http://www.skype.comI had written up a really nice post about this last night but managed to lose it.
I read an article yesterday in Fortune 500 magazine about some "Pirates" that want to take on the Phone Industry with software called Skype.
Skype is a small FREE beta software that enables users who are running the software to talk to each other over the internet. Skype comes from the same people that brought us Kazaa. The cost is free and the sound quality rivals that of Mobile Phone users. At the moment you cannot call Land Lines with it.
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Once installed and during setup you set up a username. THis is the username that others will use to call you or chat with you online. You can setup skype to only allow users on your contact list to call you. It is very very easy to set up, unlike other Telephony software. This software does NOT use VoIP to create this connection. It uses Peer 2 Peer technology that is far superior to VoIP. More can be read about it on thier website.
Once Skype is setup you can easily creat a link in your webpage or email for people to call you like so
callto://username
the callto tells your PC to bring up Skype and call it.
I ask you to TRY this software, yes, there are others, but once you give this one a try you wont look back.
It is currently free and the features are minimal. The software will always remain free, adfree, and spyware free, but they will eventually charge for other features, such as Voicemail and Land Line calling.
So call up a friend on the other side of the world or country and have them set it up and try it out. You'll Love it. Or try and call me, my username is digisal.
Below is a screen shot, but they have better screen shots at thier website.
