.: VoIP 101: Voice over IP for Beginners
By:San
Category:Home / Technology / VOIP
What is exactly VoIP?
Most people are familiar with NetMeeting and other software that let you talk to others over the internet. VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is similar. However, it also uses your phone - the interface we are all familiar with.
Instead of connecting your phone to the wall, you connect it to a box either the VoIP company provides or you buy on your own. This is the modem. You need highspeed / broadband internet for this. Your modem plugs into your cable / DSL modem and now a "conversation" can occur between your phone and the internet.
For those who have never heard about the potential of VoIP, be prepared to radically change the way you think about your current long-distance calling plan. VoIP is very simply, a method for taking ordinary analog audio signals and turning them into digital signals that can be sent over the Internet.
So what? Well, for those of you who are already paying a monthly fee for an Internet connection, this means that you can use that same connection to place free long distance phone calls. This process works by using already available VoIP software to make phone calls over the Internet, essentially circumventing phone companies and their service charges.
Interestingly, VoIP is not an entirely new thing. In fact, a number of providing companies have been around for some time. But it has only been with the more recent explosion of high-speed internet access usage, that VoIP has gotten any attention. Now the major telephone carriers are setting up their own VoIP calling plans throughout the USA, another testament to the potential of the technology.
How hard is it to setup?
It is actually very easy. Assuming you have the company send you a modem or you buy a kit at the store, you simply plug the modem between your current cable / DSL modem and your computer (e.g., the out from your cable modem now goes to the new box and the out from that to your computer). It also provides a phone jack for your regular phone.
Once it is on, it will boot up and configure itself.
What are the benefits?
There are many benefits depending on the company you go with, but here are a few major advantages
1. Features like caller id, call waiting, call waiting caller id, call forwarding, etc.
2. Voicemail.
3. Web access to voicemail - you can play your messages on your computer.
4. Auto-forward - if the phone is ever down or isn't answered, it is auto-routed to another number.
5. Email alerts for new voicemail.
6. Online management of all features, settings, account etc.
7. Computer dialing - simply highlight any number on your computer, hit F6 and it sets up the calls from your phone to the receiver's.
8. Keep your regular phone.
There are some other cool features available such as the softphone, which lets you use your computer as a phone without the modem. This implies that you can take your laptop with you wherever and you have your phone with the same phone number everywhere too. Alternatively, you can also do this without the softphone, but this will mean that you have to take your VOIP modem around with you.
Another useful feature of VoIP is virtual numbers. You can get extra numbers that ring the same phone, but they are local numbers to any area code you want. So if you live in Sydney and your family is in Perth, you can get a local phone number both in Sydney and Perth. In this way, your family in Perth can call a local number and talk to you without having to incur IDD charges and vice versa.
Bottom Line
Consumers will only need to pay a low monthly subscription (as low as less than US$20) to the VoIP providers and will be able to enjoy a wide range of features, without the umpteen taxes, charges, fees etc charged by telco companies.
Article keywords: VoIP, voice over internet protocol, VoIP provider, virtual numbers
Article Source: http://www.articles32.com
Article contributed by San Singhania who is a VoIP consultant at Lantone Communications. Led by a team of experienced IT developers, Lantone Communications is one of the leadingVoIP Provider in Singapore. Please visit their official website for the latest information on VoIP.
This article may be reprinted in its original form as long as the resource box is left intact and the links live and the article is not to be modified in any way
.: New VOIP Articles
1). 6 Voice Over IP Tips
There are many benefits to VoIP. Here are 6 benefits we found to voice over ip. You may be able to think of even more reasons to switch or to include this exciting way to communicate at reduced prices.
2). Top 10 Reasons You Should Switch To VoIP
If you are considering changing to voice over internet protocol or VoIP for short you need to know the arguments for changing. Here are our top 10 reasons to switch to VoIP.
3). 7 Good Reasons Not To Switch To Voice Over IP Technology
For every positive there is a negative when it comes to voice over ip technology. Here are 7 good reasons not to switch in spite of the savings you may realize.
4). How To Choose The Best Voice Over Ip Provider
Choosing the best voice over ip provider may require you to do something that you have never done before. Here are a few tips to help you choose the best voice over ip provider.
5). Residential VoIP: Things to Consider Before Switching
Choosing VoIP over traditional telephone services has its pros and cons just like anything else. It is up to the consumer to weigh the advantages and disadvantages, and to come to a conclusion with eyes wide open.
6). Advantages of IP Telephony for the Residential Consumer
As more of us are building our own local area networks at home to connect our family members to each others data and appliances, broadband connections to the outside world have expanded our pipe to the Internet, giving us plenty of bandwidth to consider converging our home network with voice over IP telephony.
7). VoIP Communication Technology
VoIP... or Voice Over Internet Protocol, is the latest and greatest communications technology.
.: Top VOIP Articles
1). VoIP Problems?
Well of course there's VoIP problems, although I think problems is too strong of a word. Instead I would call this VoIP issues. (Just semantics? maybe, read on!)
Some may be old enough to remember making long distance calls where there was static or crackling on the phone line connection. Maybe you remember having to speak LOUDER in order to be heard on the line.
2). How To Set Up A Business VoIP System
To set up a business VoIP system, you need several components. A central device to manage the calls, the way a private branch exchange (PBX) or key system unit (KSU) does in traditional phone systems is one of them.
This can be a dedicated piece of hardware such as an IP PBX, a regular PBX that has been IP-enabled, or a server running specialized software.
3). VoIP Information: Benefits & Drawbacks
Once upon a time, a telephone was just a telephone. You set the base in your home and it featured either a corded or cordless handset for talking to family and friends. Even though that same telephone remains the standard, VoIP, which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, is increasing in popularity and gradually beginning to change the way that the world sends and receives telephone calls.
4). Skype versus Yahoo
With the influx of complaints regarding Skype’s fall from grace, Danny Wirken measures up the top competitor and internet giant Yahoo!’s news internet telephony service.
Cheaper, faster, better quality, better customer service and a brand you can trust. These are the things Yahoo! want you take away from any of their promotional material for the new Yahoo! voice VoIP service.
5). Voice Over Ip – What Is It And What Are The Choices?
Voice over Internet Protocol. First was the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell had a vision. He saw people communicating over long distances with their own voice, not trough beeps and squeaks. Then came the Internet. A few students and the US military had a vision, somewhat similar to Bell’s. They saw people communicating over long distances, but this time in writing.
6). Why VOIP?
Voice Over Internet Protocol delivers the service of converting the analog line into a digital signal so that voice could be transferred through the internet and this proves to be a lot cheaper than the PSTN (public switched telephone network). Voip is the best for making long distance calls in, inexpensive rates.
Voip and IP telephony are fields which have seen extensive growth and they continue to develop efficiently.
7). Advanced VoIP Gateway Technology
Increased demand for video-based applications in the mobile network drive the deployment of 3G networks. Inherent complexities in traditional video gateways cause performance bottlenecks and inflate costs. If the industry expects to absorb the impending explosion in demand, these proposed cost-saving and complexity-reducing changes are needed.
Unrelenting market demand for video-based applications over mobile networks is driving the increased deployment of 3G networks.