Is VoIP Taking Over?

This Philips phone can use Skype's VoIP service.

As popular VoIP services, such as Vonage, continue to increase quality and go down in price, a popular question is whether or not it's time to discontinue your home phone in favor of VoIP.

Some households have already ditched their home phones and have gone completely cellular, but for those who frequently call long distance and international, this might not be a practical alternative.  VoIP, on the other hand, offers excellent rates for calls.

A popular complaint about VoIP was that call quality as not always the best, but in recent years, this has significantly improved.  I regularly use VoIP, and the person I'm talking to on the phone doesn't know the difference--the crystal clear call quality is most apparent.

Have any of you completely gone VoIP at home?  If so, what VoIP service do you use?  Skype?  Vonage?  Another?

Skype 5.0 and VoIP... the start to service consolidation?

Skype 5.0 will integrate with Facebook to become an even more powerful, consolidated messaging platform. In addition to the normal messaging, this will bring a VoIP interface when simultaneously logged into Facebook.

Are we heading towards a service consolidation concept in which a person can maintain and entire social network and contact them via text, email, or voice all via an Internet connection? It seems like it's getting closer and closer everyday.

What are your thoughts on this?

Update: I'm going to use Windows Server 2008 R2 for my home server

After a lot of thought and suggestions from all of you, I've decided to beef up my old machine a bit and use Windows Server 2008 R2.  I was able to obtain a copy of this at a discount, so it makes more sense.  Also, it's nice having the version with all of the features... I guess I'm a "just in case" type of guy.

This is going to be quite a project, and if I can get my hands on Microsoft Exchange 2010, I might put it on there too.  It'll be nice to play around with this and host my own Exchange server too.  I'll keep you all updated. 

Setting up a home server?

I'm thinking of setting up one of my old machines at home with Windows Home Server... does anyone have any experience with this?  I have an increasing amount of files to store, and I want to be able to remote desktop into my home server from anywhere with an Internet connection.

Do you think this is a good idea?  Please share your thoughts.

Online Backup: Mozy or Carbonite?

In terms of online backup, there are two front runners: Mozy & Carbonite.

Mozy: http://mozy.com/
Carbonite: http://www.carbonite.com/

Both services require you to install their software on your PC or Mac so that it can do automatic backups of the files you'd like it to save. Mozy offers 2GB worth of backups for free and also has paid MozyHome and MozyPro plans.  Carbonite's subscription includes pricing plans that range from 1 to 3 years.

Does anyone use any of these services?  What are your thoughts on online backup?

Xmarks: Sync your bookmarks between browsers and computers

Xmarks is a FREE bookmark syncing browser add-on that allows you to sync between different browsers and computers.  It's compatible with Firefox, Chrome, IE, and Safari.

Using it is very simple.  Go to Xmarks' website and download the appropriate add-on for your browser here: http://download.xmarks.com/download/all .  Next, create an Xmarks account and sync your bookmarks to the Xmarks cloud.

Once you have your bookmarks synced to the Xmarks cloud, all you have to do is install the Xmarks add-on to each browser and/or computer you use and sync that specific install with your Xmarks account.  Whenever you add a new bookmark to any of your browsers, the change will sync to the cloud and then update when you open the other browsers on the same computer or different computer.

I've found Xmarks to be most helpful when using a work computer and home computer.  If I'm using my work computer and find something that I want to bookmark, I just bookmark it the conventional way (protip: CTRL+D on PC and CMD+D on Mac are the default shortcuts for bookmarking in browsers), and when I open the browser on my home computer, it will sync with Xmarks and show my new bookmark.

Syncing is very easy with Xmarks.

Xmarks also gives you the option of syncing your passwords.  In regards to storing passwords, Xmarks says: "Password Sycnhronization encrypts your passwords using a secret PIN of your choosing before they ever leave your computer. This ensures that nobody but you, not even Xmarks, can gain access to your passwords."  (On a side note, I store my forum passwords in Xmarks but not others since I like to think storing them in my head is most trustworthy.)

If you're currently a Xmarks user, have you had positive/negative experiences with this service?  Please share your thoughts.