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Busting up those voip myths
Thursday, August 10, 2006
My father-in-law is a 76 year old geek whose journey to the dark side, though relatively recent, is nonetheless complete. He's more than qualified to wield the mighty NerdSaber, inasmuch as he's spent the last few years happily cobbling together a series of PCs and learning how to program in various different languages. He's even built his own Linux box. Those of you who don't know what that means, let's just say it gives him some pretty respectable street cred. Especially when you consider that only 17% of the people in his age demographic even use the internet at all.
Which is why it surprised me when he started asking about voip internet phone systems. Apparently, there are some myths roaming around that need to be laid to rest.
Myth #1: voip is only for computer-to-computer calling.
Fact: voip can be used for calls that are computer-to-computer, computer to regular phone, or regular phone to regular phone. The only difference is how the traffic travels. Calls involving "regular" phones may start out and terminate on copper wire lines, but the bulk of the call's journey occurs over the internet.
Myth #2: you have to get a special phone to use voip.
Fact: While you need a microphone and speaker headset or special USB phone to make calls from a computer, your voip internet phone adapter lets you use a regular phone to make voip calls. The adapter converts the analog signals from a standard phone into digital packets that can be sent out over the internet
Myth #3: it's better to get voip from the cable or phone companyFact: standalone voip is generally a lot cheaper than the bundled voip that comes with cable or DSL service. Pure voip solutions also offer more features and bigger calling areas
Myth #4: voip sounds funny.Fact: most people have no idea that they're participating in a voip call. Digitized conversations are often clearer than analog calls running over hard to maintain copper wires.
