I just had a wonderful Skype chat with The Book Club of Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
Earlier this evening, I’d tried to call our daughter (in Toronto) and my father (in California), bout both calls — on our Internet Vonage line — had been garbled.
I feared that that would be the case for the book club Skype chat, and lo, it was: they could see me, and I could sort of see them, but our voice communication was impossible.
Fall back plan: I called them, and we carried on that way, managing in spite of a still-somewhat-garbled telephone line, together with fuzzy Skype visuals.
In spite of all that, it was a wonderful chat! I love talking to book clubs!
What I learned: always have a telephone fall-back plan.
Have any of your had success with Skype chats? And when Skype is not connecting, how do you manage?
It’s usually good for about 5 minutes. Then we have to turn off the video, but most of the time our voices can still be heard okay. It’s frustrating because I want to see my lovely family far away. The fall-back plan is always the phone. I also use the Skype to call phones and that usually works even though people say I sounds like I’m in a can.
The good thing is, unlike years ago we seem to see our faraway relatives more often because of Skype.
That’s interesting about the 5-min. window, Agnes! Too, I never thought that turning off the video would make a difference in the reception. Thanks for the tips!