Here’s a Miss Cleo prediction: Skype is going to be huge. Yesterday I tested (while working on a few technical support issues actually), chatting with several folks on both broadband and dialup and I remain very impressed with the sound quality. Remember, it’s still beta software, and thus there are some kinks, but it is catching on fast. Here’s a few helpful tips:

1) If you can hear others, but others can’t hear you, then check your microphone record properties (thanks badSol). You must have microphone checked, not line in.
2) Keep the microphone levels beneath the halfway point.
3) Turn off the mic boost; if you have that setting checked, uncheck it.
4) If you are using a standup microphone then keep it at least a foot from the speakers (feedback).
5) Check the known problems page for issues the technicians are working on, particularly:

Updating online users: There may be significant delays in updating the online status of users as the network grows. A user who appears to be online may in fact have already logged off and this could result in an incomplete call. The delay is currently not more than 1 minute. We are working to resolve this issue.

6) Stop trying to upload your photo, the function isn’t activated yet
7) Yesterday, I noticed between 4000 and 6000 users online. This morning there were 9492 online.
Doesn’t work with Windows 95, 98 or ME, only XP and 2000. In the FAQ they say it might work but it isn’t tested yet. Don’t bother, you need XP or Windows 2000. We got all sorts of division by zero runtime errors when trying to load into OS besides XP and 2000.
9) If someone rings you and you can’t hear them, then consider pointing them to this entry. The FAQ and Help files are pretty lean on sound-related help at the time of this writing.

• Skype logins hosed at the moment, just keep client running
• Skype tops 16,000 users online and 240,000+ downloads
• “Skypers” unofficially defined as Skype phenomenon continues to grow
• Skype VoIP adds conference calling
• Google Talk is live! (screenshots)
• Skype illegal in South Africa?