Is VoIP the Way to Go? 64
Howpostsgetratedsuck asks: "My cable operator now offers VoIP local and long distance for one flat rate. Does anyone have any experience with or use a VoIP service provider? What are the pros and cons? What do you give up? Do they provide more than one number for my dedicated fax line? Is it better to just use wireless services for everything and dump the landline pots service altogether? Should I stay "status quo" for a while longer? I use the telephone in my business office for about 90% of my telco anyway."
Try it out (Score:2)
Re:Tranferability (Score:2)
You can take your equipment with you when you travel and get calls just like you're at home, even if it's in anouther country (assuming there's broadband where you travel too). If you move, you probably don't even have to tell them you moved, unless they need your mailing address.
Re:Tranferability (Score:2)
it's the next big thing ... (Score:5, Interesting)
phone, you can set up your own software call distribution system where
some calls ring your phone, some go to voicemail, some get forwarded to
your mobile etc.
When I was at cisco, these sorts of services were the "bet the company
on it products of the future"
The funny thing is, some of the most interesting implementations of
this sort of thing are open source, one of which is vovidia [vovida.org] which got bought by cisco [vovida.org]
, but is still operating as an open source operation. The guy who
started has been aquired by cisco twice.
While it *IS* the next big thing... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:it's the next big thing ... (Score:1)
VoIP is not offered in my area but I'm itching to build a homemade PBX. And there is a bunch of features for voicemails and transfer that you would be able to use with the provided SIP or H323 calls.
Gog
Re:it's the next big thing ... (Score:1)
Here are some good books on the topic:
SIP Demystified
http://tinyurl.com/v90m
Internet Communications with SIP
http://tinyurl.com/v90n
SIP: Understanding the Session Initiation Protocol
http://tinyurl.com/v90o
Werd to big bird!
Why not ask here? (Score:2)
Besides, when you ask Slashdot, you aren't forced to listen to Mantovani for 3 hours (punctuated by "your call is important" every 37 seconds). Seems better to me.
Sound Quality is Worse (Score:4, Interesting)
But, the sound quality isn't quite as good as our old phones used to have. There are times when it's a bit like a walkie talkie: there's a bit of static before/after the other person starts or finishes talking. The sound quality while talking is generally pretty good though (but not as good as the old phones).
I don't know if your setup requires having new VOIP phones or not, but when I got my new VOIP phone, I needed to also get a new corded headset since my old one doesn't work with the Cisco phone.
Ron
Re:Sound Quality is Worse (Score:1)
Re:Sound Quality is Worse (Score:3, Informative)
If the call quality isn't pristine, chances are you've got network issues.
Your Network/IP Telephony guys ought to be looking at Layer-2 QoS settings (Maybe Layer-3 if your Voice traffic is traversing subnets), VAD (Voice Activity Detection), and Echo-cancellation settings.
If the equipment in your network infrastructure is up to snuff, and it's configured properly, you should never be aware that you're us
Re:Sound Quality is Worse (Score:3, Informative)
There are two types of headset pinouts: headset and handset. Sounds like you had a handset pinout. You can easily chop the end off, repin it out and recrimp it.
Here's a URL to help:
http://www.rvs.uni-hannover.de/people/einhorn/hea d set/index_e.html [uni-hannover.de]
No need for an amplifier since the Cisco 7960/7940 will do th
Comfort Noise (Score:2)
Uptime (Score:4, Insightful)
So. How often does your cable go out? And for how long?
I'm all for giving the local telcos some competition. (Especially now that consolidation means they're less and less local [sbc.com] any more.)
But really, what's your cable company's track record on service quality? That'd be the first thing I'd be concerned about.
-Sporktoast
Re:Uptime (Score:3, Informative)
This is really true. I don't know much more about this than your average Joe. But my cable-company specifically tells you, that if you need reliable access to emergency numbers, etc, you should have an alternative to VoIp, such as mobile phone or fixed lines.
I think that should tell you either that the cable-company is afraid of getting sued (which is quite unlikely here in Norway), or the reliability is really bad (which is much more likely, althou
Re:Uptime (Score:3, Informative)
Why, sure it is! (Score:1, Funny)
"Breaker breaker, cyber-buddy!" Sign me up
10-4 !
