On the other hand, telephone companies such as Telinet in the UK [PDF], are urging clients to recycle their current equipment and avoid the possible energy crunch involved with switching to VoIP. But, is this message true? According to a Citel white paper, the deployment of an environmentally conscious VoIP network need not cost more, and in fact may cost substantially less, “providing a compelling balance between economics and corporate responsibility.”

Faced with competition to go green and the looming energy crunch, we feel that VoIP needs to step up their incentives and that individuals and businesses need to rethink their responsibilities for lowering impacts on immediate environments. To that end, the following list offers some questions and answers on greener solutions for VoIP and telecom users. It’s the consumer, after all, who drives the telecom and VoIP industries.

• Should you replace or alter existing TDM PBX? This question offers multiple confusion, as telecoms might want users to remain faithful to a TDM (Time-Division Multiplexing) PBX since it does use bandwidth effectively. But, when users replace a TDM PBX with an energy-efficient server-based IP PBX or a hosted VoIP service, they can reduce power consumption dramatically. By pooling resources with other companies at an off-premises server center, users can see a reduction in power consumption as well as more efficient control over the server environment. With that said, VoIP users can generate interest in off-site companies that employ solar energy for their data centers. This effort can make solar energy a more viable resource for everyone. On the other hand, there also is no reason to buy into the VoIP vendor’s insistence over buying a totally new system, as TDM PBX systems can be altered to become VoIP-friendly.
• Are PoE IP solutions environmentally friendly? You might be surprised to learn that some VoIP solutions, especially Power over Ethernet (PoE), can force some companies to increase their power supplies. Gary Audin, president of Delphi Inc., who has written extensively on power related to VoIP, stated that PoE “will not only increase the power supply costs but will double the utility power consumption.” He estimates that on a simple per-phone basis, running VoIP requires roughly 30- to 40-percent more power than old TDM phones. What is needed is a complete analysis of the features and power consumption of IP phones, the IP PBX, switches, mid-spans and cooling systems before making the decision to go PoE. While some may agree that the PoE solution can provide more reliability and increase production, the environmental cost of this feature may outweigh those considerations.
• Should you replace digital handsets with IP handsets? Many VoIP vendors may try to push new IP phones onto customers. If the customer already owns a digital handset, there is no reason to ditch that handset for new merchandise. In some cases, a softphone application can be installed on the user’s computer. Another option is to “VoIP-enable” existing handsets with Telephone VoIP Adapter (TVA) technology. This technology allows users to gain access to many features along with enhanced VoIP features from their existing desktop handsets. While the idea of owning totally new technology might seem ideal, you might ask first where the replaced digital handsets go once they leave the office. Many times, vendors sell the used equipment. Used equipment buyers may strip the valuable components from the handsets and dump the rest of the components in landfills. Users can help remedy this situation by utilizing resources such as Green Citizen to dispose of unwanted electronic equipment. Several otehr organizations and websites have been established that provide guidelines for the proper disposal of telephone, PBX hardware and cabling, including WEEE Man, eWasteGuide, and the EPA.
• Do you need to replace current infrastructure? Some IP vendors may suggest replacing current LAN cables with new cable to support IP phones. Their line of reasoning is stable, as the Cat3 cable, which is prevalent for existing telecom communications, is insufficient for IP traffic. IP phones require Cat5e/6 LAN cable; however, once again, TVA can deliver VoIP features to existing handsets over Cat3 wiring. Additionally, TVAs avoid the LAN, so companies can avoid the expense and environmental damage that may be caused by replacing the LAN infrastructure. In fact, the TVA adaptation can help to avoid a need to update LAN networks until that network can no longer support the adaptation. At that point, the company can consider replacing CAT3 with upgraded IP cable if needed. As with handsets and other electronic equipment, the VoIP provider and the business in question can take responsibility to make sure that all waste is properly disposed.
• Does new construction really need traditional phone cables? The answer is “no.” VoIP vendors can become more proactive in approaching construction companies and new builders with the same solution that the Denver-based company, Aardex LLC, chose in 2007. Instead of installing Cat3 cable, this company chose IP5280 (Colorado’s VoIP Company) for “the advanced communication services that VoIP delivers to our employees and the green solution it offers the environment.” On the other hand, consumers and business owners can begin to view VoIP as a solution to eliminating waste symbolized by traditional technology and by focusing on a cleaner environment as new buildings are constructed.
• Does it matter where a data center is located? Yes, it does matter, as energy costs vary from location to location. According to an article from Goliath, energy rates in New York City are about 15 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with 21 cents in Tokyo and 23 cents in London. Even nationwide, energy costs in the northwest currently are less than those in the country’s midsection or on the east coast. “The closer your datacenter is to inexpensive power sources, the better. For example, Google is moving its datacenters to the Columbia River area to reduce the company’s energy costs.” Look for utility companies that are providing incentives for power conservation as well. You can learn more about nationwide energy profiles at the EIA site (Energy Information Center).
• Can video data (VVoIP) hurt the bottom green line? The push for features such as video conferencing add to the already overwhelming increase on energy consumption. VoIP as well as VVoIP (Video VoIP) lead the list of power-hungry server applications. Businesses and data centers can learn more about how to conserve resources at the following unbiased resources: Climate Savers and The Green Grid. Consumers can check up on who uses these resources, as both sites carry lists of members and active participants. A push to support those businesses that seek and use greener technology will help to move the environmental issue forward.
• Can a company really reduce environmental impacts by migrating to VoIP? The answer to this question relies on several issues such as the size of the company, the reliability of the VoIP service, the ability to include greener components, and the willingness to reduce any impacts on the environment. Using FoIP (FAX over IP), for instance, can help to reduce paper consumption and noise and heat from machines, and to provide less exposure to paper dust and fine particles of potentially toxic toner; however, this transition also may increase the demands on the server environment. VoIP vendors and companies who are willing and able to help industry leaders strategize transitions from traditional phone environments to IP solutions should be in demand. The ability to analyze how a company can reduce environmental impacts by switching from traditional telephony to VoIP is a valuable service, one that can make one VoIP company take the lead in a competitive field.

All but one of the gadgets listed below were introduced during 2007-2008, and a few won’t hit the market until the end of this year. We read all the reviews as well, so you won’t find any questionable products here. And, surprisingly, many products are within an average budget. Since you’re going to save money with a VoIP service anyway, it’s about time to treat yourself. We said so.

Although the list below is numbered and listed in alphabetical order, this does not mean that we value any one product over another.

