Telephone over the Internet

I am thinking of switching my telephone access to the Internet (VOIP). I
have a wireless router and adapter. However, before making the jump -

Am I correct in presuming I would need a special phone to could connect
wirelessly (I couldn't use my existing phone)?
Am I correct in presuming the computer would have to be on 24/7?
What would happen to incoming calls if the computer was not on?
Is there an appreciable time in delay in two-way speech?
Are there any other advantages (other than cost) / disadvantages?
How reliable is VOIP?
Does VOIP suffer from traffic / congestion problems?
Is there a source of information for beginners?

Whilst VOIP is included in the monthly bill it appears to be 'free' -
although, in reality, it is paid for. I don't want to fall into the trap of
having a low cost / low reliability service.

Thanks.

Bill Ridgeway

On Sun, 1 Jul 2007 18:56:17 +0100 Bill Ridgeway
from the village of (E-Mail Removed)
felt we might be interested in the following...


> I am thinking of switching my telephone access to the Internet (VOIP). I
> have a wireless router and adapter. However, before making the jump -
>
> Am I correct in presuming I would need a special phone to could connect
> wirelessly (I couldn't use my existing phone)?
> Am I correct in presuming the computer would have to be on 24/7?
> What would happen to incoming calls if the computer was not on?
> Is there an appreciable time in delay in two-way speech?
> Are there any other advantages (other than cost) / disadvantages?
> How reliable is VOIP?
> Does VOIP suffer from traffic / congestion problems?
> Is there a source of information for beginners?
>
> Whilst VOIP is included in the monthly bill it appears to be 'free' -
> although, in reality, it is paid for. I don't want to fall into the trap of
> having a low cost / low reliability service.

Bill, if it helps, there is a newsgroup specifically dealing with VOIP.

uk.telecom.voip



--
My reply address is valid, but incoming mail is set to 'auto-delete'
so will not be seen. Please post replies to the group.
XPS M1710 / 2.16 GHz dual core / 2Gb DDR2 / nVidia GeForce 7950GTX

In article <f68prl$evn$(E-Mail Removed)>,
Bill Ridgeway <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>I am thinking of switching my telephone access to the Internet (VOIP). I
>have a wireless router and adapter. However, before making the jump -

Before you make the jump, note that if you completely switch your
telephone including number to a VoIP provider (assuming they can port your
number in), then if that number is your ADSL line, it will kill the ADSL.
In most cases you'll still need a BT ADSL line and the number that goes
with it. (You may be on cable though)

If on ADSL then you might want to look into getting a new number for
your VoIP service, or seeing if the VoIP provider can present your home
number as outgoing caller ID on your VoIP line.

>Am I correct in presuming I would need a special phone to could connect
>wirelessly (I couldn't use my existing phone)?

You need a wireless phone if you want to connect wirelessly - and
here you have 2 basic choices - a DECT phone or a WiFi phone.

>Am I correct in presuming the computer would have to be on 24/7?

No.

>What would happen to incoming calls if the computer was not on?

If you're not using the computer to take calls on, then your (voip)
phone rings.

>Is there an appreciable time in delay in two-way speech?

None that you can normally notice.

>Are there any other advantages (other than cost) / disadvantages?

Many - both ways.

>How reliable is VOIP?

How reliable is your Internet connection?

>Does VOIP suffer from traffic / congestion problems?

Yes. You can help matters with a good router which can do QoS, but
you'll never get it perfect. In practice, it works most of the time
though, and for the average home-user you'll be just fine - as long
as you have a good ISP. Business users may want to invest in a good
router, or even a 2nd internet line if they use VoIP a lot.

>Is there a source of information for beginners?

Maybe asking on uk.telecom.voip..

>Whilst VOIP is included in the monthly bill it appears to be 'free' -
>although, in reality, it is paid for. I don't want to fall into the trap of
>having a low cost / low reliability service.

What you need is a VoIP provider - there are many of them about. Eg.
Gradwell.com, Sipgate (www.sipgate.co.uk), voicecheap.com,
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/ and many many others.

Then you need VoIP hardware - this can be a headset for your PC - in which
case you do need your PC on all the time. there are units avalable that
plug into the USB port on your PC, and talk to the handset via DECT.
With that, you need a client for the PC - eg. X-Lite and here you'll
find that not all USB handsets work with all soft-phone applications -
the audio will work just fine - but the buttons might not, so if you
can put up with using the GUI on-screen to 'dial' numbers then you'll
be just fine. (and you can get a cheaper handset with no buttons on!)

Or it could be a stand-alone desk phone with an Ethernet connection.

Or it could an an ATA (analogue telephone adapter) which have an Ethernet
connection and a phone connection. Some of these have 2 phone connections,
so you can plug it into the standard BT wall socket and plug a phone
into it - then you can switch between BT line or VoIP line by codes
dialled into the phone.

