Group voice chat

Some voice chat services let you use voice chat with many people at the same time. This type of voice chat can get rather cacophonous, but it can also be fun. Some people lose their inhibitions in a voice chat room and decide to serenade the other chatters with their favorite song, or regale the room with poetic musings. Most voice chat services allow you to ignore others on an individual basis, so if you're in a voice chat room with someone who's talking over everyone else in a manner you find annoying, you can simply hit ignore and no longer have to contend with them. Voice chat on the internet isn't quite up to regular telephone conference call standards yet, so it's not a very practical solution for important group calls. But for casual conversation with others you spend time with online, it can be a great addition to your chat experience. Keep in mind you'll probably need to explicitly adjust your firewall settings to use voice chat, and others participating in voice chat will see your IP address.

Free long distance

VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) is rapidly becoming a viable option for local, regional, and long distance services. There are several companies offering customers VOIP services that use their broadband connection for voice call transmission. In this scenario, you hook up a converter box between your computer and the internet and connect your phone to the converter. In many cases you can keep your existing phone number, and some services will let you choose a new area code if you wish. Voice chat doesn't give you a phone number, then again voice chat also doesn't require a converter box and is often a free service.

One-to-one voice chat

Voice chat tips: Most voice chat systems use peer-to-peer communications for 2-person conversations. Peer to peer means one computer to another. In other words, rather than connecting to a central server through which all the data flows, you connect directly to another chatter or chatters. When you set up a peer to peer connection with another chatter, you will be exposing your IP number to the other chatter. This isn´t necessarily a problem in any way, but do make sure you have adequate firewall protection installed on your computer. Many computers have microphones and speakers built in, but your best bet is to buy a microphone and headset, or a combination microphone/headset.