1. A4Tech Internet Phone Keyboard: Make free phone calls with this Internet phone attached to the right side of a 19.6″ x 8.2″ x .6″ high keyboard that weighs all total a mere 1.906 pounds. Experience simple plug-and-play (USB or PS/2) for any Windows user, but you may need to download the driver from the site. Enjoy a patented ergo A-shape layout that prevents Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) from your wrists and arms. Center “A-Type” keys match the ways your fingers naturally move and provide maximum comfort while typing. The slim style reduces typing noise, so your mom won’t pick up that you’re doing something else while you’re talking with her on the VoIP line.
2. ARIO Q-bean: The LTB ARIO Q-bean system creates a wireless link to personal computers. The built in microphone enables a user to take advantage of VoIP, speech recognition and speech-to-text features. The dedicated wireless technology uses a unique adaptive frequency system that virtually avoids conflicts with cordless phones, Bluetooth devices, WiFi routers and even Microwave ovens. The ARIO wireless technology is similar to Bluetooth in that it uses a secure pairing synchronization to secure the connection. From that point the Bluetooth similarities are over. The ARIO technology provides a robust digital non-compressed signal that has a range of up to 100 feet and can provide zero latency voice communication, some things Bluetooth has failed to do.
3. BeyondTel’s Skype Mouse: Forget speaking to the hand, especially when you can speak to the VM-01L Optical USB Skype Mouse with LCD. This product from BeyondTel looks like a 1.5m USB cable (USB 1.1) mouse, but when you want to send or receive calls, the cover flips open to reveal a fully functional keypad and monochrome 128×64 pixel LCD screen with backlight. Features include a contact list, call list, call history, time and caller ID display on the screen, and it’s seamlessly integrated with Skype, VoipButser, VoipStunt, VoIPCheap, VoipDiscount, SparVoip, Internetcalls, poivY, WebCallDirect, VoipCheapCom, FreeCall and NetAppel. But, the VoIP phone technology isn’t all you get – this mouse includes a high quality USB audio feature, so it also can be used as a mini computer hi-fi speaker to play music. All you need to make this mouse work for you is Microsoft Windows 98/2000/XP/NT, Pentium 400MHz above processor/128MB RAM/16MB free hard disk capacity, an available USB port and an ADSL, cable or dial-up Internet connection (we suggest cable or faster).
4. Blue Microphones’ Snowflake USB Microphone: This mic is so small you can stuff it in a shirt pocket. The case is the holder, so the design is clever, and it’s a snap to use with plug-and-play functionality. This microphone is more than adequate for podcasts and other needs such as VoIP calls. If this gadget isn’t up your alley, then check out award-winning family of hand-built microphones to see if you can live with some of their other posh designs.
5. boynq Notone Hands-Free Phone [PDF]: The Notone by boynq is uber cool. It’s the first PC speaker with a combined VoIP handset receiver and build-in microphone for hands-free calling. When the user prefers a private call he can use the integrated receiver. When picked up, the receiver overrides the main speaker and the external microphone. When left down the user can talk towards the front microphone while enjoying hands-free calling. For those who are disorganized, the Notone contains a paper and pen holder so you can take notes during your calls. The USB port extension on the side of the product allows you to connect your memory sticks, MP3 players, your mouse, etc. directly onto your computer.
6. Brando USB Flexible Mini Webcam: Think about the original “War of the Worlds” movie and those aliens that had flexible eyeballs. That’s what this web cam looks like, as the stand that connects to your computers USB port is more than flexible. You can rotate the lens to adjust the focus and it’s compatible with ICQ, MSN, Skype and other chat and VOIP applications. This webcam is 100 percent plug and play and it doesn’t require any drivers to be installed when used under Windows XP or Vista.
7. CuPhone Echo-Free Adapter: Using a regular cordless phone with Skype or any VoIP application, you can make or receive both VoIP and PSTN calls on the same phone. Similar to fring (see above), but this product claims an “echo-free” environment and operates with Windows Vista, XP, 2000, ME, 98, MAC and Linux. Although optimized for Skype, users can employ this adapter with MSN, Slite, Delta3, Pet2Phone, VoIPBuster, Dialpad and more. You also can use CuPhone’s PPG network overseas to Europe, Asia and South America. Plus, the person on the other end doesn’t need to be on your same subscription service.
8. EasyVoIP Recorder: Here you go, superspy – this gadget will record and store Skype, Gtalk (Google Talk), VoipCheap, VoipStunt, VoipBuster, VoipBuster Pro, 12Voip, Yahoo Messenger, X-LITE 3.0, MSN Live, Globe7, VoipWise, VoipRaider, VoipDiscount, Net2phone, JustVoip, Freecall, Nonoh, SipDiscount, InternetCalls, WebCalldirect, PoivY and LowRateVoip conversations. You can save voices in separate channels in WAV/OGG/MP3/SPEXX (Stereo/Mono) formats, convert those formats, and upload to a Web site to share with the world. This is a great tool for podcasting interviews.
9. Epoq EGP-WP98B Watch Phone: Epoq has developed what is believed to be the first wristwatch running Windows Mobile 5. Its EGP-WP98B has Bluetooth connectivity, an OLED touch screen, 1.28GB of memory, Wi-Fi networking, WMV, AVI, 3GP,MP4,3GP/MP4 support, VoIP support, handwriting recognition, a 1.3 megapixel camera, a microSD memory card slot and a faux alligator wristband. You might go blind in your efforts to view a full Web screen on a 1.4-inch monitor, but this watch definitely will raise your James Bond grooviness a notch.
10. fring: fring it on with a VoIP technology that enables users to make free calls using a SkypeOut/SkypeIn account or almost any Internet voice service (SIP) such as SIPNET, EuteliaVoIP, VoIPVoIP and VoIPTalk, even from non-SIP enabled handsets. But, why have a gadget that just makes phone calls when you also can use it to access and interact with your social networks on-the-go and live chat with all your fring, Skype, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo! and AIM friends using your handset’s Internet connection rather than costly cellular airtime minutes? Even more – fring is PC-independent and doesn’t require dedicated hardware or airtime. All you need is a supported handset with Internet connectivity and an Internet data package or a WiFi account. Don’t stop here, though – keep an eye on fring’s fringcubator, as they’re firing up developments faster than a cockroach can cross a kitchen.
11. IGEL Elegance Monitor with VoIP: Love that 19″ Samsung LCD with a built-in powerful thin client, small desktop footprint and minimal wiring. Better yet, the latest Elegance models contain a premium set of digital services including Citrix ICA 10, Microsoft RDP 6, a Leostream VDI client for connecting to virtual PCs, terminal emulation, web browser, multi-media and more. The Linux model also includes a VoIP client enabling one device to be used for both application and voice access. The new 19-inch Elegance models support smart card readers and the Linux version also Cisco VPN for remote access. If you don’t run Linux, the new IGEL Premium series delivers the broadest range of digital services on the market today, such as VoIP and Java, as well as server-based Windows access, video streaming and native access to SAP.
12. iRiver Unit 2: Ok – where else can you find this audio, video, DVD player, DiVX player, CD player, FM Tuner, VoIP phone, VoIP Video Phone, SMS/MMS, Web browsing, Web mail, 30GB built-in hard drive, 2GB of NAND Flash and a minimalist design? How about later this year (2008) from iRiver? This product, called “Unit 2,” sports a seven-inch touch screen interface and contains built-in stereo speakers to boot. This is the ultimate – and we mean totally all-encompassing – desktop audio system.
13. Laser VoIP Station with 6 Port USB Hub: This product was introduced in 2006, but it still stands as a magnificent way to make long-distance calls at local rates. The Laser VoIP Station with six-port USB hub is handy as well (even if not sexy), with selectable dual audio outputs that instantly switch from speaker to headset and that allows conferencing through speaker and microphone. The USB functions can support a PC camera, MP3 player, pen drives, USB Bluetooth dongle and anything else you can devise that needs USB connectivity. Plug and play technology makes it easy to install and a headset, USB cable and driver CD are included.
14. Lindy USB 2.0 to Audio Adapter: This USB adapter is the easiest and most affordable way to add sound capability to your notebook or desktop computers. It features connections for your microphone and stereo headphones and speakers. A simple little button allows the microphone input to be muted when you’re not using the device. This adapter is ideal for any VoIP application, as it saves your computer speakers for the important stuff, like music. Works with both PC and Mac.
15. Linksys Network Optimizer for Gaming and VoIP: If you want to streamline your home network for next-generation Internet applications, this tool is up your alley. This optimizer sits between your router and broadband cable or DSL modem and monitor data going through to determine what data is time-sensitive and what isn’t, prioritizes delivery of that data to its destination, and ensures the best possible performance for the various data. By applying various Quality of Service (QoS) techniques to your network traffic, the Network Optimizer makes sure time-sensitive applications like online gaming and VoIP calls run smoothly. Games don’t lag. Voice over IP phone calls sound cleaner. Outgoing streamed video from your Internet Video Camera runs smoother. All it takes is a simple installation and it goes to town, so you don’t need to bother with user setup of QoS policies.
16. Logitech ClearChat PC Wireless Headset: Now you can wash the car while you talk on the phone – as long as you remain within thirty-three feet of your computer. Logitech recently unveiled its first wireless steereo headset designed specifically for Internet calling with a PC. It offers 2.4 GHz wireless technology, simple setup and high performance that any user expects from this company. With the included USB transmitter,the headset effortlessly connects to a PC or Mac computer right out of the box – no software or pairing required. The best part? It contains an advanced algorithm that minimizes interference, even in the busiest wireless environments. This gadget supports PC games; movies; music; and common calling applications including Skype, Yahoo!, Windows Live, AIM and more.
17. magicJack: Although this isn’t a VoIP gadget – in fact, CNBC has called it a “Skype-killer” – we had to include it as this device cuts long-distance phone costs. And that’s what it’s all about, after all. Just plug magikJack into a USB port, plug a regular analog phone into the magicJack’s RJ-11 port and start dialing for $20 US per year in the U.S. and Canada. Some users have needed to make a few tweaks from what we’ve read, but overall the experience with magicJack seems extraordinary. Users can enjoy free directory assistance, phone number, call waiting, voicemail and caller ID. All you need is a PC or Mac and an analog phone, so you can take this device with you on the road.
18. Neiman Marcus Personal Video Phone: Want to see who you’re talking with on your VoIP line? Neiman Marcus makes this a possibility with a totally posh gadget that allows you to add photos of people in your phonebook. It contains a state-of-the-art miniature camera, picture-based caller ID on a 16:9 ratio LCD screen, and sits with a removable handset that doubles as a cordless phone. You’ll need to add the monthly service fee for video calls.
19. Symbio Cordless DECT phone and Internet Radio: Symbio has produced a highly innovative concept with two key functionalities in the one device: a wireless DECT VoIP phone and an Internet radio. The phone is a futuristic beauty with Calling Line Identification Presentation (CLIP) (1) on color screen (128×128), hands-free facility, phonebook for up to 200 names and numbers and multi-line handling capability. You can play with SMS text messaging, RSS data management and hear it all through HD sound with G722 speech coding. The radio portion is portable with over six hours’ listening time from a rechargeable Li-Ion battery. You’ll love the DECT extended range and high quality reception, with none of the interference typical from FM.
20. Tesco Stick Phone: You really can stick this phone in your shoe, if necessary. This USB stick phone contains a UK number and comes complete with earphones, microphone, 1GB of storage and some VoIP software. You can use it to make phone calls from any broadband-connected PC in the world. enables you to turn your computer into a low-cost phone and virtual office. Although the UK phone number is required, Tesco has stated it is set to open their first stores in California and Arizona by the end of 2008.
21. Tux Droid: From dancing for e-mail alerts, acting as a remote control for your PC and even doubling as a wireless VOIP phone Tux does your bidding. But of course the real fun begins when you code your own applications for the Tux Droid. A plethora of interesting inputs and outputs are available for your programmatic pleasure. Tux can blink his eyes, light-up his eyes, swivel on his base, flap his wings, talk… and he can also hear, tell how dark it is, sense a push on his head, a push on either wing and accept commands from the included IR remote. It’s everything you could want in a automatic wireless penguin based companion. For an encore, Tux plugs into your computer via a wireless USB link that looks like a small fish.
22. Urban Tool perCushion: Ok. We recognize that this gadget doesn’t fit the VoIP category; but it is wireless and it does support Bluetooth technology and it would make a great gift for that uptight significant other. Plus, it has to be the most relaxing way to talk with anyone via phone. The perCushion is a cotton velvet pillow filled with foam core and it’s connected with your mobile wirelessly via Bluetooth. The integrated fabric interface includes an activating/standby button, a Bluetooth pairing button, a button for answering calls and indicating LEDs furthermore a microphone and loudspeakers. The lithium ionic battery can be charged with the enclosed charger. Take that next call while ‘laxing on the sofa. When you’re that relaxed, who knows what will happen with that next call?
23. USB Ferris Wheel Phone Stand: This gadget would make a great gag gift – you can take the USB Ferris Wheel Phone Stand anywhere, because all you need is an Internet connection. After a plug-and-play installation, incoming phone calls will activate the rotation of the ferris wheel, LED lights begin to flash and it plays “Rock-a-Bye Baby.” Thank heavens the device has an on/off/mute switch. The ferris wheel is powered by USB or by two AA batteries.
24. VTech IS6110 Cordless Phone:VTech has created a new cordless home phone capable of signing into and messaging people using MSN Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and AOL Instant Messenger. All you need to do is plug and play, as the phone connects to a computer’s base station. This phone contains a full QWERTY keypad and it works with VoIP. You’ll enjoy a large high-res LCD screen, caller ID, call waiting, recordable ring tones and more. Plus, the phone is Energy Star rated, RoHS Compliant, and come in 100 percent recyclable packaging. What more could you want from a home phone?
25. Zoom Switch: If you’re going to go cordless with your headset (or, if you simply have a computer and a phone with a handset), try adding a ZoomSwitch ZMS10 so you can switch between your computer and phone at the touch of a button. This switch adds USB functionality to any wired headset or handset connected to your phone’s handset or headset port (RJ9).You can make VoIP, Skype, or video chats, listen to online Webinars, switch back to office phone calls, dictate into speech recognition software and more.

Instead, we combed the online Linux and VoIP Wikis to find the most-used combinations of Linux and VoIP according to the systems and devices that were most talked about on these support and documentation pages. Those choices, listed below along with their Wikis, will provide you with a definitive guide to choices available, and to the choices that provide the most documentation for ease of use.

Although the lists below are numbered and in alphabetical order, this does not mean that any product or resource is more valuable than another.

Linux Distributions

The following list contains all the Linux resources you might ponder before you make a choice on which open source product that provides a friendly connection with your VoIP applications. Be sure to read through various VoIP applications and tutorials (also listed below) to learn more about how compatible each operating system might be with a particular VoIP application.

1. CentOS: CentOS 2, 3, 4 and 5 are Red Hat clones, built from publicly available open source SRPMS provided by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor. CentOS conforms fully with the upstream vendors redistribution policies and aims to be 100 percent binary compatible. CentOS users as a group are a community of open source contributors and users. Typical CentOS users are organizations and individuals that do not need strong commercial support in order to achieve successful operation.
2. Debian: Debian is a free operating system (OS) for your computer. Debian uses the Linux kernel (the core of an operating system), but most of the basic OS tools come from the GNU project; hence the name GNU/Linux.
3. Fedora: Fedora is an RPM-based, general purpose Linux distribution, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat. Fedora’s mission statement is: “Fedora is about the rapid progress of Free and Open Source software.”
4. Gentoo Linux: Gentoo is a free operating system based on either Linux or FreeBSD that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need. Thanks to a technology called Portage, Gentoo can become an ideal secure server, development workstation, professional desktop, gaming system, embedded solution or whatever you need it to be. Becaus of its near-unlimited adaptability, Gentoo calls its product a “metadistribution.”
5. Pie Box: Pie Box enterprise Linux edition is derived from open source software and is another Red Hat clone. As such, it is fully compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Pie Box enterprise Linux edition and their subscriptions are not free, but the cost (which is well below propreitory operating systems) includes a support contract.
6. Red Hat: Red Hat is the world’s most trusted provider of Linux and open source technology. Red Hat operates on a subscription model that allows them to develop and deliver technology, provide unlimited support over the life of an agreement, and to create an actual relationship between the copany and the customer. They offer private and enterprise solutions.
7. Slackware: The Official Release of Slackware Linux by Patrick Volkerding is an advanced Linux operating system that is designed with the twin goals of ease of use and stability as top priorities. Since its first release in April of 1993, the Slackware Linux Project has aimed at producing the most “UNIX-like” Linux distribution available. Slackware Linux is a complete 32-bit multitasking system, currently based around the 2.4 Linux kernel series and the GNU C Library version 2.3.4 (libc6).
8. SUSE: SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell is an enterprise-grade Linux system that delivers a complete open source platform for mission-critical applications. Novell provides a Linux solution with built-in virtualization, security and management tools, or a Linux solution that works with Microsoft Windows.
9. Tao Linux: Tao Linux is a project to build a free Linux distribution from the sources used in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux product line. The target market is either experienced system administrators who would like freely available binaries of this code, or end users who are interested in experimenting with enterprise functionality. Besides being mostly compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, it also includes software packages such as Eclipse and clustering tools not found in the base RHEL products.
10. Ubuntu: Probably the most user-friendly of all Linux-based operating systems, Ubuntu contains all the applications you need – a web browser, presentation, document and spreadsheet software, instant messaging and much more. Ubuntu works with Skype, Asterisk and other VoIP applications, but word is that it works best with Ekiga (listed below under VoIP applications). Kubuntu is the KDE equivalent to Ubuntu, and it comes with its own out-of-the-box VoIP application, KubuntuVOIPSOlution.
11. Whitebox: This product is yet another Red Hat clone, forked from the source code for Red Hat’s “Red Hat Enterprise Linux” products under the terms and conditions of its EULA. The goal is to provide an unencumbered RPM based Linux distribution that retains enough compatibility with Red Hat Linux to allow easy upgrades and to retain compatibility with their Errata srpms. Being based off of RHEL3 means that a machine should be able to avoid the upgrade treadmill until Oct 2008 since RHEL promises Errata availability for five years from date of initial release and RHEL3 shipped in Oct 2003.
12. Yellow Dog Linux: Terra Soft has developed an open source Linux operating system for home, office, server, and cluster users. Built upon the Fedora Core, YDL has since been developed for the Power architecture family of CPUs. This development has led to YDL’s reputation as a lead Linux source for Power OS.

