has a Skype account, and SkySync links it to Bob’s contact information in your Outlook program. After your Outlook Contacts link up with Skype, simply select Bob from your contacts in Outlook and skype him via the Skylook plugin. To start a new Skype conversation with Bob, follow these simple steps:

Select your Outlook Contact name.
Click Skype Voice Call in the Skylook toolbar. Skylook double-checks your intentions and asks whether you really want to call your contact.
If you really want to have a Skype conversation, click OK.
Start talking!

Using SkySync Wizard

2009-01-29T09:40:00.000-08:00

Synchronizing contacts manually through the SkySync Wizard lets you scroll through contacts and decide whether to sync each one individually. However, if you want to synchronize a specific Outlook contact on the fly, here is a little shortcut:

Select a name in your Outlook Contacts list. The selected name appears in your Skylook toolbar between the Skype Phone Call button and the Help button.
Click the arrow next to the Outlook contact that now appears in the Skylook toolbar and choose Link This Outlook Contact to a Skype Contact from the drop-down menu, as shown in.
Follow the screen prompts (as in Steps 5–8 in previous post) to synchronize the contact with the list of Skype contacts.
Click Finish.

Skylook can expedite contact linking between Skype and Outlook with its SkySync feature. Rather than connect one user at a time, SkySync searches through your Outlook address book and maps it to your Skype Contacts list by linking any matches that it finds. You can even use the SkySync Wizard, to run a thorough search of the global Skype network.

Skype and Outlook in Synchronization

2009-01-29T09:37:00.000-08:00

Skylook has some slick synchronization tools to pull Skype contacts into Outlook and to roam through Outlook contacts to find Skype users. At times, Skylook walks you through individual connections, as it does when you create a new appointment. Veteran Outlook users make (and have made) hundreds of appointments in Outlook. When you add Skylook to Outlook, the appointment screen takes on a new Skylook toolbar, on which you can conveniently make calls on the spot and then schedule your Outlook appointments all from a single window.
Before you can initiate a Skype call within Outlook, you must synchronize your Outlook contacts with your Skype contacts. Follow these steps to synchronize contacts manually:

1. Find the small, triangular notch to the right of the orange Skylook Tools icon on the Skylook toolbar.

When you click this “notch,” the Skylook Options and Other Functions menu appears.
2. Select SkySync (Synchronize/Import Contacts) to open the SkySync Wizard. The SkySync Wizard opens a SkySync Summary window.

3. Select Review Matches and/or Link Contacts Manually. You also have the choice to let SkySync search the entire global Skype network to find matches between your Skype contacts and Outlook contacts. It takes a few minutes to perform this search.

4. SkySync Wizard asks whether you want to update Outlook contact information from Skype profiles. Click Yes; then click Next. Skype profiles sometimes have extra contact information such as phone numbers that can be added to an Outlook account.

5. Select an Outlook Contact from the list that the SkySync Wizard generates.
The Review SkySync Recommendations window offers several choices:

Link: Connects a particular Skype contact with the Outlook contact selected.
Unlink: Severs Skype from the selected contact.
View Diffs (differences): Lets you see the profile details of each account.
Update: Updates your Outlook account with the latest profile details.
Don’t Update: Leaves each profile unchanged. Sometimes Skype profiles are deliberately different from Outlook profiles. One may be business related; the other may be personal.

6. Click Link. When you click the Link button, a window opens and the SkySync Wizard asks you to enter the Skype User ID (Skype refers to this as your Skype Name; Skylook calls it your Skype User ID) of your Outlook contact in the box. If you don’t know the ID, Skylook searches for it when you click Next.

7. Select a name from your list of Skype Contacts generated by SkySync.

8. If you still don’t see your Skype contact, click Next.
A search screen opens. You can add some search details, including:

Full Name
Email Address: Skype Profiles never reveal email addresses, but you can still search for a contact if you already know the email address and it is included in your friend’s Skype profile.
Skype User ID: You can enter a portion of the Skype User ID if you don’t remember the entire name.

Click Next and select the Skype User ID from the list the SkySync Wizard generates.

9. Click Finish. Your Outlook contact is in sync with Skype.

Skype toolbar too crowded?

