I love Skype, because it makes it easy and fun to keep in touch with my husband when he travels. It's especially great for my kids, because we can all see and hear their daddy for the whole conversation, and we can talk as long as we want for free. Needless to say, I was really upset when I just updated to Skype 2.8 and it told me I can't use it at home anymore on my iMac, which is the only computer (and mobile device) that I have that plays audio and video properly.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure exactly what the problem is, but I have a solution. The error produced by Skype stated that Skype does not work with private WIFI networks; specifically my home network could not be accessed because it is private and secure.  Huh? It has something to do with security, Skype on mobile devices, and wanting to make money. Not exactly sure how it all goes together, but it was enough to make me rather irate.

If you use Time Machine for backups, here's how you can get it working again. Drag the current Skype application to the trash. After deleting it, there are still random Skype files on your computer. Using Finder, look at your Hard Drive under Library > Preferences, and also Library > Application Support. Delete any files that have "skype" in them. Then do the same thing in the same two folders under your Users account. Using Time Machine, go back to a time before you updated to Skype 2.8. Click on Applications in the Finder window to locate Skype. Select the file and click Restore in the lower right corner. 

My "About Skype" window still says it's running 2.8, but the application also prompted me for updates, so I'm not sure if it's the current or the older version. That 2.8 makes me think there must still be another file on the computer I missed when I was cleaning up. Whatever. I can now connect to my home network wirelessly, and hopefully you can too.