Voip

[Beaker]

Anyone actually use this?

Who's the best (cheapest) service provider?

As a beginner what hardware would you recommend?

[wolfgang]

I can understand that lots of people are getting very excited about this, because the internet is all over the place and now, whow, we can even use it to talk to each other. However, the problem is simply that this is a classical example of inadequate application of a technology.
The internet is based on TCP/IP networking, which is inherently a data network and makes absolutely no guarantees with regard to delays or even guaranteed delivery of individual packets. And in reality, the further away from you the other side is, the bigger the latency. Which isn't much of a problem if you just phone within the neighbourhood. But as soon as you go intercontinental, typical latency is around 500ms or more (depending on the time of day), and that's when your conversation is getting a bit awkward (like talking on the radio to somebody on the moon, you always have to wait for 2 seconds before the answer comes back).
So in short: this will work for short distances, but it will never take off for long distances. And where exactly is the advantage for the consumer? Short distance calls are either free or very close to free on most telephone networks anyway!!!

[BigPaul]

Being an avid internet gamer, I can confirm that there are several VOIP applications in use by this community, to provide a functionality which is very expensive to achieve on a standard phone network.

The Two Main ones are

Teamspeak TeamSpeak - Welcome to TeamSpeak

and skype Skype official website - download Skype free now for free calls and internet calls

They provide the users with the opportunity to have groups of people all involved in the same conversation, and as such also require a degree of etiquette in their use so they don't become unusable (with everyone talking at the same time).

Both systems have free and charged options, but a simple server to provide a group chat functionality for 5 or so people is reasonably simple to set up (with occasional problems with firewalls, but they both have very active user communities who have numerous forums for assistance on such matters).

I have personally also used them at Xmas and big family occasions to enable people from different parts of the world to all communicate together and be involved.

A simpler system if you just wish to talk to a single friend over the net is good old MSN Messenger, which so long as you have a user account and a microphone will enable you to have a VOIP conversation with another MSN Messenger user.

I would after much experience with these technology recommend the use of a proper headset, preferably one of the USB ones with their own sound processing technology, these are very useful as they mean that you can continue to use your computer normally and have all the VOIP conversations managed by a separate sound processor. This removes the problems of sound balancing as you have physically separated the two sound channels so all you will hear in your head set is the VOIP conversation and by using a headset you should also ensure that those who you are talking to only hear your voice and not the other sounds from the computer.

[andys_mf]

so whats vonage all about then? they seem to be advertising quite a lot on line just lately, but it looks like you have to have extra equipment? i thought the whole idea of voip is that you just use your pc?

vonage looks like you plug a box into your router, then your phone into a box?

[BigPaul]

The VOIP systems I mentioned rely on all participants having a PC and internet connection. Vonage looks to be similar to the VOIP offering made by Orange, BT and most of the ADSL providers in the UK (like Talk Talk).

These services use functionality, normally built into the service providers router equipment (definately in the case of orange and BT) which allows you to attack a standard phone handset to your ADSL router and make VOIP calls with out requiring a PC.

These operate by taking your standard phone signal digitising it and then transporting the conversation using IP protocols to a telephone switch local to the recipient where the conversation is translated back into a standard telephone call.

These services normally only enable "1 to 1" conversations (similar to standard phone lines), offer cheaper calls (as transporting the signal over the internet is cheaper than paying to transport a call over most phone networks) and rely on an active ADSL connection to work. All providers normally offer "free" calls to other users of their service and some offer "free" calls to users of other broadband provider VOIP services, this is achieved and available as these calls never leave the Internet and so do not cause the provider to incur and charges.

These services also generally provide cheap if not free calls to certain international destinations (normally related to those in which the service provider is active or has related companies operating in). If you currently make international calls using any of the following services/methods outlined in the below link

Simply Switch Guide to International Call Services provided by secondary Call providers

Then these VOIP services can offer a comparative and more convenient alternative service to these.

Vonage appears to offer any person with an ADSL broadband connection (or in fact any "high" speed internet connection) the ability to add this functionality to there service regardless of whether their service provider offers it or not. This does provide the benefit that it is not dependent on the broadband connection and therefore should be more mobile or even possibly compatible with Mobile Broadband services, enabling provision of a "land line" service with the flexibility of mobility.

They do have some down points, the most obvious of these is, they require electricity to work. The standard telephone network will operate even if you suffer a power cut, as although it does use and send electrical signals these are powered by a separate circuit to the mains supply. Alas the VOIP services discussed above require that a router be plugged in to the mains supply and that this supply be active to work, as such when a power cut occurs these will cease to work. Most providers for this reason encourage users to have an "alternative" emergency communication service available, either a mobile phone or a standard phone line.