2009-01-13T21:34:00.000-08:00

If you can’t find your orange Skylook icon, you have too many words on your Skylook toolbar. Here’s how to get rid of them.

Move your mouse to the far right end of the toolbar where you see a small, triangular notch; click the notch to open your toolbar options.
Choose Tools>Options. A Skylook Options window opens.
Click the Toolbar tab and select the first check box, Hide Captions.
For the Show Contact Presence Buttons in the Toolbar option, set the number to 3 (see the figure).

Plugging in and setting up Skylook

2009-01-13T21:22:00.000-08:00

You can get the Skylook plugin to use with your Outlook program by doing the following:

Install Skype 1.2 or later, and install Outlook 2000 or later. Skylook is not an independent program; it is a plugin. You need to have both Skype and Outlook properly installed before downloading and installing Skylook.
Quit Outlook. Outlook must be closed in order for Skylook to be installed. Skype can remain open.
On the Internet, navigate to www.skylook.biz.
Click Download. You are prompted to choose a place to save the Skylook installer file. Click Save to place the file in a default folder on your hard drive. You can choose any location, as long as you can locate the file on a program such as the Windows Explorer. Jot down the path to the folder where you save the Skylook installer file. The basic Skylook account is free. Additional features require a small incremental fee.
Launch the Skylook install wizard by choosing Start>All Programs> Accessories>Windows Explorer; then, navigate to the installer file you just saved and double-click the file.
To install Skylook, you must accept the terms of the End User License Agreement. Click I Accept the Terms in the License Agreement and then click Next. Before proceeding with the installation, make sure that you close the Microsoft Outlook application if it is running. The Skylook installer program does some behind-the-scenes hocus pocus so that the next time you open Outlook, Skylook kicks into action and prompts you with a series of setup questions.
When you finish the Skylook installation, launch Outlook. Magically, Skylook is integrated into Outlook, but it still needs some configuration. The Skype security screen (shown in Figure appears on your desktop. This same screen appears when any program that wants to use Skype opens. To continue, you must officially introduce the two programs and agree to let Skylook and Skype work together.
If you use Outlook all the time, select the Allow This Program to Use Skype option and click OK. Choosing this option eliminates the security reminder every time you launch Outlook, which is a good idea if you’re a daily Outlook user.
The Skylook setup wizard opens automatically. Follow the prompts to configure Skylook and get a feel for how Skylook works at the same time.

You may be asked to answer questions relating to the following:

Whether to synchronize your Outlook contacts with your Skype contacts. We show you how to do so in the next section.
Whether you want Skylook to record your conversation (either one or both sides).
Whether you want Skylook to act as your answering machine. If you do, you can record a personalized greeting, set Skylook to automatically answer when the Skype status is Away, Not Available, or Do Not Disturb, and specify how many seconds to wait before answering.

You have the option to change any of these settings after the program is fully installed.
To use the call recording feature of Skylook, you need to have Windows Media Player 9 or later installed. Download Media Player at www.microsoft.com/ downloads.
Skylook binds Skype and Outlook tightly together. You don’t sense that two separate programs are running at the same time. You see one interface, one program to open, and one environment in which to store and send messages. But Skype and Outlook are, in fact, two separate pieces of software. To truly have them work together, you need to give them a little help connecting.

What do you get when you cross Skype with Outlook?

2009-01-13T21:17:00.000-08:00

Skype is a communications engine that enables you to talk, write, watch video images, listen, and chat instantly with a variety of contacts. When you use Skype, you can reach skypers, nonskypers, and text messagers, all from one program. Outlook is also a communications engine that helps you manage communications with your contacts as well as information about your activities and your schedule. With Outlook, you compose, receive, and archive emails, make appointments, schedule your time, and share your calendars and folders. Both Skype and Outlook are amazing programs that offer access to a broad circle of friends, associates, and family. So it stands to reason that both programs work with much of the same information (contact information, that is).
Consider the following strengths of each program:

Skype lets you connect with your contacts by exchanging information through the Web and extends that outreach with sound (voice calls), sight (video), live text messaging, and file transfer.
Outlook connects you with your contacts by moving information around through various networks, extends its reach to organizing and scheduling your activities, and even gives you a way to send information to hundreds (or thousands) of people at one time.