Wiki Tutorials for Linux Applications

The following FAQ pages, Wikis and SWikis apply to all the Linux operating systems listed above. Additionally, a few more broad Linux Wikis are added to help you find as much information as you need about any particular system.

1. CentOS: This is the official CentOS Wiki, organised to be a resource for existing and new users to CentOS.
2. Debian Wiki: This Wiki is a support and documentation resource for the Debian project.
3. Fedora: The Fedora Project Wiki is a place for end users and developers to collaborate. Write access to the Wiki is limited to those who have Fedora accounts; however, you can join the Wiki easily by following the instructions on the editing help page.
4. Gentoo: This Wiki is a support and documentation resource for Gentoo Linux.
5. Linux Questions: This site covers any Linux-based operating system known to mankind, and it also provides tons of information on open source projects in general. This is one of those sites where you can find information on products such as Pie Box and Yellow Dog Linux, two resources that don’t maintain product-specific Wikis.
6. Linux Wiki: Once again, a broad-based Wiki that covers most every Linux-based operating system.
7. Real-Time Linux Wiki: This Wiki Web is geared toward the CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT community, and real-time Linux in general.
8. Red Hat: The Red Hat Wiki is named a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), but it is more like a Wiki, as it is broken down into components with answers that cross multimple components. In many cases there are multiple answers to every question.
9. SlackWiki: This Wiki is a support and documentation resource Slackware.
10. SUSE: This Wiki is a support and documentation resource Novell’s SUSE.
11. The Linux Vault: Name a distribution, and users at The Linux Vault will have it covered. If you can’t find an answer, then you best ask the question.
12. Tao Linux: More of a Swik (a Wiki website allowing people to share information about open source projects), this site helps users to learn how to use the Tao Linux system.
13. Ubuntu: Ubuntu has Wikis and more Wikis, but this particular page is geared toward the Ubuntu user specifically. You can find the Kubuntu Wiki on a separate page.
14. Whitebox: This is another Swik, this time based upon the questions and needs of Whitebox users.

VoIP Applications

The following applications are available on GNU/Linux:

1. Asterisk: Asterisk is an open source PBXi, telephony engine, multi-protocol VoIP server and telephony applications toolkit.
2. CallWeaver: CallWeaver (formerly known as OpenPBX.org) is a community-driven vendor-independent cross-platform open source PBX software project that was originally derived from Asterisk. CallWeaver is a fully featured PBX in software that supports analog and digital PSTN telephony, multi-protocol voice over IP telephony, fax, software-fax, STUN, T.38 fax over IP and many telephony applications such as IVR, conferencing and callcenter queue management.
3. Ekiga: Formely known as GnomeMeeting, Ekiga is an open source VoIP and video conferencing application for GNOME. Ekiga uses both the H.323 and SIP protocols and it is compatible with SIP, H.323, STUN and Zeroconf. It supports many audio and video codecs, and is interoperable with other SIP compliant software and also with Microsoft NetMeeting.
4. KPhone: KDE-based softphone for SIP protocol that supports a multitude of features. Originally developed by Billy Biggs, it was developed at Wirlab until 2005. It is now developed by a team of volunteers in a SourceForge project. Compatible protocols include SIP, STUN and NAPTR/SRV.
5. Linphone: An open source SIP soft video/phone for Linux and Windows.
6. OpenPBX (Voicetronics): OpenPBX is a full function, web enabled PBX application that is suitable for small office installations and can scale to large call centers. Features include a web based user and management GUI, unlimited Voicemail, Hierarchical Auto-Attendant, Automatic Call Distribution ACD, Least Call Routing (LCR), Music on Hold (MOH), Call Display Records (CDR), unlimited huntgroups, call transfer, call parking, call baring. It has the ability to offer 3 way call conferencing and by leveraging the power of the desktop it offers voice to email, click to dial and transfer of calls.
7. PhoneGaim: PhoneGaim is a free software VoIP system based on the Pidgin instant messaging software and the SIP protocol handling of the Linphone VoIP software, but restricted to using (only) the SIPphone service. It is available under the GNU General Public License and sponsored by Linspire.
8. SIP Express Router (SER): An open source SIP proxy server, SER is a high-performance, configurable, free SIP (RFC3261) server that can act as registrar, proxy or redirect server. SER features an application-server interface, presence support, SMS gateway, SIMPLE2Jabber gateway, RADIUS/syslog accounting and authorization, server status monitoring, FCP security and much more.
9. sipX: The SIP PBX for Linux from SIPfoundry is now stable and released with over 170 new features and improvements. Its main feature is a software implementation of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), which makes it an IP-based communications system.
10. sipXphone: This is the SIP softphone for Windows and Linux from SIPfoundry. sipXphone is a Java based SIP softphone. The software was originally developed for the Pingtel xpressa SIP harddphone and was later released as a softphone. The functionality and user interface are largely identical. A hardware abstraction layer was used to port from the original VxWorks operating system to Windows.
11. sipXezPhone: A new SIP softphone from SIPfoundry. While sipXphone is a fully featured implementation of a SIP softphone that is derived from the original Pingtel xpressa JAVA softphone, sipXezPhone is written using C++, wxWidgets, and the sipXtapi API. sipXtapi and sipXezPhone are built to be platform and operating system agnostic. Currently both Windows and Linux platforms are supported with MAC OS X a clear possibility.
12. Skype: Skype is a popular proprietary protocol VoIP system built using Peer-to-Peer (P2P) techniques. Skype is available in 28 languages and is used in almost every country around the world. Skype generates revenue through its premium offerings such as making and receiving calls to and from landline and mobile phones, as well as voicemail and call forwarding.
13. Twinkle: Twinkle is a feature-rich softphone that uses the SIP protocol. It can be utilized as a direct IP phone to IP phone communication or in a network using a SIP proxy to route calls and messages.

Wiki Tutorials for VoIP Applications for Linux

The following links will take you to the most up-to-date tutorials for Linux and VoIP applications:

1. Asterisk Cookbook Wiki: O’Reilly Media, Inc. invites contributions for the Asterisk community for this Wiki, which is a base for developing and maintaining the Asterisk Cookbook. Anyone can delve into the recipes and more to learn how others are using Asterisk. Use this in combination with Asterisk Guru tutorials.
2. Callweaver: This Wiki is a support and documentation resource for Callweaver.
3. Ekiga Documentation Project: This Wiki will help users to overcome any difficulties with Ekiga (formerly known as GnomeMeeting) VoIP applications.
4. OpenPBX: This is a Swik for OpenPBX users, where pros and newbies alike can find support and documentation.
5. PhoneGaim: This Swik is a support and documentation resource for PhoneGaim users.
6. sipX: This sipX Wiki is a current and constantly updated resource for users.
7. SipXtapi and sipXezPhone Build Environment for Windows: If you can’t find the documentation and support you need here for the sipXezPhone, try Linux-VoIP Info (listed below).
8. VoIP-Info.org: This Wiki contains information that pertains to any and all Linux and VoIP applications. If you’re looking for a specific Wiki for a product such as KPhone or Linphone, you’ll find it here.

Other Resources

The following links carry information and tools that are centered on open source telephony in general:

1. GNU Telephony: GNU Telephony is a meta project dedicated to the development and promotion of the use of free software for telephony. This site maintains support and planning for a number of free software packages that are part of the GNU Telecom Subsystem and the GNU Project, including GNU Common C++, GNU Bayonne, and GNU SIP Witch. They also support a number of special telephony related free software projects and related free software packages here such as UCommon.
2. LIPS: The Linux Phone Standards Forum (LiPS) is a consortium founded by a group of telephony operators, device manufacturers, silicon and software vendors who have a strategic focus on Linux telephony.
3. OpenWengo: OpenWengo is a community of enthusiasts and developers, creating free software products related to communication over IP. The flagship product of the OpenWengo project is a softphone which allows you to make free PC to PC video and voice calls, and to integrate all your IM contacts in one place..
4. trixbox: Formerly Asterisk@Home, this project enables the home user to turn a spare PC into an Asterisk VoIP system using a bootable installer and the freeBPX web-based management interface.
5. YATE: YATE, or Yet Another Telephony Engine, is a next-generation telephony engine; while currently focused on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and PSTN, its power lies in its ability to be easily extended. Voice, video, data and instant messaging can all be unified under Yate’s flexible routing engine, maximizing communications efficiency and minimizing infrastructure costs for businesses.

When was the last time you looked for expert advice on a blog about VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) or WiMAX (the successor to WiFi)? Or, perhaps you sought an antique telephone or the latest gizmo that could connect you to your Aunt Sally through the Internet. The telecom industry has changed dramatically over the past few decades, and blogs provide one way to keep up with with transitions from traditional technology to the latest connectivity.

To that end, the following 100 120 sites represent the most popular, unusual, informative and useful blogs within the telecom industry. The sites listed below are in alphabetical order beneath each category heading. While the sites are numbered, the numbering does not indicate any order of value.

VoIP | Corporate Blogs | Mobile Blogs | Wireless Blogs | Outside the U.S. | Niche | Toys and Gadgets | Updated: More Blogs!

VoIP

We’ve chosen the best and most active VoIP blogs on the ‘Net for your satisfaction. If you’re looking for product-specific blogs (such as Skype), look at the next category for corporate blogs, where you’ll find a variety of VoIP blogs offered through company resources.

