While reconnecting the utilities during my last move I thought it might be worthwhile to investigate the possibility of using VoIP (Voice Over IP) for my telephone and fax lines. I looked at a few of the most popular providers like Vonage and Packet8 before I decided to just keep service with my current provider since it is necessary to go through a lengthy 20-day process just to get the current number transferred to a VoIP provider I had no experience with. It did get me thinking about the advantages of using the computer to help manage calls, messages, and contacts.
A while back there was a lot of buzz about the developers of Kazaa (the popular peer-to-peer file sharing app) cashing out to go to work on a peer-to-peer distributed telephony project called, Skype. After the initial buzz I never checked in to test it out until now.