Without any integration between the contact information stored in Skype and Outlook, you can quickly get caught up in switching back and forth between the two programs to replicate and update the same information in each one. This inefficient jockeying is the quintessential example of electronic pencil pushing at its worst. So to alleviate the annoying repetition and duplication, Skylook (a software plugin used with Outlook) was born.

Bridging Skype with Your Outlook Contacts

2009-01-13T21:15:00.000-08:00

Skype is all about connecting with people. And when you use SkypeOut, you are only a click away from making that connection. But here’s a problem: All the information about the people you want to connect with (your contacts) may live on a separate island known as Outlook. Wouldn’t it be nice if Skype could just take a peek at your Outlook contacts, see their phone numbers, and skype out to them by clicking on their phone numbers from within Skype? Starting with Skype version 2.5 and later, you can make this happen by following two simple steps:

Open both your Microsoft Outlook program and Skype (on Windows) so that the two programs are running at the same time.
Choose View>View Outlook Contacts from the Skype menu. Don’t confuse the Outlook program with Outlook Express. Skype and Outlook work together very happily, but you won’t get Outlook Express to share information with Skype.

Making it short and sweet with SMS messaging

2009-01-13T21:00:00.000-08:00

The blossoming of technologies for communication shows that people crave constant contact with each other. Nowhere is this trend more evident than in the popularity of text messaging, which is a communication method that teenagers use frequently because it’s fun, easy, and (perhaps) even addictive. Many people find that text messaging is practical, even though it has these two drawbacks:

Limited screen size for message viewing: Any text message sent must be viewable from a tiny cell phone screen.
Tedious and time-consuming creation: Typing a message — beyond a short sentence or two — takes more patience and time than most people (especially teenagers) are willing to invest.

To help work around these text messaging limitations, a communications standard — the Short Message System, or SMS messaging — exists for a variety of mobile phones and other devices such as Pocket PCs and GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) phones. And when you’re running Skype, the circle of devices offering SMS text messaging capability even includes your desktop computer.
Sending SMS messages via Skype involves these simple steps:

In your Skype menu, choose Tools>Send SMS Message. A window pops up, prompting you to select the recipients you want to receive your message. Recipients need not be Skype Names. You can also enter phone numbers.
Add the Skype Names or phone numbers of your message recipients and click OK. An SMS message window appears.
Enter your text message in the Skype SMS window (see Figure) and click the Send SMS button.

The Skype Names or phone numbers of the recipient(s) appear in the title bar of the Skype SMS window.
That’s all there is to sending the text message with Skype, but here are some points to keep in mind about this service:

SMS messaging has a cost attached: When you use SMS messaging, you pay a small fee that’s based on two things: the length of your message and the number of recipients getting the message.
Charges apply only to messages delivered within 24 hours: When you send a message, you are charged only if the message reaches the person within 24 hours. If the recipient’s GSM phone battery is dead or his or her phone is off, you get a refund.
Watching your message length is a good idea: The maximum size for any SMS message is 160 characters. So if you send a message with 167 characters, it is split into two SMS messages with 160 characters in the first and 7 in the second. In this situation, you are sending two messages instead of one and you’ll be charged accordingly.

Forwarding calls when you can’t answer

2008-12-30T22:01:00.000-08:00

Skype’s call forwarding feature is very simple to set up and operate. It works like this: If someone calls you on Skype and you’re not able to answer, the call is routed to the first Skype ID or SkypeOut number in your call-forward list. If the call receives no answer there, it is routed to the next number on your call-forward list.
You can call forward to as many as three Skype IDs or SkypeOut numbers. Skype-to-Skype forwarding is always free. Forwarding to a landline or to a cell phone incurs the regular SkypeOut charges and requires that your account have SkypeOut credit. The account that does the skyping out pays for the call, which makes sense. Suppose you’re in the United States and, from your PC, you skype someone located in France. If that person has enabled call forwarding to his or her cell phone, then he or she (and not you) incurs the SkypeOut charges.
For basic call forwarding, follow these steps:

Start Skype and choose Tools>Options from the main menu. The Skype Options dialog box appears.
Click Call Forwarding & Voicemail.
Select (check) the Forward Calls When I Am Not on Skype check box, enter the Skype name you want your calls forwarded to in the Enter Phone Number combo box, and click Save.

