Hi ,
Im hoping someone can help us.
My daughter and I talk or try to talk often useing Google talk. The program has nothing to do with the problem becsause it happens on three other such ptograms.
We have a terrible time with the poor quality of the voice. It is scratchy,frying noise and popping noise often and seems to be getting worse.There is dropouts . She can for the most part hear me but seldom I can hear her or understand what is said.
I at times can hear myself coming back very loudly.All the usual precautions are taken to avoid ECHO and we both use headsets.This has been going on for a longtime but we cannot find a solution and as you can imagine ,are getting sick of it.It has not always been like this so it is something that has happened,configeration or what?
What I dont quite understand is,it worked fairly well up until several months ago.tThe problem happened suddenly and of late it seems to be almost unuseable.

If I could add ..there is no viruses or baddies

Both run genuine XP SP2

I would check background services on both computers...
You may have other apps sucking up bandwidth while you are talking.

Windows XP Home and Professional Service Pack 2 Service Configurations by Black Viper

I had good luck with Skype--
Skype official website – free download and free calls and internet calls

have you tried your ISP's tech-support?
it may be a network/line issue