Or it could be a true WiFi phone. Small mobile-like device (some mobiles
have it built in) which talk via WiFi to a suitable SIP service.

There are hybrids - The Siemens C460IP is a DECT phone with both Ethernet
and analogue connections.

And so on...

Wind up your google engine now ;-)

Gordon

On 1-Jul-2007, "Bill Ridgeway" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Am I correct in presuming I would need a special phone to could connect
> wirelessly (I couldn't use my existing phone)?

A lot of answers on the Skype website.
Minimum you need is a microphone, and soundcard driving
a speaker, plus of course the internet connection.
Skype software has a mouse driven keypad, and address
book, but you can buy handheld phones with a keypad,
which can help prevent audio feedback.
Skype to Skype calls are free, it just creates a P2P like
connection between the two IP addresses.
To call landlines you prepay for Skype Out, but international
call rates are very competitive.
You can buy a Skype In number, not necessarily in your
own country, so customers or relatives can have cheap
calls to you.
Quality and reliability varies, dependent on the quality
of your ISP, is there adequate bandwidth at peak times.
In general speech calls are trouble free and clear.
Your internet broadband connection may go pear shaped,
but the landline phone still works.
Skype has a videophone capability, if you want to see
and wave to the grandchildren.
There is a Yahoo Skype group, not much useful activity
though.
For important calls, a low cost carrier with access
box or an access code to route the calls, is your best
bet.
The videophone capability of Skype improves with each
release, earlier versions had compatibility problems
with some webcams, though mostly confined to
the cheaper ones, OSX may still have these problems.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> On 1-Jul-2007, "Bill Ridgeway" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Am I correct in presuming I would need a special phone to could
>> connect wirelessly (I couldn't use my existing phone)?
>
> A lot of answers on the Skype website.
> Minimum you need is a microphone, and soundcard driving
> a speaker, plus of course the internet connection.
> Skype software has a mouse driven keypad, and address
> book, but you can buy handheld phones with a keypad,
> which can help prevent audio feedback.
> Skype to Skype calls are free, it just creates a P2P like
> connection between the two IP addresses.
> To call landlines you prepay for Skype Out, but international
> call rates are very competitive.
> You can buy a Skype In number, not necessarily in your
> own country, so customers or relatives can have cheap
> calls to you.
> Quality and reliability varies, dependent on the quality
> of your ISP, is there adequate bandwidth at peak times.
> In general speech calls are trouble free and clear.
> Your internet broadband connection may go pear shaped,
> but the landline phone still works.
> Skype has a videophone capability, if you want to see
> and wave to the grandchildren.
> There is a Yahoo Skype group, not much useful activity
> though.
> For important calls, a low cost carrier with access
> box or an access code to route the calls, is your best
> bet.
> The videophone capability of Skype improves with each
> release, earlier versions had compatibility problems
> with some webcams, though mostly confined to
> the cheaper ones, OSX may still have these problems.


But once people want real VoIP they forget about Skype. Best to forget
about Skype from the beginning.


--
60 day free DVD rental: www.southeastbirmingham.co.uk/dvd
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/NGN-use-by-GPs
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/signage

{{{{{Welcome}}}}} wrote:
> But once people want real VoIP they forget about Skype. Best to forget
> about Skype from the beginning.

Skype has its problems, but not being "real VoIP" is not one of them.

Paul Cupis wrote:
> {{{{{Welcome}}}}} wrote:
>> But once people want real VoIP they forget about Skype. Best to
>> forget about Skype from the beginning.
>
> Skype has its problems, but not being "real VoIP" is not one of them.

True, but still a toy town service.


--
60 day free DVD rental: www.southeastbirmingham.co.uk/dvd
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/NGN-use-by-GPs
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/signage

Orange VOIP is crap, crap, crap. And more crap.

On Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:38:59 GMT {{{{{Welcome}}}}}
from the village of bhx___spam@trapped___hotmail.co.uk
felt we might be interested in the following...


> Paul Cupis wrote:
> > {{{{{Welcome}}}}} wrote:
> >> But once people want real VoIP they forget about Skype. Best to
> >> forget about Skype from the beginning.
> >
> > Skype has its problems, but not being "real VoIP" is not one of them.
>
> True, but still a toy town service.

Depends on what a person wants really.... a "toy town" service might be
more than adequate for some - it certainly would be for me, I'd use VOIP
about once every six months, maybe less - whereas others require a more
'professional' level of service.

Skype is VOIP whatever way you care to look at it - how it performs, or
not, is something totally different.


--
My reply address is valid, but incoming mail is set to 'auto-delete'
so will not be seen. Please post replies to the group.
XPS M1710 / 2.16 GHz dual core / 2Gb DDR2 / nVidia GeForce 7950GTX

"Musicrab" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Orange VOIP is crap, crap, crap. And more crap.
A statement like that would be very useful by knowing the cause for it.

Bill Ridgeway