Pete writes, Is there any way of making Skype into a cordless phone? Specifically, the computer is in the home office attached to the broadband jack, but we’d like to be able to respond to incoming calls from Europe from the bedroom, since they tend to be late at night.
Making Skype more like a plain-ole telephone used to be a tricky matter, but not anymore. Skype is doing a handful of things to make it easier to get Skype calls away from the PC. My personal favorite is integration with cell phones, because that allows me to take Skype and all my other calls anywhere, but inside your home, you’re likely to get better call quality and burn fewer minutes using one of the VoIP and landline integration tools.
A third option is free, assuming you have a smartphone. Search your phone’s app store for Skype and receive calls via Skype using your phone data plan.