Skype me

[Jeff Mottle]

I've added a new field to the user profile for those of you that would like to make your skype name public. For those of you that have not used skype, it is a free internet telephony service. (http://www.skype.com) I've been using it with a number of people and the reception is better than telephone most times.

[STRAT]

cool. been considering using Skype for ages. i pressume i'll need to buy me in a headset/microphone settup thingie?

 

also, how would i go about using my broadband connection to use my pc to dail up normal land line numbers?

[Frosty]

No land line Strat... it's peer to peer telephony

Both users must have Skype installed - and yes you will need a mic/headset thingy . I've been using it to talk to my girlfriend while shes at grad school, it works sweet.

 

I've heard it isnt so great across the ocean tho, I have only tried within N. America.

[STRAT]

cheers Frosty

 

how then would i set up a connection between my pc and say my mother's land line phone?

[Ernest Burden III]

I need an internet-based way to dial toll-free phone numbers for free. Would this be an answer to that?

[Frosty]

Before I got skype, about 2 months ago, I looked at many options. Almost all of them require some sort of subscription/service - especially to call to a land line. Skype is in no way meant to work with telephones, its an alternative. It doesnt work for every situation, but for correct one, its an excellent sollution.

 

Ernest, why wouldn't you just use a regular phone to call toll free?

[Ernest Burden III]

Ernest, why wouldn't you just use a regular phone to call toll free?

 

It's hard to explain. My goal is to be able to call toll-free numbers of companies that have broken US law by sending SPAM-faxes and play a message telling them to stop. Repeatedly, all day. On their nickel.

[Chad Warner]

It's hard to explain. My goal is to be able to call toll-free numbers of companies that have broken US law by sending SPAM-faxes and play a message telling them to stop. Repeatedly, all day. On their nickel.

If only you could figure out how to do the same with SPAM-email!!

[Ernest Burden III]

If only you could figure out how to do the same with SPAM-email!!

 

Agreed.

 

The story as I've seen it written is that when the US lawmakers were working on a big telecommunications bill last decade there was a proposal to limit 'junk' faxes (this pre-dates SPAM). The marketer's associations thought that was awful, and urged their members to flood their represenatives offices with faxes stating their position. They did. They so hopelessly jammed up the faxes of congress that the bill did include an outright ban on un-sollicited faxes, with stiff penalties starting with a first offense (no 'OOPS, my bad' excuse). There's a guy in Oregon seeking something like 1 billion dollars in sanctions against a few large-scale fax-spammers, using the telco bill.

 

I get a lot of junk fax. I really hate it. I am planning to use my fax line as a business line, and don't want it to be spitting out several, to many, faxes a day.

 

I have a plan to put a stop to it, industry-wide. All I need is a free auto-dialer for connecting to toll-free numbers in the USA from the USA.

 

There, I said it.

[Tim Nelson]

I get a lot of junk fax. I really hate it. I am planning to use my fax line as a business line, and don't want it to be spitting out several, to many, faxes a day.

 

To avoid this immediate problem, you might want to look into getting your faxes directed to your computer instead of through your machine. I set mine up that way and it works pretty sweet. Its kind of a pain to send faxes out, but I hardly ever have to do that so I don't really mind.

 

Most of the time, I don't have my fax program set to auto-answer, becuase I get a lot of junk too, and even though all I have to do is delete it, its still annoying and distracting. So now, I only let faxes come through if I'm expecting one from somebody. Plus I can still dial out using the same line so its perfect for what I need.

[4DM]

Hi Ernest,

 

Can't you cancel the old fax no. and get a new one? And don't publish it anywhere as a fax no, just tell clients as and when.

 

Although I have only ever had one junk fax, I agree that they are horribly intrusive, worse than junk e-mail, because they actually cost you £/$ in material (paper), and, unlike spam, hog your line from other potential messages.

 

Having said that, I'm surprised anyone still uses fax nowadays. I get sent about one a month, and haven't sent one myself for about a year. All done on e-mail.

 

D.

[Ernest Burden III]

Can't you cancel the old fax no. and get a new one?

 

I could do that. I could sell my house and buy another one, too. Trouble is, I DON'T WANT TO. Obviously my fax number got on some list and so I get a lot of crap faxes--four this afternoon.

 

I'm not interested in workarounds and running away from the problem, I have an idea of how to END it. All I need is the internet-based calling application and the problem will be gone.

 

Unfortunately, SPAM is not illegal and even as it begins to become illegal the problem exists of finding the spammers and how to apply local, even national laws to them. There is no way to 'reverse the charges' on email. But almost every junk fax has someones toll-free number on it. They need you to call, there is no 'click here'. When you call their toll free number it costs them real money. When you call the number a LOT, it costs them a lot of money. Even if they weren't paying for the incoming calls, they cannot afford to have their lines tied up all day with non-buyer calls.

[Jeff Mottle]

You can use Skype to call landlines but the feature is currently down I think. It's not free however, quite expensive in fact. When the site was up a call from Canada to the US was like $0.25/min!

[bigcahunak]

I've heard it isnt so great across the ocean tho, I have only tried within N. America.

It works great over the ocean too.