For call forwarding to more than one Skype name or SkypeOut number, follow these steps:

Start Skype and choose Tools>Options from the main menu. The Skype Options dialog box appears.
Click Call Forwarding & Voicemail.
Click the Advanced Settings link, select (check) the Forward Calls When I Am Not on Skype check box, and enter the Skype names you want your calls forwarded to in the Enter Phone Number combo box.
Enter the additional Skype names or SkypeOut numbers (see Figure) as appropriate in the remaining Enter Phone Number combo boxes and click Save.

If you are uncertain how to enter a SkypeOut number, click the Get Help Entering Phone Numbers link, which takes you to the Web page at www.skype.com/products/skypeout/rates/dialing.html. This page provides assistance on correctly entering SkypeOut numbers, including looking up the appropriate country codes.
You must have Skype credit to forward a call to a SkypeOut number. Interestingly, Skype Voicemail does not record forwarded messages. Systems such as Pamela (described later in the chapter) do, and they add some other very cool features. Skype Voicemail and call forwarding offer basic functionality, but other messaging features in Skype (such as SMS messaging) and add-on products that work with Skype (such as Skylook and Pamela) offer you more.

Taking messages with Skype Voicemail

2008-12-30T21:45:00.000-08:00

Skype supports an easy-to-use voicemail system. One convenient benefit of using Skype Voicemail is that your audio messages — both your greeting and the incoming messages people leave you — are not stored on your computer but instead are stored remotely on Skype’s central servers. As a result, you don’t have to worry about missing calls when you turn off your computer. Before you can use Skype Voicemail, you have a bit of setup to do. The following steps show you how to start your setup and record the Voicemail greeting that your callers will hear:

Start Skype and choose Tools➪Options from the main menu. The Skype Options dialog box appears.
In the list on the left side of the Options dialog box, click Call Forwarding & Voicemail, as shown in Figure. The right portion of the Options dialog box changes to show the settings related to these two services.
In the Voicemail section on the right, select the Send Unanswered Calls to Skype Voicemail check box to activate your voicemail. Below the Voicemail section of the dialog box, you find the Welcome Message section containing the three buttons you’ll use to record and play back your Voicemail greeting.
In the Welcome Message section of the dialog box, click the Record button (the button with the triangle) and speak the Voicemail greeting you want callers to hear (see Figure). Your greeting or welcome message may be up to 60 seconds in length. If you have a SkypeIn number, don’t forget to use part of that time in your welcome message to tell your callers to leave their phone number.
Click the Stop button (the button with the dot) when you’re finished recording.
Click the Replay button (the button with the arrow) to listen to the message you just recorded. If you don’t like what you hear, you can return to Step 4 and re-record your greeting.
When you’re satisfied that you recorded the perfect message, click Save.

Skype Voicemail has an advanced setting that you can use to avoid being interrupted by additional calls if you’re already speaking on a call. To select this setting, click the Advanced Settings link in the Voicemail section of the Options dialog box (refer to Figure) and select the I Am Already in a Call check box in the resulting Advanced Voicemail Settings dialog box . You also find settings for other situations in which calls are sent to your Voicemail, as follows:

When you don’t answer: In the appropriate text box, enter a number (of seconds) that tells Skype how long to wait for you to answer the phone.
When you reject an incoming call: Select the appropriately named

check box if you want to send rejected calls to Voicemail. You can easily sign up for or renew your Voicemail service by going to your Skype account log-in page and clicking the Buy Now button under Skype Voicemail. If you are already using the Skype Voicemail service, you should see an Extend button instead of Buy Now. The URL for reaching your login page is generally https://secure.skype.com/store/myaccount/ overview.html.

Staying Connected via Skype

2008-12-30T21:06:00.000-08:00

Voicemail is nothing new, and Skype comes with basic voicemail capabilities as an optional feature that you can choose to purchase. If you decide to buy the SkypeIn service, your voicemail costs change from fee to free! That’s because Skype Voicemail is bundled in as a free service when you get a SkypeIn number.
Skype offers two other familiar features for helping you manage your messages:
call forwarding and SMS (Short Message System) messaging, which is a standard used for text messaging. You may incur associated fees if you forward calls to a landline or cell phone, and fees for sending text messages depend on the message length and the number of recipients. But the best part about these three messaging features is that they’re easy to use.

