VoIP

S

SKiTLz

2[H]4U
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Aug 3, 2003
Messages
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Never used or dealt with VoIP and to be honest I haven't payed much attention to it. What exaclty is it? It's voice of TCP/IP obviously but I dont understand the benefits unless your in a corporate environment.

I see many people getting VoIP at home. The person your calling needs a VoIP setup as well dont they, which most people don't. So I dont see the benefit unless your in a large office with a couple of hundred or thousand employees.

Is there a benefit to having it at home?
 
For home use, it offers a lot of neat features for a low price. On top of that, with companies like Vonage, you can get your phone number in a different city, and get many aliases that all drop to the same line. So if you have family in New York, Florida and Washington, and you live in CA, you get phone numbers that are local to your relatives, and it's a local call to you.

On top of this, you can get all sorts of features, like checking your messages online or having them mailed to you.

The reciever does not need voip, as companies like Vonage are the actual POTS access point. So you have a voip box on your broadband connection, it hits Vonage, who then drops it out to the main POTS network. Quite slick, actually.
 
I'd imagine another benefit is no long distance charges. I have a client with a small office in a remote location they use VoIP to so they dont have to pay for LD phone service, they just ride their already existing VPN.
 
Originally posted by TrechMaggotface
I'd imagine another benefit is no long distance charges. I have a client with a small office in a remote location they use VoIP to so they dont have to pay for LD phone service, they just ride their already existing VPN.
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That too, and I left that out because I was already sounding like an advertiser for Vonage, whom I was using as an example.

One of their plans includes free long distance for the entire US and Canada ( contintental, I think ).
 
Well the features you jsut rattled off do sound nice. I wasnt aware you could use it as a normal phone.

What is needed? a VoIP phone. A Dedicated box and a subscription to a provider?

I might look into it a bit better.

How does it leave your house? Coax? I use ADSL but have cable tv.
 
Vonage ( in particular, do your research to learn more ), sends you out a voip box ( a cisco of some sort I believe ), to which you plug in your regular pots phone. You plug the box into your broadband connection, whatever it might be.
 
Depending on the provider depends on the hardware. There are phones which are IP enabled, interface adapters which connect to a phone, and then there are softphones.
 
Struth. Gonna have to do some reading. Before I even waste my time though, I have to find out if theres any providers/carriers in Canada. Vonage doesnt help me much since you need a US billing address.

Are they any Canadian providers you guys know of or are they behind the times like everything else?
 
Originally posted by JTY
http://www.addaline.com/
http://www.iconnecthere.com/
http://www.voiceglo.com/
http://www.voicepulse.com/

I don't know if any of those will do Canada, but they may.
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Thanks. I'll check them out.

Ok VoIP is my reading material for the next 6 months. I really dont understand how it does what it does.

You can take your phone with you anywhere in the world and have the calls put on your account?

Using just a broadband connection does the call make its way to the providers data center then get routed on like a normal phone call? Im completely lost, but it looks as though voiceglo may be a possibiliy for me.

EDIT: Found a good idiots image of how it gets from point a to point b. Explains things a bit. With all that distance I'd think there would be lagg in calls or something?
 
Yea thanks mate. I wasn't confused already! :D

Will take a look at that site.. Cheers
 
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