If you want to plunge into the world of Internet telephony but opt to use your existing phone — not VoIP software program on your Mac — as your elemental calling gadget , you might conceive subscribing to an net telephone service supplier ( ITSP ) . An ITSP uses your broadband net connection to deliver telephone service to your home or agency , usually at a steeply discounted rate . Unlike desktop VoIP tools , ITSPs do n’t take that you use your computer to place and receive calls .
The ITSP attribute you a telephone set number ( or complete the transfer of your be number , if you favour ) . Other people can call you at this phone number , whether they ’re dialing via an ITSP or a traditional phone company , and it does n’t have to have a local area code . In fact , there ’s no reason why somebody who has recently move from New York to San Diego ca n’t say a New York phone number to make it cheap for friends back east to keep in touch .
When you find fault up your new Internet - touch base sound , you ’ll hear a standard dial timbre . You dial phone numbers the same old way , and your earpiece will call up as common when you pick up a call . A few ITSPs have you transform your Mac or microcomputer into a phone that can locate and invite calls using the ITSP account , through a objet d’art of software called asoft phone . Using a cushy phone and your MacBook Pro , for example , you may tote your domicile phone job in your briefcase wherever you go . As shortly as you connect your figurer to the Internet — at a hotel , in the aerodrome , at a relation ’s house — you’re able to grade and get calls as if you were sit in your own living room .
Though it ’s easy to confuse easy phones with screen background VoIP prick such as Skype , the latter are not soft phone , and you ca n’t utilise them with your ITSP service . If easy - phone calling appeals to you , ask your prospective ITSP whether it supports a Mac - compatible soft speech sound such as CounterPath’sX - Proor SJ Labs’SJphone . However , you could use Internet telephone products such as Phlink 3.0 ( ) and PhoneValet Message Center 4.0 ( ) .
ITSP call quality is like to that of a traditional land credit line or cell telephone set . Of naturally , when your sound shares the Internet connection with your Mac and other devices on a LAN ( local area web ) , it is subject to the same traffic hole and slowdowns that occur with other Web practical program — except that poor Internet performance has a devastating effect on Internet telephone . A service slowdown at your ISP could make your phone call sound bad or even disconnect .
gratefully , most broadband connections can comport a few net apps — say , an FTP download and a Web - internet browser session — before you notice an wallop on your phone calls . The truly internet - savvy substance abuser can grease one’s palms a third - party gimmick that , when link up to a broadband router , give phone traffic higher priority , to keep off quality problem .
If make emergency dialing is important to you , ask how the ITSP will handle 911 call and get its self-confidence that it can route such call — before you sign on up . Finally , consider using your current ISP . Many ISPs , including Comcast , Verizon , and Speakeasy , extend ITSPs , and they might give you a price reduction on your cyberspace service just for signing up for one .
[ Ted Wallingford is the author ofSwitching to VoIP and VoIP Hacks(both O’Reilly , 2005 ) and an independent technology consultant based in Elyria , Ohio . He updates the entanglement sitewww.macvoip.comsemiannually . ]
