Internet  conversations

You can carry on the teletype style conversation with the other computer users via the When done among users within a single ser- vice provider, this is called chat. When done among the people connected to different service providers, it is called as Internet relay chat (IRC). Typing the messages to and reading them from the other people in real time is more personal than letter writing, as your addressees get their messages immediately. But it is less personal than talking on the telephone, especially at first, as you cannot hear, vocal inflections.

It is possible to digitize voice signals and transfer them by means of the Internet. This has given rise to the hardware and software schemes which claim to provide the virtually toll-free long distance telephone communications. As of this writing, this is similar to the amateur radio in the terms of reliability and quality of connection. When Net traffic is light, such connections can be good. But when the Net traffic is heavy, the quality is marginal to poor. The audio signals, like any other form of the Internet data, are broken into the packets. All, or nearly all, packets should be received and reassembled before a good signal can be heard. This takes variable time, depending on the route each packet takes through the Net.