voip, i'm completely ignorant.

N

njc

Gawd
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Apr 30, 2002
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VOIP - voice over internet protocol.

tell me about it. is it a computer-based thing, or do you have an actual real phone? i ask, because my roommate wants us to get a phone for the apt next year, but i have a cell that i use exclusively, so i have no need for a phone, let alone the money to superfluously spend on things i don't need. i saw some ad for 7.99/mo voip.

any informative links and/or counsel would be much appreciated.

njc
 
It doesn't have to be a computer based setup, there are stand alone units that just connect to your network that do the work, and you're free to use any regular telephone handset.

Howstuffworks always has good basic intros, and VoIP is here
 
Yeah, you usually get a stand-alone unit, which you have to program with an IP, (or uses HDLC). It usually connect to a server that will route your through the phone system. The college I go to designed their own, at least that's how theirs work.
 
trust_no1 said:
Yeah, you usually get a stand-alone unit, which you have to program with an IP, (or uses HDLC). It usually connect to a server that will route your through the phone system. The college I go to designed their own, at least that's how theirs work.
Click to expand...

I have personally never seen an IP based phone system that uses HDLC (considering that HDLC is a layer 2 protocol I doubt there is such a thing) and this is what I work on most weeks. Most end user/consumer IP based voice systems use SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) in order to connect the provided ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter used to connect your off the shelf analog telephone to the IP network) with gateways that create and tear down the voice calls. That is the simple explanation of how it works...
 
PHUNBALL said:
I have personally never seen an IP based phone system that uses HDLC (considering that HDLC is a layer 2 protocol I doubt there is such a thing) and this is what I work on most weeks. Most end user/consumer IP based voice systems use SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) in order to connect the provided ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter used to connect your off the shelf analog telephone to the IP network) with gateways that create and tear down the voice calls. That is the simple explanation of how it works...
Click to expand...

ok... things are still unclear to me. if i have a IP phone hooked up through my router, how will i receive incoming calls? will i need a service like vonage to get an actual phone number?
 
njc said:
ok... things are still unclear to me. if i have a IP phone hooked up through my router, how will i receive incoming calls? will i need a service like vonage to get an actual phone number?
Click to expand...

If you want a real world phone number then yes..
 
I've used frequently a Vonage/Linksys VOIP router - it's a basic Linksys router with two phone ports on the back of it. You can hook your regular phone up to it and it has a US phone number, and you can get dirt cheap calls in the US with it. Of course, if the power is out, you have no phone line, but it works well. You can configure it to use 30K/sec, 60K/sec, or 90K/sec of bandwidth when on the phone, and even at 30 it sounds crystal clear, definitely as good as a POTS line.
 
njc said:
ok... things are still unclear to me. if i have a IP phone hooked up through my router, how will i receive incoming calls? will i need a service like vonage to get an actual phone number?
Click to expand...

If you want to go IP across the board, meaning IP from the handset to the provider then it is a different situation. At that point you would need a SIP enabled gateway in order to talk to your IP phone (also running SIP, but could use MGCP, H.323, etc depending on the provider) as well as a provider that offers this service. The above is a scenario most home users will never see because it is not cost effective (considering an IP phone alone will cost anywhere from $100 to $800).

When using a provider like Vonage you do not have an IP Phone, you have IP based phone service from the ATA to the provider, your actual phone is still analog. Below are situations (very basic drawings) you will see as a home user...

Service_Provider-------Router/ATA-------Analog_Handset

Service_Provider-------Router-------ATA--------Analog_Handset
 
The four unit apartment that I move into has VOIP. This is my first experience with it and I am very NOT IMPRESSED. First of all it sucks the same bandwidth as the wireless router that we share. Second, it is very good at dropping calls, not connecting, sounding distant and tinny, or sporadically just not working. Third, you can't send faxes on it, so it sux for business purposes. It is another example of getting what you pay for.