Redeeming Skype Credit from a Voucher

2008-12-15T00:21:00.000-08:00

Many third-party products include vouchers for services such as SkypeIn, SkypeOut, or Voicemail. If you have a voucher, you can redeem it by following these steps.

Go to the following Skype Web page: https://secure.skype.com/store/voucher/redeem.html Enter your Skype Name and password. If you are already signed in (you may have recently looked at your My Skype Account Overview page, which requires that you sign in), your Skype Name automatically appears in the form and you are not asked to provide a password. No sense in logging in when you’re already logged in! The Skype Web site is constantly undergoing changes, so the URL for this page may change.
Enter your voucher number in the Enter Voucher Details text input box. You don’t have to specify the kind of Skype credit you are redeeming. From your voucher number, Skype can automatically tell whether you are redeeming SkypeIn credit, SkypeOut credit, Skype Voicemail, or any other type of Skype-related service or product.
Select the I Agree to the Skype Terms of Service check box and then click the Redeem Voucher button.

Depending on what you are redeeming, you can get an instant confirmation (such as for Voicemail or SkypeOut, or to extend existing SkypeIn service) that your voucher was successfully redeemed. Other types of services may require additional processing. For example, you may be purchasing SkypeIn for the first time. In this case, you need to specify the country code, area code, and so on. Rather than pay with a credit card or something similar, you can use your voucher.

Buying SkypeIn

2008-12-15T00:18:00.000-08:00

The process of buying SkypeIn works much the same way as buying SkypeOut credit:

Go to www.skype.com and click the Sign In link. You should see this link at the top of the page.
In the text input field, enter your Skype Name and password and click Secure Sign In. The My Skype Account Overview page opens, which allows you to buy all the different Skype services: SkypeIn, SkypeOut, and Skype Voicemail. This page also provides account information settings that you may have, including details on your SkypeOut calls.
Directly under the topic SkypeIn, within the Skype and Ordinary Phones section, click the Buy Now button. There are several Buy Now buttons. Make sure that you click the correct one immediately underneath SkypeIn! In the Payments section of your My Skype Account Overview page, you can choose a form of currency. If the currency is set to euros and your currency should be U.S. dollars, you can change it by clicking the Change link, choosing the currency type, selecting the appropriate radio button, and then clicking the Change Currency button. You can buy SkypeIn credit with any of about 15 different currencies. The My Skype Account Overview page is divided into various sections: Call Phones within the U.S. and Canada for Free; Skype and Ordinary Phones; Account Settings; and Payments. Within the Payments section, you can set your preferred currency. Make this choice before you buy SkypeIn credit or any other Skype credit, because if you change your currency, you will incur an exchange fee on your available Skype credit. You set the currency by clicking the Change link in the Payments section.
Select the country from which your Skype phone originates. You can pick from at least 14 countries: Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong S.A.R. China, Japan, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Clicking the country flag or name takes you to a new page.
Select the area code and choose a local phone number from a list of available numbers within the area code. Depending on the country you choose, you may or may not be prompted to select an area code (some countries have only one area code for the whole country). Skype generates a list of available numbers for you to pick from. Although Skype provides you with a computer-generated list of numbers, you can pick a pattern, and Skype sees whether it is available. The pattern can include letters and the asterisk (*) wildcard character. As a pattern, you can enter ***Mary and you might get numbers like 367-6279, 123-679, or 333-6279. When you buy SkypeIn, Voicemail is included at no extra charge with your SkypeIn subscription.
Click Buy Selected Number. An invoicing page appears, and you can choose between a 3- or 12-month subscription. You’re also prompted to provide billing information, including your name and address.
Select your payment method. Payment options include PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, regular bank transfer, Moneybookers, and JCB.
Verify the accuracy of your order, complete your payment information, and click Submit. If you are charging your SkypeIn credit to a credit card, you need to enter your credit card number and expiration date. Some countries may require you to pay a Value Added Tax, or VAT. When payment is complete, you see a confirmation page with your order number and order details. It’s always a good idea to print this confirmation page.

