What is VoIP?

[dan - kahua music]

I need someone to spell it out for me, I have read a report on VOIP but i need some real info.

Voice over IP <<<<< means nothing to me :roll:

[mattpark]

Hi Dan,

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol.

As the term says VoIP is the transmission of voice communication through IP packets and, therefore, through the Internet. VoIP can use accelerating hardware to achieve this purpose and can also be used in a PC environment.

Webopedia defines it as: A category of hardware and software that enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls. For users who have free, or fixed-price Internet access, Internet telephony software essentially provides free telephone calls anywhere in the world. To date, however, Internet telephony does not offer the same quality of telephone service as direct telephone connections.

There are many Internet telephony applications available. Some, like CoolTalk and NetMeeting, come bundled with popular Web browsers. Others are stand-alone products. Internet telephony products are sometimes called IP telephony, Voice over the Internet (VOI) or Voice over IP (VOIP) products.

If you're wondering whether this is something that can just replace your standard home telephone service, the answer is that many are doing just that, and Vonage seems to be the popular choice. See the Vonage section of this FAQ, and check out users' comments about the service in the forum.

Hope this helps...

Matt

[dan - kahua music]

You said the quality wasn’t the same as a normal telephone, what is the difference. When talking to contacts in Africa I often get up to a 5 second delay, surely a computer would be better than this?

Also is this the same technology as video conferencing?

[mattpark]

Dan,

I should have been more specific there. Webopedia states that call quality is not as good as normal telephones. That statement is probably quite old now, and in my opinion VoIP continually meets and in most cases betters the quality of normal PSTN telephone calls.

Take your example of talking to someone in Africa.
Your call quality/delay is dependant on certain factors.

In no particular order:
Your hardware/software phone
Your internet connection speed
Your VoIP provider

Now, if everything is in order there is no reason why you can have crystal clear calls to Africa with no delay. Best of all… Its usually a LOT cheaper than normal telephone calls.

Is this the same technology as video conferencing?

That depends. Video conferencing can take place a number of ways, if your usually conferencing over the internet.. then yes its similar. At the end of the day, its just transferring data over the internet instead of the standard phone network.

[tomyyz]

Hey Dan,

Voipan (http://www.voipan.com/) has a bunch of information about VoIP...

They have VoIP articles, a VoIP FAQ, VoIP glossary, VoIP features list and a VoIP buyer's guide. The FAQ and glossary are written in super easy to understand language, and the articles have some interesting stuff in them. :D

Tom

[voipproducts]

See for independent information about the rates for calling to and from UK with different VoIP programs; http://www.voipproducts.eu