Skype is an internet telephony provider, where users who have installed the Skype client on their computers can talk to each other free of charge using VoIP (Voice over IP). The Skype client is also available for free and the program can work across firewalls and NAT, thereby allowing anyone on the internet to talk to anyone else.

Skype was developed by the founders of KaZaA and is currently owned by eBay.

For communication with traditional phone systems, Skype has a paid service which allows a computer to dial and receive calls from traditional phones. In the paid service, voicemail is also supported.

Skype maintains the users contact lists online supports video conferencing.
Skype is platform independent and can be installed on Windows, Mac and Linux. However, the functioning of Skype is not a roller-coaster ride with Linux and Mac. It works best with Windows. Skype also works with PocketPC.

Since Skype uses a peer-to-peer model rather than the traditional client-server model, the infrastructure can scale up very easily without any need for major upgrades. Incidentally, it is rumored that Skype has to manage only the login servers and the entire routing is taken care of by the peers. As of this writing, 100 million plus customers are serviced by Skype.

The unpopular part of Skype is the mechanism for call routing. Let’s say, UserA is trying to communicate with UserB. The call from UserA to UserB may happen directly or can be routed through another user, UserC. In this case, UserC becomes a ‘Supernode’ and is functioning as a router between UserA and UserB. This unduly penalizes UserC for being a part of the Skype network. Also, the software is a closed source software and proprietary. Hence no customizations or add-ons can be added by software developers.

Although the product has not been reverse-engineered by independent developers, Skype is believed to have made good use of encryption technology in its product and the software codes are well-written.

The average age of Skype subscribers is 29.7 years. About 46% of the subscribers are from Europe and 13% from China. These numbers are derived by SR Consulting, which reviewed some 4 million users profile of Skype.

Skype client is very easy to set up. For people who have not set up a Skype client, here are the steps:

1. Download the software.
2. Install the software. It automatically configures itself for your computer and network.
3. Register as a Skype user.
4. Get a headset for your computer.
5. Locate another Skype user. Searching tools make this easy.
6. Click on a Skype contact name. You can do this from a variety of places within the client application.
7. Talk free to people anywhere in the world.

The clarity of the call in Skype is amazingly clear and most people don’t appear to be talking from the other side of the world.

Apart from making regular calls to Skype users, it also facilitates conference calls between a maximum of 5 users, file transfers and instant messaging.

Netgear recently announced a Skype compatible phone. The phone removes the dependency of placing calls from the PC. Instead it connects directly to a WiFi router for connection. Similar products from other companies are also in the pipeline.

What is a Mobile Phone Jammer?

What causes a traffic jam? Too many vehicles moving along the same road, right? Also the reason for a traffic jam can be that there are other vehicles on the road which are blocking your path to speed.

Similarly, a cell phone jammer is a device that emits signals in the same frequency range that mobile phones use, effectively blocking their transmissions by creating strong interference. So if someone is in the range of a jammer, he will just lose his signal strength and accuse the service provider without knowing that there is a jammer which is responsible for the signal loss.

Why do we need mobile phone jammers?

There would be no need for jammers if everyone followed phone etiquettes. People who do not follow phone etiquettes like speaking slowly and moving away from other people while talking on the phone are inconveniencing others at banks, offices, public transport systems, hospitals etc. So if you are one of the people annoyed by mobile phone talkers, you can buy a pocket jammer. It can in effect kill the signal of the person speaking on his mobile phone while sitting next to you in the train. This will not prevent the other person from talking but will force him to move away from you, under the belief that the signal is bad at the place where you are sitting. This can be done with a flick of a button.

Although it would be a desirable solution for a lot of people, it can cause havoc to the business of the mobile phone service provider. Hence it is banned in most countries except for special zones like hospitals, military and government offices.

Cell phone jammers are available in multiple shapes depending upon their ‘power’ to block signals in a specific range. A small personal jammer may resemble a cell phone and have the capacity to block signals for around 50 – 100 feet. This is a good enough distance for a person to not get distracted by an ongoing cell phone banter. There are more powerful jammers which resemble networking equipments with wires, that have the capacity of blocking cell phone signals for a few miles. This can be useful around a Presidential motorcade, for example, to keep terrorists from detonating a bomb from miles away or even from outside the country. By wiring a cell phone to explosives the device can be triggered by simply placing a call to the phone, as was done in May 2002 by Palestinian militants in Tel Aviv when they targeted an Israeli fuel depot by rigging one of its fuel trucks.

Law enforcement also uses cell phone jammers in hostage situations to keep the suspect isolated, and in South America, banks use the devices to prevent robbers from tipping off outside accomplices to departing customers leaving with large withdrawals.

There are many businesses who would love to use jammers like restaurants, theaters, hospitals, libraries to name a few. The reason for the desire is to prevent the patrons from having to forcibly listen to the banter of a possibly-unaware-disturbance-creating-cell-phone-user.

Personal cell phone jammers start at about $250 (U.S.D.) and are widely available online despite their illegal status in most countries. The top manufacturers reportedly sell primarily to military and law enforcement but will sell the devices to anyone with the disclaimer that it is up to the buyer to make sure the device is legal in his or her country and that the buyer assumes all legal responsibility for buying, owning, or using the device.

What would happen if a jammers are made legal?

Obviously, the cell phone industry will run out of business, since although it is intrusive at times, there are marked benefits of cell phones as well. And if jammers are in use publicly, no matter what amount of infrastructure investment is made by the service provider, the end user will still not get a guaranteed good service.

Wrong handling and unsafety use of Cell Phone can lead to accident and loss.!

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Talking while charging. Plz Do them separately.