It is a good idea, but technology is not there yet. Hopefully it will serve as a wakeup call to the phone companies to improve their service and pricing.
 
You certainly can fax with VoIP. Fax passthrough and Fax Relay (T38) work perfectly fine. The poor voice quality/call drops you are experiencing are probably do to a poor network connection. You get poor voice quality when the DSPs have to predict what the voice should have been because of jitter and/or packet loss. The same thing applies to the call drops.

c1001 said:
It is a good idea, but technology is not there yet. Hopefully it will serve as a wakeup call to the phone companies to improve their service and pricing.
Click to expand...

If only you actually knew where the technology actually was, I think you'd be VERY surprised. I can guarentee that a large percentage of the long distance / international calls you make go over voip.
 
This isn't "my bag baby" so I can only share the experiences that I've had. Fax service is bundled for around $30 extra per month...not exactly worth it.
 
Arch said:
You certainly can fax with VoIP. Fax passthrough and Fax Relay (T38) work perfectly fine. The poor voice quality/call drops you are experiencing are probably do to a poor network connection. You get poor voice quality when the DSPs have to predict what the voice should have been because of jitter and/or packet loss. The same thing applies to the call drops.



If only you actually knew where the technology actually was, I think you'd be VERY surprised. I can guarentee that a large percentage of the long distance / international calls you make go over voip.
Click to expand...

Exactly... We run Prognosis (IP Telephony Manager and Assesor software) on our voice network with both Cisco Call Manager (CCM) and Call Manager Express (CCME)in order to monitor call quality (Jitter, Packet Loss, MoS) and maintain a MoS (Mean Opinion Score) of between 3.8 and 4.5 which is as good or better than a standard analog call.

As you said, faxing works perfect on an IP based voice network as long as you have it set up correctly.

What exactly was meant by "First of all it sucks the same bandwidth as the wireless router that we share"?? Even if you are running the G.711 codec (64Kbps, highest quality codec) you are only using ~87kbps of bandwidth.
 
having a reliable connection with voip is crucial.. and if used correctly you should never even know its there.. you can backfeed into your regular house phone wiring as long as you are disconnected from your demarc (enless you like watching fireworks)...
 
Footer4321 said:
having a reliable connection with voip is crucial.. and if used correctly you should never even know its there.. you can backfeed into your regular house phone wiring as long as you are disconnected from your demarc (enless you like watching fireworks)...
Click to expand...

Exactly why QoS is so important on large corporate networks where Voice and Data traffic co-exist. Instead of people claiming their VoIP service is unreliable they should look at their ISP (network) instead...
 
so you are saying, if i had this on my dsl (1.5/384) i wouldn't notice a diff?
 
Lugztaz said:
so you are saying, if i had this on my dsl (1.5/384) i wouldn't notice a diff?
Click to expand...

What are you refering to exactly? Call quality, bandwidth, something else???
 
Lugztaz said:
so you are saying, if i had this on my dsl (1.5/384) i wouldn't notice a diff?
Click to expand...
if the bandwidth is there you wont notice a diff... but if for some reason your bandwidth drops you will notice a dif... when running voip skimping on a connection is not the thing to do... also wont you need to at least get local service with your dsl?
 
Footer4321 said:
if the bandwidth is there you wont notice a diff... but if for some reason your bandwidth drops you will notice a dif... when running voip skimping on a connection is not the thing to do... also wont you need to at least get local service with your dsl?
Click to expand...


For starters, VoIP service is only usefull on the home front for people with Cable due to the fact that DSL requires local phone service making the VoIP service redundant (this is changing, but not fast enough). Another area where networks and decision makers are lagging behind the technology (also involves lost revenue for local phone companies that can not provide that type of service yet, so it benefits them to drag their feet).

Basically, the more bandwidth and less latency you have the better when it applies to a home user because in most cases they have no control over the traffic prioritization. QoS is implemented in order to provide the Real Time (Voice) traffic priority over the data traffic in large networks and across slower WAN links.
 
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