1. About VoIP: Sharla Sikes covers industry news, products, legislation and regulation, business trends and more in this easy-to-read for-the-masses VoIP blog.
2. Asterisk VoIP News: This blog is devoted solely to news, developers’ notes, case studies and other information for and about the Asterisk Open Source PBX and telephony platform.
3. Digital Common Sense: Ken Camp covers communications in a broad sense, but he leans toward VoIP. Therefore, he’s found a slot in this category. Camp has more than 25 years of experience in information technology. He spent seventeen years with AT&T and Lucent Technologies. As an independent consultant, his primary focal areas include “network performance improvement, security practices and the design and deployment of integrated voice and data solutions.” Plus, he has pictures of Jeff Pulver (#16) rocking out in San Jose.
4. Disruptive Telephony: From the tagline: “Dan York on how Voice over IP is rewriting (almost) everything you thought you understood about telephony…” York is the Director of Emerging Communication Technology for Voxeo and is also on the board of VOIPSA.
5. Fractals of Change: Tom Evslin’s career has taken him from nerd to CEO to novelist and consultant with a brief stop as Transportation Secretary for the State of Vermont, so don’t expect his blog to be totally VoIP. But, Evslin and his wife, Mary, founded ITXC Corp. in 1997. That NASDAQ-listed company grew from a startup to the world’s leading provider of wholesale VoIP and one of the largest carriers of international voice minutes of any kind by the time it was acquired in 2004.
6. GigaOM: Om Malik founded this blog that covers technology news,analysis and opinions on topics ranging from broadband to online games, Web 2.0 and the wireless industry to VoIP. Malik covered telecom as a senior Business 2.0 writer in 2006, and the Voice/VoIP section of this blog reflects Malik’s expertise.
7. IP Business: When you go to this link, look to the left to find three different VoIP blogs, by writers Gary Kim, Hunter Newby and Scott Wharton. Kim is a founder of Dagda Mor Media and its Chief Operating Officer, and he is Editor in Chief of IP Business and ChannelVision. Newby is the Chief Strategy Officer and a Director of a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation based in New York City that is focused on the communications industry. Wharton has been BroadSoft’s Vice President of Marketing since 1999. All three men bring a distinctive voice to the VoIP industry.
8. Jon Arnold’s Blog: Arnold is an independent analyst/consultant focused on the IP communications sector, based out of Toronto, Ontario. Before he began this stint as the principal of J. Arnold & Associates, he was the VoIP Program Leader at the industry analyst firm, Frost & Sullivan. So, as he says, he’s “had a good run in this space since its coming of age.” Arnold’s blog proves that he is one of the most authoritative voices in VoIP today.
9. Latest Geek Stuff: This blog is all VoIP, and it’s filled with reviews, opinions, news, insights, and the latest scoops on any VoIP service you can imagine.
10. LucaFiligheddu.com: Luca is a recognized expert in the VoIP market. He’s now CEO at Abbeynet, an Italian company which develops technologies and services in the field of IP Communications since 1999. Luca shares his interests on VoIP, Web 2.0 and everything that is internet and technology on his blog, while he keeps a roving eye on other VoIP bloggers and the industry as a whole, making connections and providing astute observations.
11. Mr. Blog: David Beckemeyer speaks his mind about VoIP and offers a unique take here. From the about page: “In my formal research, I can’t always discuss less than fully formed ideas. But formality be damned here. Maybe I can be a little controversial.”
12. Saunderslog.com: Alec Saunders is the CEO of iotum Inc. out of Ottawa, Ontario, an Internet telephony service company. His blog posts are a mix of VoIP technology and Web news, interviews and updates. A visit to his site reveals what could be described as a visit to a bulletin board about all things VoIP.
13. Skype Journal: Phil Wolff, Jim Courtney and other writers love to review “stuff.” So they cover any and all Skype or Skype-related hardware, software and technical constructs such as APIs, protocols and specs. The posts are detailed, and the news goes beyond Skype to include all types of VoIP-related topics.
14. Solomon’s VoIP World: Solomon Ige covers VoIP Tech, IP and VoIP telephony, and VoIP solutions in his well-respected blog, along with contributors Linda Umolu and Olusola Oyewola.
15. Stuart Henshall’s Blog: Stuart Henshall founded the Skype Journal blog, and he’s a consultant to companies that want to expand into new media. So, readers will find a mix of VoIP news and commentary alongside social media news.
16. The Jeff Pulver Blog: Jeff Pulver is the founder of Pulver.com, and he is one of the pioneers of the VoIP industry from the early 1990s. He founded the VON (Voice On the Net), and he also is a leader in the emerging Internet TV industry. Today, he urges the VoIP industry to move beyond its telco-like business model toward social media. Named by Business Week as one of their 2003 Tech Gurus, Pulver is committed to the future of IP communications and is featured often in the media as true expert in his field.
17. Voice over IP Weblog: A number of writers contribute to this blog, which gives its format variety and punch with the addition of humor, video, news, graphics and reviews. The writers aren’t CEOs, but they’re all Web and VoIP evangelists, which counts.
18. VoIP Blog – Tehrani.com: While other bloggers might hand out VoIP news on a platter, Rich Tehrani digs in with a knife and fork to get to the bottom of that news. Tehrani is also Group Editor-in-Chief of Customer Interaction Solutions (CIS) Magazine. Launched in 1982, CIS is the first publication in the world to cover call centers and CRM. Tehrani founded the first magazine focused on VoIP in 1998 and, as President of TMC, is the owner of the registered trademark for the term Internet Telephony. More recently he launched TMC’s two newest titles, SIP Magazine and IMS Magazine.
19. VoIP Central: You won’t find any information about this blog’s administrators, but VoIP Central has become known as one of the more active news sources on new VoIP products and services. Blog readers also can contribute content as well as comments.
20. VOIP IP Telephony: Three contributors write several posts per day on every type of VoIP service, IP PBX, open source VoIP and Billing itself as “the single destination” for every type of VoIP discipline, this blog has a lot to live up to. And it does a good job, with multiple posts per day covering VoIP, IP telephony, IP PBX, open-source VoIP and more.
21. VoIP Monitor: Curtis Sund, along with writer Judson Skoog-Smith and advertising/marketing specialist Birgit Schelzel provide readers with news, analysis, information and opinions relating to Voice over IP (VoIP) and Internet telephony through this blog.
22. VoIP Princess Blog: In 2005 Andy Abramson (#22) dubbed Carolyn Schuk as the VoIP Princess. Hence, the princess who calls with her VoIP. Schuk also makes a showing with her technical writing in Bay Area Business Woman, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal and Voxilla.com.
23. VoIP Security Blog: Mark Collier saw a niche for information about VoIP security issues and filled it with this blog. Collier is CTO of the voice security and management company, SecureLogix Corp., so his perspective is especially valuable. Collier also is a member of VOIPSA (Voice Over IP Security Alliance).
24. VoIP Watch: Andy Abramson is the founder of Comunicano, a PR and marketing consulting firm that has gravitated to the Internet telephony market. His VoIP Watch blog targets news and analysis about VoIP issues.

Back to Index

Corporate Blogs

The blogs in this category belong to major commercial telecom companies or to individuals who hold high positions within major commercial businesses and corporations. Some blogs listed here are concerned with a specific product or service.

25. Ask the VoIP Specialists: This blog is the voice of Avad Technologies, a VoIP business specialist company. But, it’s also the voice of many other VoIP experts, some of whom are listed on this page.
26. Cisco’s Mobility Blog: Cisco provides a blog that covers various portions of the industry. Looking at the blog from the home page, it appears productive. However, if you’re into Cisco’s perspective on “mobility,” for instance, you might be slightly disappointed. That part of Cisco’s blog network is sparse. On the other hand, the “Web Experience” blog seems much more active.
27. Communications: Written by Brough Turner, Chief Technology Officer at NMS Communications. This blog offers “Brough’s writings on the technology, economic and social issues of communications at the intersection of telecom, mobility and the Internet.”
28. Global Crossing Blog: Global Crossing experts and special guests podcast and blog their views on industry trends and technologies in VoIP, but the tagline suggests that IP convergence is the real focus here.
29. Going WiMAX: Ari Zoldan, founder & CEO at Quantum Networks, LLC, A WiMax Company, is the head writer for this blog. Readers can find entries posted under such topics as “Analyses and Speculations” and “Word on the Street Is…,” so expect a mix of commentary and WiMAX-style gossip.
30. Irwin Lazar’s “Real-Time” Blog: Irwin Lazar is the principal analyst and program director for unified communications and collaboration at Nemertes Research. His background is in network operations, network engineering, voice-data convergence, and IP telephony, which may be why he blogs about VoIP, unified communications, presence, and collaboration.
31. JAJAH Blog: The JAJAH blog is focused on their product, of course, and how it will help their current and potential customers and developers. But occasionally they’ll spread wings to talk about the telecom industry as a whole.
32. Mobile Marketing Watch: This blog covers the mobile marketing community, where business owners and marketers can find new mobile marketing ideas for campaigns. Vic Berggren writes this blog in his “spare time.” Berggren is a software developer and has worked for Interlink Communication Systems since 1998 and is currently the CIO at this company.
33. Mobile Messaging 2.0: This site on the future of mobile messaging is sponsored by Airwide Solutions, a global-market provider for next-generation mobile messaging and wireless internet infrastructure, applications and solutions.
34. Moz@Work: Moz Hussain works for Microsoft, where he focuses on enterprise unified communications. His blog covers the telecom industry with an eye to environmental issues.
35. SIPthat: The VoIP and IP Communications blog by Erik Lagerway. Erik has more than a decade of experience in the telecommunications and software industry, and is currently the CEO of Lypp.
36. Skype Blogs: Since Skype is available in 28 languages and is used in almost every country around the world, it’s no wonder that this collection of blogs is one of the most active VoIP sites on the Web. If you’re a Skype fan, you can spend all day reading content for developers, businesses, and individual users.
37. Smith on VoIP: Garrett Smith is Director of Marketing and Business Development at VoIP Supply, a leading VoIP solutions provider. In this blog, Smith introduces and reviews new VoIP products and services. The connections here are not lost; B2 Consultant is the parent company to VoIP Supply, the business that hosts VoIP Insider (see #42).
38. Telco 2.0: This Blog supports the Telco 2.0 Initiative, a new industry program focused on helping with the question: “How do we (telcos, handset manufacturers, Media companies, IT players, NEPs, etc) make money in an IP-based world?”
39. The Final Mile: Tim Sanders posts some of his thoughts on the WiMAX Blog (see below), but his main venue is this blog, where he talks about wireless in all shapes and forms. Tim also provides a podcast on all things uber-wireless at WiMAX Global News.
40. Verizon’s Policy Blog: Verizon is upfront in stating that the blog expresses their perspectives on policy issues that affect the telecommunications industry. With that said, they encourage feedback on that perspective. They prefer to focus on policy issues that “have implications for the greatest number of companies and consumers.”
41. Vision Mobile: This company’s expertise encircles the ecosystem of network operators,handset manufacturers and mobile service providers in the wireless sector. Their blog may appeal mainly to tier-1 operators and OEMs, software vendors, system integrators, and international analyst houses. With that said, the topics here are vastly interesting to anyone with an interest in wireless systems.
42. VoIP Insider: This blog is produced by VoIP Supply LLC, and its posts are geared more toward the reseller market. But any news is good news for avid VoIP fans – especially when it’s from the “inside.”
43. VoIPs4u.com: Sponsored by Unitec Communications LLC, this site is more like a news feed than a blog. But, it is unlike any other blog listed here in that readers can catch up on VoIP news quickly through this site, as posts are frequent if you can rely on the occasional dated entry.
44. WiMAX.com Blog: This blog is brought to you by WiMAX.com Broadband Solutions out of Austin, Texas. While the blog focuses mainly on the business perspective of WiMAX, the forum is geared toward answering questions about this up and coming technology.
45. Wireless Mobility: Mae Kowalke is an Associate Editor at TMCnet, Technology Marketing Corporation’s online news site that covers a broad range of technology and marketing-related industries including WiFi, VoIP, CRM, call center, IP communications, biometrics, alternative power, and information technology. You’ll find topics here such as 802.11 and other wireless standards, BlackBerries, cell phones, fixed-mobile convergence, the IEEE, PDAs, and municipal WiFi.

