What is VOIP? (voice over internet protocal)?
Question by leela: What is VOIP? (voice over internet protocal)?
I always here people talking about VOIP, and im also starting a business and i heard VOIP is the best but im not 100% sure of what it is.
Best answer:
Answer by CB
It is using your internet connection to make/receive phonecalls.
So for your business, if you have DSL or broad IP provider, and you have phone line thru them, it will use the your IP provider’s data lines for phones, not traditional phone lines.
Advantage – Huge bandwidth.
Definition:
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a general term for a family of transmission technologies for delivery of voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks. Other terms frequently encountered and synonymous with VoIP are IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over broadband (VoBB), broadband telephony, and broadband phone.
Internet telephony refers to communications services—voice, facsimile, and/or voice-messaging applications—that are transported via the Internet, rather than the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The basic steps involved in originating an Internet telephone call are conversion of the analog voice signal to digital format and compression/translation of the signal into Internet protocol (IP) packets for transmission over the Internet; the process is reversed at the receiving end.[1]
VoIP systems employ session control protocols to control the set-up and tear-down of calls as well as audio codecs which encode speech allowing transmission over an IP network as digital audio via an audio stream. Codec use is varied between different implementations of VoIP (and often a range of codecs are used); some implementations rely on narrowband and compressed speech, while others support high fidelity stereo codecs.
What do you think? Answer below!
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a general term for a family of transmission technologies for delivery of voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks. Other terms frequently encountered and synonymous with VoIP are IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over broadband (VoBB), broadband telephony, and broadband phone.
Internet telephony refers to communications services—voice, facsimile, and/or voice-messaging applications—that are transported via the Internet, rather than the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The basic steps involved in originating an Internet telephone call are conversion of the analog voice signal to digital format and compression/translation of the signal into Internet protocol (IP) packets for transmission over the Internet; the process is reversed at the receiving end.[1]
VoIP systems employ session control protocols to control the set-up and tear-down of calls as well as audio codecs which encode speech allowing transmission over an IP network as digital audio via an audio stream. Codec use is varied between different implementations of VoIP (and often a range of codecs are used); some implementations rely on narrowband and compressed speech, while others support high fidelity stereo codecs.
Voice over IP is pretty much what it sounds like. The special telephone instruments plug into the network wiring like a computer does, and each phone can be moved from one location to another within the network without losing its settings.
That’s were the fun ends, really. The phones connect through the network to a call manager, a computer that runs software that manages the system. The call manager is expensive itself, and it connects to the public network through at least one (usually two, for redundancy) ISDN lines. VoIP is still new enough to be a bit on the bleeding edge. We have had it in our campus at work for a few years, and it still finds ways to baffle us. Software upgrades drive us nuts.
For a new business you might do well to contact your phone company to see what they offer.
There is a lot of technical jargon that goes into the explanation of VoIP, but it is essentially a way to make/receive calls over the internet using either a special usb phone, your internal microphone/speakers, a headset, or wireless voip phone. The calls are connected through whatever IP server you have, thus call quality/connection speed is dependent on your server. Some of the “better-known” examples of internet calling directories are Skype and Google Talk, but the main difference between these and VoIP applications is that Skype works on a peer-to-peer network and VoIP is operable with SIP-based VOIP networks (stands for Session Initiation Protocol and is an IP network protocol often used for VoIP telephony)
There are three ways that you can connect to VoIP service providers, as quoted by Wikipedia:
“1. An Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA) may be connected between an IP network (such as a broadband connection) and an existing telephone jack in order to provide service nearly indistinguishable from PSTN providers on all the other telephone jacks in the residence. This type of service, which is fixed to one location, is generally offered by broadband Internet providers such as cable companies and telephone companies as a cheaper flat-rate traditional phone service.
2. Dedicated VoIP phones are phones that allow VoIP calls without the use of a computer. Instead they connect directly to the IP network (using technologies such as Wi-Fi or Ethernet). In order to connect to the PSTN they usually require service from a VoIP service provider therefore most people also use them in conjunction with a paid service plan.
3. A softphone (also known as an Internet phone or Digital phone) is a piece of software that can be installed on a computer that allows VoIP calling without dedicated hardware. An advantage of using a softphone with a VoIP service provider is the ability of having a fixed phone number which you can move to any country or location (This is also possible with ATAs and VoIP phones, however requires the physical relocation of the hardware)”
If you’re starting a business and are looking for user-friendly VoIP software, “Poivy” is a good option. I have used Poivy to make international calls and it has been very easy to use and the website offers great how-to tips is you need any help. I used the free trial for 90 days and then paid very low rates to continue using it.
Happy calling!