Re: IP Telephony with a least cost routing

["Patrick Lidstone" <patrick@xxxxxxx>]

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Pete Shew" <pete@s...> wrote:
> Stuart, that looks interesting but all the online stuff avoids the
actual
> mechanism used to resolve the 9 digit number and connect the two
> Earthphones.
>

Quick summary of my VoIP experiences:

- It only works well with hard phones/adapters, you need the echo
cancellation. I'd go so far as to say softphones are a waste of time.

- For computer-less voip communications, the grandsteam (USD 65) and
Snom 100 (GBP 120 or so, IIRC) are SIP phones, which will connect
with a directory service like Freeworld dialup (www.grandsteam.com /
www.provu.co.uk / www.pulver.net/fwd ) and usually work fine behind
NAT.

- For least cost routing/PBX functionality, using a PC, asterisk
rules the roost, but it can be a challenge to get running. Andy
Powell has written a great tutorial. ( www.asteriskpbx.org /
www.automated.it/guidetoasterisk.htm )

Quick comment on Pete's comments about california/CIA: SIP supports
the concept of call handoff, so even if calls are established via an
intermediate third party, the "voice" connection for a pure voip
call
between the two endpoints /should/ be point-to-point, not dog-legged.

I routinely use voip for inter-office calls within Europe, terminated
over ADSL, and the call quality is astonishing - pretty much
indistinguishable from a normal call - even without traffic shaping
routers.

Patrick


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