Wednesday, June 09, 2004
VOIP - As heard on ABC Coast FM Local Radio
• First - yes or no – can you use your computer as a phone?
At this stage in the development of the technologies its hard to give a a clear cut yes or know answer. But I’ll go as far as you can use your computer to achieve telephone like conferencing, and place computer to fixed line calls.
There are commercial products like Virtual PBX’s based on VoIP network. Basically, all handset are connected as a network device and send and receive packets of data which are then by the pbx transmitted onto the telephone network. You can connect many of these PBX stations together over the internet and network them together via a VPN (virtual private network)
The home user, will probably be quite happy with just a standard messaging client program.
• What’s the quality like?
Depending on the quality of your connection, on dial up it is not as good as a telephone connection but if your one a broadband or highspeed narrowband connection faster than 128k you should get a good quality sound. Some VoIP applications can stream Mp3 thus giving a much more higher quality sound.
Is it reliable?
Depending on the quality of the connection, these days it is quite reliable and useful. However, on dial up and on some high speed narrowband and 256k ADSL connections you may notice a bit of break up or skip at times.
• OK, so how do you do it?
Well, if you want to make calls to a fixed line from your computer you will need a valid credit card, a VOIP provider and their client software. MSN and ICQ have this built in. You will also need to open an account with your proffered voip provider. However, if you just want to talk between computers you’ll need a microphone and a headphone. Some people often use a combination microphone and headset such as one I am talking to you on now in the ABC studio’s. Some VoIP home providers supply you with a handset that can in the event of a call being placed to you ring like a conventional telephone and when the handset is lifted activate the client software on the computer
• How expensive is it to set up?
Calls between computer to computer via a piece of software like msn messenger or icq are free other than your monthly payment to your ISP to have internet access. But VoIP to a fixed phone line then costs money and has to be signed up through a Voip provider. There are obviously savings on overseas calls and STD but it’s a bit of waste time for local calls and not to mention money.
• I’m on the internet, my phone line is engaged can I get VoIP so I can talk the call while I’m on the net.
Not at this time. However, a few years ago Telstra introduced a service called icall waiting which if you downloaded and installed the software and paid a small rental each month via a credit card you could answer your calls whilst you were on your dial up connection and talk to the caller. However, with the introduction of adsl services it has made this service redundant as customers can use broadband internet and PSTN telephone services at the same time. I think Telstra has disconnected the service now as I cannot find any reference to it on there homepage.
At this stage in the development of the technologies its hard to give a a clear cut yes or know answer. But I’ll go as far as you can use your computer to achieve telephone like conferencing, and place computer to fixed line calls.
There are commercial products like Virtual PBX’s based on VoIP network. Basically, all handset are connected as a network device and send and receive packets of data which are then by the pbx transmitted onto the telephone network. You can connect many of these PBX stations together over the internet and network them together via a VPN (virtual private network)
The home user, will probably be quite happy with just a standard messaging client program.
• What’s the quality like?
Depending on the quality of your connection, on dial up it is not as good as a telephone connection but if your one a broadband or highspeed narrowband connection faster than 128k you should get a good quality sound. Some VoIP applications can stream Mp3 thus giving a much more higher quality sound.
Is it reliable?
Depending on the quality of the connection, these days it is quite reliable and useful. However, on dial up and on some high speed narrowband and 256k ADSL connections you may notice a bit of break up or skip at times.
• OK, so how do you do it?
Well, if you want to make calls to a fixed line from your computer you will need a valid credit card, a VOIP provider and their client software. MSN and ICQ have this built in. You will also need to open an account with your proffered voip provider. However, if you just want to talk between computers you’ll need a microphone and a headphone. Some people often use a combination microphone and headset such as one I am talking to you on now in the ABC studio’s. Some VoIP home providers supply you with a handset that can in the event of a call being placed to you ring like a conventional telephone and when the handset is lifted activate the client software on the computer
• How expensive is it to set up?
Calls between computer to computer via a piece of software like msn messenger or icq are free other than your monthly payment to your ISP to have internet access. But VoIP to a fixed phone line then costs money and has to be signed up through a Voip provider. There are obviously savings on overseas calls and STD but it’s a bit of waste time for local calls and not to mention money.
• I’m on the internet, my phone line is engaged can I get VoIP so I can talk the call while I’m on the net.
Not at this time. However, a few years ago Telstra introduced a service called icall waiting which if you downloaded and installed the software and paid a small rental each month via a credit card you could answer your calls whilst you were on your dial up connection and talk to the caller. However, with the introduction of adsl services it has made this service redundant as customers can use broadband internet and PSTN telephone services at the same time. I think Telstra has disconnected the service now as I cannot find any reference to it on there homepage.
# posted by Peter Saville - IT Consultant @ 2:48 AM 