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Mobile Blogs

The following blogs focus on mobile communications, including wireless, but focused mainly on mobile content and trends. If you’re looking for reviews about mobile gadgets, head to the last category in this article.

46. Day in the Life of a Mobile Diva: Darla Mack, aka the “Mobile Diva,” began her stardom with a blog that showcased her mobile phone passion. The blog and Darla have morphed into a force to be reckoned with within the wireless industry.
47. MobHappy: MobHappy is a collaborative effort between Russell Buckley and Carlo Longino, a mobile marketer and a writer about mobile devices respectively. Together, they bring humor and cutting-edge insights and analysis into the Mobile industry from outside the corporate perimeter.
48. Mobile Monday: Mobile Monday is a global community comprised of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influentials who want to foster cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events to share ideas, best practices and trends from global markets. With global networks, this group keeps an open communication platform going through events and through this blog. While the blog may not pertain to your specific mobile device, it’s an interesting read on what this group is doing.
49. Mobile Open Source: Fabrizio Capobianco is CEO of Funambol, the mobile open source company, and this blog is a “thinking out loud” format for his thoughts on mobile community and social networking.
50. Mobile Phone Blog: This blog provides an “insider’s perspective” on the mobile phone industry, opinions on cell phone content, reviews of mobile games, critiques about new firms in the market and the overall health of the global wireless industry. The blog is written by the two founders of Movaya, a service provider for digital content to mobile devices.
51. Mobility Beat: This site is less a blog and more a community-powered social bookmarking and link sharing website about mobile technology. Influenced by the Digg social news network format, this group uses the Open Source Pligg to power their site.
52. MobileMentalism: Mike Evans is a lecturer in Computer Science, specialising in social computing, and “devotee of the mobile gizmo.” While Evans keeps readers abreast of the current mobile market, he also encourages readers to envision what might be coming over the horizon so that his community can adapt to new technologies. A visionary’s dream blog.
53. mocoNews.net: Biz-tech journalist and entrepreneur, Rafat Ali, created MocoNews as a blog that focuses specifically on the business of the mobile content market.
54. Msearchgroove: The writers for this blog track industry developments and players that impact mobile search, personalization, recommendation, targeted mobile advertising, and social networking. One of the key authors is Chetan Sharma, from #63 below.
55. mTrends: Rudy De Waele, a Belgian who lives and works in Barcelona, Spain, is a Mobile 2.0 evangelist. He started this blog in 2004 to cover the evolution of the wireless industry, and today his entries tackle subjects such as mobile events, user experiences, usability, innovations, startups and more.
56. Open Gardens: This blog is about wireless mobility, innovation, digital convergence and mobile Web 2.0. Ajit Jaokar, author of the book, Mobile web 2.0, and a member of the web2.0 workgroup, founded this blog on May 26, 2005 based on his “vision and philosophy of OpenGardens i.e. the philosophical opposite of ‘walled gardens’ especially as applicable to the mobile data industry.”
57. PhoneDog: Co- founders Tom Klein and Andre Refay established phonedog in 2001 as a means to provide the consumer with un-biased reviews and information needed to make smart decisions when choosing phone products and services. Klein’s door-to-door sales of phone, cable and Internet services for a small regional communications company in Charleston, South Carolina and Refay’s work as an IT project leader for a Web development company in Sarasota, Florida, provide the backgrounds needed to provide an unbiased perspective on products with an eye to satisfying consumer questions.
58. Telepocalypse: Before Martin Geddes was a full-on teenager, he would get booted out of computer stores for reprogramming TI-99/4As. By 2001, he was enlisted into a project to re-invent Sprint as the first carrier to become an open application platform, so he was thinking in “i-mode++, but before i-mode was a known success.” He began this blog as a lark, but soon ended up leaving Sprint to become a consultant who is active in the Telco 2.0 initiative. His blog reflects his current interests with intelligent agitation, cynicism and wit.
59. The Mobile Technology Weblog: The Mobile Technology Weblog follows important trends and events in consumer mobile technology markets worldwide and is part of the Creative Weblogging group.

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Wireless Blogs

The following blogs focus on the wireless industry, a place where visionaries meet with techies to discuss philosophy and the future of communications.

60. 3G and 4G Wireless Blog: Zahid Ghadialy, a wireless evangelist with about a decade’s worth of experience in the 3G wireless domain, offers readers the latest news and information on 3G and 4G wireless topics.
61. ABI Research Wireless Blog: ABI Research was founded in 1990 to assist manufacturers of wireless semiconductor components in understanding and entering new markets. Their wireless blog contains analyst perspectives on key industry topics including mobile devices, network infrastructure, mobile operators, mobile content, and short range wireless connectivity.
62. Always On Real-Time Access: Chetan Sharma is a recognized industry expert in strategy and implementation of wireless data and pervasive computing solutions. The AORTA blog is both a personal and business blend of insights into the wireless industry, backed by his expertise as an author, a consultant, and the former founder and Director of Luminant Worldwide’s wireless practice.
63. Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News: Yes, the blog title is a mouthful, but it’s very descriptive. Steve Stroh, a technical writer who specializes in wireless technology, put this blog together and it holds his archival material for 2007. Now, in 2008, Stroh is branching out and readers can find his new work at Steve Stroh Articles.
64. DailyWireless: Sam Churchill, the editor for this blog, is drawn healthy grass-roots competition in the wireless community. That’s why they focus on wireless developments such as WiMAX and community LANs. It’s also why all content on DailyWireless reflects the authors’ understanding of the issues and is not altered in any way by outside commercial interests (no paid posting or product mentions).
65. Disruptive Analysis: Dean Bubley is the Founder of Disruptive Analysis, an independent technology industry analyst and consulting firm.that focuses primarily in wireless, mobile and telecom fields. His blog contains “insightful and sometimes acerbic observations on the world of mobile and wireless technology, especially FMC, wireless VoIP, convergence, smartphones, operator data services, mobile broadband, spectrum issues and IMS.”
66. FierceWireless: More of a portal than a mere blog, this site contains a forum, news, special reports, jobs and more for the fierce wireless aficianado.
67. More Blah 2.0: This blog is just one online venue for author Paul Golding, and it represents his personal insights. For the past twelve years, Golding has either been running a mobile software and consulting business or working as an independent mobile tech/strategy consultant. Recently, he also was chairman of the board of an internal innovations centre for mobile apps, called the Mashing Room, where Mobile Web 2.0 mash-ups were created. Golding also is author of the book, Next Generation Wireless Applications.
68. The Wireless Future: This blog is sponsored by The New America, a nonprofit public policy institute that was established through the collaborative work of a diverse group of public intellectuals, civic leaders and business executives. Their blog on the wireless future contains both original blogs about wireless policy, although “it is primarily an aggregator for items by Wireless Future ‘friends and family’ from elsewhere on the web.”
69. TechDirt: The wireless ‘channel’ for this technical blog provides news and analysis about the wireless industry. Although not always cutting edge, this blog delivers a broad range of stories that will keep the wireless reader well informed.
70. Wi-Fi Networking News: Glenn Fleishman is a technology journalist, contributing regularly to The Economist, Popular Science, PC World, Macworld magazine, and other online and print publications. He has been a columnist for The Seattle Times since 2000, and appears weekly as a guest on KUOW-FM’s afternoon arts and culture program Sound Focus. Glenn owns and operates this daily news site and five related wireless data Web logs, all located from this link. The other blogs include Public Safety News, Voice over WLAN, Cell Data News, MIMO+N News and WiMax Net News. Busy man!
71. Wireless Community: Dana Spiegel serves as the Executive Director and a member of the Board of Directors of NYCwireless, a New York City non-profit organization that advocates and enables the growth of free, public wireless networks. This blog is part of his experience, where he explores the “spectrum of community through public wireless networks.”
72. Wireless Moves: Martin Sauter was photographed playing with a toy phone at age two, and according to him, not much has changed since that time, as he currently works as a Wireless Solution Consultant. Within this century, Sauter has published two books on communications systems for the mobile phone industry, and this blog – while focused initially on personal thoughts – has become a platform for discuss and share ideas and questions with a larger audience.

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Outside the U.S.

The following links will take you to English language blogs on telephony subjects located outside the U.S.

73. BT Broadband Blog: BT Broadband focuses on small business communications in London, so their blog reflect this venue. Still, they broaden the scope by applying local events to the telecommunications industry. It’s an interesting read, especially if you want a comparison with an overseas perspective.
74. Mark Evans: While not a total take on telephony or telecom, Evans brings a fresh voice from Canada on all things communication. He’ll even warn you that, in Montreal, people celebrate playoffs victories by the Montreal Canadiens by rioting and burning cars. This doesn’t happen in Toronto, where the Mesh Web Conference will take place this year.
75. Telecom Trends: This is a Canadian blog written by Mark Goldberg from Mark H. Goldberg & Associates, a consulting services to telecommunications companies.
76. WiHood and Telecom’s Tsunami Blog: Thomas F. Anglero founded WiHood AS in August 2007, and already has been honored with a funding award from Innovation Norway, a division of the Norwegian government providing capital to the most innovative companies in that country. WiHood is a program designed to ensure that children have safe access to the most innovative technologies. This leaning comes as no surprise, as Mr. Anglero is one of the very first pioneers of VoIP beginning in 1994 and he’s a father as well. The blog focuses on “insights into the disruptive changes of the telecommunications industry and the WiHood community!”
77. Wireless Watch Japan: Founded in 2001, Wireless Watch Japan represents the “original and independent English news source on Japan’s mobile industry.” The blog provides in-depth coverage on the industry through news reports, analytical articles, and video and audio programs. Membership includes top-level employees from Fortune 500 companies. Wireless Watch Japan is a division of Mobikyo K.K., Tokyo.

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Niche

This category covers everything from a writer who covers VoIP along with pre-Islamic lunar cultic worship of southern Arabia and astroichthyology, an attorney who blogs about wireless towers, and a woman in the UK who collects antique British telephones and more oddities. On the other hand, you’ll find other one-of-a-kind blogs here as well, such as UCAN, the Utility Consumers’ Action Network and a blog that focuses totally on texting.

