Skype Hacks: Tips & Tools for Cheap, Fun, Innovative Phone Service [Paperback]

Andrew Sheppard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 19, 2005 | Series: Hacks

If you've heard about Skype--and who hasn't with all the recent media attention devoted to internet telephone services--chances are you've been mighty tempted to try it out. Skype Hacks tells you what all the Skype hype is about, explains the basics, and shows you more than 100 clever tips and tricks for tweaking and tuning Skype to make it do just what you want and more.

Millions of people (48 million and counting, in fact) have opted for Skype, which uses peer-to-peer (P2P) technology to turn any PC, Mac, or Pocket PC into a telephone. Skype offers free calls between computers and extremely cheap calls to "old-fashioned" phone numbers (landlines and mobile phones). The sound quality is excellent, and end-to-end encryption means the connection is private and secure.

But if you really know what you're doing, Skype can accomplish a whole lot more than that. Software developer and author Andrew Sheppard recently converted his entire house to Skype and uses it for all his personal and business calls, even when he's traveling. In Skype Hacks, he shows you how to do things with the technology that even the engineers at Skype probably never intended.

Skype Hacks shows you how to:

• Get started with Skype
• Figure out how much money you're saving and maximize your savings
• Cut the ties to your old phone company
• Optimize your Skype configuration
• Integrate Skype with desktop tools like Microsoft Office and your web browser
• Set up a Skype-based call center

The book offers ideas for creating and organizing a contacts list, using Skype to transfer files, taking advantage of chat and voicemail capabilities, turning a PDA into a mobile phone, and automating Skype for even greater efficiency. So whether you'd simply like to give Skype a trial run, you want new Skype ring tones and fun on-hold music, or you're considering wiring your home with Skype to get rid of "regular" phone service altogether, Skype Hacks is your ideal guide.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Overall I like the variety of hacks in this book and recommend it if you're set on using Skype. It contains lots of food for thought in possible configurations that will reduce your dependency on, and perhaps even eliminate, your fixed line voice services." - Mike Smith, news@UK, June 2006

About the Author

Andrew Sheppard develops software for the banking industry. Recently, he converted his entire house to Skype; he uses it for all his calls, personal and business, including when he's traveling.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (December 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596101899
• ISBN-13: 978-0596101893
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,281,849 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Andrew Sheppard has been fascinated by technology and science since childhood, and it's an indulgence that has continued to this day.

Since discovering Skype in 2004, Andrew has been using and hacking Skype in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways - if Skype came with any sort of warranty, he voided it long ago! Although his initial foray into using Skype was to find ways to save money on his phone bill, the true potential of Skype's ability to do things that no regular phone system can do soon overtook that initial interest and replaced it with a fascination and desire to see "how deep the rabbit hole goes" (to borrow some words from the movie The Matrix). He's still burrowing!

Andrew is the publisher of a couple of online electronic magazines about Skype: Elpis's Skype Power User Magazine (ISSN 1747-8421) and Elpis's Skype API Developer Magazine (ISSN 1747-843X). The concept behind Elpis (http://www.elpispublishing.com/) is that knowledge, without the tools to take advantage of that knowledge, is rather powerless, while the converse is a path to empowerment. Elpis Publishing's aim is to provide its readers with both the knowledge and the software needed to best use that knowledge: Knowledge + Tools = Empowerment.

After earning a first-class honors degree in astrophysics, Andrew made the mistake of going on to earn higher degrees: a masters in astronomical technology at Edinburgh University (UK) and a masters in business administration at the London Business School (UK). This period of time and that which followed was punctuated with work as a scientific researcher at Oxford University, as a software developer, and later, as a "Rocket Scientist" at Bankers Trust Company in the financial square mile of the city of London, as well as in New York and Tokyo. A lot of heartache and financial anguish could have been avoided throughout had he become what is clearly the optimal career choice for anyone anywhere: a master plumber. Nowhere on the planet is there a poor or unemployed master plumber! Too late to correct past follies, Andrew now makes his living writing software, and writing books and magazine articles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Skype for Rookies, January 19, 2006

By 

Warren Kelly (Southern Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Skype Hacks: Tips & Tools for Cheap, Fun, Innovative Phone Service (Paperback)

Skype is hot right now. Actually, you can expand that and say that VoIP is hot right now, but Skype has carved out a special niche that many VoIP companies haven't yet been able to. Skype has prompted several imitators (Gizmo Project and Google Talk are two that I use personally), and has even been verbed ("I just skyped Leo Laporte about the last TWiT podcast" or "Skype me at notarealskypename and we'll talk" are examples of this).

