Magic Jack: A revolution in the calling world.

In the modern world, lots of VOIP(voice over IP) products have replaced the traditional LAN phones. Magic Jack stands out of all with best price and reliability.

To call international, I use to spend lot of money for the phone cards. I also use to cut my talking time to limit my spending. You have to dial 1-800 numbers and then enter couple of pin numbers which is lot of trouble to get connected and talk. Magic Jack helps you to talk longer hours with out entering any pin numbers. It’s like calling domestic phone number.

You need to have broadband internet connection and computer to use this product. When ever you register for this product you will be assigned a local USA number. You can ship Magic Jack to your country. It’s a very small device. You have to connect this device to computer using USB port. Device can be connected to cordless phone to avoid headset. When ever you want to talk you can turn the computer on. You can just dial the local number assigned to your device or your relatives can dial your number like domestic call.

Occasionally the servers go down, but the problem will be fixed in couple of hours.The call quality is also good, May be sometimes words repeat but very rare.Even in the domestic US, this is the cheapest among all the available VOIP phones.

Setup and installation is pretty straight forward. This is the cheap and best product I have ever used in VOIP phones. You can avoid phone card bills to call foreign countries.

SINGAM writes on digital,computer,baby products. You can learn more by visiting my blog at http://singam15.blogspot.com

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Over 90% of computer phones (VoIP) are not secure because they use a public known codex (publicly known encryption of sound packets) and a publicly known protocol to transport voice conversations. Therefore, users of these type of services are unknowingly exposing themselves to anyone who wants to listen in or access their confidential information. In addition, because of the public openness, the users computers vulnerability can result in a costly computer crash and total loss of all information.

Peer-to-peer computer phones are on unsecure lines.

There are five areas to address when checking for Security when looking for a VoIP Service Provider. Heres how a VoIP Service should protect your security, whether on dial-up, wireless, satellite, or cable connections.

1. Call Security: A VoIP services audio (your voice) should compress your voice into proprietary encryption packets to travel across the internet, and return back to voice at destination. That particular VoIP service should host proprietary software, and as such, the only one that can interpret the voice and data contained in those packets.

2. Computer Phone Identity: When your first download and install a VoIP providers computer phone, a confidential phone number and password should be given to protect against unauthorized installation. To protect against unauthorized installation, your computer phones setup process should combine the phone name and hardware data from the PC on which it was installed to create a unique ID string known only to that VoIPs own server. Because of the association between the unique ID with that particular PC, it prevents one person from reconfiguring their VoIP services computer phone to spoof another. It also prevents someone from copying that VoIP services software to another PC and then using it without having gone through the password-protected installation process.

3. Client Server Model: The VoIP service should follow a client-server model. The client is the softphone offered by a particular VoIP service. That particular VoIP services Server should be behind a highly secure proprietary firewall hosted in a professional facility. Any information shared should therefore only be between the client and server of that particular VoIP service. This means, that unlike some peer-to-peer solutions, private information about buddy lists or call patterns, etc., remains entirely confidential.

4. Softphone Setup: Firewalls vary widely and each network configuration may be quite different. When a VoIP services softphone first initializes, it discovers its ability to reach that VoIPs service server, as well as a variety of ports and protocols for placing calls, depending on the results of its discovery. In a strict environment, the VoIP services softphone uses the same path the proprietary firewall already permits for web browsing (typically TCP ports 80 and 443). This allows users to make calls from anywhere without compromising or reconfiguring their own firewalls.

The VoIP services softphone should be able to initiate conversations with that VoIP services server and keep the server updated as to its status. By doing this, no public IP address needs to be setup for the PC running the computer phone. It also enables user flexibility without concern about security or privacy when moving from network to network. The VoIP services computer phone should be compatible with Network Address Translation (NAT) and Port Address Translation (PAT), and the kind of dynamic addressing that is found in wireless hotspots, hotel internet access, and dial-up.

