Phil Lam asked:


Firstly, to use a product, you will have to know what it is. Asterisk is an Open Source PBX telecommunication platform. It is flexible because it is able to run on different operating systems – Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Open BSD, etc. Only basic software is required. Asterisk comes with high end features like IVR, voice mail, automatic call distribution, etc. It is highly programmable and it able to handle VoIP calls over multiple VoIP protocols.

You are able to easily integrate PSTN with VoIP. Asterisk also allows mix match of analog, IP and digital phones. Even if you have no knowledge of how to change from traditional PBX to Asterisk, fear not! Asterisk allows you to migrate from traditional PBX easily. It gives the user a complete control of telephony. What’s more, it is free! It is licensed under the GPL open source. A commercial license version is also available.

I quote, Joshua Stephens, CEO of Switchvox, “With Asterisk, you can build any phone system you want. It’s irreplaceable when you need custom programming. It lets you build PBXs with the kinds of features that otherwise would cost many tens of thousands of dollars.”

Just like any other open source project, the need for Asterisk was also there. It started with Mark Spencer, creator of Asterisk. Mark felt traditional PBX was too expensive for his business, and started writing software, which was the first version of Asterisk. In actual fact, voice lines can hook up to PC via expansion cards and process itself by software.

Mark teamed up with Jim Dixon to build inexpensive expansion cards for inexpensive PCs to interface with PSTN. These inexpensive expansion cards are known as Digium PCI cards. Today, Asterisk is the de facto standard for voice switching and PBX functions in open source space.

Asterisk allows one to take control of their phone system, and the costs are very low. It allows you to integrate with business systems or existing PBX and it is in an easy development environment. Asterisk is not tied down by proprietary systems and it comes with a powerful and flexible dial plan. You can have advanced telephone features for a low cost access.

The customer has a lower deployment cost and has freedom for him in the network implementation. It frees the customer from single vendor dependency, and eliminates upgrade-path costs. The calls cost less, and provides the alternative avenues for support big fixes.

The supplier benefits from the broad base of potential users, with a technically savvy user base. Because the existing software is very expensive and the need for extreme customization, customers would take an easy way out and leave it all to the supplier. The supplier has a potential hardware market and there is a strong advantage for entering the fast expanding convergence market.



VOIP Security made Easy

Ray Clark asked:


VoIP in Texas is becoming a growing trend in the recent years. Since 2004 the trend has skyrocketed not only among Texas VoIP subscribers but all around the country. Texas has and will remain to be a trend setter for the rest of the country since it is such a large state and very populated.

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet protocol. VoIP allows users to have normal phone access through an internet service provider but still use regular phone networks. Which helps users avoid unnecessary long distance charges? For companies the use of VoIP is more practical than regular phones because it allows the companies to cut major costs on their phone bills.

Several Texas VoIP users, especially larger companies, can gain a good advantage from the extras VoIP’s have to offer. Since almost every company uses multiple lines and VoIP’s in Texas can have more than one call going over the same connection at the same time it makes it simple for adding those multiple lines.

There are several other features that companies can enjoy from VoIP providers such as conference calling, caller ID, call forwarding, and automatic redial. Normal telephone companies charge a decent amount for each of these features where VoIP subscribers pay very little to nothing for them. Also since VoIP’s are already digital it makes for getting a secure line much easier as all they have to do is encrypt the already provided data stream.

Several other technology advancements are also coming into the market for Texas VoIP users. Since the VoIP phones are on the same data level as computers it opens up new possibilities for upcoming features such as call routing.

As with any technology though VoIP does have a couple of downfalls especially for VoIP in Texas. Since Texas has many hurricane issues the biggest problem with VoIP is that it runs off of modems. Which in turn run off regular power so in the case of Texas VoIP users if a hurricane causes the power to go out they won’t be able to use their phones?

Since normal phones don’t rely on traditional electric they are still preferred in some instances over the new technology. The other downfall is not as big but its still causes problems for some users. The fact that VoIP is hardly mobile makes some users skeptical to switch to it. However, with emerging technologies such as Wi-Fi and WiMax it’s predicted that those new technologies will allow VoIP’s to be more mobile, universal, and more widely accepted.

Some Texas VoIP subscribers that are larger companies struggle with the problem of highly congested networks. Since VoIP is so easy to add lines to and expand the network it opens up the problem of momentary voice drop out and lower voice quality due to lost or delayed data packets. As technology advances though this problem will continue to diminish.

Although there are still some bugs to work out for VoIP’s in Texas, the convenience and cost effectiveness of the technology out weighs the downside for most Texas VoIP users.



Protect your VOIP network

Media Team | Ascent Telecom asked:


overning voice quality in VoIP

Available Bandwidth at caller side – If the caller has poor internet bandwidth then it might affect the voice packets to traverse correctly and essentially affect the voice quality.

Available bandwidth at carrier side – Call termination also requires adequate internet bandwidth for each call or else it might result in packets loss and other known issues.