78. Textually.org: This site, produced by Emily Turrettini from Geneva, Switzerland, is “all about texting, SMS and MMS. This site also is the entry point for three Weblogs devoted to cell phones and mobile content, all produced by Turrettini. The other blogs include Ringtonia.com (”the latest buzz on ringtones”), Picturephoning.com (”exploring the new world of picture and video phones”), and Watching TV Online (”and the threat to big media”).
79. Sidecut Reports: A relatively new site from former GigaOM editor Paul Kapustka, Sidecut Reports delivers “cutting reports from the intersection of telecommunications, the Internet, and public policy.”
80. TelecomLawBlog: Davis Wright Tremaine LLP (DWT) has been involved in telecom regulation and transactions for more than two decades. From the expansion from wireless into digital, this company plans to continue with support for telecom clients. The blog, therefore, provides a generic resource for anyone with questions about the telecom industry’s policy moves and how they affect users.
81. First Coffee: While this blog, created by writer David Sims, does focus on VoIP, he also covers “customer relationship management, Turkish coffee, contact center management, speech recognition technologies, pre-Islamic lunar cultic worship of southern Arabia and astroichthyology.” Phew!
82. Hear Us Now: HearUsNow.org follows the Consumers Union’s tradition of promoting a fair and just marketplace by empowering consumers to fight for better and more affordable telephone, cable and Internet services or equipment. Their blog, which is more of a report on their newsletter, is a great way to stay on top of telecom policy and how it affects consumers.
83. Jonathan Kramer on Wireless Tower Siting: If any one blog really fits the “Niche” category, this is it. Kramer set this blog up over a decade ago because he knew “that government and private wireless planners are very visual people.” So, through this blog and its photographs, Kramer hopes to illustrate what can be done and what should be avoided when constructing wireless towers. Kramer is a consultant through his law firm, Kramer Telecom Law Firm, P.C., and he’s advised the U.S. government and private clients on wireless tower siting issues for many years.
84. Old Telephones: Karen Shelton, located in the UK, has a penchant for antique phones circa 1910 to 1980. This is one blog for her obsession, and Retro Telephones, which focus on the Bakelite phones, is another.
85. Pat Phelan: Pat Phelan is the founder and President of Cubic Telecom (also known as MaxRoam), a “well known disruptor in telephony circles and one of the leading voices of Voice 2.0.” Phelan has been involved with major telecom industries for years, but now sees himself as a ‘telecoms disruptor” and a “champion of the underdog” against ruling telecom companies.
86. UCAN’s Consumer Watchdog Blog: Founded in 1983 by concerned San Diego citizens, the Utility Consumers’ Action Network, UCAN, was formed to protect consumers from utility and corporate abuse. Since that time, UCAN’s not-for-profit legal team has saved San Diego consumers billions of dollars in unfair utility rate hikes. Other communities can learn about their struggles and insights through their blog.
87. Strategic News Service Blog: If you combine physics, biochemistry and technology, what would you get? Many think this combination would result in a person like Mark Anderson, a man who relishes the accuracy of his predictions about the computing and communications industries. If you combine consumerism with that mix, you have Anderson’s product, the Strategic News Service newsletter (SNS), which was the first subscription-based newsletter on the Internet and is read by technology industry leaders and investors worldwide.
88. Telecom Books Blog: This blog collects telecom books for professionals, students, and people who are interested in telecommunications technology and business. But, the blog does more than review books – it provides news about the telecom industry as well.
89. Telephony 2.0: This blog, moderated by Rich Karpinski and supported by Penton Media, covers a lot of ground. The site itself, Telephony Online, covers global, Ethernet, independent, IPTV, IMS, WiMAX, VoIP, FTTX, access, broadband, wireless and software news, articles and more.
90. The PhoneBoy Blog: Dameon Welch-Abernathy could find a niche in VoIP, or he could fit neatly into the Mobile category. But, he finds a spot here because he covers VoIP, mobile, telecom and technology – and he makes it simple. Need to find Dameon? Look no further than Facebook, Twitter, Jaiku, Amazon (he wrote the book, Essential Checkpoint Firewall-1: An Installation, Configuration, and Troubleshooting Guide), the Voice over IP Weblog….and, well, you get the idea…
91. Wireless USB Blog: Yes, Virginia, there is enough material about wireless USBs to update a blog on a regular basis. That’s what Karsten Stopp does with this site, which provides news, job offerings, videos and other information about WUSB products and services. If this isn’t enough for you, try Everything USB.

Back to Index

Toys and Gadgets

If you can’t decide what to buy or if you don’t know about what’s best on the market today, then visit the blogs below. You’ll discover the companies that are capturing the telephony community’s imagination.

92. ChipChick: Established in 2004, Chip Chick was a pioneer in the blogosphere, becoming amongst the first sites to focus on technology for women. This ‘channel’ within ChipChick helps women to learn about the latest mobile phone technology and content.
93. Digital Nomads: If you combine travel with high tech, you get a Digital Nomad. You’ll discover resources for portable professionals and extreme telecommuting in this blog.
94. Engadget Mobile: A list of blogs wouldn’t be a good list without mention of Engadget’s Mobile blog, which covers every newfangled gadget for the mobile phone market that’s on the market today – and some that haven’t made it to the shelves yet. Look here for the latest industry news and tech reviews.
95. Know Your Mobile: The Know Your Mobile team is made up of four rather distinct characters – Mat Toor, Rhys Lewis, Lin Jia, Lowri Williams – who are located in London, yet who cover the world with their knowledge of mobile devices. The blog is sharp and the reviews are thorough. Know Your Mobile is a Project Badger production and part of the Dennis Publishing network of magazines and websites.
96. Martin J. Smith: This blog isn’t quite a philosophy, and it isn’t quite a toy store. It’s a blend that offers insights into new gadgets and technological advancements across the gamut of mobile communications.
97. Gadgetorama: This site officially launched on January 5, 2005, and its mandate focuses on mobile devices, such as Windows Mobile PDAs and smartphones, UMPCs and more. However, you might find a few posts on iPods and home entertainment toys as well.
98. Gizmodo: If you have an unhealthy penchant for shiny new toys, then this blog is written just for you. You’ll find the latest news, reviews and recommendations for everything related to the word, “gadget,” including cell phones, PDAs, wireless gizmos and more.
99. Mobile Telecommunication and Gadgets: Jurjen Veldhuizen is a manager of mobile information technology at TNO-ICT in Germany. His blog, written in English, covers some of the latest mobile gadgets from a European perspective.
100. MobileBurn: This blog focuses on the U.S. and European markets as the writers bring in-depth, hands-on reviews about mobile devices. They also try to keep readers informed about the top news and product launches in the industry.

Back to Index

Update: Even More Blogs!

Thank you to all of you who sent in suggestions to add to this list. Below, I am happy to include these blogs that I failed to mention in the original posting. If you have any additional suggestions not found here, please feel free to leave a comment at the end of this post.

101. All About Nortel: All the news about Nortel Networks. Written by Mark Evans (see also #74).
102. All About Symbian: The title pretty much says it all. This site claims to be “world’s biggest community site and portal for smartphones running the Symbian OS.”
103. Dean Bubley’s Disruptive Wireless: From Mr. Bubley himself: “Insightful and sometimes acerbic observations on the world of mobile and wireless technology, especially FMC, wireless VoIP, convergence, smartphones, operator data services, mobile broadband, spectrum issues and IMS.”
104. GSM Arena: If you’re looking for specs and a review of a GSM phone (new or old), you’ll find it here.
105. Kevin Restivo’s Tech Blog: Restivo is a software research analyst for IDC Canada. This blog is his personal take on wireless and consumer markets.
106. The Mobile Gadgeteer: This blog by Matthew Miller on ZDNet offers the take of one who describes himself as an “avid mobile device enthusiast.”
107. Mobiledia: “Resource site dedicated to providing cell phone reviews, news, and comprehensive information on all things mobile.”
108. Mobile Messaging 2.0: Sponsored by Airwide Solutions, this blog features the commentary of several different authors within the mobile tech industry.
109. Phone Scoop: Nothing here but a whole lot of cell phone reviews!
110. Slash Phone: Self-described as “a hip and influential resource for the latest in worldwide mobile phone news, reviews and industry innovations.”
111. The Smartphones Show: Several-times-monthly videocast on the latest smartphone news “for the rest of us.” Most of the videos are actually shot with a Nokia N93.
112. SMS Text News: “Daily news and opinion for 250,000 industry executives and mobile fanatics.” Founded by mobile fanatic Ewan MacLeod.
113. Starr Trek: No beaming up here, Scotty. While this blog does go where no blog has gone before, its focus is on mobile technologies, Web 2.0 and Green Energy ecosystems. Brought to you by Oliver Starr.
114. Telecosm: Ike Elliott’s take on telecom, technology, and the real world.
115. The Thomas Howe Company: Thomas Howe provides “expertise in the integration of real time communications and the business process.
116. Unwired View: Wireless news, views, and reviews.
117. Voice of VOIPSA: The group weblog of the Voice over IP Security Alliance. Featuring Mark Collier (#23) and Dan York (#4) among many others.
118. VoIP & Gadgets Blog: Tom Keating has been in the telecom publishing industry since 1994, when he first joined TMC. He’s been a computer geek for far longer than that though, as he proudly proclaims on his about page that his interest in computers began in 1982 when he got a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo). His experience provides us with a wealth of information on his blog.
119. VoIP News: Long-running news site on business VoIP information.
120. Voxeo Blogs: Weblogs from the Voxeo Corporation.
]]> http://www.voipnow.org/2008/05/top-100-telecom-industry-blogs.html/feed 27 http://www.voipnow.org/2007/06/the_ultimate_gu.html http://www.voipnow.org/2007/06/the_ultimate_gu.html#comments Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:06:48 +0000 admin http://voipnow.org/?p=6 VoIP use is estimated to grow to 32.6 million users by 2010, an estimate that proves VoIP’s growing popularity. Despite the VoIP growth, there seems to be a real PC bias to the technology and programs that make the most of VoIP – that is, until the past few years. It seems VoIP providers are finally starting to realize the untapped market in ever tech-hungry Mac users. Software and hardware is out there for VoIP on the Mac if you know where to look, and some VoIP has even become unabashedly Mac specific. Unsure where to begin? Here are some tips and advice on getting VoIP for your Mac.

Security

Macs have a reputation for being more secure than Windows online when it comes to outside threats, and that may be true; but that’s no reason to get sloppy about securing your VoIP and taking additional steps to make sure you’re not vulnerable. As VoIP becomes ever more popular, the amount of predators who see it as an easy way to take advantage of unsuspecting users will increase. VoIP can be vulnerable to a number of threats, some allowing your calls to be eavesdropped on and some, like SPIT attacks, that can clog up your VoIP connection much like spam can clog up your inbox..

While there’s no such thing as bulletproof VoIP, there are a few steps you can take to protect yourself. Since VoIP calls travel over an Internet connection, sensitive calls, much like sensitive e-mails should be encrypted. Perhaps the simplest way of encrypting your information – one that requires no advanced technical knowledge – is to use a program called Zfone. Zfone is a free program that encrypts and decrypts your VoIP calls on the fly, ensuring that your confidential information will stay confidential. Mac users will be pleased by the program’s design, which features the sleek and simple silver design found in other Mac applications.

Aside from encryption, you’ll also want to protect your VoIP from SPIT attacks. Though these attacks exist only in theory thus far, the thought of getting flooded with hundreds of calls from telemarketers should drive you to prevent them in advance. Most SPIT can be filtered out through the use of a VoIP firewall like the one offered by Borderware or by using a program like VoIPSEAL. Some VoIP clients like Vonage and Skype have built in systems that can filter out a majority of the SPIT before it ever reaches your phone.

Hardware

While a VoIP phone isn’t a necessity to make VoIP calls, if you’re Jonesing for another gadget, a VoIP phone can make a nice addition to your collection. A wide variety of VoIP phones exist, but finding one that actually works with a Mac and provides you with high-quality calls can be a challenge. Most phones seem to be tied to a particular provider, so make sure you really love your VoIP client before investing in a phone. There are a lot of pricey phones out there, but here are a few Mac compatible phones that won’t bust your budget.

• The Keyspan VP-24A The Keyspan is a cordless phone made for Skype users. It can access your Skype contact list allowing you simple push button dialing to anyone on that list. Sound quality is similar to that of regular cordless phones, but the Keyspan has some advantages over your standard phone. Since your Mac recognizes this device as just another audio device, you can use it as a microphone for iChat as well as device for your Skype.
• The Cyberphone W Yet another Skype phone, the Cyberphone has the distinction of being the first Skype-certified device to be available in all Mac stores. The Cyberphone certainly incorporates the sleek design Mac users love. One feature that should impress is that when the phone is lifted from the cradle Skype is automatically started on your computer. It also provides easy access to your voicemail with single button access.
• The Ipevo Free-1 The Ipevo is perhaps the most lauded of the Skype phones for the Mac. It certaintly looks cool. The white or black phone is accented with green buttons and is ergonomically sculpted to fit the face. It’s full of features to impress even the most jaded of geeks. There are 10 ring tones, echo elimination and, most interestingly, the phone allows you listen to music while you make calls. Audio quality is top notch, and resembles that of a mobile connection.
• i2Telecom Voice Stick For those who want to make VoIP calls on the go, the Voice Stick is a great option. Tiny enough that it can be carried on a key chain or in a pocket, the phone is extremely portable and can eliminate those pesky roaming charges from cell phones by allowing you to effortlessly take your VoIP on the road. The phone works with the Voice Stick software, which is available for a range of fees from nothing (for extremely limited calling benefits) to $24.99 a month.
• The Linksys CIT310 The Linksys phone works with Yahoo! Messenger and it allows you to make calls using the free Mac-to-Mac feature, as well as Yahoo Out. While primarily made for VoIP calls, the phone also has a jack so that it can be hooked up to standard phone lines as well, doubling it’s usefulness. You can access many of the Yahoo features through the phone – enter your zip code and your weather report will automatically appear.
• The VTech IP8100 For Vonage users, the VTech IP8100 was engineered specifically to be the model of choice. Features include one-touch access to Vonage Voicemail, a fifty-entry phone book, and hands-free speakerphone. Mac users should be wary, however. While the phone itself is compatible with Macs, some of the features and accessories, like the portable V-Phone, have had compatibility issues.

