I have tried skype over a year on a number of boxes (some laptops) in both Windows and Linux and I always see the same bloody problem. Namely if I call from Skype Linux to Skype Linux, then all is fine.

When I call from Skype Windows to Skype Windows or Skype for OS X, then all is fine as well.

However if I call from Skype Linux to Skype Windows or Skype for OS X, then the other party has terrible echo (not me!).

I have seen this on a number of boxes and have it here on this very laptop from where I'm writing this text as well. I reinstalled a pure skype just last week (the latest that was available) and still the same. I can call the echo service and the text comes back just fine, but as soon as I call any of the windows users they are doomed.

I have tried searching the forums, but didn't find anyone else with similiar errors (the sheer number of posts doesn't make it easy to search so I might have missed as I didn't dig too far into the past). I did also read the Sound FAQ and tried running through artsdsp, but then echo123 didn't give me any feedback (I could hear it, but nothing echoed back from my side from the 10s recording). If this is a known issue and has a thread where there is also a solution, could someone post the link here, if not, then ideas why this is so? It seems to be a problem between the keyboard and the chair as I know people who use Skype under Linux without these effects.

[quote=toruonu]
However if I call from Skype Linux to Skype Windows or Skype for OS X, then the other party has terrible echo (not me!).
[/quote]

This is your fault.

Even though you don't hear it, it is probably your machine causing the problem. It has to do with your sound input device. Many mixers offer a "capture" device or a "what you hear" device. If you select this as the sound input, then it will feed back what you hear to the other end, resulting in echo.

So you have to open up your mixer and select the Inputs tab, and select only the mic as the input, and mute all the others.

Without knowing more about your desktop version, I can't be more specific.

Thanks mate, I will investigate that.

I use ALSA and normally use alsamixer as the mixer and that enables me to select just one input device. On the other hand I use KDE and the mixer in KDE has always been kind of a bizarre tool I'll investigate in muting everything else and checking if that helps however I can't do that at the moment and I'll report back in a few days