Codecs – The choice of a codec determine as to what is the amount of internet bandwidth that each call will consume. So, for example, if the available internet bandwidth per call is 35 kbps then using G.711 codec would be inefficient choice, as G.711 requires 64 kbps internet bandwidth per call. Whereas, G.723 or G.729 would be good choice.

Packets Loss – In VoIP, there are 2 parts in which a conversation can be broken:

* Signaling

* RTP Packets (also know as Media)

When the caller or callee speaks then the voice travels, from one end to the other through internet, in the form of voice packets. These packets are essentially traversed like data on the internet and each packet is sent in a sequential form. All the voice conversations, in VoIP, happen largely over public internet, hence, it is difficult to control the delivery of voice packets from one end to the other. This results in loss of packets or delay in packets delivery and hence ultimately resulting in voice delay (receiver hear the voice with identifiable delay), loss of voice (receiver is unable to hear something).

* Poor Jitter/Buffer Handling - In order to provide smooth RTP packet flow, Voip Clients (Sometimes server too) manage jitter buffer, in other words client collect packets for a time period, before relaying it. This causes delay in voice but considerably smooth voice flow. Poor jitter-buffer management may result to very long delays.

* Echo – Echo is the phenomenon in which the call receiver or the caller hears own voice being repeated. This occurs because of either faulty microphone and speakers and is enhanced by Amplifiers used in Internet.

* Noise – Poor bandwidth connections, bad quality network wires, transmission leakages collectively result in external noises to be heard along with the primary conversation. The caller and call receiver hear this as noise occurring and thus hampering the conversation quality badly.

Why is good voice quality a challenge in VoIP?

* Public Internet for voice traversal

* VoIP being a Distributed & differentiated network

* Lack of affordable & competent solution with capability to handle media effectively

What is the importance of Voice Quality in VoIP?

* Today, in global environment, each service provider has access to all the big carriers directly and this means that low rates is not a competitive edge any longer because there is always a lower rate, than what you may offer, available in the market.

* Softswitches plus billing software are also available at very competitive pricing and in very easy to install manner. That means that every one can afford, nearly, similar set of software setup (atleast to support some limited volume of traffic)

That makes Good Voice Quality as the single most important factor that can be a make or break difference between various competitors in the market.

Notably, the core function of a tele-conversation is always the voice quality. If there's a problem in this core function then no matter how many add-ons (like low rates, better look & feel) are provided, the service would never succeed.

Possible Solutions to overcome Poor Voice Quality

* Better internet bandwidth connectivity throughout the globe – This is more like a wish than a reality. It would take a lot of years, still, to get the internet bandwidth upgraded.

* One Single unified end-to-end bandwidth channel for all voice conversations on IP (similar to PSTN telephones) – This defeats the benefits that VoIP brings along. The biggest factor contributing to VoIP's rise is the fact that it utilizes the existing internet connectivity prevailing around the world. If one has to setup the point-to-point channels, then it would bring us to back where we were. This is more of a hypothetical situation that a reality.

* Affordable Innovation, at software level, tacking the reasons that result in poor voice quality – An ideal solution, to this present problem, is in the form of a software or set of software that provides a solution to the problems like Packets Delay, Packets Loss, Echo, Noise, Jitter/Buffer etc. Such a software would be effective because it takes care of the root causes and deals with them at software level thus resulting in a stable, echo free, noise free voice conversation through IP.

* What is also important is to make such software really affordable so that it's true power can be realized by all the service providers and the real benefits pass on to the end callers. This would thus culminate in to harnessing the true power of VoIP!



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Gregory Burrus asked:


As you work your business on a daily basis, you are probably wondering how yo can expand the reach of your business. Usually this means you need to build up the infrastructure of your business and you will need to increase your marketing efforts. One of services we will recommend you look at is the unlikely voice over internet protocol or VOIP Technology.

To increase your business expansion capabilities one of the first things you probably have completed is to determine how your product or service meets the needs of a particular market. That market being in a defined area means the people and or prospective customers have a particular set of biases and familiar ways of doing business. This usually means that you have to do the first rule of sales which is meeting the customer on familiar terms.

One of the ways to establish a presence in a remote area is creating a local presence in your targeted area. This would mean acquiring physical office space and a local address, etc. However In this day of the internet moving real people and equipment may not make sense. As this type of office expansion move can be expensive or impossible to do for the solo business owner, a business owner needs to look at the latest VOIP technology called voice over internet protocol or VOIP.

.Available as voice over internet protocol or voice over cable generically termed broadband phone service; VOIP services are dramatically different from the traditional services of the past. A detailed explanation of VOIP is more then we can cover here but one of the primary advantages of using VoIP services is that you can order up additional services without needing a person deployed to install service. A second advantage is that you also don't need regulatory body or local VOIP service provider to approve you entry into this remote area of your goals.

