Have you tried using VOIP?

[blacknight]

With all the talk about VOIP I'd love to know how many people have actually used it

[crazychris]

i use skype all the time works great, tho i'm too cheep to buy credit, just use it pc to pc, have made a call as far as san diego but was a little like an 088 moblie phone. but shorter distance works much better.

[Chris_Navan]

I use Voipcheap and find it very good,set it up for my neighbour who also uses it a lot but says that at night she cant ring out on it.

Chris

[Gordy]

Use it all the time now, saving about €30 a month on calls (and that was using Vartec for 8c calls to Sweden compared to Eircons 33c/min). Previously used VoIPStunt and now use VoIPCheap to take advantage of their 9c/min rate to Irish mobiles.

I use a VoIP gateway (ATA) and it is a huge improvement over a softphone, althought even at that, occasionally call quality is poor. Calling off and ringing back sometimes improves things and sometimes not, I think it may be down to over-stretched servers at peak times.

It is also useful to note that our dearly beloved hacking community are focusing on the security vunerabilities in many softphones as another avenue for their mis-guided talents. So it's another argument for having an ATA and uninstalling your softphones.

[mickoneill30]

I've used Skype for about a year now. I still use it but I also use VoipDiscount (similar to VoipCheap & VoipStunt) as my missus has friends in here, Australia, Thailand, England & New Zealand (she can talk for hours) and it gives free landline calls to all those countries. Every so often we get an echoey call but I'll live with that when we're saving 50c -> €1 a minute. I've ordered an ATA from ebay so we can use the normal home phones on it too.

I've thought about getting rid of landline (as I'm on wireless, I'm the user it works OK for) but the VOIP providers here will only save me €10 a month on the line rental, the outgoing rates are still cheaper using VoipStunt and I don't trust the internet quality enough yet (I can have my internet maxed out when an incoming call comes in, I don't want to have to have the other half turning off my server because the call is choppy).

[nickdarmody]

have been using Blueface for the last 3 months , all well so far. On the unlimited ireland/uk package ( 99 euros a year )

Some issues everynow and again but thats to do with a tree in my line of sight , so affecting my signal , but recommend it to all

[ihatepcs]

Please explain Voip and what I do

I know I have it on Digiweb as part of the 3mb metro

Never been interested so didnt look into it what do I do to set it up

I dont have a landline or a phone no??

[blacknight]

Download Skype and give it a whirl...

[ihatepcs]

I know the whole headset on the comp crap

I thought you could fix a normal telephone to your modem and have it ring

Maybe im wrong I dont know

[bridestream]

I've been using Skype and VoipStunt for several months with good results overall.
For calls to land lines Skype is 2 eurocent p.m.; whereas VoipStunt calls (to land lines) are FREE including to all phones (including mobiles) in North America.
I've called from Ireland to New Zealand, Australia, North America, Spain etc without hardly any problems.
Whilst in Florida recently and using my laptop I made calls to Australia, Ireland and Spain using VoipStunt and had no problems.
To start one needs to put a few Euro into the 'meter' for calls to mobiles.
And that's it - away you go and spend hours on calls to land lines world wide for FREE!

[rotorua]

I unearthed another one the other day and signed-up i.e. opened an account for €10. It's actually the same crowd as VoipStunt whom I've been using extensively - the 'New' one is POIVY.com. They've got different rates for mobiles abroad and for calls to Latvia?! ( I was booking a hotel.....)

[bridestream]

Interesting! Competition hotting up. If Poivy and Voip are same people their prices are NOT!
Excl vat calls to Mobiles:
Poivy / Voip -
Oz .09 / .15 Euro cent per minute
NZ .23 / .267
UK .12 / .18
Spain .13 / .151
Of course Skype are more expensive again!

Note the big difference between Oz and NZ rates.
I phone mobiles in both countries regularly - does anyone know of a provider to NZ who has better rates?

[Bercon Forklifts]

Originally Posted by ihatepcs

I know the whole headset on the comp crap

I thought you could fix a normal telephone to your modem and have it ring

Maybe im wrong I dont know

If you get the right interface for the computer, you can, along with connecting at the same time to your landline. Can't remember the name now, as the device is at home, but it came from Maplins in Jervis St, and was about €40 at the time, which was middle of last year.

Effectively, both landline and skype can come to the same physical device, but it's not the modem, you need a different interface for Skype. That of course only works if the computer and the interface device is powered on.

Outgoing calls can then be routed either via skype or by the wire landline.

At the moment, I have a spare 'traditional' phone connected to the box, but the plan when I get some spare time is to route the skype line to a spare line on the switchboard, so that I can identify which line is calling, and also keep the landline available if Skype is in use, as we've more than one handset.

