Anyone on Skype?

[bacteria]

On ModRetro we have a channel for Skype chat, proving to be popular - only done it for a couple of days, had over 1200 posts on over that period.

Anyone thought of doing one for the BenHeck site? Perhaps any members who have Skype who are interested can post their Skype name here? For those who don't know, Skype is free (skype.com) and if you want to chat on the phone all you need is what you have already (internet enabled PC, soundcard and speakers) and a mic. You don't have to use it for phone chat though, just use it as a chatroom for general chatter.

Anyone interested, mine is moddedbybacteria

You are most welcome to PM me if you want to be involved in our chatroom, you don't have to be a member on our site if you don't want to (i'm not advertising in this post BTW, just posting a good idea); or post here with your Skype name if you want to, and someone I am sure can set up a BenHeck Skype chatroom if they want to. No reason the BH site shouldn't have their own Skype channel for members interested; it is free, legal and good for "bonding".

Thoughts?

[ghosstt]

Have they actually incorporated rooms where you can join? Whenever I use skype with multiple people, you have to call one, then invite another to a conference. (And only the leader can invite people to conferences)

[bacteria]

Apart from occasionally when one of my PC's that acts as the internet connection PC needs rebooting, my internet is enabled all the time; so the chatroom I set up for ModRetro is on all the time. People come and go as they want; when someone accepts my profile or I accept theirs, I just drag their details onto the chatroom with everyone else and job done. Permanently on and live. So, if you, or anyone else, wants to join our party, PM me or post your Skype details here please.

*off to the chatroom now*

[nightwheel]

I have skype

It's nightwheeldotcom

[bacteria]

Good, added you and also Hifeno. Anyone else want to join in?

[Zero_D]

Wouldn't it be more convenient to use something like Ventrillo?

I've only used skype in order to make phone calls back when it was free to call people in the US/Canada, so I've never used this Chat room feature, but with Ventrillo you don't have to manually accept everyone, and it also has administration features and seems a lot lighter on system resources than Skype.

[bacteria]

Set up with Skype now, seems popular. Want to join?

[nevermind1534]

nevermind1534

[bacteria]

Sent invite...

[ghosstt]

Wouldn't it be more convenient to use something like Ventrillo?

I've only used skype in order to make phone calls back when it was free to call people in the US/Canada, so I've never used this Chat room feature, but with Ventrillo you don't have to manually accept everyone, and it also has administration features and seems a lot lighter on system resources than Skype.

Yup. I've used both, and Vent is much better on resources, especially if your doing things like gaming with it. It also has, like you said, admin features, and you don't have to invite people.

[Zero_D]

Set up with Skype now, seems popular. Want to join?

If I get around to installing Skype again, I'll let you know my info.

Yup. I've used both, and Vent is much better on resources, especially if your doing things like gaming with it. It also has, like you said, admin features, and you don't have to invite people.

Yea its great, I used to use it on a daily basis. The server software can be run on almost any computer too.

[bacteria]

...and it also has administration features and seems a lot lighter on system resources than Skype.

Interesting, at the moment I am using a cheap computer for internet, dual 2700Mhz processor, old 6600GT card, 2Gb basic memory. Cheap system, cost me £159 for the system I just added a hard disk, DVD writer, graphics card and installed XP on it. Running Skype, Spotify, Firefox; the computer seems to average at about 4% CPU usage. (2% - peak of about 13%). That's pretty low, especially as Spotify takes a chunk of that.

[nevermind1534]

On my P4, with Skype, Firefox, etc. running, I have very low CPU usage, and System idle process is in the high nineties, constantly.

[Zero_D]

Interesting, at the moment I am using a cheap computer for internet, dual 2700Mhz processor, old 6600GT card, 2Gb basic memory. Cheap system, cost me £159 for the system I just added a hard disk, DVD writer, graphics card and installed XP on it. Running Skype, Spotify, Firefox; the computer seems to average at about 4% CPU usage. (2% - peak of about 13%). That's pretty low, especially as Spotify takes a chunk of that.

Well, keep in mind not everyone has a PC that good, even if it is considered basic, a lot of users have much older PCs. I am lucky enough to have a fairly decent PC even though I built it a couple years back (AMD 2.10 ghz dual core, 3gb ram, 8600 GTS). However, the real problem is that Skype steals your bandwidth to route their calls, and that's the moment when it starts affecting your PC's performance and your bandwidth. They might have not been utilizing your PC for this purpose at the instance you took the screen shot, but if you leave it open, eventually they will and that's when it affects you. Add demanding operating systems like Windows Vista into the mix, and you can see how it can slow you down.

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