What can voip do?

[Satsearching]

Well I'm clueless with voip and thought is was only good for talking to friends abroad.

So, is it possible to buy a viop phone, plug it into my router for the wife to call friends locally who use normal phones?

SS

[mike557]

Yes you can buy a voip phone or an adapter that lets you plug in a plain old telephone.
If someone is staring a new business and needs a new phone line / lines than voip is definitely the way to go.
I will upload all the details in the next couple of days :-)
Have my own voip exchange (Asterisk) and now my Father who lives about 40 miles from me has a 'free' extension. He makes and receives all of his calls just as though it is a normal landline.
I even control my video recorder using any phone in the house - sounds strange but is really so handy.
More to com...
Mike

[PaphosAL]

Have a browse (and play) of this, SS:

http://www.voipstunt.com/en/index.html

For starters, you only need their little software d/load, and a headset, m8.

Cheers- AL

[Satsearching]

Ok, the wife can't use a computer, pointless going that way, took me many years just to get her to drive a car and pass her test (I only let her drive when I'm drunk, scares me to death even when I'm drunk).

She is not at all technically minded, but her phone usage to local family (fixed phones and mobiles) really winds me up!

I'm willing to go out tomorrow and buy an adapter so she can use a normal phone with voip (forget headsets and the like, she thinks a head set is something to do with hair dressing).

I have a good internet connection here and don't really use much bandwidth so this sounds ideal.

What do I need........

SS

[mike557]

Understood
Computer voip is obviously the cheapest option - you download the appropriate software and then use a headset and microphone. WAF (Wife Appreciation Factor) is not normally high with this option. It is however worth considering especially when you are away from home. Also my Father is hard of hearing so using a headset with volume loud works really well for him.

Before buying anything take a look at http://backsla.sh/betamax you can then choose the best voip provider for the calls that you make.

I use voipstunt.com and I pay £17 for 360 freedays of calls (max 300 mins over 7 days).

After choosing the voip provider, you then need to get an account and add credit. I will write a tut on this procedure so that it can help everyone.

Once you have the account you need to get some hardware - again I will sort something out about this as well.

So at the moment - just choose provider - you can register with them but DO NOT add any credit to the account yet.....

HTH
Mike

[Satsearching]

OK, cheers, looked at that matrix, lots of abroad stuff. Anyone got suggestions just for local and uk mobile calls?

Looking forward to the hardware side mike!

SS

[mike557]

It sounds like a simple question but you need to make the decision based on the matrix and then checking the website.
nonoh.net looks reasonable at 6 cents per minute to mobiles and free to landlines.
The slight catches are:-

1. Only 200 free minutes per 7 days
2. 5 Euros credit gives 60 free days (using Punshon - explained in another tut)

smartvoip.com seems cheaper at 5 cents to mobiles but I cant find how many free minutes they give you and 5 euros only gives you 45 free days.

I chose to use two providers and let my PABX route mobiles to one provider and landline calls to another (High WAF).

HTH
Mike