Skype, MSN, Yahoo, for Voice?

Hi,

I want to set up one of the services that allows me to talk over the
internet to distant friends who now live in a dead cellular zone
(Cingular). They moved only two miles from where reception was pretty
good, to where it's always dropping, and sometimes won't even connect.

I've been looking at all the different voice service like Skype, MSN,
Yahoo, and AOL IM, but I can't tell if any are better than the other.
Any preferences?

Also, can you recommend a decent, but not too expensive microphone? I
have to purchase four of them.

Thanks.

Bruce wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I want to set up one of the services that allows me to talk over the
> internet to distant friends who now live in a dead cellular zone
> (Cingular). They moved only two miles from where reception was pretty
> good, to where it's always dropping, and sometimes won't even connect.
>
> I've been looking at all the different voice service like Skype, MSN,
> Yahoo, and AOL IM, but I can't tell if any are better than the other.
> Any preferences?
>
> Also, can you recommend a decent, but not too expensive microphone? I
> have to purchase four of them.
>
> Thanks.

As far as software, I love skype, sound quality is great and PC to land
line calls are FREE till the end of this year. Also Voipstunt has some
similar deal too.

http://www.voipstunt.com/en/index.html

"Bruce" <> wrote in message
news:Xns9856962602320parcxmannetscapenet@216.196.9 7.136...
> Hi,
>
> I want to set up one of the services that allows me to talk over the
> internet to distant friends who now live in a dead cellular zone
> (Cingular). They moved only two miles from where reception was pretty
> good, to where it's always dropping, and sometimes won't even connect.
>
> I've been looking at all the different voice service like Skype, MSN,
> Yahoo, and AOL IM, but I can't tell if any are better than the other.
> Any preferences?
>
> Also, can you recommend a decent, but not too expensive microphone? I
> have to purchase four of them.

Be careful about the microphone. An awful lot of Dell machines essentially
don't work with microphones plugged into the sound-card - the signal is so
faint that you have to shout within six inches of the mike to be heard. Dell
have known about this for years, but deny all knowledge of it until you
dangle their gonads in a blender.

However, there is an easy solution - USB microphones work fine. Most USB
webcams come with built-in microphones and they are pretty cheap. The only
further "gotcha" about webcam mikes is that webcams are usually intended to
be clipped to the monitor. If your sound system has speakers mounted on the
monitor then you get an extremely annoying echo, but this is completely
eliminated by moving the mike or switching off the monitor mounted
speakers. In my case I had the fairly standard 6-speaker setup and I simply
turn the turn the volume of the centre speakers down to zip when I'm using
the mike.

PDR