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Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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Thursday, May 5, 2005
Update on Skype Performance Issues
I got some help from Skype tech support on the CPU usage issue. In addition the list of conflicting programs listed on the Skype site, I was instructed to turn off the built-in speech recognition function in Windoze:Also, be sure to turn off Windows XP speech recognition feature. The speech recognition engine kicks in when you begin a call and can cause your CPU to run at 100%. Turn off the speech recognition by opening the Control Panel and selecting Regional and Language Options. On the Languages tab, under Text services and input languages, click Details. Under Installed services, click Voice Recognition under the language you are using, and then click Remove.
I didn't even know this was on, and removing it did make a significant difference in performance. Skype still hogs CPU at logon, and whenever I initiate new activites, but it doesn't seem to hang during calls, or when I send an IM during a call. I tested it for about 15 minutes this afternoon and results were acceptable.
Terry Frazier at 5:54 PM
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Wednesday, May 4, 2005
Budget Conferencing
My experiments with SkypeIn/SkypeOut conferencing have been mediocre, at best. I don't know how the Skype advocates can actually be running significant businesses on Skype-based telcom. It's great if all you work with are geeks who overlook the flaws just to be playing with a new toy. But my clients are pragmatic businessmen who have little time for screwy phone problems.Skype beta 1.2 0.48 continues to have serious resource issues on my PC, taking 99% CPU at random points during a call and locking out all callers until CPU usage returns to normal. So I'll be waiting a while before I put any significant business on Skype.
In the interim I've signed up with Budget Conferencing. They have a full-featured service and a toll rate of only 4.5 cents per caller/per minute. That's roughly 2x the SkypeOut call rate, but the service seems to work and has a full feature set for managing callers, recording calls, etc.
Terry Frazier at 4:57 PM
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Friday, April 22, 2005
VoIP Line Activated Today
On the other telcom front, I got my VoIP line activated today – well, last night actually. There were some glitches in the setup. Seems my ISP had not properly configured the TA (telephone adaptor) before shipment, nor properly configured my account at their end. So I didn’t have any dialtone when I plugged the thing in. Took about 45 minutes on the phone with tech support. I had to reconfigure the IP address of a laptop and hook it directly to the TA to manage the configuration. then the ISP had to make some changes at their end on my account. But once that was done I had dialtone.
Today I used the phone all day, including some conference calls with clients. Worked like a charm. Just like my plain old telelphone service. And much better than my cell phone.
Conference Calling Problems With SkypeOut
I ran a SkypeOut conference call today. This is the second such call Ive done. I use Skype to initiate calls to two (or more) POTS numbers via SkypeOut. There are two recurrent problems:
The sound quality between me and any given participant is good volume level, latency, etc. are all on par with phone service, but the sound quality between the other participants is poor. Skype - specifically the Skype client on my computer - seems to be actiing as the bridge for the call, routing signals between callers and creating all the necessary links. Something happens at the bridge that degrades quality between the edges.
This idea is supported by the second problem whenever I send an IM via Skype during the course of the call my computer hangs for 45 seconds, creating a 45 second dropout for all the call participants.
Both of these issues may be bugs in the 1.2.0.41 client. It is, after all, a beta package. But they need to be fixed for Skype conference calls to become mainstream.
Terry Frazier at 9:06 PM
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