Another 'not so obvious' one is, these services provide the user with a "dial in" number to give to friends and relatives, these normally are non geographic 0845 local call rate numbers. The benefit of these are that if you move around a lot you don't need to change your number, one of the major disadvantages is that they are not counted as "standard land lines" there fore they are excluded from most telephone call plans - these normally state that land lines are identified as numbers beginning with 01 or 02, as such although your friends and family will only be charged a local rate for the call, they cannot normally use any "free" minutes. It is also true to say that some mobile operators charge a premium for people to call these types of numbers, so people calling you may actually be paying more than they expect.

Also on some of the providers services numbers you would normally expect not to pay for eg. 999, "0800" etc either don't connect or become chargeable. It is important for this reason to read the small print on their contracts very carefully.

Another potential issue - especially for Third party solutions such as Vonage - is all calls will contribute to your broad band total usage, so if you are on a low user broadband package such a service could cause you to breach your user agreement and cause you to face higher costs.

In summary:-

A potentially cost saving service that provides most of what a standard phone line does and promises cheaper calls. If you call a lot of people who live outside your local area or abroad, or currently use the "international call cards" or "dialler prefix's" to reduce your international call costs this may present a cheaper and more convenient alternative.

Also if you move house frequently then this offers the ability to have a non-geographic number which is tied to your internet service rather than you BT phone line which you can provide to those who don't like calling mobiles.

Known Providers
BT VOIP Service explained
Vonage VOIP Service explained
Orange VOIP Service explained

Requirements
A high speed internet connection
A telephone Handset
and either an ISP (internet service provider) Modem/router (BT & Orange) or a third party VOIP router (Vonage)

Benefits (common)
Free VOIP calls to other users of the service.
Cheap/Free calls to BT numbers beginning with 01 and 02.
Low cost calls to international destination numbers beginning with 00 or +.
Non Geographic Telephone number which does not have to change when you move house.

Potential Down Points
Service does not work when there is a power cut, therefore cannot be your only telephone service
Non Geographic number is not included in most mobile/landline inclusive minute contracts and so calls made to you may cost friends and relatives more, and calls home may cost your more.
Not ALL calls are cheaper, some outgoing calls will cost more to make.
Calls are made as part of internet traffic and as such may contribute to your broadband total usage limits.


Mobiles Over IP
There is yet another form of VOIP we have not discussed yet, the only currently operative version that I am aware of it is Unique from Orange , this service involves the transfer of mobile communicates to a Local Wi-fi network when in range. The benefits of VOIP are then provided to the mobile user ie. cheaper/free calls when on the Wi-fi network. Some of these services are reported to operate across any compatible Wi-fi unit in the network, BT definately is operating this style of network with only those who agree to allow their hardware to participate being able to benefit, currently the BT network is used to provide roaming BroadBand access rather than cheap mobile calls over VOIP.

I can personally verify the functionality of the Orange service and that calls made at home turn up as "homebase" and are free of charge (again depending on the destination number"). So far I have not been able to verify its functionality at other orange broadband users address's as most my friends use Cable broadband, but supposedly it should identify and connect to valid livebox's and enable the service there.

[sweet_jebus]

I cant get my head around VoIP. I use it on the PS3 and whatever, and I often video call through MSN and that all works brilliantly, but actualy using it to make phone calls baffles me lol.

I have a VoIP feature on my phone, but it seems like way too much effort to sort it out.

[BigPaul]

Sweet Jebus

Do you have the VOIP option on your landline or mobile?.. If it is the mobile is it with orange?

If so to set up "Unique" just requires you to:-

1: turn on the WiFi connector on your phone
go to your phones menu
select settings>>connectivity>>Wi-fi>>wi-Fi Radio and set the option there to "Wi-Fi preferred"

2: Connect your phone to your LiveBox.
Press Button 1 on your Livebox
Make a note of the unique security code for your Livebox (this is normally a 25 character code stuck on your livebox with a sticker) - this is the wireless network security code
Make a note of your LiveBox's SSID - this is the wireless network name
Press Button 1 on your Livebox (yep again, just in case the above took you more than 10 mins)
go to your phones menu
select settings>>connectivity>>Wi-fi>>Available networks
Your network should appear - it will probably be WANADOO -XXXX or ORANGE-XXXX and will match your LiveBox's SSID. Select the network, enter your security code. Your phone is now connected to your wireless network.

.. from there on your phone will always look for a Wi-fi alternative and if it finds one it can connect to will use it. find it is a simple as that :-).. (ok maybe its not that simple, but once done its done)

.. also remember if your friends are on wanadoo/orange, and they agree, you can connect your phone to their wireless network and use this feature when visiting them.

[chetas]

I would use voiptalk.

[miloll]

Ty BigPaul very usefull links

BtW i use TeamSpeack (free calls with friends) and Skype...