5. Monitoring Capability: A strong security model should include an auditing mechanism to monitor usage and activity. This means that each computer phone should include its own usage log, enabling users to look through their own personal history of inbound, outbound, and missed calls. In addition, the VoIP services website should provide users the ability to view all individual phone call charges using the already set up confidential number and password.

Dee Scrip and her close friend Andy Murray operate the website http://www.whypay4calls.com. Where you can experience a 7 day free trial with a secure line on patented technology. NO contracts, obligations, or hassles!

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Today’s Technology

Over the years, the technology has made remarkable progress. Telephonys improved data compression rate, better sound quality, and the availability of residential broadband has given consumers more affordable solutions with even more features than you might have currently. Today, there are a number of available service providers with most offering the equipment for free along with pricing packages that can reduce your phone bills by up to 50% or more.

How It Works

Internet Voice, commonly known as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), uses your broadband Internet connection to make and receive phone calls instead of your regular phone line. It works by converting your phone calls to data packets and sends the information over your Internet connection, like email, and is received on the other end just like a regular phone call.

Source: Vonage.com

What’s the advantage? Using your Internet connection instead of your phone line is less expensive. You can call anywhere, anytime for less and still get features like Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Caller ID, 3-way Calling, and so much more.

One common misconception about VoIP is that it’s a bandwidth hog, when, in fact, voice is a very efficient type of traffic. As a rule of thumb, 14 Kbps of bandwidth per call is ideal. This includes the compressed voice packet and the IP overhead. While your broadband connection will range from 768 Kbps 1.5 Mbps, this is negligible and not worth concerning yourself over.

The Disadvantages

If you’re considering replacing your traditional telephone service with Internet Voice, there are some things you should consider when looking at the various providers.

Some Internet Voice services don’t work during power outages and the service provider may not offer backup power;

Additional steps may be required for setting up 911 calls where you will need to register an address for location identification; or

DSL users cannot completely eliminate their land line because the broadband runs through this connection; or

They may or may not offer white page listings.

Let’s Talk Features

VoIP service providers offer different packages to fit your specific needs. Actual usage, desired features, and potential expansion capabilities will be the determining factors when selecting a package. The basic plans most VoIP providers offer include:

Low-cost Basic with Limited Usage

Unlimited US and Canada calls

Unlimited Business with Fax

You’re almost certain to save money switching to VoIP. Not only is the monthly service itself generally less expensive than your current phone company’s monthly service, the features you get with VoIP are much more extensive and are, most of the time, offered for free. Features like:

Web Based Administration Allows you to configure your phone settings and log all your calls in real time.

Caller ID Standard with all VoIP service providers.

Voice Mail Replaces your answering machine and lets you listen to voice messages on-line.

Call forwarding Forward calls to your cell, office, or any other number after a predetermined number of rings.

Portability Take your phone adapter anywhere around the world, use your same phone number, and call anytime, anywhere in the US for free, and vice-versa

Software Phone this application can be installed on any PC and will function exactly the same way as any VoIP phone

Call Transfer

3-way conferencing v

Call return

What You Need

An Internet connection - While VoIP works with a regular 56kbps dial-up connection, it is highly recommended you use a Cable or DSL broadband connection.

A Computer The only reason you will need a computer (PC or Mac) is to configure the phone adaptor to work with your broadband service provider. Once this is done, you will not need to do this again.

A Digital Phone Adapter DPA’s, also referred to as phone adapters, are provided mostly free of charge. This is similar to your Cable/DSL router that converts the signal to use a regular phone or fax unit.

A Telephone There are also options for plugging in multiple phones to a single DPA unit.

A VoIP Service provider There are several available. Here are a few you might want to check out:

1. Vonage

2. Packet8

3. Lingo

4. AT&T CallVantage

5. Verizon

Get More Info

VoIP-Info.org - This web site covers everything related to VoIP - software, hardware, service providers, reviews, configurations, standards, tips & tricks and everything else related to voice over IP networks, IP telephony and Internet Telephony.

FCC - The Federal Communications Commission provides a list of Frequently Asked Questions for those looking to switch to VoIP.

VoIP User Forum - An independent information guide to Internet Telephony

Disclaimer - The Micro 2000 Tech Tip is a free service providing information only. While we use reasonable care to see that this information is correct, we do not guarantee it for accuracy, completeness or fitness for a particular purpose. Micro 2000, Inc. shall not be liable for damages of any kind in connection with the use or misuse of this information.

Micro 2000 Inc has been helping to solve the day-to-day challenges that IT departments face in order to keep their businesses operational as well as profitable for over 14 years. The company’s primary goal is to put the customer first - through feature-rich, simple-to-use IT tools that can help IT administrators manage their jobs more effectively.

For more advice and free articles be sure to visit: http://www.micro2000.co.uk

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In the beginning, when the Internet Protocol was first designed, no one was thinking about the possibilities of sending audio and video. Real time communication was not an issue.

Perhaps the greatest single problem is that the Internet Protocol (the IP part of VoIP - Voice over Internet Protocol) wasn’t designed to ensure that the packets are delivered in the correct order. When information is transmitted using IP, the data is broken up into information packets, each of which is sent separately. The correct sequence of packets is part of the information in each packet, but nothing specifically exists to make sure that the packets are delivered, and, therefore, received in the proper order.

Now this isn’t usually a significant issue for web pages, email, etc. Why? Because these aren’t real-time applications. Audio and video however, especially live audio and live video are definitely real-time applications. For a real time conversation to work, the packets have to arrive - pretty much in order and also within certain time limits.

The first, and one of the major challenges then, is to restructure incoming packets into the correct order and to somehow cope with lost and/or trashed packets. Face it, the internet does not provide a quality of service guarantee. If enough packets are lost, an audio or video stream rapidly turns into a useless mess. While packets can be resent - the standard way lost/trashed packets are dealt with - real time communication means that you just can’t wait around forever. After a certain time, it’s simply too late to maintain a coherent stream.

What we’ve seen over the last few years is a gradual and now nearly explosive growth in the use of VoIP, and streaming audio and video. The reason is decline of dial-up and the growth of ISDN, DSL, ADSL, cable and other high speed, high bandwidth access modes. Bandwidth is the answer to most of the problems posed by IP. End-to-end high speed links can ensure high quality sound. The sole remaining problem is latency.

For most this is not an issue when they have high speed internet access, however, it can become a problem with satellite links or any other system where unusually long distances and many hops are involved.

On private networks, there is rarely a problem using VoIP and many companies with internal networks (such as telcos and power companies) use VoIP to communicate within their organizational network structure.

However, when the available end-to-end bandwidth is less than 256 Kbps, a good VoIP system will require mechanisms to overcome fragmentation of the data stream.

Security is an issue everywhere on the internet and what this means is that VoIP also needs to deal with firewalls and NATs (Network Address Translation). While some systems can do NAT and firewall traversal on their own, others require the use of SBCs (Session Border Controllers) to manage the traversal.

One major, though non-technical, challenge to VoIP, comes from traditional telephone service providers who are being by-passed by consumers who love the extremely low (or zero) long-distance charges they can get by using VoIP. Exactly how this works out over the long run will be fascinating to watch. In the meantime, VoIP services are continually being improved and extended. Enjoy them.

For more information on VoIP, conference calling, web conferencing and related subjects visit Alta Global Telecom. Find more on wireless and cellular subjects at Alta Global Wireless. For networking and security check Alta Global Net.

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There are many types of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) protocols that are employed by the VoIP providers currently providing VoIP calling plans. Luckily for the consumers, the VoIP providers have listened to what functions the consumers want in their Voicemails. Almost all of the VoIP providers provide Voicemail with the standard VoIP calling plan. The special feature of the VoIP voicemail plan is in how the consumer can access his/her VoIP voicemail message.

In general, there are 4 ways in which a VoIP consumer can access their voicemail. When you add the four ways up, you will be able to access your voicemail from virtually anywhere.

First, you can access your voicemail through your primary VoIP telephone by dialing *123 or some other combination of numbers (VoIP voicemail access code varies by provider). The automatic attendant will let you know how many voicemails you have and walk you through retrieving all of your new voicemails and saving/deleting your old emails. It is quite a slick system.

The second method is via a local voicemail access number, where you can call a local telephone number from any telephone (Cell phone/Land line/ VoIP phone). When you dial into your local voicemail access number, the auto attendant will ask for you to punch in your VoIP phone number and password to be able to access your VoIP voicemail system.

The third method is through your VoIP provider online account management portal. You can go to your Providers VoIP homepage and access the Customer Login portal by typing in your username and password. Once into the portal, click on the Voicemail tab and you can listen to your new voicemails over Internet connection.

The fourth method, and possibly the most useful, is every time you get a new VoIP voicemail, you are sent an email. That email will state that you have a new voicemail from your VoIP account, the date the voicemail was received, and an attachment of the voicemail as a .wav file. One outstanding feature is that you can save the .wav file on your computers hard drive and email the voicemail to friends, family, or coworkers.

The above are generally how most VoIP providers give consumers access to their voicemail (but not all). Be sure to check each VoIP provider for how they provide their consumers access to their voicemail.

VoIP voicemail service is only one of the things to consider before choosing a VoIP solution. In fact, there are many things to consider when choosing a VoIP provider. An educated consumer generally results in a satisfied consumer. Please see our VoIP: Things to consider article to find a list of more things to consider when choosing a VoIP provider. You can Compare VoIP providers side-by-side at www.VoIPChoices.com.

Chris Landry is the foremost authority on residential and small business VoIP providers. Chris is the founder of http://www.VoIPChoices.com. Chris has prequalified several high-quality VoIP providers and compares them by price and features at http://www.VoIPChoices.com. Chris can be reach via email at Chris@VoIPChoices.com.

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You may not have considered it but there are many benefits that businesses can achieve by utilising data networks to carry their voice traffic (VoIP). By marrying this voice traffic with data traffic (IP Telephony) it becomes even more powerful.

Here are a few examples;

Cheaper Phone Calls - as your utilising existing data networks

Simpler Infrastructure - one set of CAT5 cables

Scalable - simply extend the existing data network

Reduced Operating Costs - converged system is simpler to manage

Enhanced Customer Service - “Click to Talk” web services and easy role out application like call centres

Flexibility - Remote or home workers can work as if in the office

It’s fair to say that most people focus on the costs savings but in most cases the business improvements far out way the costs savings.

For example if your business operated from multiple sites it would be possible to have a single centralised system located at one site, with optimal staffing resources to operate, manage and support. No need to have 3 receptionists when one will do!

Say you had staff that wanted to work from home or from a remote office. With this technology it would be easy to give them the look and feel of being in the office and the transparency that their co-workers and customers enjoy.

Rolling out a distributed business application such as a contact centre or call centre is much easier and more robust.

But….its not that simple to get right!

You must consider;

Quality of Service - across the data network

Reliability Think when did your LAN / telephone system last fail?

Security - May increase exposure to data and voice

Support - Which department is now responsible - training?

With the latest handsets it is possible for them to act like a PC with their own IP address and with the right handsets they can even run XML applications cutting down the need for unnecessary PC’s etc.

To get it right requires the right planning and foresight to make sure that your systems will grow and deliver the maximum benefit with the minimum risk.

Copyright 2005 Nicholas Windley

About The Author

Nicholas Windley a strategic ICT consultant formely with Comz4Biz and an independent business owner and growth consultant.

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A long-standing question for potential VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) consumers is How much bandwidth does a VoIP phone require to make quality telephone calls?

First of all, Bandwidth is defined as the ability to transfer data (such as a VoIP telephone call) from one point to another in a fixed amount of time. The higher the bandwidth speed you have, the more data you can send over your Broadband Internet connection.

There are two types of bandwidth at your location: upload bandwidth and download bandwidth. The Upload Bandwidth is the amount of data you can send to the Internet and download bandwidth is the amount of data you can receive from the Internet. The more Internet bandwidth you have from your ISP (Internet Service Provider) the better.

In most cases, the normal VoIP telephone call will use up 90 Kbps (kilobits per second). If you have a Broadband Internet service provider that doesnt offer much bandwidth then most VoIP providers give you the option to lower the VoIP voice quality by lowering the bandwidth used for VoIP calls to 60 Kbps or, to really conserve your bandwidth, 30 Kbps. Most people can’t tell the difference between the three settings. We suggest you use the high sound quality setting (90 Kpbs in most cases), if bandwidth is not an issue. High VoIP voice quality is generally the default setting but if you are running into a situation where your bandwidth is limited then you can adjust your VoIP bandwidth to one of the lower settings. Some consumers with 128 Kbps upload connections can receive less VoIP service quality due to a poor quality ISP (Internet Service Provider). By selecting a lower quality VoIP bandwidth setting, this problem can be avoided.

If you plan on using a VoIP service provider, should you get a DSL or a Cable Internet access provider? In general, DSL upload bandwidth starts at 128k where as Cable Internet upload bandwidth starts at around 600k. Cable Internet is a little bit more expensive, but it is also about 4-5 times faster than residential DSL and a bit friendlier to a VoIP telephone call. Having said that, both DSL and cable modem high-speed services provide sufficient broadband Internet access bandwidth to support any of the top VoIP service providers. If you are experiencing low Broadband Internet Service provider bandwidth, we suggest you try Packet8 VoIP. Packet8 VoIP boasts an advanced compression technology in which each active voice line uses approximately only 23Kbps of total data throughput, upstream and downstream.

The amount of bandwidth that a VoIP provider requires to make a quality telephone call is only one thing to consider when choosing a VoIP service provider. In fact, there are many things to consider when choosing a VoIP provider. An educated consumer generally results in a satisfied consumer.

Please see VoIP things to consider article (http://www.voipchoices.com/voip-considerations.html) to find a list of more things to consider when choosing a VoIP provider. You can also compare VoIP providers side-by-side by price and features at www.VoIPChoices.com

Chris Landry is the foremost authority on residential and small business VoIP providers. Chris is the founder of http://www.VoIPChoices.com. Chris has prequalified several high-quality VoIP providers and compares them by price and features at http://www.VoIPChoices.com

Chris can be reach via email at Chris@VoIPChoices.com.

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VoIP is set to revolutionise home communications. With VoIP you can make telephone calls over your broadband connection for free! Well in some cases you can, in other cases you might need to pay a monthly subscription to a VoIP service provider.

There are a few different ways you can take advantage of VoIP at home.

PC to PC

The simplest and most cost effective way to get into VoIP is by installing some free software on your PC and invest in a telephone headset( you can also use a microphone and your PC speakers). Once you have this set up you can talk to other people using the same software from your PC to their PC.

Sounds good? Well yes and no, you both have to be sat in front of your PC’s to communicate, which is not particularly convenient. Though if you are making a lot of international calls this can be a great way to speak to relatives overseas completely free of charge.

PC to Phone

You can take phone calls over broadband a step further by setting up a ‘PC to Phone’ VoIP system. This is similar to the ‘PC to PC’ method outlined above. You need to have a headset and download specialist software too, though with this method you can contact any phone you like.

However, via this method the calls are not free and you will need to prepay for your calls. The supplier of your software will require you to add money to your phone account much like the pre-pay system for mobile phones. When you choose your service provider you will need to carefully check the rates they offer. Some have great deals for landline calls, but are expensive if you wish to call a mobile phone - so do your research.

Phone to Phone

This is the most exciting incarnation of VoIP for the home, you can either buy a VoIP ready phone or an adaptor that connects your phone to your broadband line, and from there contact any phone over your broadband connection.

You will need to sign up with a VoIP service provider to accomplish this. Usually you will be charged a monthly fee, and typically get all your UK landline phone calls free. There are additional deals for international calls and contacting mobile phones.

Whatever option you chose to connect to at home, you are sure to take advantage of the future of home telecommunications - VoIP!

The author runs a

site about UK VoIP Service Providers

at http://www.speakonline.co.uk

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What is VoIP?

First things first, VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. At a base level that means phone calls over your broadband connection. You really do need a high-speed connection to take advantage of VoIP to get phone calls comparable to a normal landline phone. Traditional “dial-up” connections are not really sufficient.

VoIP works in a different way to your home phone. Your home phone is based on an analogue network, whereas VoIP is based on a digital one. Essentially when you speak into a VoIP enabled phone or headset your voice is converted into digital packets; it is then compressed to help your Internet connection run more efficiently and then it is transferred down the connection much like an email. Once it reaches its destination the process is reversed.

Why might I want to switch to VoIP?

Its a good question. We all have a working phone in our homes or business, why should we change? Lets look at the advantages and disadvantages of VoIP

Advantages

Well to put it simply - cost. VoIP makes calls significantly cheaper. And (Depending on your package) for a low cost monthly subscription local and national calls can be made for free, and international calls made at a significantly lower rate.

When you subscribe to a VoIP service it is possible to get a phone number for life. You will be able to take your number with you whenever you move (or even travel) with obvious benefits.

The contract packages that companies who are offering the service contain for the most part all the features and more that your current phone service supplier offers. You are likely to find most VoIP companies offering free voicemail, call forwarding, caller ID, call waiting, call waiting ID, 3 way calling, speed dialling and much more.

VoIP is very much in it’s infancy; the technology is progressing all the time. Future benefits that we may not be able to envisage yet are certain to appear, you current analogue phone system will not be able to compete.

Disadvantages

Your VoIP phones system will be exclusively based on your broadband connection, if you ISP has a period of service downtime then you will not be able to make calls. Additionally if your electricity supply has a power out then you will not be able to make any calls, this includes calls to the emergency services. Some providers have already got a work around with the emergency calls, so make sure when you decide on a supplier they provide this.

A further disadvantage currently is the set up of the VoIP is not the simplest procedure to undertake, though many suppliers will assist with installation.

The quality of the call via VoIP can be slightly less than your current analogue phone, but the technology is steadily improving, and before long you will not be able to tell the difference in call quality between the two mediums.

Mike Bromley 2005

The author runs a site about VoIP Service Providers

at http://www.speakonline.co.uk

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I’m a manager in a small UK company whose portfolio also includes looking after the company’s computers and telecommunications. On a daily basis I am contacted by telecom firms asking me if they can take ‘just 10 minutes of my time to save me 60% on my phone bills or similar’. Now these guys are not selling VoIP but something called carrier pre-select. That’s when you pay your line rental to one company and pay for your call charges to another, who will charge you at a lower rate than the line rental company.

I have to say these guys are seasoned telesales people. They know every trick in the book to keep you talking, a few haven’t even got the hint from my standard line of ‘I need to finish this conversation now and hang up the phone’. Anyway to get me a better line to tell these guy’s I’d love to be able to say ‘were on VoIP, and you can’t compete with those prices’. However, I can’t use that line yet. Why? Because my ISP connection uptime is not reliable enough to switch.

A few weeks ago after a thunderstorm we lost full ADSL connection in one of our branches for three days. Now if that werent bad enough to lose e-mail capability and the various web sites crucial to the running of our business, if we had lost phone capability as well then as a recruitment agency we would have lost both business and customers.

This is not the only service outage we have experienced, I would approximate that once a month we can expect to lose service for at least 3 hours in one of our branches. You might suggest that I move to a more reputable supplier, however we are with one of the largest and most well known ISP’s in the UK, so we do not really have the option of changing to a different supplier. Until the ISPs can guarantee a better continuation of service then I shant be recommending VoIP to our Managing Director for his business.

Mike Bromley 2005

Business VoIP is a resource site for all things VoIP.

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