Cheap / free?
As a student myself, "free" will always be the first option. Calling with land-lines from Malaysia to the US will be a nightmare. Therefore, alternatives such as Skype and Y!M save my day (and my pocket too :P)
Skype is the best (so far) tool for working remotely. You can make calls from any part of the world for FREE! No more worrying about thousands of dollars for phone bills. Get online on Skype and you can chat for the whole day, discussing matter about work progresses and receive feedbacks instantly. And the best thing is, you can be online for days or weeks, so that you can be contacted anytime of the day, not just during the "office hour" :D
Can't connect to Skype? Not to worry. There's another great tool that may do the same job, the Yahoo! Messenger. It may have the largest user-base around, with free voice-call capability as Skype with a bit of lagg issues. You can also just send an IM message to your buddies or even send SMS to whichever Telcos that Y!M support. The world are all wired up, why not us?
Next, of course is our friendly neighborhood ...... blogger.com :D When you need more space to type, more reliable frontpage for your work and need to publish updates and news in a jiffy, nothing beats a blog like this, especially when its free :D
"Communication is key...especially when it comes to working remotely" - Shahril Ibrahim
