Originally Posted by
antichef
you can set up the skype options to show when you are online and when others come online. my family and friends are over a few countries and continents. we use skype all the time and all have each other linked as contacts, when one of us comes online we can see because their status is shown in skype, and a little window appears to show when they come online.
as has been said, you need to have it on each computer before you leave, and you need to send a contact request from one to the other to establish the link. you can do this in the same room before you leave, so that you can see what will happen if a call is made/received at each end.
always useful to have a practice - pictures paint a thousand words!!
also you can use skype to pass documents and files. in the box where you type comments, you can drag and drop a file and it will be passed between the contacts. i find this useful for documents that are above email limits for file size. you can drag and drop big photos etc!!
Very accurate advice throughout. I use Skype a lot, I have almost daily (most days more than once a day) calls with a remote employee. I have a USB speakerphone plugged into my desktop and just call them on their phone. I also have it on all of my Mac notebooks, my netbook and my iPhone. I like and use it a lot. Occasionally I get a bad connection and as mentioned disconnect and recall usually fix it.
To emphasize a couple points from above
- the quality of the internet connection matters hugely. That said, I found using Skype on my iPhone from various places or my PC from various hotels has virtually always worked fine.
- be careful what they charge for internet in the hotels. Sometimes it comes out to be more expensive than calling on an unlocked cell phone with a local SIM card from the country in Europe
- depending on the PCs a cheap USB headset with microphones is a great idea. A poor mic in the computer will mess everything up
- practicing before you leave is a great suggestion