Use Skype at least three or four times a week to talk to our daughter who is living in Ohio. We live in New Zealand. We use a webcam as well and it's great. We get a good picture as well as voice quality. We did invest in a really good quality webcam and it's amazing how clear it is.

We also video call our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson in Wellington New Zealand. Suprisingly the reception is not as good when we are talking to them as I think the transmission actually goes via the US before it comes back to Wellington.

I am eternally grateful for Skype.

DH and I are living in Amsterdam for a year, DS, a new college grad, is in Washington, DC and DD is in Paris for a junior-year-abroad. My family and friends are all over the States. It is so wonderful (and cheap) to be able to talk to everybody whenever we want for as long as we want. Sometimes it's computer-to-computer, which is free, sometimes it's computer to phone which costs about 3 cents a minute.

You can set up an automatic debit from your credit card or whatever, so your Skype account is automatically "topped up" whenever it gets low, so you never have to worry about running out of calling time in the middle of a call or anything.

My Mac laptop has a built-in webcam and we love being able to see who we're talking to. It came in handy recently before DS's first job interview when I could see that he needed a haircut and was able to nag him about same (just because we're an ocean away doesn't mean I can neglect my motherly duties). And even better, the webcam enabled me to see him rolling his eyes when I told him to get a haircut. Made me feel right at home! ;->

We use it for EVERYTHING. It has been really helpful in conducting our various mortgage, bank, insurance, etc. calls back to the States. Since we are only over here for a year, we have all those household business type issues still to deal with back home, and I have to say if I was paying international rates to be on hold with my mortgage company for 15 minutes, I wouldn't have any money left to pay the mortgage. With Skype I can conduct all my stateside household business calls for free - you can use it to call 800 numbers in the States.

Anyway, use it! You won't regret it.

Love it! Chatted with my DH when I was in Carriacou this summer and he was at home. So nice to see him and my house too!

Yesterday morning my 21 month old grandson gave me a high five to start the morning, then ran and brought me his new tennis shoes to show me. He lives in St Pete, we live in San Antonio. Agreed, the very best thing since sliced bread, especially in this age where families are scattered all around the world!

How did we ever live without it? We live in FL use it to see and talk to family and friends in Hungary, The Netherlands, Russia. Great way to stay in touch with those far or near. Sometimes when I am on, I see my mom or sis are on and I just Skype them. Mom lives 5 minutes away.

Downloaded for free, we did however upgrade to the extra speakers on the main computer. Works wonderfully on my Acer Aspire One. Built in camera and mic.

I could not imagine how much money we have saved skyping instead of phoning.

thanks everyone, we're going to give it a try!

same here!

Don't razz me, but would Idiscontinue using my Vonage and use Skype instead? Vonage is also extremely cheap to call Europe - around 6 cents or less I think. Besides the video option, what's the difference between the two?

Great thread!

Friends of mine who tend to live in usual places rave about it. So I guess it's time for me to sign up too. But can anyone give me some background on the service? Like what's in it for the service provider? Or is it really a humanitarian contribution to the way we live know.

Call me a cynic but there must be a catch...

It is free, afterall. Just download the program. The only time payment comes in (I think) is when you are using skype phones or calling actual phones, not computers. What we are talking about is calling computer to computer. Both of you must have skype on your computers to use the system. It actually sounds like a phone ringing on your computer when someone calls, and there's an icon to click to answer. I don't know what they get out of it. It's certainly something I'd pay for if it weren't free!

Here's the url which should have all the info you need to get started. http://skype.com/