OT: internet phones

[Scott Shackelford]

 Although I'm a big believer in VOIP technology, it's only as good as the
network it is on. I would not use it with ADSL (SDSL would be OK.) Uploads
on ADSL are too marginal. Even though I'm on good networks and have had very
few problems, I still have backups on POTS line for my business. Even with
the backup POTS lines, my company Telephone bill dropped from $1200/month to
about $500/month. That's a BIG savings. We are using Asterisk based phone
system that can automatically switch between the VOIP and POTS lines. Of
course most people are not going to have this at a residence, but a good
reliable cell could takes it's place. The quality of my VOIP is usually
better than the POTS lines in my area (Verizon, Northern, NJ). (For both
home and business.) For 911 I've programmed the switch to always use the
POTS lines even though Vonage does have 911 Service.

 For home, my VOIP line has been down at most 1 or 2 times sine July 2002,
when I first got it. Those outages were less than an hour. My neighbor on
Verizon has been down at least 10 times I know of and usually for days at a
time. Before she got her a cell phone, she would ask to use our phone.

 For business, we've had VOIP since December 2004. We had 1 total day of no
internet due to our ISP. At which we used our backups and our backup DSL was
used for E-MAIL and web. People complained of the lower speeds, but work was
business as usual. Our Vonage is set up to forward to our POTS line if our
Asterisk switch looses internet connection with Vonage.

 Again the VOIP service is only as good as the network it's on. If I could
only get a crappy ADSL line or really bad cable modem service (like on of my
customer in Amsterdam, NY via TWC) I would NOT go VOIP.

Here is what I get for for internet performance for home and office
Networks:

		Office		Home
--------------------------------------------
ISP		Towerstream		Optimum Online (Cablevision)
Connection	(pre)WiMax		Cablemodem
DL Speed	~3 mbps		~9 mbps
UL Speed	~3 mbps		~1 mbps
Latency	~32 ms		~28 ms
(to Vonage)

With those test results, I have had very few problems with VOIP serice with
these ISPs. Generally speaking, a Latency > 100ms is bad (causes echo's) and
each VOIP line can use anywhere from 46kbps of bandwidth to 128kpbs for each
line. At home I have 2 voip lines and the office has 10 (with 4 backup POTS
lines) Routers that support QOS (Quality of service) insures that voice
traffic has priority and even in marginal bandwidth issues created by using
as much bandwidth as possible on my PC, I've been surprised how well VOIP
has stood up.

	-Scott

> -----Original Message-----
> From: filepro-list-bounces at lists.celestial.com 
> [mailto:filepro-list-bounces at lists.celestial.com] On Behalf 
> Of Mike Schwartz (PC Support & Services, Appleton, WI)
> Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 11:25 AM
> To: filePro
> Subject: Re: OT: internet phones
> 
> >>Let me know how that works out for you when a core router 
> goes up and  
> >>down for the better part of 3 days, and you can't figure 
> out why your 
> >>phone service doesn't work because, "[My] network connection is 
> >>up..."....
> 
>      I'll third this thread because I haven't had very good 
> luck with IP phones in this area.  I switched from Road 
> Runner Cable Service to SBC DSL service about a year ago, 
> mostly because RR was $60.00 a month and DSL was $20.00 a 
> month, but DSL has been even more intermittant than cable, in 
> terms of glitches and outages.
> 
>      My neighbors all told me their DSL was working great, 
> but all they do is web browse and check their email, so they 
> don't notice the little glitches in the connection. For 
> example, if I try to start a telnet session or make a VPN 
> connection or make an internet phone call, I drop my 
> connection anywhere from 2 to 15 times a day!
> 
>      This is very frustrating when I'm trying to do filePro 
> programming using ssh.  The only way I can get any work done 
> is with tools that will allow me a "persistant connection", 
> like PC-Anywhere.
> 
>      Anyway, I'd hate to trust my phone calls to my DSL connection.
> 
>      I am curious as to the quality of the calls that Vonage 
> and other users are getting.  My testing with IP telephony 
> using my laptop when I travel to various locations leads me 
> to think that residential IP telephony isn't ready for prime 
> time yet.  Or, maybe it's just the low grade of wireless 
> internet service I get when I'm staying in cheap motels 
> that's making the difference <grin>.
> 
> Mike Schwartz
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Filepro-list mailing list
> Filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> http://mailman.celestial.com/mailman/listinfo/filepro-list
>