Anyone else using VoIP?

[deanerk]

I signed myself up for Vonage voice over IP a few months ago and have been very pleased with the service so far. Of course I don't use a land line much anyway, so I don't care much if my caller ID misses a number every once in a while or other minor inconveniences of a product still pretty much in its infancy.

I'm just wondering how many other users we have in a semi-technologically savy forum and how pleased they are with their particular service. I've heard complaints about quality and such, but I suspect they're from users who spend a lot more time on a land line than I do. I'm also curious if you guys think this will catch on and continue to be a threat to the big phone companies and rediculous rates and fees. The FCC will get in on the money making eventually. Link. For now, I enjoy the silence on the other end of the line when telemarketers call me from SBC or AT&T with their "amazing deals" and I ask them if they can beat $14.99 for local, long distance and all the extras.

 

[evildave]

I will be developing one, soon. Part of a larger service/system.

Basically SPEEX + UDP = VOIP. Some additional glue for getting the samples in and playing the output for, and actually having the open IP/port to send UDP packets to and receive them from will be necessary. I will be recommending/requiring a USB headsets that contains a sound solution for filtering/sampling/playback for the headset. It's the only way to do it without going @&#$ insane. Also limits the amount of weirdo audio junk I have to get support emails about. You buy the headset, either from my web link, or from a specific list of (tested and approved) models, and it will work.

Mine will be straight peer-to-peer, which means your IP/port will be exposed. A premium service to 'launder' your IP through a server will be provided.

So, my first recommendation to you would be to shop for one of these USB headphone devices to do your telephony. One that does some hardware noise reduction filtering. Especially for 'speech recognition'. Encourage your friends to AT LEAST get a headphone/microphone.

Using it from speakers/desktop microphone is plain NOT RECOMMENDED.

This will allow:

1. Seperate voice volume control from your sound card.
2. Will work without interfering with 'DirectX' audio drivers on your primary audio device.
3. Hardware voice enhancement/background noise reduction.
4. Lower noise from neighboring PC components leaking into analog circuits on a sound card.
5. Simpler configuration. Look for your headphone device name on the configuration, and select that. No extra general-purpose microphone volume tinkering.

The cleaner the sample going into the CODEC, the better the sample comming out of the CODEC on the other end. Simple.

Another little hint: UDP packets are dropped when there is a problem. This is GOOD, if the CODEC supports dropping some data. If the CODEC you're using has problems and requires TCP/IP, DUMP IT. It will have longer latency and "pauses" because it will attempt to re-send bent packets.

Solutions that are not peer-to-peer will also tend to have longer latency (for having to be received and re-sent from a server that's busy trying to do this for a LOT of people), or the server can be located in a geographically unfortunate location (i.e., you're in New York, your friend is in New Jersy, and the server is in California) and hence it has a very long "ping" time. Also, there is a privacy issue, in that the host of such a server can be REQUIRED to record your conversations. A little arm-twisting in the form of "do it, or we'll confiscate everything and put you out of business" from our "benevolent" government is all it takes.

 

[Captain_Snort]

A few years ago I signed up with net2phone and while it worked is was good, free calls to the US from my home PC, even on 56k dialup it was acceptable.

But then they went and renogotiated the contract, so I will happily say do not touch the company net2phone with a bargepole.

And yes, use a headset to make it work, otherwise you will get plenty of echoes down the line.

 

[deanerk]

EvilDave, looks cool. Guess I'm not quite that technologically savy.

Have you guys ever checked out Vonage? I guess I never really checked out the software VoIP providers like you're referring to. It's not a piece of software that you need a headset for and stuff. You sign up and they ship you a digital to analog converter device made by Motorola and you plug an ethernet cable and a phone into it. There is no software to install. You manage your account through their web site. You get caller ID, call waiting, voicemail and all the goodies with it and you can even check your voicemail from your account page. You can pick up the converter and take it with you and plug in where ever you can get a high seed connection. Make's it nice for travel.

Anyway, go here:
http://www.vonage.com/ . If you think you might want to sign up, let me know and I can get you a referral link that gets you a free month.

I'm not trying to endorse it though. Just want opinions and I'd like to know if you guys think this technology has a future. Anybody else have any links to what plans the FCC has for broadband phone's future? That's the discussion I'm looking for. Talk amongst yourselves...

 

[evildave]

Yeah, but a dedicated piece of hardware is probably a bit more than I could get subscribers to pay for, and I don't have the funding to pay for a loss-leader like giving them away.

Definitely 100% dedicated hardware is the way to go, if you want to make it behave just like a telephone. I'm aware of some boxes that you can plug a regular phone of your choice into, and other devices that look like a phone.

For me, developing a downloadable software solution on the cheap, I need to (by in large) use what the user has installed already. The user should just be able to download what they need in order to use the service. Even requiring some sort of a USB headphone might be "too much".

I don't need to make something play telephone full time, it's an accessory to the service, more than the service its self.

 

[garys_2k]

Never mind, I found the info. I needed at Vonage's site. This does look interesting, thanks.