[vyper]

Anyone tried it? Been setting it up for business use and I'm a tad concerned that the recognition of incoming calls is flakey.

Every  third or fourth call never reaches the skype interface until a voicemail is recorded.

So has anyone else ever tried VoIP?

[kasperl]

I use GoogleTalk for one on one conversations, and I love it. Clean interface, good reliability, some great text features too.

Skype on the other hand has a interface straight from the book of 'horrible **** that got past the beta team', dodgy voice quality, and a generally annoying chat window. Most of it is just personal taste, but GTalk is just so much cleaner.

I'd go for a regular line if you need it for business, or at least make sure you're a paying customer so you can sue them. Watch out for the eBay sales calls, too. I reckon you read The Register? If not, look at their site and check the latest eBay/Skype stories.

[Setekh]

Kas beat me to it. I use GTalk too and I'm really impressed by how clear it can be on such little bandwidth. I use it all the time to replace my Dad's overseas calls.

That said, never tried Skype. I'm still wondering about how Google's going to make money with Google Talk...

[SadisticSid]

You can't really compare the two - one's an IM with voicechat, the other is a full telephone exchange-connected VoIP suite.

I've used the latter a couple of times, it's nice and cheap for some uses but it isn't reliable enough for personal, never mind business use. Check out http://www.voip-info.org/tiki-index.php?page=VOIP+Service+Providers+Business and scroll down to the UK section, might be worth looking at ones with QoS policies. But going for a traditional line is still the safest bet.