"Graham" <me@privacy.com> wrote in message
news:f695ep$v6d$1@news.datemas.de...
> Look, for example at www.sipgate.co.uk this has the advantage that
> a single account will do outgoing and incoming calls and you
> get a phone number; a real geographic phone number for practically
> any STD code in the UK.
If you have already got an unlocked ATA (Analogue Telephone Adapter that
isn't fixed to just one provider) then sipgate is one of a number of options
you could consider. I personally have a few technical issues with them, but
others on this group seem to use them OK. A provider I use is voip.co.uk,
which is not necessarily as cheap as Sipgate (depending on your calling
pattern), but I have found to be more reliable in my situation. Others will
no doubt be along to recommend their own personal favourites. If you are
after an out-of-the box solution, then Vonage is very good, but more
expensive than nearly all of the others, and cannot (or rather does not want
to) port numbers in or out. Their service is not good if you like to tinker
though, as it is all remotely provisioned.
Be aware that there is some configuration of your ATA that will be required
with most providers, and particularly if you are also using a router, make
good use of your chosen provider's technical support to get the setup
completed successfully. A router with QoS is desirable to ensure call
quality, and it is well worth going through the configuration of that, too.
Again, don't know if you already have an adapter, but if you are on ADSL,
you will need to keep a phone line ("naked DSL" not available yet). In this
case, you might want to consider an ATA with "PSTN fallover" which would
mean you can make use of the BT line for incoming calls, for emergency calls
(if not available with your provider), and in case of power failure.
Regarding the quality of your internet connection, this is the crucial part
for how good the service will be, more important than your phone service
provider as there are more points here that can fail. General advice is
that you need a reliable 100kbps in *BOTH* directions for an acceptable
quality call, the limiting factor generally being the upload speed as
opposed to the download speed. Upload speed is generally one tenth of the
download speed (i.e. a 1 Mbps connection actually has an max. upload speed
of 100kbps). Because the upload speed is less, this means that the people
you speak to will often notice quality issues quicker than you. Also bear
in mind that the maximum speed is not necessarily always achievable, so if
you have good quality between 6-8pm then there is a fair bet that you will
not experience such issues at other times of the day.
A couple of years ago, I tried VoIP for three months, just to check it
worked for me, and I have used it ever since. Since I established that the
reliability was only ever so slightly less than conventional telephony (also
called POTS) I took the plunge and got rid of my POTS line as I am on cable.
I got it back again a couple of months ago, purely for emergency calls. But
with the right equipment, the right ISP and the right ITSP, I am satisfied
that I would not need a POTS line but for this.
Feel free to ask more questions. There is a wealth of experience in this
newsgroup, and only some of us occasionally bite!!
Telephone over the Internet 
Linear Mode
