[thelist] VoIP questions
Paul Howard
paul at corrigenda.org
Tue Dec 14 05:16:04 CST 2004
Alex Beston wrote:
> Hi Guys
>
> A fellow contractor in town recommended me get a VoIP phone to mitigate
> the exorbitant startup costs involved in business.
>
> skype [1] have a USB plug n play phone (looks like a normal phone) that
> costs £30. before i rush out to get one, what are the differences
> between this phone regards to phone costs and a normal phone?
> differences in general? sound quality for instance? what are the
> downsides of using it? how frequent are cutoffs? is the sound quality of
> a consistent kind or does it range from good to bad erratically?
>
> my contact said that there is some sort of central switchboard that you
> dial into which make the calls to conventional phone lines on my behalf
> (ie i dont have to run a VoIP server on my machine). ok so thats how it
> works, but if i plug this thing in to my computer, does the
> "switchboard" give me a temporary phone number? how would i go about
> getting a permanent telephone number? surely someone must be making some
> money out of this. are BT / AT&T worried? is there a line rental?
>
> any ideas / refs welcome..
>
> [1] http://www.skype.com/ i can read http://www.skype.com/products/ but
> i was hoping from someone that doesnt work for skype marketing dept -
> you get my drift...
>
Alex,
if you to go www.sipphone.com and sign up for an account (which is free)
you get a sipphone number with free voicemail etc. Voicemails are
emailed to you as .wav files.
Then go to http://sipphone.com/siphandset/ and buy one of these. Its a
phone handestthat plugs into your PC speaker and mic sockets.
Then go to http://sipphone.com/softphone/ and downlooad the sipphone
software. (also free)
Once you have all that set up and working go to http://www.voipuser.org
and sign up for a free account. This will allow you to set up 3 virtual
numbers (0870 and the like) and assign it to your sip number.
That way you have a fixed UK landline number that will ring you whenever
you are logged onto your PC.
If you need to make calls using this phone then buy some sipminutes from
http://sipphone.com/minutes/
Currently its about 2pence per minute to all UK landlines.
You dont have to use sipphone.com - there are many alterative providors
- some offer better services than others.
Let me know if ytou need more info.
cheers
--
Paul Howard
corrigenda.org
Web Design - Database Maintenance - Hosting
sip: 1-747-2444266
tel: +44-(0)870-068-6141
More information about the thelist
mailing list