Installing Skype on Ubuntu

Skype is a little piece of software, that is used to make free calls to other users of Skype, anywhere in the world. Skype can also be used to call phones and mobile phones at cheap rates. Skype is free to download.

In this example, we will install Skype on a Ubuntu 9.10 operating system.

We visit the homepage of Skype and choose our preferred language. We go to the download page and locate Ubuntu. We choose the 32 bit version. We are now offered to download a software package. When downloaded, we double click the software package and Package Installer offers to install the software package. When installed, we close Package Installer. Skype can now be started by clicking Applications, Internet and Skype.

We start Skype and are presented with the Skype End User License Agreement. After having agreed to that, Skype asks for our Skype username and password.

In this example, we do not have an account yet. We click the “Don’t have a Skype Name yet?” and fill out the formular. Skype confirm the creation of our account.

We are now logged in.

We choose an avatar, which is the image, that are used to represent us. We type in a status message. We edit our public profile.

We open the options dialogue and go through the pages one by one. We set the values of “Show me as away” and “Show me as not available” to zero minutes, which will make us appear online at all times. We unset “Allow my contacts to see the number of contacts I have”. We unset “Show emoticons”. We unset “Check for updates on startup”. We note the port number, that will be used for incoming connections. We apply the settings and close the options dialogue.

We configure our local firewall and network address translation.

We configure our audio settings by right clicking the speaker and clicking Sound Preferences. Under the Input page, we choose our device for sound input, unmute and adjust input volume as necessary.

We are now ready to test Skype. We will be using Skype Test Call feature for this. An automatic voice answer our call, offer to record a voice message from us and then play back our recorded voice message.

We are now ready to use Skype. We recommend, that users of Skype search for other users of Skype by their email address.

We have found, that quality of audio and video conversations is high.