Software

This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the VoIP software out there for Macs. There are numerous programs and clients that can provide VoIP to your Mac and the number is growing all the time. This is just a selection of a few programs that can help you get started in setting up a great VoIP system on your Mac.

• Skype — Skype is one of the most popular VoIP clients for both Mac and PC users Because it’s designed to work with varied platforms it doesn’t matter if you are calling someone on a Windows PC or Linux from your Mac…your call will work. You can call landlines or computers anywhere in the world. Only Computer-to-Computer calls are free, but calls from your Mac to landlines anywhere in the world are available for reasonable fees through SkypeOut. Mac users will like the sleek and minimal interface that fits in nicely with other OS X appliations. Skype doesn’t come without problems, however. It’s a proprietary system, so it can’t be hooked up with any other VoIP service. Security concerns with running Skype on Mac have hopefully been resolved, though users might still find themselves susceptible to spam-like calls.
• Gizmo — Gizmo is a rival to Skype and might acutally be more at home on a Mac than any other VoIP software. It also offers similar calling plans to Skype and allows you to call anyone regardless of their OS. One feature Mac users might find particularly useful is that Gizmo offers a plug-in for the popular Adium software, allowing users to call anyone within Adium using their Gizmo account. Gizmo doesn’t offer as many fancy freatures as Skype (like video conferencing) but it’s a solid, attractive program and, unlike Skype, it can be combined with any other SIP-based VoIP service allowing you convenience and options in your calling.
• LoudHush — LoudHush is VoIP for the Mac snob, as the software proudly declares that it’s Mac only – no PCs allowed. LoudHush works within the Asterisk PBX, so you’ll not only need LoudHush, but an Asterisk account as well. Its features include a missed calls indicator and a fixed call recorder on Intel-based Macs. The software is very simple and easy to use, and best of all, guaranteed to work with your Mac.
• iChat — Perhaps the easiest VoIP option for Mac users is iChat since it comes pre-installed with every Mac. Its simplicity is one of its disadvantages however, as calls can only be made from Mac-to-Mac so you can’t call to your PC using friends or to landlines. The best VoIP feature iChat supplies is videoconferencing. With iChat you can videoconference with up to 4 people, though this can put a lot of stress on your system; however, the video quality with the new H.264 video codec is fantastic. Despite its limitations, those who want simple VoIP access or those with lots of friends on AIM find iChat to be a great no-frills option.
• SightSpeed — Just like Skype, SightSpeed offers both calling and videoconferencing capabilities. It also offers the typical softphone call plans; free unlimited call between SightSpeed users and cheap calls to landlines and cell phones. SightSpeed will be most attractive to those interested in VideoConferencing, though iChat can provide similar services. Basic conferencing is free, but with a paying plan up to 4 people can conference at once. Mac users might be wary of it however, as it doesn’t have the look of a Mac based program. If you are looking for a program that seamlessly integrates with the rest of your applications, SightSpeed may not be the most Mac-friendly.
• Ventrilo — Gamers will be happy to know that there is a Mac friendly VoIP option geared torwards group communications like those required in online gaming. Ventrilo is chock full of features and allows users to customize what they are hearing with surround sound positioning and special sound effects.
• TeamSpeex — Another VoIP geared towars gamers is TeamSpeex. TeamSpeex can be a great addition to any multi-player game. Team Speex looks and feels at home on a Mac, though users should be advised that the Mac version of the program is lacking many of the features available in the PC version. Still, TeamSpeex can give you a way to integrate your VoIP into your gaming, ultimately, and hopefully making you more successful.

There’s no longer any reason that Mac users should feel left out of the VoIP hoopla. There are many options for VoIP providers and hardware out there that will work great with a Mac and won’t leave PC users with anything to brag about (as if Mac users would ever be jealous!) So if you’re interested in trying out VoIP on your Mac do your research and use these tips as a helpful guide for making your experience painless.

]]> http://www.voipnow.org/2007/06/the_ultimate_gu.html/feed 0 http://www.voipnow.org/2007/05/how_to_be_your_.html http://www.voipnow.org/2007/05/how_to_be_your_.html#comments Mon, 14 May 2007 18:05:26 +0000 admin http://voipnow.org/?p=5 Looking to compete with the likes of Skype or Vonage? Well, don’t start eyeing that new yacht just yet. While the VoIP industry is making some people very rich, you will have a tough time competing in this saturated market. However, adding VoIP to other Web services provided by your company is a good business move. Even if you can’t become the next VoIP giant, you can definitely profit from becoming a provider to your existing customers. If you offer ISP, email and/or hosting services, VoIP should be the next addition to your business’ roster of features. Don’t be intimidated by this new technology, either. You no longer need an IT degree or a small fortune to become a VoIP provider.

Sell VoIP the Easy Way: Become an Affiliate or Reseller

One thing that deters a lot of people from becoming a dedicated VoIP provider is the risk involved. Not only is there a lot of competition, it takes serious money to build from scratch. How much, exactly? Estimates range from half a million to several million dollars. However, there are now many  VoIP companies that offer start-up businesses in the form of both affiliate and reseller programs. Affiliate programs are the most simple way to offer VoIP to your customers. You simply act as a middleman for an established VoIP host, selling their services through a unique Web site of your own. As a VoIP affiliate, you will earn commission for signing up new users. This is a great option for those who don’t want to bother with the technical aspect of Internet telephony. However, you may wish to have a more hands-on approach to your VoIP business, in which case you should set up a reseller account.

Becoming a VoIP reseller is a compromise between building a dedicated VoIP company from scratch and selling VoIP services as an affiliate. As a VoIP reseller, you will be redistributing the airtime of an existing VoIP company, who in turn will handle much of the back end of the business. However, you will still be responsible for some on-site equipment, as well as the marketing of your business. The plus side to this is that you will be your own brand and can set the price for the service, whereas an affiliate program only earns you a fixed commission. As a VoIP reseller you will have to be somewhat technically savvy, but not nearly as savvy as if you were building a VoIP company from the ground up.  In fact, there are some hosting firms that will conduct on-site training and equipment setup if you open a reseller account with them.

Depending on the company you choose to do business with, as well as the agreement you sign, you may have to purchase some hardware and software. Resellers are more likely to have to do this than affiliates. As a reseller, it is advantageous to have someone in your employ that is experienced in Linux. This knowledge will be helpful when you assemble your store front. If you have no one in your company that can help you with this, you may have to hire an outside IT professional. As for hardware and equipment, a reseller may have to invest a few thousand dollars before seeing any revenue. Keep in mind that this is a nominal amount compared to the possible millions it would cost you to start a VoIP company from scratch.

Choosing a VoIP Host

If you are planning on becoming a VoIP reseller or affiliate, beware of scams, as there are plenty of them around. There is a difference between a legitimate affiliate program and an outright pyramid scheme. Don’t believe any advertisements that claim you will effortlessly get rich with VoIP. If that were true, everyone on your street would have been converted already. Also, you have to beware of hosting companies that offer poor service. After all, you are staking your company’s reputation on the assumption that they will hold their end up. When looking for a hosting firm, always go with a reputable company, not some poorly advertised service on Craigslist. Below, you will find the top five recommended VoIP providers for both affiliate and reseller programs.

VoIP Providers Offering Affiliate Programs

1. ViaTalk
2. Globe7
3. Net2Phone
4. Lingo
5. iConnectHere

VoIP Providers Offering Reseller Programs

1. Quantumvoice
2. Broadvoice
3. Net2Phone
4. iConnectHere
5. Nikotel

Remember, all of these companies offer different affiliate and reseller packages. While some of these may be turnkey solutions that do most of the work for you, others will require extensive equipment and software setup on your end. Further details, such as how you will bill your customers, might also be a deciding factor when you choose a host provider. Be sure to go over every detail before signing any kind of agreement. Once you have decided on a company and have assembled your store front, you will want to begin marketing your new VoIP service.

Marketing

Once your VoIP system is in place and you are ready to provide customers with the technology, you should start with your existing clientele. Let them know that you are now offering VoIP in addition to their other Web services. A mass email, in addition to a low introductory rate for existing customers, should be enough to garner plenty of attention. Assuming your company has a Web site (and it really should), your homepage should make an announcement of the new add-on. There are also plenty of online resources for posting a VoIP-related press release. This will not only ensure that your customers are aware of their new VoIP option, it will draw in new customers. As new customers are signed on with your company, the VoIP service can merely be included with a complete Web package, rather than being sold by itself.

It isn’t a very good idea to start a company to solely sell VoIP. There are too many giants in the field for you to make a profit off of VoIP alone. However, it makes a perfect addition to your existing or future Web business. Treat this service as just another great feature offered by your company, rather than a revolutionary replacement for the common telephone. Business owners have tried and failed by using that angle, as the majority of the public just isn’t ready to give up their landline. VoIP is, however, becoming a practical tool for personal and business use. That is your sales pitch right there. Simple, effective and it will validate your decision to become a VoIP provider.

]]> http://www.voipnow.org/2007/05/how_to_be_your_.html/feed 0 http://www.voipnow.org/2007/04/10_tips_to_filt.html http://www.voipnow.org/2007/04/10_tips_to_filt.html#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2007 18:24:21 +0000 admin http://voipnow.org/?p=15 With the ridiculous amount of email spam circulating out there (some estimates put this at staggering 82% of all emails), it’s hardly a surprise that VoIP would be the next target. With calls being cheap and the technology readily available, spammers have little to discourage them from adding SPam over Internet Telephony (SPIT) to their repertoire. SPIT has the possibility of being even more annoying that your run of the mill spam because, unlike Spam email which you can ignore or delete at your leisure, SPIT calls happen in real time and disrupt your day. SPIT can also eat up your VoIP bandwidth, lowering the quality of your calls and clogging up your voicemail with the same annoying junk that gets filtered out of your email.

Luckily, SPIT attacks are still fairly rare, at least in the American market; but in the past few years with the explosion of VoIP usage the amount of potential targets for SPIT has grown, making it a more worthwhile endeavor for spammers. As VoIP becomes more widely used, the growth of SPIT is almost inevitable, so it makes sense to set up your VoIP to take care of unwanted calls before they ever become a problem. Here are a few tips on methods you can use to help keep SPIT out of your VoIP system.