There's no reason why this concept can't be used equally well with a wireless phone, which means that you can send or receive skype calls without having to be tied to the computer.

Technically, Skype for me works well, my ISP is in Salzburg, and I call regularly to discuss technical issues, and it's rare that I don't get a line quality that's as good as normal wired connections. There are occasional problems with packet delay, and also sometimes there can be an echo, but that happens on wired connects as well, if it's more than so bad, we drop the connect, and redial, which almost always clears the problem. WE're on broadband, I'd not be as confident on dial up

Cheers

[mickoneill30]

Originally Posted by Bercon Forklifts

If you get the right interface for the computer, you can, along with connecting at the same time to your landline. Can't remember the name now, as the device is at home, but it came from Maplins in Jervis St, and was about €40 at the time, which was middle of last year.

Effectively, both landline and skype can come to the same physical device, but it's not the modem, you need a different interface for Skype. That of course only works if the computer and the interface device is powered on.

I got this device from somebody on eBay last year.
Sipura ATA 2000

You don't need your PC turned on. Just plug this into your router and configure it up. It doesn't work with Skype (Skype isn't SIP compatible) but it works with plenty of others (Voipdiscount for example and they're cheaper than Skype or Blueface if you want an incoming number). You can plug any phone into it so your standard wireless DECT phone will work grand.

[Bercon Forklifts]

Originally Posted by mickoneill30

I got this device from somebody on eBay last year.
Sipura ATA 2000

You don't need your PC turned on. Just plug this into your router and configure it up. It doesn't work with Skype (Skype isn't SIP compatible) but it works with plenty of others (Voipdiscount for example and they're cheaper than Skype or Blueface if you want an incoming number). You can plug any phone into it so your standard wireless DECT phone will work grand.

Hmmmm, like the look of that, with the caveat that it's not going to work where a user is on USB connect to a modem/router device, it needs the network connection as far as I can see, but that's not an issue for the majority of users.

Pity it's not Skype compatible, as most of the calls across the Net at the moment are to other Skype users.

Cheers

Steve

[mickoneill30]

Youre correct about the USB modem device. You do need a router with a spare network port.
You're not correct about most calls on the net though. With a device like this & a Voipdiscount account I can call landlines in Australia / Thailand (landlines & mobiles)/ NZ / England / Ireland / America (landlines & mobiles) and many more for free. The other user doesn't even need to have a computer. I use this to ring their normal telephone.

Well Voipdiscount isn't completely free. You have to pay €11.9 every 4 months to get free landline calls. Then when you ring other non free numbers you get charged at whatever the rate is (they take this out of your original €11.9). I've just moved back from Australia last year and myself and my other half ring people in all those countries and she can spend hours on the phone. My phone bill is about €5 a month (on top of the line rental). If you ring abroad at all you have to get something like this.
For businesses too they can get something like an Asterix server and integrate it with these systems and get a fully functional PABX system for shag all.

[rotorua]

Yep - the ATA is the route to go. I bought a Sipura ATA 2002 some time ago and a DECT phone from Argos. Practically every call from my home is made on it. The 2002 has 2 sockets for 2 phones, but what I have done is to configure each line for a different VOIP provider i.e.VOIPStunt on line 1 and POIVY on line 2. We are emigrating in a few months and the whole shebang is coming with us!

I must add that a lot of research has been done by Senior Member Gordy from whom I first heard about ATAs - Thanks Gordy

[oneill.dav]

VOIP is quite ok for landline calls worldwide. While the quality is always quite pleasing, the price of calling a mobile is probably more expensive, or just as expensive (in terms of Ireland, of course) as eircom and its resellers. But, it's certainly better when calling abroad! It's definitily going to grow in popularity once more people become aware of it. Thing is, unless you have a decent soundcard, your mic may not be high in volume, and the party you're calling may have difficulty hearing you. This is quite common, especially amongst the older onboard soundcards. Luckily I have 3 soundcards in my own PC, so I'm spoilt for choice!

I suppose it's a matter of making sure you have the latest drivers installed for your onboard audio. Trust me, it can help. The difference in some of my contact's volume is amazing since they updated from their older stock drivers.


Seifer.

[christinecoakley@hotmail.]

using voipstunt for free landline calls, funnily enough I never have put credit on, and can still make free calls, its great.

Just using a soft-phone with a usb handset at the moment, must really upgrade to an ata

[dazzareds]

I would like to try VOIP but have a mid speed over priced isp called couldn't careless or clearcrap is there anyway of using voip on this over priced web browser