For each SkypeIn phone number you get, you pay a set fee for either a threemonth period or a full year. You can have multiple SkypeIn numbers but you’re currently limited to 10 such numbers. Suppose you work for an aerospace firm with offices in San Jose, California, and Denver, Colorado. You may be doing a lot of work in Washington, D.C. You can get SkypeIn numbers for the area codes 408, 303, and 202. This way, your associates in those same area codes can reach you without incurring charges no matter where you are.You might be attending a conference in Toronto, Canada, or visiting family in North Carolina.

SkypeIn is a practical service to have. If you have a small business and want to establish an international presence, SkypeIn is a great way to leverage your resources.
When you list your SkypeIn number on your business card or company letterhead, you can identify it as a tie-line number (that is, a phone number that you set up through Skype), but be sure to indicate the time zone people are calling into. Otherwise, you may be getting calls many hours earlier or later than you are prepared to receive them!

Understanding SkypeIn

2008-12-15T00:11:00.000-08:00

With SkypeIn, people in a given region or country can call you by dialing into a local phone number that you set up through Skype. It is just a local call for them, but they can reach you anytime and anywhere in the world you are, as long as you are logged onto Skype. When you get SkypeIn, you also get free Skype Voicemail, so if you’re not connected to Skype when people try to reach you, you can receive messages.
When people call you using SkypeIn, they don’t pay for anything other than the normal charges for calling your local SkypeIn number. If you set up a SkypeIn number that is based in London (with an area code of 207 and country code +44), anyone in London can dial the local number you give them. They pay only the cost of a local call. You can then be anywhere in the world — Madrid, Paris, Nashville, and so on. Anyone can call you from a regular telephone and can talk for hours, and all the caller pays is the cost of the local call in the London. The telephone companies are happy because they get to charge for a call. Skype is happy because you just rented a SkypeIn number for the year. Your caller is happy to talk as long as he or she wants, very inexpensively. Now if your friend Ian from Edinburgh, Scotland, tries to reach you using your SkypeIn number based in London, he pays whatever it costs to place a call from Edinburgh to London. The cost from Edinburgh to London is not a local call, but if you are currently visiting Melbourne, Australia, it’s certainly much less expensive than calling to Australia.
It’s really that simple.
SkypeIn phone numbers can be acquired for Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong S.A.R., Japan, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and United States. This list of countries is expanding, as are individual area codes with the countries, so check www. skype.com from time to time for updates.

Keeping track of your SkypeOut accounting information

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Another nice feature of SkypeOut is that you can easily review all your SkypeOut calls in a clearly organized Web-based table.
The steps involved in retrieving your accounting information are as follows:

Go to www.skype.com and click the Sign In link. You should see this link at the top of the page.
In the text input field, enter your Skype Name and password and click Secure Sign In Your Account Overview page appears.
Click the Calls & SMS history link.

You can view a list of your latest calls and SMS messages You should be aware that SkypeOut credit needs to be kept “alive.” If no SkypeOut activity occurs for 180 days, any of your remaining credit is wiped out. This does not mean that you must be using up your credit; it just means that you need to have some level of activity during any 180-day interval.

Navigating touch-tone and voicemail systems

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Some of the SkypeOut calls you make may be to automated services that require you to press the touch-tone keypads of your phone. Because you’re calling from a computer, what do you do when the automated voice says, “Press 1 for Yes and 2 for No”? No problem! Skype provides you with a virtual keypad called a dial pad (see Figure 8-10) found on the Dial tab. If your Dial tab is not visible in the main Skype window, choose View➪View Dial from the Skype main menu.
To make dialing on a SkypeOut call even easier, you can copy a phone number residing in any document, such as an email, and paste it directly into the Skype Dial tab. Sometimes phone numbers have parentheses surrounding the area code. These will not cause you any problems. SkypeOut lets you call vanity numbers, which are phone numbers that have a matching word or acronym on the dial pad of a touchtone phone. For example, to order tax forms from the Internal Revenue Service, you can call 1-800-TAXFORM (1-800-829-3676). On the Skype Dial tab, you can enter 1-800-TAX-FORM and click the green call button. Skype then places a SkypeOut call to the phone number 1-800-829-3676. The next time you need a tax form, you know whom to call!

