Skype is for the uninformed..

[Jeeva]

Didn't know people still use that pathetic program named Skype...

Skype died out the moment they went over to version 2, poor quality, expensive with no SIP support.

South Africa ZAR 0.408 ZAR 0.470
South Africa - Mobile ZAR 1.403 ZAR 1.613

Voipbuster.com =
Superb quality
Cheaper
SIP Support
Free calls

south africa (Landline) SuperDeal! ZAR 0.08
south africa (Mobile) ZAR 1.33

Landlines are 5 1/2 times cheaper.

Linksys PAP-2 + www.voipbuster.com is for the smarter people.

with the PAP-2, you just connect it on your network, plug your Telkom phone into it, and there you go. You also get a Free Incomming number from UK, USA, etc.

[8321]

Unfortunately, they offer a free voip-in number which, one finds, is not available in South Africa.

[nic777]

No linux client - not for me thanks

[Jeeva]

You dont even need a computer for it, since it is SIP enabled.

[Leno]

people use skype as it has the most "uninformed" people on it

i mostly call "uninformed" people at the moment... so skype stays on my pc for now

[bwana]

Unfortunately no mac version and no Voip-In for USA (www.voipbuster.com/en/voip-in.html).

Also - as Leno said - all my uninformed friends and family use skype too.

BTW - I dont pay Vat for skype.

[thed33p]

tell me, how well does it punch a hole in your firewall / NAT?

[Roman4604]

tell me, how well does it punch a hole in your firewall / NAT?If you use STUN most SIP hw/sw has no problem getting through 'broadband type' firewall/routers (without config).

[PeekNPoke]

I'd rather use Skype than Windoz Messenger

[sleeper]

Am I missing something here - looking at the rates on VoipBuster.com, (http://www.voipbuster.com/en/rates.html) it shows that a call to RSA landline is : "south africa (Landline) SuperDeal! -> US$1.20 -> US$1.39 VAT Incl" - per minute!!.

Well, either there is something wrong with their currency coversion table, or they are NOT cheap. Using UK Pounds as currency, I get the following:
"south africa (Landline) SuperDeal! -> 0.80 -> 0.93" - That is pounds... 0.8 * 11.01 = R8.808 per min !?

Jeeva, where did you see the R0.08 rate?

Skype is WAY cheaper than that.

[bwana]

Am I missing something here - looking at the rates on VoipBuster.com, (http://www.voipbuster.com/en/rates.html) it shows that a call to RSA landline is : "south africa (Landline) SuperDeal! -> US$1.20 -> US$1.39 VAT Incl" - per minute!!.

Well, either there is something wrong with their currency coversion table, or they are NOT cheap. Using UK Pounds as currency, I get the following:
"south africa (Landline) SuperDeal! -> 0.80 -> 0.93" - That is pounds... 0.8 * 11.01 = R8.808 per min !?

Jeeva, where did you see the R0.08 rate?

Skype is WAY cheaper than that.For euro's and dollars the prices are shown as cents per minute while for pounds its quoted in pence per minute.

Its cheap and they probably get the job done - but then again so does generic toilet paper. ;)

[ponder]

No linux client - not for me thanks

Uhm, that is not true. Any SIP based client could be used BUT you have to register from a windows PC just once.
http://www.voipbuster.com/en/faq.html#1

http://openwengo.org/ is a cool client that works on Linux. Mac users will have to find a suitable SIP client.

[Aessa]

Well, I just want to point out one thing here thats probably known and accepted. Skype does not imply VOIP and only VOIP. It has very nice chat features (I'll probably be corrected but to me it's the nicer one), normal calls, video calls, and call quality was better to a dialup user than to another ADSL user...so much for ADSL as the 'better' connection.

Another thing, with 5.9 million online users, a profile that I can simply continue to use anywhere in the world and versions for both Linux and Apple (and windows) thats very non-intrusive, I'd say its at least going to be around for a few decades.

[Robone]

- Skype gets a thumbs down. PC to PC and PC to Phone. Does not accept SA credit cards
- Yahoo messenger PC to PC gets a so so. The phone out works well. Like the phone In numbers. Pity none in South Africa. PC to PC and PC to Phone
- voipbuster I get an error 19 when trying to register so a big thumbs down
- windoz messenger I just deleted
- googletalk is the only one that remains simple and clear. Pity not easy to set up phone out
- Terracall using xpro gets a big thumbs down
- Dialpad gets a thumbs up. Taken over by yahoo and incorporated into Yahoo Messenger. PC to Phone
- Phoneserve works well but you need to buy phonecards. PC to phone. Good for Low bandwidth
- Call2me works very well . Callback phone

[bwana]

- Skype gets a thumbs down. PC to PC and PC to Phone. Does not accept SA credit cardsIncorrect. It happily accepts SA credit cards - I just this minute successfully completed an order.

Had an excellent three-way (pc-pc-pc) conference call last night between 3 different countries. Was throughly impressed with the quality.

EDIT - Bonus point with Skype - no VAT charged if you use a SA credit card. :)

[freeek]

It took me a few minutes aswell to buy to 10 euro's. Saved me a tone of money while I was overseas. Its so cheap to call home through skype, thats when you really feel the saving!

