Shopsmith Forums

iclark

Have you downloaded the program? If not here is the link. All you do is hit download and follow the instructions. http://www.skype.com/welcomeback/

Tom helped me a little but I was able to contact him on my own so that was a surprise. The other party has to be available at the time you Skype them to talk. It also has a message typing ability to leave a message.

Mark

iclark,
One other item of note about Skype. It's default configuration is to only accept calls from people already in your contacts list. This eliminates "Spam" calls. Once you install Skype, you'll want to go to the Contacts area and select New Contact. Enter the Name, SkypeID or e-mail address of the person you're wanting to contact and it will send a message to that person. Once that person receives your request, if they add you to their contacts list, you can see when they are online and contact them. If the person has their Skype ID added to their profile on the forum, an icon will display in the upper right corner of any of their posts (under their join-date, location & No. of Posts) and also show in their public profile. You can click on that and request to be added to their contacts list from there.

As an aside, last evening, MBCabinetmaker and I made a Skype call (as he mentioned above), and we tested the screen sharing functionality. Mark was able to watch me draw a pocket-hole in a board in SketchUp, and we were talking about it the whole time I was drawing and he was watching. Mark then shared his screen with me, and I was able to see a problem he was having with SketchUp and help him correct that. It really works nice for interactive help and instruction. It was just like one of Nick's Sawdust sessions, but instead of having to type in a question and have Dusty read it to Nick, you're talking live while you're watching.

I haven't seen much conversation or interest about using Skype in the threads since Mark mentioned it. The user would have to have an Internet connection faster than dial-up for video sharing, and scheduling a common time for everyone to meet together may be logistically difficult, but it is a good technology and I will still offer it for one-on-one help if anyone wants/needs it for SketchUp questions/problems even if we don't use it for tutorials.

Mark,
Are you going to edit your profile and add your Skype ID so others can contact you through Skype?