<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
A couple of years ago I found myself in the position of needing to talk
to decidedly non-technical people over in yankland, so I ended up with
a couple of solutions running at the same time depending on whether or
not the people at the other end had access to a computer to run a soft
phone on.<br>
<br>
I had a Zoom X5v ADSL modem (router) that had an ATA built in. It also
had Zoom's own SIP provider, Global Village, pre-installed and, whilst
costlier than many of the VoIP providers, was fairly simple to set-up
and use. I hired myself a number in a specific US city for £5-£6 a
month and could receive normal phone calls at no cost to the person
making the phone call (I had to pay about 1.5p per minute to receive
the calls but there are cheaper alternatives).<br>
The hardware was all built in to the router so there were no issues
with the firewall and QoS had less steps in the network to worry about.<br>
<br>
I also tried several different VoIP clients. Unfortunately Skype
wouldn't run on some machines at their end so I ended up going through
some generic SIP soft phones and ended up with Gizmo Project (running
on Windows, I've only used it on windows so that's where my experience
comes from). This is a SIP client that echoes Skype in its simplicity
of set-up and use. Your connection is linked to an account and you
log-in to the service with a user name and password. I don't recall any
other SIP-specific setting up beyond that and the non-technical people
at the other end had no problems installing and using the software.<br>
Whilst Gizmo Project is not open, it can use SIP (apparently, I only
ever had Gizmo Project at both ends) and would sort of inhabit the
ground between Skype, closed to anyone other than other Skype users,
and purely SIP, which can be used by any number of different
soft-phones and ATAs.<br>
<br>
<br>
I had a look at Asterix, but it was way too much for what I wanted to
do. trixbox (which was Asterix@home) looks to be a Linux distro with
Asterix built in and may be worth having a play with if you're
interested.<br>
<br>
<br>
Andrew.<br>
<br>
<br>
Peter Childs wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:a2de01dd0711272049n6b1cf11fm5c3f7a0503f8261f@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite"><br>
<br>
Some of you seam to think SIP is difficult the other half seam to think
its really really easy. This is a reoccurring subject on gllug as well!
I think a meet on VOIP (and Linux) might be a good plan. <br>
<br>
For those thinking SIP is complicated from what I've heard of TAPI its
worse. Try 33 operations just to create a new user and I got that quote
from a telephone sales guy.
<br>
<br>
Peter.<br>
<pre wrap="">
<hr size="4" width="90%">
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.16.8/1153 - Release Date: 26/11/2007 21:08
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
</body>
</html>