[Robone]

Well Bwana..I have tried to use my credit card with them few times, without success, however, I have had no problem with Amazon, dial pad and various other companies. So maybe its my Visa or bank, but as far as I am concerned thats a big thumbs down. And I have tried to contact them, without success.

[Aessa]

Well, since its PayPal, I understand that once you've paid via paypal you have an account there and can deposit/pay directly to paypal and have the money lying dormant there. Can't you somehow then skip the standard creditcard part at skype and directly transfer from paypal to skype?
I'm not trying to defend skype on this point. This sort of thing should work without problems, it is not really pioneering ground.

[bwana]

Well Bwana..I have tried to use my credit card with them few times, without success, however, I have had no problem with Amazon, dial pad and various other companies. So maybe its my Visa or bank, but as far as I am concerned thats a big thumbs down. And I have tried to contact them, without success.Guess it might be your bank - like I said mine (Nedbank) went through last night in no time at all. Odd though.

[Azrael]

I've heard of quite a few people having problems with Skype rejecting their S.A credit cards. They think we're a fraud risk :)

[mancombseepgood]

I had problems and turned out I needed to reauthorise the particular card I was using for online transactions - some new thing between Standard Bank and Mastercard... A quick call to the card division sorted it out...

[ghoti]

skype version 2 has excellent webcam support from my experience

[mancombseepgood]

Just have to add... Skype has worked FARRRR better in most cases than the SIP apps I have tested... voipbuster, internetcalls, etc. Even though I get free calls to NZ, I use Skype because of the voice quality. There is also something to be said about p2p from a south african's perspective... the less hops I need to go through the better.

I have tested it on shaped saix and IS... IS works 90% of the time pretty well (2 hour conference calls between Washington, Austin, Rwanda)....SAIX is just pathetic - I get better quality sound on saix dial up than broadband.

I can't use sip to Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Kenya... only US and sometimes NZ works for me. I have 384k homedsl and am on IS.

[albert123]

people use skype as it has the most "uninformed" people on it

i mostly call "uninformed" people at the moment... so skype stays on my pc for now

exactly. its like having a service provider (Mtn) that offer 3G first but hardly anyone can use it.

skype has more users so maby uninformed but still better

[albert123]

Well Bwana..I have tried to use my credit card with them few times, without success, however, I have had no problem with Amazon, dial pad and various other companies. So maybe its my Visa or bank, but as far as I am concerned thats a big thumbs down. And I have tried to contact them, without success.
not sure but i've got a VISA card and i've never had a problem. so doubt its visa... maby you dont have money :)

[bwana]

Personally I like the way voipbuster.com markets itself under numerous guises in order to foster some sense of competition.

[mancombseepgood]

Yeah - like telkomsa.net and telkom.co.za

[sparklehorse]

- Skype gets a thumbs down. PC to PC and PC to Phone. Does not accept SA credit cards
- Yahoo messenger PC to PC gets a so so. The phone out works well. Like the phone In numbers. Pity none in South Africa. PC to PC and PC to Phone
- voipbuster I get an error 19 when trying to register so a big thumbs down
- windoz messenger I just deleted
- googletalk is the only one that remains simple and clear. Pity not easy to set up phone out
- Terracall using xpro gets a big thumbs down
- Dialpad gets a thumbs up. Taken over by yahoo and incorporated into Yahoo Messenger. PC to Phone
- Phoneserve works well but you need to buy phonecards. PC to phone. Good for Low bandwidth
- Call2me works very well . Callback phone
You haven't tried gizmo?

[GuRu]

Skype = thumbs up works great for me even with webcam and running on "Iburst" ..

[bwana]

Skype = thumbs up works great for me even with webcam and running on "Iburst" ..Proudly uninformed eh :D

[Robone]

not sure but i've got a VISA card and i've never had a problem. so doubt its visa... maby you dont have money :)

Actually, I think I have found the problem. They look at the IP address that you are using and if its not from the country where your credit card is registered, they bomb you out. Can be the only reason :)

I have recently being trying Firefly and it seems to be quite good. Anyone else used it.

[bwana]

Actually, I think I have found the problem. They look at the IP address that you are using and if its not from the country where your credit card is registered, they bomb you out. Can be the only reason :)I dont know - I regularly use an overseas credit-card as well as my south african one and in that case my IP would definitely not match.

[firefly550]

Didn't know people still use that pathetic program named Skype...

Skype died out the moment they went over to version 2, poor quality, expensive with no SIP support.

South Africa ZAR 0.408 ZAR 0.470
South Africa - Mobile ZAR 1.403 ZAR 1.613

Voipbuster.com =
Superb quality
Cheaper
SIP Support
Free calls

south africa (Landline) SuperDeal! ZAR 0.08
south africa (Mobile) ZAR 1.33

Landlines are 5 1/2 times cheaper.

Linksys PAP-2 + www.voipbuster.com is for the smarter people.

with the PAP-2, you just connect it on your network, plug your Telkom phone into it, and there you go. You also get a Free Incomming number from UK, USA, etc.

Voipbusters is outstanding. Calls to my fiancee to her cell phone in the Philippines costs me R 1.33 per minute and the voice clarity is superb. I could never call her on Skype because of poor voice clarity. Calls to Los Angeles landline is R 0.07 cents per minute R 0.06 cents cheaper than Skype. It's Voipbusters for me all the way:)