[peppie]

Are you committed to using Skype? Because there are other options. Skype is a "community" sort of set up and one of the issues I had with that was getting good backup support, better that is than a members forum.

There are companies that specialise in providing VOIP phone services and in the end I ended up with Mynetfone which is Sydney based and their support has been very good. I hasten to add that I have a decent electronics background, but I have also learnt that I can save heaps by paying a bit more to save huge amounts of my time getting something working that I am not completely familiar with.

I have a "Phone Adaptor" (small interface box) connected to my home router into which I can plug 2 ordinary phones for 2 separate phone lines (or fax). I can also run a sofware phone on my laptop (using a mic headset) or access the same phone line from my 3G mobile phone (but not at the same time). My present 1 line has a landline No. to access it and has voicemail which will send me an email with the audio message of a missed call. All for $9.95 per month and cheap call rates to boot! And I have not had any issues with sound quality.