Vonage (Score:3, Informative)
VoIP is a Good Thing (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:VoIP is a Good Thing (Score:1)
Re:VoIP is a Good Thing (Score:2)
Vonage - Acceptable Service (Score:3, Informative)
That being said, I haven't found any other problem with it. If I decide to take it with me to work, I can (although i wonder if it'll work ? ) I can just unplug the ATA and goto town. Its an awesome piece of hardware, and i wouldn't be caught dead using a POTS line now. It just doesn't make any sense. Vonage also has a feature to forward calls after a certain period of No Answer. i can forward to voicemail or to a cell phone, or whatever.
I'm all for VoIP, and at $35US, its worth it!
harryk
Re:Vonage - Acceptable Service (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Vonage - Acceptable Service (Score:1)
Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to actually travel with it yet, although thats an excellent idea.
I may end up just bringing it to work, and testing.
Traveling (Score:1)
- Great quality
- Very reliable so far
- I am reachable on my home phone
- I can spend an hour on the phone and not get hit with a huge bill
I would highly recomend the service.
Re:Traveling (Score:2, Interesting)
For what it's worth, I've brought a Vonage box on trips to Europe and Latin America with pretty good results. On European broadband it was always perfect. In Latin America sometimes the calls would be too choppy to use; other times it worked fine. Usually in the evenings it worked better.
But just being able to make and receive free international calls from a hotel room (or a random spot when using my Linux laptop
what about power outages? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:what about power outages? (Score:2)
Re:what about power outages? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:what about power outages? (Score:2)
Re:what about power outages? (Score:2)
Re:what about power outages? (Score:2)
Re:what about power outages? (Score:1)
Aside from the strawman-killer cell phone, how about your neighbor's phone?
While I've never had a power outage in 5 years at my address - the good thing about living up the street from the White House in Washington DC I guess - I have never in my entire life felt the need to phone anyone during a power
Works for us (Score:1)
don't ask me (Score:1)
The question needs to be more specific (Score:5, Informative)
With all due respect to the author, the question (as it stands) is not worded particularly well, and there is very little chance that a reliable answer will emerge.
One extremely important detail that you are leaving out is who is offering the service. You also fail to mention the specifics of their operation. IP telephony and VoIP are very different, and there's no way to be sure which one you're talking about. (You clearly indicate VoIP, but the term is so misused that I'm taking your usage of the term with a grain of salt. Pardon me if I have done so erroneously).
Because your cable operator maintains control over your lines, they are able to offer service guarantees that other services (like Vonage [vonage.com]) cannot. I cannot say whether or not your operator does take advantage of this, however. Think of it this way: Typically, when you choose an IP telephony solution, you're getting a leased line to your IP telephony provider's data center. They control everything along the way -- and can use routing protocols like QoS and ToS reliably, ensuring that your packets make it to where they need to go, when they need to get there. With a VoIP solution (again, like Vonage), your service is running over public Internet lines. The VoIP provider has no way of guarantying that the packets will get to them in a timely fashion. In the short time I've spent hacking around my Vonage service, I've found some ToS packets -- but since Vonage has no control over this, your ISP (or any other router along the way) can just ignore these ToS (and/or QoS) packets. In short, your packets get there when they get there. Sometimes it will work great, others it just doesn't work at all.
If you can provide a link to some technical information about the service, I'm sure that some of the more saavy folks here can disseminate that information and tell you whether or not the technology should work. It's up you your cable operator to actually follow through with the reliability (again, you left out the detail of who your provider is). This is the first I've heard of cable operators offering such a service (although I have a bit of experience with a number of different types of VoIP and IP telephony services).
However, if you're in the US, I'd suggest that you try it out. I've switched to Vonage. My primary motivation was my unwillingness to do business with Verizon...and even with deregulation, if I use POTS, I'm paying my local monopoly. So I gave up on it. Just remember that YMMV, so don't sign any long-term service contracts.
