What is VoIP?

VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is technology that allows you to have, essentially, a telephone conversation over the internet, as opposed to a telephone line. VoIP is not limited to computers - VoIP technology is available for a variety of handhelds, including mobile telephones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). For computers, a microphone and speakers are required. That's it! Everything else is run by the software you're using to make the call.

How much does it cost?

The best part is, as long as it's to another computer or VoIP device, it's free!

So wait, can I call my friend's cell phone from my computer?

Funny you should ask. The basic free software generally does not allow phone calls to actual telephones, but you can PAY for the ability to do just that! Where could I possibly get something like this, you ask? Well.....

So what is Skype?

Skype is a VoIP program for your computer, which was created by Niklas Zennstr?m and Janus Friis, the initial men-behind-the-curtain for none other than Kazaa, the peer-to-peer file transfer program. Skype is a free piece of software which is available for almost any operating system, including Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, and PocketPC. Skype uses your existing internet connection to make a phone call. Skype also has Instant Messaging capabilities, and may eventually make AOL obsolete, if people decide they like making internet phone calls enough to make Skype their primary IMing application.

Skype is basically free, but if you want to either make a phone call to a real phone number, you need to pay for their SkypeOut service, which is cheap, but not free. SkypeOut costs about 2 cents per minute. (International calls included in that price) If you want to create a phone number on your computer at which people can CALL YOU, then you can do that. Of course, that costs money too. You can make conference calls, Call-Waiting, do file transfer, all sorts of great tools that make Skype a very strong program.

For more information, please visit Wikipedia's Skype Entry.