IT Addict, "High Tech made Simple" / This blog has moved to www.jeremyfain.net

Friday, July 07, 2006

Wengo, a better VoIP service than Skype?


Skype is good. But there exists a better software, at least for now. Its name´s Wengo.

Lots of people connect through Skype, the rates are pretty low, and everybody knows about it. True. However, I´m sure you´ve already noticed that:
* The quality is good, but not so good;
* Skype uses a lot of memory resources;
* if you´re connected to a network (in your company, at home, etc.), one of the networked computers will be assigned "Server Tasks" and become EXTREMELY slow and vulnerable (security breaches). It´s on the contract you tick to agree when registering to Skype, and a major pitfall against corporate accounts business development.

So I suggest that you try Wengo. It´s as cheap as Skype, the hearing quality´s definitely better, few people have is so there´s no "Server" risk, and it´s extremely easy and simple to download and install. I now use Skype for PC-to-PC calls and Wengo for PC-to-landlines/cellphones/SMS use.

So try Wengo.

posted by Jeremy Fain at 10:09 AM

7 Comments:

  • Jeremy, is this a blackslash from eBay's Skype acquisition or does the world really need yet another sparkly coloured voip-im-messenger tool? I mean, they're already running out of names! (www.gizmoproject.com)

    By Blogger Kari, at 7/10/2006 10:17:00 AM  

  • Kari,

    You´re right. There are already too many VoIP and IM tools on this Planet. The thing is that, the market not being mature yet, websurfers have to select and promote the best tools before a leader gets established for good (like Apple´s iPod in portable music playing devices));;).

    By Blogger Jeremy Fain, at 7/10/2006 10:29:00 AM  

  • Yeah, I know I'm going to try out Wengo as soon as possible. The only thing that bothers me with Skype, Gizmo, Wengo et al is interoperability... that's why I have my bets in Jabber to solve everyone's IM needs, but it would take some major resources for someone to build their voip-network over that.

    By Blogger Kari, at 7/10/2006 01:45:00 PM  

  • I agree with you Kari. Interoperability is a big challenge. The same goes for:
    * IM applications (Google, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN, AOL, Skype)...I heard Yahoo! Messenger and MSN were thinking about integrating. That would be definitely handy.
    * Social networks: how can people be on 27 networking sites? Personnaly, I´ve chosen LinkedIn over Viaduc, since the former is international and the latter too French as I see it. But I have an account in both just to check out the profiles of the people I meet. I also recently subscribed to 6nergies.net, which brings in an interesting concept (in French, sorry about that Kari, but I´m sure you´ll tell us more about the Finnish social networking landscape).

    By Blogger Jeremy Fain, at 7/10/2006 04:02:00 PM  

  • Jeremy, you should know that words "finnish" and "social" are rarely seen in the same sentence.
    In a way, we were ahead of the myspace curve here in Finland with IRC-galleria, but as is local entrepreneurnal habit, they failed to capitalize on it (i think it never occured to the creators to do business with the site). Originally created as a site to publish your photo for your friends on IRC, it's now a vanity site for younger girls who've never even used IRC. Add some privacy scandals and internet perverts, and well, it's just like myspace.
    Anyway, I've also chosen linkedin, because it seems to be the smartest one of the bunch. But, as a founder of a small security company told me, "it's good to list people you know, but that's about it. there's little else to it." I recently read a nice article that summed up linkedin and such as "digital baseball card collections". It's of course nice to know that I kinda know a MEP, but.. really not.

    By Blogger Kari, at 7/10/2006 09:53:00 PM  

  • Kari, I see further potential development to LinkedIn: co-opting, recruitment, address book (LinkedIn could easily compete with Plaxo), knowledge-sharing, etc.

    LinkedIn is not only a "digital baseball card collectors": for instance, it helped me get back in touch with people I hadn´t seen in ages.

    By Blogger Jeremy Fain, at 7/12/2006 12:15:00 PM  

  • I forgot to mention it, but Wengo is also an open source software, which makes it all the more attractive.

    By Blogger Jeremy Fain, at 7/29/2006 11:25:00 PM  

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