With VOIP you can obtain a local telephone number in almost any where because this type of mobility is allowed to occur no matter where you are because the VoIP adapter that you receive from the service provider is specially coded with your VoIP phone number. Alternately you cn also get a software driven type VOIP service right from your computer. Regardless of the type of service you get, this now means no matter where you go, your number goes with you.

Establishing business offices at multiple locations - VoIP Virtual Numbers allow multiple inbound telephone access numbers in different cities. With this feature, it is possible to establish your business in multiple locations by creating a "Virtual Presence" using virtual numbers.

These virtual numbers can be routed to any number that you specify. If you live in Chicago, you can have access numbers in New York, Houston and San Francisco all routing through to your number in Chicago.

With this feature, business addresses can be established in different cities and even countries. You can set up these virtual numbers based on the locations from where you expect to receive many phone calls.

Besides enhancing the image of your business, customers get the benefit of calling a local number which is less costly for them. You get to expand your business without physically entering a remote market and you do it at a low cost.

As you can see this is how to globalize a business and as you can see with VOIP software there are many possibilities when you take a different look at what seems to be a regular IOVC VOIP technology component. But as demonstrated, voice over internet protocol has many additional benefits including helping you globalize your business.



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Jeff asked:


Asterisk, is an open and powerful VoIP telephony toolkit; which can be used to give an individual the ultimate control over their phone performances.  For example the transfer of voice over wifi, eliminating phone call costs, ability to select from hundreds of VoIP providers, and how to create your personal voicemail and menus.

What is this gadget Asterisk? Asterisk is a powerful VoIP toolkit, which application is easy; it is an open source VoIP telephony toolkit (server software) which runs on any platform. It allows an individual to manage VoIP services from their own home in several powerful ways, which can not be handled even the most expensive PBX (public branch exchange). For instance, it can be used as a gateway from a VoIP service to the common copper phone lines to the normal forward calls directed to your mobile phone device from your location. It lets you create VoIP connections to any  individual on the net, manage your voicemail, prompts to  a virtually limitless capability depending on how far you want to take it.

There have been tremendous improvement not just the layout but styling too. There’s has been an increase in its usability too. Asterisks is very essential in handling both SIP signaling and RTP. If your telecom routing project requires a SIP from front end to your router selection server then the best choice should be Asterisks. Although you need to be able to push 400-500 calls per second using asterisks channeled to any sever. For you to perform this task you need to work on the Asterisks side of things.

Most businesses and organizations are now capable of hitting more than 9 million calls all routed in 48 hours roughly which translates to a minimum of 59 calls per second. The other powerful Asterisks VoIP toolkit is the updated AsterisksNOW 1.5 with this gadget you can make and place calls from your home. Generally AsterisksNow is a software appliance which is a customized Linux distribution that includes Asterisks brand and Asterisks trademarks. Asterisks being a world’s leading source of telephony engine and toolkit, it’s easy to configure using graphical interface. This VoIP toolkit contains all components used to either run debug or build an asterisks. The advantage of this toolkit is that it’s easy to install and therefore minimizes all worries of having to use a kernel version or depending on package.

An asterisk is therefore the world’s current leading source of telephony engine and VoIP toolkit. It offers flexibilities in the world of proprietary communications. It empowers developers together with integrators to create an elaborate and advanced communication solution. Asterisks are normally released as an open source but under license from the GNU general public license (GPL). It’s available freely no payment is required for any body to download and use it. An asterisk is the only popular most open source of software available. Asterisks are the top and leading VoIP influencer. Try one today and I guarantee you to discover how amazing this powerful VoIP toolkit can revolutionalize your organization or business entity.



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Paul Howe asked:


It delivers these bits and bytes to a specified internet address rather than a telephone number. It's easier to think of it as being like sending e-mail from one computer to another, but in real time and using voice instead of text. The technology that most likely runs your existing switchboard and phones is a traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) service. VoIP's advantage over this is its ability to combine several services, such as voice mail, video, e-mail and conferencing. This instantly increases your ability to collaborate and can result in higher productivity.

You've probably used VoIP services without even realizing it. Every time you've used an instant messenger program to initiate a voice conversation or sent a voice mail, you've used this cutting-edge technology.

But how can this benefit your company? Well, for starters, it's likely to lead to lower phone bills. And it could reduce the need to travel, too. If you have branch offices, they can be connected either through a dedicated lease line or virtual private network (VPN). Since all calls routed over the internet, irrespective of the network, are free, this leads to significant savings over existing voice services for inter-company communications and makes use of any under-utilised network capacity that you're paying for.

VoIP technology is not new, but some work may be needed before it achieves the reliability of traditional phone systems. Dealing with lots of hardware and service providers as well as handling technology considerations like the integration of VoIP networks with traditional phone systems may sound intimidating. However, with a little help, you will realize that the products on offer are easy to use.

Key requirements in the move to VoIP remain lower costs, abundance of choices, bundled services, high quality, reliability and availability. Most of these issues have already been addressed by VoIP service providers. And if you let them help you implement VoIP services correctly, it can lead to significant savings.



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