I'm a frequent skype user. Recently, on both my laptops when trying to call phones, an error message usually appears and skype shuts down on me. It has been working fine when calling to computers. But when calling phones, it often shuts down on me. I tried uninstalling and re-installing the program but the same problems persisted.

Has anyone had similar problems? Any advice? In the coming months I will NEED the call phone service more than ever before and the LACK of reliability really bothers me.If your using an older version of Skype, update it as the previous versions are rather error prone.

Your using Windows XP right? Update to service pack 3 if you haven't already, this will give much greater stablility and security for the OS and drivers. If a device driver is the ISSUE this will also probably solve it.

It might not be Skype itself, but a driver or a thrid party application also accessing the same device creating a conflict and crashing.

Try clearing out the TEMPORARY files and restarting the application:
•Remove the file from the location as User/Library/Preferences/com.skype.skype.plist
•Remove the directory as suggested User/Library/Application Support/SkypeMight it be possible that calling a "phone" connection requires more bandwidth or noise free ISP connection than to another computer. Perhaps there has been a deterioration in the service from your ISP?
Given that we are dealing with laptops here.Have you tried using them at another WI-Fi location?truenorth