I have no direct experience with Vonage but my impression is it is a
replacement for the regular POTS phone. You pay a monthly fee and it is up
all the time regardless of what your PC is doing.
Skype is PC based and turns your laptop or Larry's new gadget into a
telephone. It does not work with your regular telephone and your PC has to
be running to make or receive calls. It was originally for PC to PC VOIP
then they added Skype Out so you can dial a POTS phone for a couple of cents
per minute. You prepay $10 or so and talk until it is used up. PC to PC is
still free. Long distance to a regular phone varies from 2 cents to about
15 cents/minute depending on what country you are calling so 2 cents from
the BVI to the US beats the heck out of the $2.50/minute Cable & Worthless
charges. Calling a phone in the BVI costs 12 cents/minute.
You can get a regular phone number for a small monthly fee (no long term
contract) so POTS phones can call you. The caller pays what ever his normal
rate is to your home area code and Skype forwards it to where ever your PC
happens to be. You can also set up a calling order so that if your PC
doesn't answer it will call your land line. If that doesn't answer it will
call your cell phone and finally send it to your voice mail.
It has been especially helpful to me as I spend my life in front of these
damned computers fixing problems for clients. Being self employed I can
never be to far from communications. Last week I was helping a friend move
into his house in Little Apple Tortola. I set my laptop up on the deck,
plugged in my EUB-362 wifi adapter and cranked up Net Stumbler. Found the
strongest unsecured AP in the area and checked my voice mail. Called the
client, logged on to his VPN and worked on his system while talking to him
about the merits of Presidentes over Red Stripes and Caribes. :-)
Skype also handles video now so you can see who you are talking to. One of
my side projects is testing the coliform load at Cane Garden Bay to counter
all the flames about bareboats polluting the bay. One of my petridishes was
showing some unusual results so sitting at the bar at Myett's in Cane Garden
I plugged in the USB camera, Skyped a biologist friend at the CDC and showed
it to him.
I am looking for a Bluetooth handset now to replace my USB handset so I have
less wires to deal with.
--
Glenn Ashmore
I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at:
http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division:
http://www.spade-anchor-us.com
"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 26 Oct 2006 10:56:09 -0400, "Glenn Ashmore"
wrote:
In places like Tortola where Cable & Worthless charges outrageous fees for
LD Skype is a life saver at 2 cents/minute to a POTS line and free Skype
to
Skype. I especially like the video feature. I was down last week having
diner with some friends and we decided to call some other friends in
Dallas.
Spent 30 minutes video conferencing for zero dollars.
Glenn, I'm curious on what your opinion is on Skype vs Vonage.