So how do you get the most out of Skype? By using this book.

In a lot of ways, this book could have been part of the Missing Manual series rather than the Hacks series. The first chapter steps users through making a Skype call, conference calling, and chatting. Using the pay features of Skype (SkypeIn, SkypeOut, and Skype Voicemail) are also covered, with special attention paid to showing users how to get a free trial for them. Of course, reading the Terms and Conditions would tell you much of the same information, since the refund policy for pay features is there.

The second chapter goes into the financial aspects of Skype, and shows that it may not be the most economical alternative for many people. Useful information, but pretty easy to calculate. Most people don't think about minute-rounding when they figure what their phone bill should be, though, so this section is pretty valuable.

There's really not much "hacking" in this book until chapter 4, where we start tweaking and tuning Skype (though chapter 3 does show how to build your own Skype server at home, and how to integrate Skype into your existing phone system). We learn about config.xml and what we can change to make Skype run the way we want it to. We're even told how to put Skype call shortcuts on our desktop, if we have people we call frequently.

Chapter 5 is for the businessman, showing how to implement Skype in a corporate setting. There's some unexplored potential to this aspect of Skype, including the call-center application (Hack #54).

The main reason that I wanted this book was Hack #56 -- recording conversations. My main reason for getting Skype was to use it for interviews, and I planned on recording them for editing and playback on my podcast. This was also my reason for switching to Gizmo Project -- Skype doesn't have that feature built-in, but Gizmo does. The book shows a few solutions to this problem, preferring the Pamela Professional Skype add-on ($22). I was disappointed that they didn't mention Hot Recorder ($14.95, but with a free version also), which is the solution I have heard the most about.

The most important hack is #81 -- the workaround for 911 service. VoIP phones don't have 911 capability, which is a source of concern for many potential users (including me). The book offers a simple workaround for this lack, and the lack of 411 service as well.

There's a lot of valuable information in this book. I'm not sure it qualifies as a Hack book, but it is invaluable for anyone who uses Skype frequently. Highly recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Download the program, get this book, enjoy quality VOIP at home, April 19, 2006

By 

Harold McFarland (Florida) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Skype Hacks: Tips & Tools for Cheap, Fun, Innovative Phone Service (Paperback)

Skype is one of the most popular VOIP applications for the individual user and small office on the market today. If you have already installed it or are considering installing it then you will want this book so you can configure it to work the way you want it to work and head off any problems before they occur. The first thing I have to say about Skype is that it is so user friendly that many of the hacks in this book are unnecessary. It is easy enough to figure out how to make conference calls, transfer calls, forward calls and do various other common tasks. On the other hand, there are a lot of useful tips including how to claim your money back if something goes wrong, avoiding additional mobile phone charges, building a Skype server, working with routers, using Skype at work, working with privacy issues, and add-on products. Because Skype is a peer-to-peer network service it is very important to understand the privacy and security issues and the author does a great job of both explaining them as well as how to work with them. Skype Hacks is highly recommended for advanced computer users or anyone responsible for administering Skype in a business environment.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Use Skype Like A Pro, January 6, 2006

By 

Daniel McKinnon "Dan" (Tewksbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Skype Hacks: Tips & Tools for Cheap, Fun, Innovative Phone Service (Paperback)

Skype is quickly turning the old phone network into ancient news. Put simply, Skype is an application that lets you talk over the Internet for FREE. Just like the VOIP technologies like Vonage, Skype makes communicating easier because you don't even need to sign up for a VOIP account to get talking all over the world in no time.

From the people that created Kazaa, Skype works off the same peer-to-peer architecture, bouncing your voice data over the internet, directly to the the person you are chatting with. It's am amazing technology, and it's quite clear why eBay was interested in acquiring this technology before it really takes off like it no doubt will!!

If you want to learn more about Skype or are an experienced Skype user looking to take your skills to the next level, 'Skype Hacks' is a great resource to do just that!! From learning to set up Skype to the detailed business configuration so you can replace your existing telephone system with a more cost-efficient solution, you'll become uber-good in no time with this great book from O'Reilly!!

Skype is a relatively new tech and it's great to get your feet wet with anything that you can get your hands on right now. I highly recommend this book and think that you will be very pleased if you get this book.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED