VOIP Telephony

[ViolentJ]

Still looking for a BB Provider and cheaper call package than BT.

Force9 seem pretty good with their premier BB coming in at £21.99 per month (2mb + 30:1 contention)

They also offer VOIP telephone service. I understand I can use a VOIP phone or get an adapter to use a conventional phone.

My question is.... if I got a VOIP phone would this plug straight into one of the ports on my router or would I need a special kind of router? The one force9 sell says it has 2 VOIP ports on it.

 

[Daz]

Depends.
Proper VOIP phones just have a normal Ethernet connection.. which go into a switch.

You'll probably find the VOIP ports will have some sort of QoS on them automatically so Telephone traffic gets prioity - something you will need. (If you on phone, and you start a download, the phone will suffer without)

But, you don't need VOIP ports of normal VOIP phones. I had the Cisco 7960G and it worked just by plugging into my switch.

 

[ViolentJ]

Do you know anything about the USB adapters?

Found a VOIP USB handset for £15 which doesn't seem bad seeing as the adapter is £30 http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=46145&criteria=VOIP&doy=31m12

With the USB type do you dial using the phone or is there a program on the pc?

 

[ViolentJ]

i think we've decided the best bet is get the adapter so that we can still use the phone wirelessly

 

[Mole]

I've had a Grandstream Budgetone 102 for a few months, using it with sipgate, who give you a free local number i.e I'm from the Medway area and picked 01634 which is the local area number.
They don't charge for any incoming calls on it, they do a nice deal, 1000 minutes at 0.59p a minute a month (so £5.90 a month).

I just use it like a PAYG phone, just top up the account when its low, which im struggling to do, put £10 on back in october and still have a few quid in the account.

Free calls to other people using SIP phones aswell.

Them USB phones/adaptors are alright aslong as you run something like skype or a softphone package.