OT- VoIP software question - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

adegiulio · 2nd October 2002, 20:00

Since there are so many techies here, I figured I would ask this question. Hopefully the moderators won't move it too quickly.

Anyway, does anybody have any experience with any good, inexpensive VoIP solutions. I am moving within a year and would like to maintain an "open mic" with the office. Are there any software or hardware solutions out there for this? I would prefer to not have to make a long distance call everyday for 8 hours on a speaker phone

Any help would be much appreciated..

By the way, the ability to allow several parties in on the call would be a bonus.

Thanks!
Anthony

se · 2nd October 2002, 21:00

Anthony,

Which carrier will you be using?

Diamond Dave · 2nd October 2002, 21:41

Quote:

Originally posted by se
Which carrier will you be using?

Hopefully WorldCom, soon to re-emerge as MCI...

(shameless plug, shameless plug)

DWP

adegiulio · 2nd October 2002, 21:45

Uh-oh, now you are going to force me to show my ignorance. I was under the impression that voice over ip was simply a way to use to internet to transmit voice data. Does it matter which internet carrier I would be using? As of now, I am not completely sure which internet carrier I will be using.

thanks for the help..
Anthony

se · 2nd October 2002, 22:46

Anthony,

No problem - you should check out www.vonage.com and perhaps give them a call to discuss your options based on what you are trying to achieve ... Good luck!

se · 2nd October 2002, 22:54

just one more thing - i would suggest that you still keep your traditional phone service on the basic plan for 911 calls - basically when something goes wrong with your carrier's circuit - you will not be able to use the VoIP service ...

fais2000 · 2nd October 2002, 23:30

ahh finally something up my alley Since that is all my company does as an itsp (internet telephony service provider). But with all the know how i would have on this, I would recommend you to just use plain old MS netmeeting. Simple reason, everyone has it. And since it is H.323 compatible, it can connect to a vary of other h.323 compatible software. Now if you wish to use your pc to call to land lines, then i would suggest you use a service such as IDT's net2phone (www.net2phone.com), they also have other voip solution. If you need something more advanced (ie dedicated, better sound quality), then you can get yourself a cisco ata 186. Its a small router, that can connect to other ata186 i believe and other internet gatways to land lines. It can interface to a regular telephone, so it does not need your pc to be on to work, just as long as your broadband internet is on (dsl/cable modem). Anyway, that's it in a nuts****. any questions, pls ask, i know i have left lots of holes.

fas

se · 2nd October 2002, 23:38

salaam faisal,

vonage will give the customer a cisco ata free of charge

also have a look here:

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/...t/vcpag_cp.htm

fais2000 · 2nd October 2002, 23:58

hey wsalam se,

yeh i was looking at vonage. That's really cool. It's got 2 thumbs up from me

. You see, my company actually lays networks oversees, i dont really do residential, but commercial. anyway, vonage sounds really good, i recommend it.

fas

adegiulio · 3rd October 2002, 00:26

Thanks a lot for the replies. I don't need to be able to call other phones, just maintain an open line to my office. the way I was thinking about it, both me and my office would just run this software (or use hardware plugged into our networks). We just need to communicate with each other. I will use my regular old land line for all my normal calls.

I haven't had the time to look at the Vonage site, i will do that soon.

Thanks again
Anthony

se · 3rd October 2002, 04:04

Anthony,

Then Faisal's suggestion is the way to go

fais2000 · 3rd October 2002, 16:57

Quote:

Originally posted by adegiulio
Thanks a lot for the replies. I don't need to be able to call other phones, just maintain an open line to my office. the way I was thinking about it, both me and my office would just run this software (or use hardware plugged into our networks). We just need to communicate with each other. I will use my regular old land line for all my normal calls.

I haven't had the time to look at the Vonage site, i will do that soon.

Thanks again
Anthony

hey,
if that's the case, just use plain old microsoft netmeeting. if you need info on it, just pm me.

fas