Dialing international calls with SkypeOut

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To make an international call, precede the phone number with a plus sign (+) followed by the country code and the area code and local number. To find the country code, use the SkypeOut Dialing Wizard. On the Windows platform, you open this wizard by choosing Tools➪Call Forwarding and then clicking the Get Help Entering Phone Numbers link. On the Macintosh platform, you may have to add a plus (+) symbol, followed by the country code, the area code, and then the seven-digit phone number (even for local numbers). In the United States, the country code is 1. So, for example, to call toll-free information, you enter +1 800 555 1212. The link for the SkypeOut Dialing Wizard does not appear until you have bought SkypeOut credit.
When you click this link, you are taken to a Web page that lets you choose which country you want and assists you in entering the number correctly.
Macintosh users have a slick feature called a Widget that enables Skype users with Skype credit to make SkypeOut calls. It incorporates the long-distance calling wizard, so you don’t even need to go to a Web page to construct the phone number.
At the time you make your SkypeOut call, you know immediately what rate you are being charged. Skype alerts you to the calling rate by displaying a little caption that might say “United Kingdom 0.0253 $ per minute”. Very handy if you are watching your budget. The number used in this example is a purely fictitious number. If you use a number that doesn’t exist or is invalid, Skype warns you. As a particularly nice feature of SkypeOut, when you make SkypeOut calls, Skype stores or caches the numbers even if they are not part of your Skype Contacts list. The next time you start dialing a SkypeOut number, the portion of the number you dial is matched against your Skype contacts and previously called SkypeOut numbers from the current session. For example, if you start typing the 212 area code, all your 212 numbers pop up to the top of the Contacts list. If you see your SkypeOut number in the displayed list, you can click it and call the number. This is great if you frequently make international calls to the same number. It is a time saver, and you won’t risk making errors when you try to dial a long number.

The price is right

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SkypeOut calls vary in price. From at least May 15 through the end of December 2006, SkypeOut calls originating in the U.S. and Canada made to phones in the U.S. and Canada were completely free. As of this writing, we’re hoping that this deal will be extended. Besides this campaign, Skype keeps running other SkypeOut campaigns for different countries, such as Skype Gift Days and others.
Always check Skype.com for current details; there may be a campaign running just for your destination.
When Skype does charge for international calls, the cost is based on a per-minute fee. The most popular destinations have one unified rate, often referred to as the “SkypeOut Global Rate.” As this book was written, the per-minute charge was € 0.017 (euros), which is approximately the same as U.S. $0.021 or £0.012 (pounds). The countries included in the SkypeOut Global Rate are as follows: Argentina (Buenos Aires), Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Canada (mobiles), Chile, China (Beijing, Guanzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen), China (mobiles), Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hong Kong (mobiles), Ireland, Italy, Mexico (Mexico City, Monterrey), Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland (Poland, Gdansk, Warsaw), Portugal, Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg), Singapore, Singapore (mobiles), South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan (Taipei), the United Kingdom, the United States (except Alaska and Hawaii) and the United States (for mobile phones). Countries with “mobiles” in the SkypeOut Global Rate are charged the same 2.1 cents a minute that it costs to make a SkypeOut call to a landline. Calls to other countries have different individual rates. You can find these rates on the Skype Web site (www.skype.com).
If your billing address is in the European Union, a value-added tax surcharge may be applied when you buy Skype credit.

Purchasing credit through your Skype application

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When you click the My Account panel of the main Skype window, it expands to reveal various links, one of which is Buy Skype Credit. Depending on what Skype services you already have in place, you may see other links, including Voicemail and SkypeIn. To buy Skype credit, follow these steps:

Click the Buy Skype Credit link. You should momentarily see a padlock display, signifying that you are securely connecting to the Skype site.
Fill in the requested billing information. You are asked to fill out some basic information and method of payment (which can be PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, or other forms of payments, such as a wire transfer).

Respond to security confirmation: As a security protection, Skype emails a confirmation code and asks you to insert this code in a confirmation email screen.
Receive feedback for your order: Skype displays a notification that your order is being processed and sends you a confirmation by email.

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, you can buy Skype credit only in increments of $10 at a time and you cannot buy additional Skype credit immediately after a purchase without actually using some of your Skype credit. This limitation is a fraud-protection mechanism designed to prevent computers or hackers from artificially racking up free minutes. After you’ve established yourself as a proper user, you get more power on the system.