I've got Skype

By Jason Meserve, NetworkWorld.com, 03/23/05

I've finally got on board with the 31 million other people that have figured out Skype is pretty cool. For those that don't know what it is, Skype is an application that allows you to call other Skype users over the Internet free of charge. The call quality is excellent (in the couple calls I've done so far) and all Skype-to-Skype calls and text chats are encrypted. There's a SkypeOut feature that lets you call out to landline phones for a very low rate (~2 cents/min US). And the company has VoiceMail and SkypeIn (a phone number that routes to your Skype address) technology in beta. And, unlike many SIP and H.323-based clients, this one seems to work through most firewalls and NATs. It worked at my house and here at Network World HQ. My IT friend tried it at his office, but couldn't get it to work. He could see his client attempting to connect through his corporate proxy server, but it ultimately failed.

I didn't get Skype to avoid toll charges (NW has good rates and at home I have flat-rate long distance). Rather, I want to use it to more easily record conversations for our Podcast initiatives. Now, I use a phone tap that routes through a hardware mixer and then into my laptop's mic jack. That works fine in the office, where the mixer has a semi-permanent home on my desk. But since I work from home a couple days a week, I am looking for something that's a little more portable. If I can get an all-software solution, how much more portable could I get. Plus, calls recorded from home don't have the same quality as when I record them at work. Of course, the challenge with using Skype is getting both sides of the conversation recorded. MixCast Live looks like a potential solution, but I haven't tried it yet. Mac users have more options when it comes to recording Skype and iChat.

Anyhow, I hope to have more answers to my recording quest soon. In the meantime, you can Skype me at meservej.

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