Re:The question needs to be more specific (Score:2, Interesting)
A couple days ago this /. article [slashdot.org] asked whether price competition would run VoIP-to-POTS companies out of business. It specifically mentioned Packet8 [packet8.net], Vonage [vonage.com], and VoicePulse [voicepulse.com]. I've been considering switching to a VoIP-to-POTS provider for quite a while now, and wonder what experience other SlashDotters have had with these or related services. To be speci
Re:The question needs to be more specific (Score:2)
The only consumerland service I've used is Vonage -- and they do exactly what you asked for. It also allows you to use your normal analog phone. I kept my POTS line for a few months while I tried out Vonage. It was good enough, so I dropped Verizon. I've found that Vonage is not as reliable as the POTS services -- sometimes incoming calls don't make it through, as well as outgoing calls not connecting. That being said,
It's got it's pros... and it's cons. (Score:2, Interesting)
When I was overseas in the middle east last month, I worked in an office with a bunch of land-lines, and a VOIP line that was linked to a number in the US. Thus, no more excessive 28 cents/minute, etc. But once in a while, there would be network lag. Sometimes it would be on our end, sometimes in the US, and sometimes it was just network congestion in general. This had the net effect of causing a MASSIVE delay in transmission. Try having a conversation where both parties don't hear what the other says
Re:It's got it's pros... and it's cons. (Score:2)
I'd Rather Roll My Own, But... (Score:2)
I would like to roll my own VoIP. I would like an adaptor that allows me to connect an ordinary phone to my network. This adaptor would give the phone an IP address, and you could send commands from Linux to make the phone ring, and if it's off-hook to send and receive digital audio, decode touch-tones, etc.
Then I would like another adaptor that allows me to connect the phone line to my network. This would give the phone line another IP address, and you could send commands from Linux to pick up the phone,
Re:I'd Rather Roll My Own, But... (Score:2)
This is mostly doable...and your OS of choice is (for the most part) irrelevant -- be it Linux, *BSD, Windows, or QNX. With a service like Vonage [vonage.com], you get a Cisco ATA, which you plug your ordinary phone into. It differs slightly
Re:I'd Rather Roll My Own, But... (Score:1)
No 911, No Faxing, questionable availability. (Score:4, Informative)
Second, Depending on the codec that the provider's using, it might not allow faxing. Vonage I believe allows it up to 9600 bps but most of the others do not. Similarly, voice quality will vary.
Finally, reliability is definately an issue. I wouldn't cancel your normal line. I use packet8 which is very cheap but I'd say it's dead for outgoing or incoming calls for about 5 hours every week. There are times when your calls will drop midconversation as well. My ISP is usually rock solid but there are enough points of failure (ISP, VOIP gateway, local phone number provider) that it's not great for reliability.
Re:No 911, No Faxing, questionable availability. (Score:2)
If his house ever had POTS service, LEC's in the US are now required to offer 911 service, regardless of whether or not the line is paid for. If he has an extra phone lying around, he can just plug it into the old POTS line for 911 use only.
Secondly, Vonage offers E911 service that gets routed to a diff
Internet faxing (Score:2)
-russ
VoIP & Power (Score:2, Insightful)
Consider the home security system (Score:2, Informative)
Unless of course if you have an network capable alarm system -
blackout (Score:2, Insightful)
I've cut the cord (Score:2, Informative)
You still need to be aware that power failures will knock you out, because even if you put the cable modem and
Re:I've cut the cord (Score:1, Funny)
Re:I've cut the cord (Score:1)
phase jitter, you say?? Amazing that it works. But if I trade the ReplayTV in for a newer one that can connect right to my LAN, I forfeit the "lifetime" subscription that the present unit has... so I stick with this hilarious situation
I'm on packet8 (Score:3, Informative)
That being said, I don't really mind the problems with packet8, my phone bill is $20.55/month every month. The thing works good most of the time, and my calling needs are generally flexible. My wife and I both have cell phones for 911/emergencies and other calling. For me, the VoiP phone is more of a security blanket for the wife. We don't need a home phone in my opinion, and she's resistant to change.
BTW, from everything I've heard & read on places like dsl reports VoiP forums [dslreports.com] Vonage is MUCH higher quality than packet8. Packet8 uses like 8k/sec (I am not sure if it's kbits or kbytes, but I suspect bytes), and Vonage can use well over 40k/sec.