voip through hotel internet

hi
i am new to using voip

soon i have to be in india for a month, i will be in a hotel which
advertises wifi interent access from the room.

i have looked at sipgate which quotes 9.9p/m to uk mobiles which is almost
half the cost of skype.

the sipgate site says however that the application requires about 100kbs up
& down ;

has anybody any experience of using these services over a shared internet
access like this?

i don't know what sort of bandwidths are provided to e.g hotels but my
suspicion is that everybody is probably sharing a standard 8MB up / 768k
down or similar so i wonder if 100k up would be available for voip?

if anyone has tried voip over such a connection how was it?

thanks
Dave

Hi Dave
My experience

1/ hotel internet connections tend to be slower than our 'regular' 8MB at
home ... as you mentioned you are sharing resources probably with quite a
few other users

2/ the quality of the communication in voip is highly variable in function
of yr upload & download speeds and although subscribing a number of cheaper
providers (voipcheap etc) i found that the quality of skype was always
better.

3/ someone more litterate than me can confirm or not that it seems that the
technology (algorithm) used by skype is more advanced thus allowing
reasonable communication even with an upload speed of 56k as i had last week
in Malta

hope this helps
"dave" <dave@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:ZDmii.16448$p8.5472@text.news.blueyonder.co.u k...
> hi
> i am new to using voip
>
> soon i have to be in india for a month, i will be in a hotel which
> advertises wifi interent access from the room.
>
> i have looked at sipgate which quotes 9.9p/m to uk mobiles which is almost
> half the cost of skype.
>
> the sipgate site says however that the application requires about 100kbs
up
> & down ;
>
> has anybody any experience of using these services over a shared internet
> access like this?
>
> i don't know what sort of bandwidths are provided to e.g hotels but my
> suspicion is that everybody is probably sharing a standard 8MB up / 768k
> down or similar so i wonder if 100k up would be available for voip?
>
> if anyone has tried voip over such a connection how was it?
>
> thanks
> Dave
>
>
>

Apart from issues mentioned, check to see if their wifi has any ports or
protocols blocked. I recently tried a hotel connection - UDP was blocked
and my wi-fi sip phone didn't work there.... luckily the same voip account
worked through my laptop.

Also, smsdiscount.com has 10 eurocents/min calls to UK mobiles, and free
calls to landlines - no incoming UK number tho.

On Tue, 03 Jul 2007 09:10:49 +0200, dave <dave@nospam.com> put fingertips
to keyboard:

> hi
> i am new to using voip
>
> soon i have to be in india for a month, i will be in a hotel which
> advertises wifi interent access from the room.
>
> i have looked at sipgate which quotes 9.9p/m to uk mobiles which is
> almost
> half the cost of skype.
>
> the sipgate site says however that the application requires about 100kbs
> up
> & down ;
>
> has anybody any experience of using these services over a shared internet
> access like this?
>
> i don't know what sort of bandwidths are provided to e.g hotels but my
> suspicion is that everybody is probably sharing a standard 8MB up / 768k
> down or similar so i wonder if 100k up would be available for voip?
>
> if anyone has tried voip over such a connection how was it?
>
> thanks
> Dave
>
>
>



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Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"dave" <dave@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:ZDmii.16448$p8.5472@text.news.blueyonder.co.u k...
> hi
> i am new to using voip
>
> soon i have to be in india for a month, i will be in a hotel which
> advertises wifi interent access from the room.
>
> i have looked at sipgate which quotes 9.9p/m to uk mobiles which is almost
> half the cost of skype.
>
> the sipgate site says however that the application requires about 100kbs
> up & down ;
>
> has anybody any experience of using these services over a shared internet
> access like this?
>>

I think the chances of getting a decent line are quite small? I have found
connections in UK and europe Hotels on WIFI
to be often flakey, and that is in countries where broadband and telecoms
are open industries, it is my understanding that
telecoms are strictly controlled and I think I have read that internet
consumer VOIP may even be illigal in India. I know that
they are very strict against people offering termination in India.

I have found the same in South Africa where not only hotel, but regular
business ADSL also stopped SIP traffic. Skype did work
but I understand often IP shaping is used to make voice services useable

"RH" <rh@no-spicedham.exelsys.com> wrote in message
news:f6fglj$8p$1$830fa79d@news.demon.co.uk...
>
> "dave" <dave@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:ZDmii.16448$p8.5472@text.news.blueyonder.co.u k...
>> hi
>> i am new to using voip
>>
>> soon i have to be in india for a month, i will be in a hotel which
>> advertises wifi interent access from the room.
>>
>> i have looked at sipgate which quotes 9.9p/m to uk mobiles which is
>> almost half the cost of skype.
>>
>> the sipgate site says however that the application requires about 100kbs
>> up & down ;
>>
>> has anybody any experience of using these services over a shared internet
>> access like this?
>>>
>
> I think the chances of getting a decent line are quite small? I have found
> connections in UK and europe Hotels on WIFI
> to be often flakey, and that is in countries where broadband and telecoms
> are open industries, it is my understanding that
> telecoms are strictly controlled and I think I have read that internet
> consumer VOIP may even be illigal in India. I know that
> they are very strict against people offering termination in India.
>
> I have found the same in South Africa where not only hotel, but regular
> business ADSL also stopped SIP traffic. Skype did work
> but I understand often IP shaping is used to make voice services useable
>
>
>


Hi,


RH makes some of the most important points here I think.

However, additionally, if for example using a softphone or a device which
you are good at configuring, you can easily get bandwidth down to 3KBps
(~30kbps). Choose a codec like GSM, iLBC or speex - they sound fine (mobiles
use GSM!).

This will get you something perfectly serviceable by 56k modem or similar
bandwidth / service availability. However, note RH's points - they are
primary and probably key in this case.

Further, do make sure the service provider in question supports you
preferred or chosen codec. The quoted 100kbps is almost definitely for G711
and more than double what it has or needs to be (I am pretty sure SIPGate
actually let you use other codecs - one moment - lol ... GSM - 4.5kbps;
iLBC - 3.5kbps [but seriously broken on SIPGate at the moment - lol - sounds
funny!]; G729 - odd... downstream 4kbps, upstream 6.5 kbps...; won't do
speex) - this is testing to a freephone number - some providers do some fun,
funny and weird stuff and certain routes may insist on different codecs.
YMMV.


Best wishes,



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