Chapter 5. Skype: Free Long Distance, Anyone?

How does free long distance, to anyone, anywhere in the world, sound?

Skype is a program that allows you to make voice over IP (VoIP) telephone calls. More importantly, from the perspective of the millions of users who love this program, Skype is also a great way to make free long distance telephone calls to any other Skype user worldwide. Skype delivers great voice quality, instant messaging, conference calls, and even video conversations. Skype even works behind firewalls.

The magic behind Skype comes from its use of peer-to-peer (P2P) technology. When you log on to Skype, you and millions of others share a percentage of your network bandwidth to make the high-quality communications possible. Yes, ...

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