VOIP, Discussion, questions and answers

BexTech

MiserlyMartin wrote:

Having read a load of stuff about voip over the last few nights, now I have decided to go for it. My question is which SIP ATA device is the best to go for? I've been pondering the Linksys PAP2 or one of the Sipaura units. I've seen some unlocked uk PAP2's about. There are also some being sold from Hong Kong for £27 all in, this seems a good deal. Do any of these let you programme it with more than one SIP account? Ideally I'd like to store a load of different VOip provider accounts and easily switch between them. Is this at all possible with any unit?, thanks for any help.

LinkSys / Sipura are now the same company.

I have a PAP2 and it's an excellent piece of kit, however it has two lines, this means you can two accounts (phone services) but each must be on a separate line.

Some of the SPAs allow two accounts, but there share the same physical line. This is handy for some people, others find having two separate lines handy.

I have my PAP2's connected up to several phones, 3 one Line 1 and 2 on line 2, just like you would with your regular phones.

eileenfromplaistow

I am probably asking a stupid question here (please be nice!), but all I want to do is use voip to talk to my daughter on her pc from my pc when she is away. Obviously we use Messenger, but my typing is pretty slow.
1 Who "pays " for the call sender or receiver?
2 How would say a one hour call reflect on the download limit?
I did try looking it up but all it said was that it does, not how much
Thanks

cledor

eileenfromplaistow wrote:

I am probably asking a stupid question here (please be nice!), but all I want to do is use voip to talk to my daughter on her pc from my pc when she is away. Obviously we use Messenger, but my typing is pretty slow.
1 Who "pays " for the call sender or receiver?
2 How would say a one hour call reflect on the download limit?
I did try looking it up but all it said was that it does, not how much
Thanks

PC-PC Calls are usually free. MSN Messenger does provide a voice service, but it's not 100% reliable on non xp computers. Alternatively, you could try one of the many voip (also known as "peer to peer" or "P2P") providers (such as Skype, Google Talk, VoipBuster, etc) to talk for free from PC to PC, all you need is a mic and headphones/speakers. Skype also has video if you use a webcam. All you need is to download/instal the suitable software from the provider of your choice.

As for bandwidth usage, it's possible to measure your usage using a free to download bandwidth usage meter (search for these on google). Usually, voice is not as bad as video download so I won't worry too much about the bandwidth usage for voice calls.

For more info on this subject have a look at this page http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1096571346,38052,

thebritishbulldog

Dear Members/Users:
If you are thinking of calling another country and you will worry about the cost, well don't.
Yahoo Messenger offers free PC to PC Calls for FREE around the world and the sound is promising. You need a Headset to talk or a Web cam to be seen, a Yahoo ID and the Yahoo Messenger with BT communicator program. All this is for free and there are no hidden catches.
From a PC to a phone you have to pay, but the price is close to nothing. You don't have to be a BT customer.
Why pay for it when you can have it for free????

BexTech

thebritishbulldog wrote:

Dear Members/Users:
If you are thinking of calling another country and you will worry about the cost, well don't.
Yahoo Messenger offers free PC to PC Calls for FREE around the world and the sound is promising. You need a Headset to talk or a Web cam to be seen, a Yahoo ID and the Yahoo Messenger with BT communicator program. All this is for free and there are no hidden catches.
From a PC to a phone you have to pay, but the price is close to nothing. You don't have to be a BT customer.
Why pay for it when you can have it for free????

Because people want a system that gives you a real local phone number and can make and receive calls without a PC being on maybe which also has the ability to make and receive calls to each other free?

pin

thebritishbulldog wrote:

Dear Members/Users:
If you are thinking of calling another country and you will worry about the cost, well don't.
Yahoo Messenger offers free PC to PC Calls for FREE around the world and the sound is promising. You need a Headset to talk or a Web cam to be seen, a Yahoo ID and the Yahoo Messenger with BT communicator program. All this is for free and there are no hidden catches.
From a PC to a phone you have to pay, but the price is close to nothing. You don't have to be a BT customer.
Why pay for it when you can have it for free????

Hmm, the thing is both people need to have Yahoo Messenger for this to work. MSN also offer the same service, as does Skype and Gizmo.

Kilty_2

Tip - don't try to unlock the Vonage D-Link phone adaptors that PC World have in for £19.99

I didnt kill one trying to do so.... honestly

Paulee

Hi all,

I'm after some help please. I have posted this on another thread, so forgive me if I'm boring some of you, but I haven't found anyone who appears to have any knowledge of the system so far. I have emailed the manufacturer but they haven't replied and, unfortunately, they don't appear to be interested.

I've been looking at the discussions on VOIP for a while now. The idea of cheap or free calls via my computer is fantastic, but I must admit that I do find a lot of the (huge amount) of info confusing. After reading some very useful info on this device, by mk-donald, and finding it easy to understand, I bought myself one and it is working very well on Skype calls to my daughter, who is at uni and only has access to us via her mobile phone. I suspect that it will work well with other VOIP systems, but I've only tried Skype so far. Thanks to mk for his useful information but I have discovered that I have a couple of small problems with my system.

I am running the ST-1200 with my DECT home phones on my Dell Computer using Win XP and Telewest (now Virgin) broadband. Whilst installing the ST-1200 a message came up (& still does occasionally) telling me that this device requires a high speed USB port to function at optimum performance. All of my USB ports appear to be the same, and I do not know how to obtain a faster one. The second problem is more of a nuisance as I have "lost" the sound to my computer speakers. After checking all of the cables and working through the software setups I discovered that when I have my Windows Media Player running, and I switch my phone onto USB via Skypemate, the sound comes through my phone earpiece. By unplugging the USB connection on the ST-1200 the sound is restored to my computer speakers, but as soon as I reconnect the ST-1200 I loose my sound again as soon as I change a music track on Media Player.

Has anyone come across similar problems and, if so, have they been able to cure them?

I thank you all in anticipation and also for increasing my awareness to these type of cheap phone systems.

Paul

BexTech

The USB phone device is simply a USB soundcard, and you connect the phone to it as mic and speaker.

When you connect it, windows thinks you want to use this soundcard for all your sound needs, you just need to go into windows control panel and tell it you want to use you usual sound card. Then in the Skypemate program tell that you want to use the USB soundcard.

As for the error message, either you only have USB 1 ports and not USB 2 ports, or your windows doesn't have service pack 2 installed which allows USB ports to function at USB 2 rates and not USB 1 rates.

VoIP is best when used with a device that doesn't require the PC to be on. These USB devices are really only a last resort and if you are happy with having to have the PC on all the time.

Saeed

BexTech wrote:

As for the error message, either you only have USB 1 ports and not USB 2 ports, or your windows doesn't have service pack 2 installed which allows USB ports to function at USB 2 rates and not USB 1 rates.

The Trust Phone Station is probably a USB 2 device as this would be the best for VoIP type communication (- my Netgear VoIP router uses upto 100kb up and down according to the specs -) and Paulee is probably plugging it into a USB 1.1 port and the computer comes up with the warning. My computer brings up the same warning when I plug in my USB 2 4 port hub into it's old USB 1.1 ports but just click the cross in the dialog box and continue!