[Nottingham] [Talk] ***TODAY*** Wed 19/10/2005 Voice over IP {ML}

[Martin]

Martin wrote:
[---]
> 
>> Voice over IP
>> =============
>>
>> How to make phone calls using something a lot more recent than 40V 
>> analog on the old telegraph wires. And how to turn your humble PC into 
>> a telephone exchange to make even the most up-to-date telco run scared!
>>
>> I'll cover a very brief history of telecoms methods, avoiding how some 
>> telcos are still living in the past, and introduce the now booming 
>> adoption of VoIP.
>>
>> Or, as the marketing people will say, "how to make phone calls across 
>> the internet for FREE!"

It was good to see a few new faces at the talk on Wed and I think the 
"low-tech" venue worked out well.


Following on from the talk, a few links to expand on what I discussed:


For all about the VoIP "Telephone Exchange/ PBX software", see:
http://voip-info.org/wiki/
http://voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk

And the Asterisk software:
http://www.asterisk.org/
http://voip-info.org/wiki/index.php?page=Asterisk-mirrors

AsteriskAtHome (Asterisk + GUI + Full distro)
http://www.voip-info.org/tiki-index.php?page=Asterisk%20at%20%20Home
http://asteriskathome.sourceforge.net/

The two VoIP devices I showed off are:
http://www.snom.com/snom190_voip_phone.html
http://www.grandstream.com/y-htseries.htm


Wikipedia has a surprisingly good section on VoIP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_over_IP

and on the history of the telephone:
(American bias!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_telephone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone
http://www.privateline.com/TelephoneHistory/History1.htm

UK phone history (short, to be added to):
http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/ttm/telhistory1.html

Dialing and how a Strowger exchange works:
http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/ttm/telhistory3.html

BT's version of the history and future of telecoms is at:
http://www.connected-earth.com/
(Strangely, no mention is made of VoIP. And ADSL is "highly advanced"...)

Staying with our favourite BT:
Telecoms at Bletchley Park
http://www.lightstraw.co.uk/bletchley/telecoms/

and the ultimate nightmare:
http://www.lightstraw.co.uk/bletchley/telecoms/rtc1a.jpg

and what life used to be like out on the wires:
http://www.dennishanna.com/Busby%20warning.htm
(very down to earth even if swinging from the poles!)


For a load of old phones see:
http://www.thg.org.uk/contents.htm
http://www.dmine.com/phworld/

All about Guglielmo Marconi (radio telecoms):
http://www.marconicalling.com/


Moving wider to cover the internet:

Hobbes' Internet Timeline v8.1
http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/

Aronsson's Telecom History Timeline (& major events)
http://aronsson.se/hist.html


Economic implications of Telecoms (vs) Internet
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=3308995
http://www.rnejournal.com/articles/odlyzko_RNE_sept_2004.pdf


Enjoy,

Cheers,
Martin

-- 
----------------
Martin Lomas
martin at ml1.co.uk
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