You are using a computer, at your home or at work and now you want to use the computer to communicate with others, what can you do and use? Well, communication today has advanced greatly and computers assist us in doing it and even save us some cash :).

Naming some of the main communication techniques being used by computers: e-mails, VOIP (Phone conference calls),
phone calls, online chat messengers like Skype, Live Messenger, Yahoo messenger, etc… and more. So let’s focus on the techniques to expand and increase our knowledge of them.

E-mails: Well e-mails are no news anymore, I believe everyone is using e-mails. This is the way computers enable to pass letters from one another. You just type your message (attach any file, video, photo) and send your advanced letter to your friends, family, co-worker, etc… This technology is working and getting better as the years pass.

Phone calls: There are two main types:

  1. Internet calls – which means you are calling another person, who is sitting on a computer, connected to the internet, and using the same program as you. Like Skype calls or Live messenger calls etc… where you use online chatting (typing your messages online) or just calling your friend, and using speakers and microphones or headphones with a microphone to conduct the chat.
  2. Calling a regular phone from a computer – You can use the headphones with a microphone to call regular phones (Cell phones or landlines phones). This is doable by using a program that can connect you to those regular phone lines. Skype has such a solution (it is not free of charge), you can use “icall“, “evaphone“, “Google voice” (which is not open from any country), “tuitalk” or “freebuzzer“.

VOIP Switchboards: Well VOIP is a way to enable computer users to conduct phone calls using their
computers or the network. VOIP enables you to either use a VOIP client software that enables dialing out, using headphones with a microphone or just using an IP phone (Network Phone).

VOIP switchboards, are servers with a switchboard system, that enables you to use the network as your platform for making the phone calls. The VOIP switchboard enables a regular phone line to connect to the VOIP server, and the VOIP switchboard system can use those phone lines to conduct your computer phone calls. This is explaining what VOIP Switchboard is without getting too deep into it (this is not the purpose of this article).

Online chat messengers: Online chat messengers have been used for ages and they are getting better in time. They include a typing place, making voice calls between the messenger registers and enable to include your webcam while you chat or type your messages. These messengers enable you to talk over the internet which is, of course, free of charge. The catch is both of you have to be in front of a computer or maybe on a smart mobile phone, that has an internet connection (like iPhone).

I believe this covers some basic calling ways, using our computers, and I believe these methods will advance even more, and become cost-effective for international communications.