--- TIC-TECH message:
Tired of long distance call charges? Would you call friends and relatives
all around the US if you didn't have to pay for the long distance charges?
Tired of different phone companies trying to become your long distance
service?
Well, with an Internet connection and a reasonably fast computer with audio
in and audio out connections and at least an 28.8 kbps, you can make long
distance calls for free. This isn't computer to computer typing at each
other or even computer to computer voice communication, it is you placing a
call through your computer and internet connection to the other person's
telephone. This uses a product called "Net2Phone" that you can go to
CompUSA and buy for $50 or download for free. It's amazing that people
will walk into a Computer score and pay for products like the latest web
browser and Net2Phone which they could download for free.
There is one small catch, but it isn't serious. you have to have a MSN,
PassPort, or HotMail account. But, you can get the HotMail account for
free.here's what you do if you don't have any of these three accounts.
1) Go to www.MSN.com
2) Near the upper right corner of MSN's screen is a link to sign up for a
free HotMail account. GO ahead and do so.
3) Go back to www.MSN.com and click on the "People & Chat"
4) Click on the link way at the bottom of that page called "Call PC to
phone for free"
5) Follow the promps and when done, you'll have an icon for "MSN Messenger
Service" in your Tool Tray and on your DeskTop.
The MSN Messenger Service gives you a telephone dial pad to key in the
phone number. It appears that the phone conversation is bouncing off of a
satellite since there is a second and a half or two second delay. So you
need to get used to waiting longer than normal for a reply at the other end
of the line. The system breaks up some if people on both ends of the line
talk at once. In a two hour talk out of state, we did lose contact twice
and had to redial. But, all in all, the system worked better than my
digital Cell Phone.
I wanted as good a quality of sound as I could get so I bought a couple of
Head sets with microphones built in. I also bought a couple of 25' mini
stereo extension cords so that my wife and I can talk from the dining room.
When you buy the $50 Net2Phone set from a computer store, you get one of
these head sets and the CD-ROM disc for the software.
-Wes
wfelty@gte.net
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Feb 03 2001 - 15:54:06 PST