Voip faq updated 21st of August 09

[mike557]

What does VOIP mean?

VOIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocols

Does VOIP mean telephone calls?

VOIP is the conversion of speech into data packets suitable for routing over the Internet. Depending upon where the packets are sent they could be sent to normal telephone numbers(through a provider). Alternatively they can be sent between systems such as PC to PC to get free calls.

Is the call quality as good as a normal phone call?

VOIP can use a number of coder/decoders (codecs) which support different call quality and also different data rates. You can use the same codecs on VOIP as a normal phone call so quality should be as good. Quality will suffer if the internet connection has congestion / overload.

Is VOIP the same as SKYPE?

Skype uses voip but it is important to note that Skype is proprietary and therefore not 'standard VOIP'. If you want cheap incoming and outgoing calls real VOIP is the solution.

Is it complex to setup a VOIP system?

It depends what you wish to do - If you do not want to spend anything, then you can download software to your PC and use that to make calls (provided you have speakers/microphone). Alternatively you could buy some hardware.

What hardware do I need to buy?

If you want to use your existing plain old telephone (POT), the easiest solution would be to purchase something called an Analogue Telephone Adapter (ATA).There are a number of products available and I personally like the Linksys PAP2.

Linksys PAP2 ATA The PAP2 has just 4 connectors.

1 = Power
2 = Ethernet / RJ45
3 = Line 1
4 = Line 2

You can plug a POT into the Line 1 socket and by programming the PAP2 using its web interface you can make telephone calls via a voip provider. By plugging in another phone into Line 2, you can have a completely separate line.

mrdude has written a great bit of software to easily convert a PAP2 into a dual account single phone device - take a look at the thread.

If you are using a Linksys / Sipura ATA, then backup its configuration easily.

Another alternative is to use a VOIP phone. There are many manufacturers of these devices some much better than others and prices can vary enormously. I like using Mitel phones

Mitel 5212
Mitel phones take a little bit of getting used to, but once switched into SIP mode they work really well. The phone in my lounge has a touch display and uses RSS feeds to give me the latest weather and BBC news for my area. Expect to pay around £40 for a refurbished phone. Most mitel phones use PoE (Power Over Ethernet) which means that you will either need and 802.3af switch or will need to puchase a power supply for it (cost about £15).

The cheapest option is to use the computer but the WAF (Wife Appreciation Factor) is not high. So a compromise is to use a voip handset.

Yamamoto VOIP Handset

The handset can be used very much like a mobile phone. It plugs into the USB port and takes the place of your speakers and microphone. With the correct drivers you can key in the number and dial just like a normal phone.

These handsets normally cost around £10 and work well if you are working away from home and need to make calls.

Can I use my Nokia N95 mobile to make voip calls?

Yes - take a look at NJ's post.

Which VOIP provider should I use?

If you just want a free incoming telephone line then register with http://sipgate.co.uk
You can choose a telephone number from virtually any UK area code for free. Sipgate also allow you to make outgoing calls provided you add credit. They are not the cheapest VOIP provider but provide a simple solution especially if using a PAP2.

For making cheap outgoing calls, the solution is to use one of the Finarea/Betamax companies. Take a look at http://backsla.sh/betamax and from the matrix work out who will give you the cheapest calls to the countries you call the most. I use voipstunt.com and have free UK calls and also calls to the countries I call the most. The problem with Finarea/Betamax companies is that they are primarily for making calls, they do not provide an easy way of receiving calls (they used to). Before adding any credit to your betamax account read the post on getting double the number of freedays.

A number of the betamax companies are now providing a UK landline number at a cost of 1 euro. This is only available for new accounts, details here. This means that using a PAP2, you can have two incoming/outgoing lines

I would like to use Sipgate for incoming and Finarea for outgoing how can I do it?

You need either hardware or software that can support multiple accounts.
The PAP2 can be reflashed so that only one line becomes active but two accounts can be associated with the one line. mrdude has written a tutorial and software for reflashing these great boxes - thanks mrdude

A number of the voip phones do support multiple registrations although I have had a few problems with them.

You can get a softphone (xlite/eyebeam), which will allow multiple accounts but again the WAF will be low.

The best solution would be to use a voip exchange solution.

So what is an exchange solution?

If you just want to use betamax for outgoing and sipgate for incoming without a need for a telephone exchange take a look at the post on myswitch.com.

Asterisk is the Open Source telephone exchange solution. It runs under Linux and provides all the functionality of a modern telephone exchange plus so much more. Mentioning the word Linux may scare a number of people however getting asterisk working can be as simple as burning a cd, booting and letting the install write directly onto a clean disk drive (beware pre-existing data will be destroyed). You will then have a fully working exchange all configurable via a web interface. You will also have your own web server, SQL server, dhcp server and virtually any other server can be installed.

If building your own exchange scares you (it will take a while to get to grips with everything), another small exchange solution it to register at https://www5.pbxes.com

PBXES lets you create your own telephone extensions and your own 'trunks'. You can then map incoming trunks directly to extensions and even create ring groups. You can set your own rules for the outgoing calls.

Once you have an exchange solution you will never want to go back to anything else (beware).

There is a great e-book on Asterisk at http://astbook.asteriskdocs.org/ this is essential reading for someone serious about using the exchange.

What is E164 ?

e164 is the equivalent of DNS in the VOIP world. It can translate a telephone number into a SIP URL (voip address) which connects directly and avoids calls over the PSTN.

Take a look at the post on Asterisk - E164 and internal number ranges for more info and why you should register.