Skype Setup & Testing

    It would be wise to print off onto a printer the Skype instructions for a number of tasks you'll be doing with Skype. The 2 indexes are at "How to Use Skype" & "Visual & Text Guides".

    The step in setting up & testing our headset/microphone in our computer, that caused us a bit of confusion initially, was the "Skype advanced sound setup guide" (Skype also hasLinux & Mac guides) listed at the bottom of the "Visual & Text Guides" link in the previous paragraph above. I assume that a number of others who will be reading this are as technologically unsophisticated with computers as we are so I'll outline a few things that helped us to walk through this. I'd advise you to print onto your printer the above "Skype advanced sound setup guide" & also this page from our website so you can read the following paragraphs (below) at the same time you are reading the "Skype advanced sound setup guide" & walking through this process on your computer.

    If the headset/microphone you're going to be using is not a USB or Firewire style plug-in, you'll need to unplug your speakers from your computer & make sure you get the 2 microphone & headset plugs plugged into the correct jacks (diagrams on the back of your computer where you unplugged your speakers, will indicate where the headset & microphone wires are to be plugged in).

    If you're using a USB or Firewire style plug-in from your headset/microphone then hook them into your computer before you walk through the "Skype advanced sound guide". This should automatically (at least it does in XP) download into your computer (over a few minute time-span) the driver requirements of your USB or Firewire headset/microphone. Some headset/microphones may have a CD you need to download these things from?

    We found, after clicking the "Start" tab at the lower left of your computer screen, that some resulting pop-up windows don't list "Settings" but list "Control Panel" instead. Either way the "Control Panel" link is where you need to make it to. You may need to single or double click various buttons/icons in following the instruction process. If a single click doesn't do it then use a double click.

    In the "Sound Playback" section Skype's instructions talk about, they say to select the device that Skype uses. If you're using a non USB or Firewire headset/microphone then the "device" that Skype will use will be whatever your computer lists in this window as your computer's default device. If you're using a USB or Firewire headset/microphone & have already hooked it up so it's driver requirements have been downloaded (or done from a CD that came with the headset/microphone?), then you'll have another device listed in the drop-down menu in the "Sound Playback" section of Skype's instructions. Choose it if you're using a USB or Firewire connection.

    To be honest I'm not sure if your computer's default device has to be set up according to Skype's instructions, as well as the device that will pop up in this window when you're using a USB or Firewire headset/microphone? We did, only because we set it up first for a non USB or Firewire headset/microphone. Try it first without doing it in your computer's default device & see if it works.

    When you click on the "Volume" button in Skype's instructions, the "Options" menu button will be at the very top left corner of the pop-up. In the diagram that looks like a stereo sound control system, the microphone volume controller for playback is muted when there is a checkmark in the "mute" box underneath the "microphone" section of that diagram.

    Our computer system does not have the "Advanced Controls" tab activated (it's faded out) in the drop down "Options" menu in the next step, after the "Volume" button has been pressed under the "Sound Recording" section. We couldn't & didn't have to do any of these "Advanced Controls" steps & our system works fine. Apparently some computer systems have this activated & others don't.

    In the step where the Skype instructions walk you through testing out the sound of your headset/microphone (Start/Programs/Accessories/Entertainment/Sound Recorder), it initially did not work for us when we tried to record a message in our computer & then play it back. We had to go back into the previous steps in "Sound playback" & "Sound recording" & find where we had mistakenly either muted or unmuted a box we shouldn't have. We soon found it after a few experimental attempts & it then worked. Sticking with the instruction steps & experimenting with them when it did not initially work resulted in a real sense of accomplishment when it finally worked. Not sure if we've quite graduated to being called a "techie" by accomplishing that or not but it sure felt good to finally get it right?

    Don't let this process scare you as it's really quite do-able as long as you're willing to go back a few steps in the instructions you print out, & look at what you might have checked/unchecked that you shouldn't have. Experiment with it as you can't break or mess up your computer in what you're doing with these settings.

    Once you've successfully accomplished the above, you can then go to your Skype pop-up on your computer screen in order to test out the audio online in Skype (previously in the above steps you have just tested out your audio within your computer itself). Right click your mouse on the Skype pop-up on your computer screen, then click onto "Add a Contact", & then type "echo123" without the quotation marks. You can then click onto "Echo" in your "Contact Names" list, right click your mouse & then click onto "Call this Contact". You will soon hear their recording, then be able to record your own voice message, & then listen to it being played back to you so you can hear what you've said.

    You may need to adjust thevolume controls (if you have them) on your headset/microphone. If you don't have volume controls on your headset/microphone then you may need to go back into the above steps & increase the "Volume" slide tabs (diagrams that look like a stereo sound control system) in the above "Sound Playback" & "Sound Recording" sections. Personally, we've both increased the volume on these slide tabs & also adjust it by a "wheel" on our headset/microphone".

    Once you've been successful in all of the above, all we need to do is exchange with each other the Skype "Contact Names" we've each registered with Skype, & then we'll be able to speak with one another online. We'll send you our Skype "Contact Name" in an encrypted email once we've been notified by PayPal of your purchase. You'll then be able to send us your Skype "Contact Name" in a free encrypted email from within our encrypted email to you. We'll explain how to do this in our first encrypted email to you.

    Check the "How to use Skype" & "Visual & Text Guides" you've printed off, re how to meet one another online. It's simple from here on in.

   Happy travels!

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