was wondering if anyone is familiar with this new fangeled technology....... I know you need HIGH SPEED internet....and that box to hookup to a phone and ethernet line and all.....Vonage is a service that you can get, you have to pay $30 bucks a month for free calls only in the US and maybe Canada......... MY question is, I have heard of some software where you can make calls for free all over the world to Landlines.....not to a computer........you can just use MSN Messenger if that was the case..but I want to be able to make free calls to Landlines around the world and the US.........this one guy I knew lived overseas and when he picked up his phone it was a Jersey Number, and when someone had to call him, they would dial the Jersey number and he would pick it up halfway around the world..........look for some help..can someone lead me in the right direction.what software to get to be able to do this what may need to be bought and stuff........thanx
entirely free is difficult to say. the IP phones themselves are not cheap, but some other phones can be turned into IP phones by just hooking into a box that you setup as a PBX, running digitally to the system itself. I'd suggest you read up on www.asterisk.org and see what it can offer you. I plan on hooking up one of these boxes and using it for VoIP in the next few months to another facility across a point to point T1 to reduce the costs for the small production facility. Until then, I am not too familiar with it hands on, but will in the future months to come. There's a few others that are around that can help out with wise words and if they do chime in, price me out about 10-12 IP phones please. =D
I use VO/IP phones at the office and at home. 8 lines in the office and 1 at home. Quality is good but network can and does go down. Though only about a couple min. every 6 months or so on ave.. I have regular land lines also so I have back up. I use vonage at home at it is a very simple setup and their techs can help. (If you have a line to call them from). There is a port in the back to plug a regular phone into. I have it in the network closet and tied to all the phones in the house as line two. ... simple....
We are moving next month and going with a wireless connection. I am interested in VoIP, but will that work with a wireless network?
The connection to your house won't be wireless, correct? Cable Modem ----> to Vonage Box -----> Wireless router Vonage Box------> Phone (or Phone wiring closet)
It's actually a apartment building built in the 1700's, so intead of ripping the place apart to run cabling, it has wireless cable boxes.
And beware of 911 connectivity problems. I think if you call 911 on Vonage, they have to manually connect you to your local police department since you could technically be anywhere in the world. Which isn't so good if you're incapacitated and are just able to dial 911. Call me old fashioned, but there's something satisfying about having a phone that works during power and network outages. Of course, I never make long distance calls, so their main selling point is lost on me.
to your first point, generally speaking, no there is no service, to the best of my knowledge, legally available that allows you to make calls from any source (PSTN or VoIP) to a PSTN (landline) number and not incur some cost (or maybe listen to an ad). your second point though is true. you can sign up for just about any VoIP service that includes an ATA/NTA/TTA - that little box that has an RJ11 telephone connector and an RJ45 ethernet connector - and take that box with you when you travel. when it powers up in Brussles or Tokyo or Kiev, it gets a new IP address and then connects back to its provider via the internet and tells it "hey - if any calls come in for me, route them to this IP address", which happens to be in a foreign country. but you have to sign up with one of those VoIP providers to get that service. some of those providers also offer "softphone" services that allow you to do without the little box and just use your computer as the phone (suggestion: get a USB or bluetooth headset). doody.
www.skype.com is popular, and I believe they charge pennies for L/D to a traditional land-line. http://www.freeworldialup.com/ is another one, run by a friend of a friend - around much longer than skype, but seems to have lost some traction. For a 10-12 phone office system, there's lots and lots of options. We sell and support the Cisco gear, but it doesn't really start to make $'s until 20+ phones. We've got thousands of phones deployed now. Asterix works fine as well - one Linux server, load on call processing and voice mail for $0 + configuration work. Add a few SIP phones from $0 for software to $100's for name-brand. $0/seat to $2,000/seat if you want to, or anywhere in between. Call quality is only as good as the network in the middle - so if your Internet connection sucks when the high school kids get home and start downloading their movies, then your voice calls will suck too.
Bumping an ancient thread I'm only now getting caught up with 2005 technology I am primarily interested in recommendations for a wireless (or bluetooth) setup that will work with a softphone that is tied into a Samsung corporate phone system. Also, iIs there a magic box that allows me to plud a normal phone into it, and have that box translate the reciever microphone inputs and puts sound out through the normal phone's reciever earpiece? I bought a USB bluetooth dongle and paired it with a typical bluetooth headest for a cell phone.. the pairing worked fine, but the softphone I'm using asked what audio drivers to use for the microphone and speakers and of course, there wasn't any audio drivers that do the trick. Am I missing something?