1. VoIP Provider Filtering: Some VoIP providers, such as Vonage and Skype, can actually help protect you from SPIT. Calls through those providers travel, at least in part, through proprietary closed systems. These systems have existing defenses in place, which can help filter out a lot of the more obvious SPIT before it ever reaches your phone. Provider based security isn’t foolproof however, as hackers can and have invaded VoIP provider systems. Still, provider based filters can be a good first line of defense to SPIT and other threats to your VoIP.
2. Strong Authentication: This is probably the most important first step to filter out SPIT. By forcing users to be authenticated before allowing calls through, ideally, very little spam would ever reach you. Authentication programs work by using a “circle of trust.” If you make a call from provider A to provider B, in order for provider B to accept that call Provider A would have to authenticate that the call actually came from Provider A. The networks “trust” each other to validate users. These kinds of systems are hard to hack into – a hacker would have to steal a user’s identity or create a fake network identity to be able to override this security. If you are using VoIP for your business, these kind of authentication systems can and should be set up, not only to protect you from SPIT but from other threats as well.
3. Reputation Based Systems: A reputation based system works by assigning a score to users. The score is based on the history of the caller. For example, if you are being targeted by SPIT calls, the source of these calls can be flagged as bad and, going forth, calls from this source will be assigned a reputation based on this label which can be distributed across the entire network. While this system might be affective in some situations, it isn’t without its drawbacks. Generally, those wishing to distribute SPIT will use a number of different identities making keeping track of the “bad” calls difficult. Also, it’s possible that some calls you want to receive might get mislabeled as bad. A reputation based system can help you filter out some SPIT calls, but chances are some will still get through.
4. Central Black Lists: Another way to help filter out SPIT is to use a system similar to that used by your email spam blockers. This is a very simple system, but it can be effective. A list is created of all known SPIT numbers and those numbers are blocked by the system, just like you can block certain email addresses from going into your inbox. SPIT users will continue to change their numbers, but the list will grow and evolve along with those changes, becoming increasingly effective. The drawback to this, of course, is that calls not coming from blacklisted numbers will still get through, but when used in conjunction with another SPIT filtering method, blacklists can be very effective at limiting the number of SPIT calls that will get through.
5. VoIP SEAL: VoIP SEAL is a relatively new release from Japanese manufacturer NEC. VoIP SEAL is an automated system that is designed to protect your VoIP from any unsolicited calls. It works by employing a number of tests, which the system analyzes to give each call a “score” to measure the risk or danger. What is great about VoIP SEAL is that it works in a two-step process. Incoming calls that pass initial tests that determine they are not a threat are allowed to go through. Calls that still have a degree of suspiciousness to them are routed to specialized answering machine where additional tests can be performed. This two-part system can help reduce the amount of real callers that could erroneously be identified as SPIT. A system such as VOIP SEAL could provide a simple solution to filter your incoming calls.
6. Automated Challenge: One way to make sure that your calls are coming from actual humans instead of automated recordings is to set up a system that requires all calls coming from an unknown source to answer a simple question. Instead of routing the unknown call to you, the call will be answered by a recording asking the caller to enter a series of numbers or something along those lines. This may sound like an irritant to valid callers, but it ideally only needs to be done once. After the number has been judged as a human then the system would remember the caller and allow it go through. This can be an extremely effective way to manage incoming calls (aside from the minor irritation) but might be limited by the amount of database power required to know whether the caller is a new caller or is in the existing database.
7. VoIP Firewall: A firewall for your VoIP can be a great security investment. A VoIP firewall is an application driven by a security policy defining whether to allow or to deny certain calls. It manages and protects the traffic, flow and quality of VoIP and other SIP-related communications. Borderware has launched an SIP firewall called SIPassure to help mediate the threats that could potentially take down your VoIP system. One of the benefits of the firewall is that it filters an controls any SPIT that might be coming through to your phone. Since calls go through a system of authentication, it’s unlikely that much SPIT, or any other VoIP would get through.
8. Voice Recognition: Though it might sound like a strange way to determine if a call is SPIT or not, there is technology out there which uses the voice of the caller to determine whether or not the call is someone you want to speak with. V-Priorities from Microsoft can analyze the characteristics of a caller’s voice and their word usage to determine whether the person is a friend, family member, colleague or stranger; and route the call appropriately (the system was 90% accurate in tests). This is neat technology, but I can’t help but wonder what happens to those other ten percent of calls. There is potential to route an important business call to a junk call voicemail, which could be an annoyance. The technology will most likely improve over time, however, and can provide an innovative way to monitor your calls.
9. Calling Rate Limit: Another SPIT filtering technology you can employ involves calling rate limits. Eyeball has released AntiSPIT, a program that uses calling rate limits to keep out unwanted SPIT. The AntiSPIT engine employs a calling rate limit that is dynamically adjusted. Malicious calling behavior is identified and blocked but it does not interfere with legitimate calls as it uses an algorithm based on the caller-recipient history among other factors. This information is used to create a calling limit unique to each number. Once the calling limit is exceeded, further calls can be blocked, challenged, or forwarded to the recipient. The dynamic calling rate limit allows the server to add a rating tag to a call signal that indicates whether the call is good, suspicious or bad using green, yellow or red colors (or differing ring tones).
10. Secure Your VoIP: While programs aiming to target SPIT specifically are great, the simplest thing you can do to protect yourself is to make sure your VoIP is secure against more than SPIT. Employ a program to encrypt your VoIP conversations. Additionally, you should protect your servers and networking hardware with an IDS (intrusion detection system). Your VoIP provider can also affect the security of your calls, so go with a provider with the capability to handle most, if not all, Internet telephony security issues.

With the growth of the VoIP security market there are undoubtedly more solutions and preventative measures than are listed here, and you shouldn’t need to secure financial aid, look up Kaplan university reviews, and go back to college to figure it all out. These tips can give you a start on avoiding a majority of the threats SPIT can pose. SPIT might not be an overwhelming problem for VoIP yet, but the reality is that it’s only a matter of time. Spammers aren’t about to give up on their efforts to target you, so it’s best to take precautions against SPIT now before you’re faced with a ongoing problem.

]]> http://www.voipnow.org/2007/04/10_tips_to_filt.html/feed 0 http://www.voipnow.org/2007/04/how_to_encrypt_.html http://www.voipnow.org/2007/04/how_to_encrypt_.html#comments Tue, 24 Apr 2007 18:11:38 +0000 admin http://voipnow.org/?p=8 As VoIP becomes ever more popular, the security of these systems becomes more of a concern. VoIP can be vulnerable to a number of attacks due to the nature of VoIP calls. In short, VoIP traffic flows across the Internet in unencrypted packets, which means anyone that has access to the network between sender and recipient can intercept these packets — essentially allowing them to create a recording of your conversation. How can you help secure yourself against these types of attacks?

One way to help protect your privacy is to encrypt these conversations so that they aren’t simply floating around out there for potential hackers to latch onto. Be advised, however, that some of the best encryption methods aren’t something any layperson can do. They’re at the network level and would be better left for the IT department to handle.

1. Zfone — Created by Phil Zimmerman (who also created some of the first and most widely used e-mail encryption software), Zfone is a relatively new way to protect your VoIP. The software is free to download from the Web and is relatively easy to install and use. It is, in fact, one of the few ways to encrypt your VoIP that you can implement without some serious tech knowledge. One of the advantages of Zfone is that it works with almost all existing VoIP clients, with the exception of proprietary systems such as Skype. Zfone can help defend against a number of different types of attacks including man in the middle, call hijacks, and spoofing. Once installed, the program will let you know what calls you make that are secure, and what calls aren’t. What might not be secure? Well, that is one of the drawbacks of Zfone technology. In order for a call to be secure, both users have to have the program installed. So calls to places not using a VoIP service, like the bank for example, would not necessarily be secure.
2. Built-in Encryption — Many VoIP clients have responded to customer concerns over security by building encryption into their existing software. Skype, for example, has built-in encryption capability in their proprietary software. Worried about trusting an encryption service that you can’t see or evaluate for yourself? Luckily, someone else has already evaluated it for you. Skype’s encryption was found to make a VoIP call, text chat, video or file transfer more secure than conventional phone lines or e-mail. Check with your VoIP client to find out if they provide encryption for your calls, as many are trying hard to address concerns about security and might have services you aren’t aware of to protect your privacy.
3. Transport Layer Security and IP Security — Transport Layer Security (TLS) and IP Security (IPSec) are some of the most common ways businesses encrypt their VoIP calls and they could work for your business as well. TLS and IPSec differ in which level they encrypt data. TLS encrypts information, like a VoIP call, that is traveling between two applications while IPSec encrypts data for two devices and all the applications running on them. These protocols are designed to keep outsiders from tampering with your calls, eavesdropping, or creating false calls, and they are almost impossible to manipulate from the outside. So which should you use? TLS is gaining favor as the preferred method of security because it has proven to be more efficient and eats up less of your network bandwidth. The decision is really up to you and many networks opt to have both (better safe than sorry, right?).
4. Secure Real-Time Transfer Protocol — SRTP is ideal for protecting Voice over IP traffic because it has a minimal effect on the quality of the calls it encrypts. For each call you make, a unique encryption key is created, which makes eavesdropping almost impossible. That alone makes it a good choice for day-to-day calls as well as private ones. Some companies, such as Ingate Systems, have already incorporated this technology into their programs. SRTP could be a simpler way to incorporate additional security into your VoIP network.
5. Virtual Private Network — If you’ve got a business with locations in multiple cities, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution might work best for securing your VoIP. Many companies already have VPN set up for securely transmitting data, but adding VoIP can be relatively simple. An organization that wants to tie two offices together would add the VoIP equipment at each end, giving it an IP address. This process is similar to how they add a PC or server to a traditional network. Calls on the VPN would then be secure, allowing users from remote offices, or even from their laptops to communicate with other offices on the VPN network. VPNs also have the advantage in that users don’t have to worry about firewalls, which are often an obstacle to clear VoIP calls. The downside to VPN? VPN isn’t a practical option for calls being made within the same building. It’s also not a silver bullet for VoIP security. It only protects the data from gateway to gateway. Once calls are on your LAN, you’ll need an additional means of protection.

No matter what you choose, the reality is that with the increased usage of VoIP, there will be increased predation on users. Therefore, security is now less of a luxury and more of a necessary component of your VoIP network. Even if your calls usually just include chit chat about the latest reality TV show or what you’re having for dinner, you deserve to be protected from intrusions on your privacy. Look into security for your VoIP before it ever becomes an issue. You’ll be glad you did.

]]> http://www.voipnow.org/2007/04/how_to_encrypt_.html/feed 0 http://www.voipnow.org/2007/04/five_things_i_w.html http://www.voipnow.org/2007/04/five_things_i_w.html#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2007 18:22:58 +0000 admin http://voipnow.org/?p=14 The introduction of Apple’s iPhone has been heralded by many as a device to revolutionize the telecommunications sector. To some degree, this is true. What the iPhone does, it does well, with sleek and innovative design. But the problem lies in what the iPhone doesn’t do, which to a degree might actually be more important than what it does do. Because at $500–$600 it isn’t exactly a bargain buy. Apple may soon have a fierce competition on its hands with rumors swirling around about a similar device being released by Google. The mysterious Google Phone is in a unique position to take advantage of the weaknesses of the iPhone and provide consumers with a superior product. As of yet, Google Phone exists only in blurred Loch Ness-esque pictures floating around the Internet. If and when it does finally release, here are some features I’d like to see that could really put the squeeze on the iPhone.
1. Non-Exclusive Distribution — One of my biggest issues with iPhone is that it’s exclusively distributed with Cingular, meaning if you want to use an iPhone you have to switch to service provided by Cingular. For some people, this isn’t a problem. But what if you live in an area where Cingular’s coverage isn’t as good? Or what if you have a long-term commitment with another provider? Then kiss your iPhone dreams goodbye, because you won’t be able to use the phone without using Cingular. I think Google Phone has a real opportunity here to step in and take the customers that might have purchased an iPhone, but didn’t because of limitations on service. If Google Phone launches with a non-exclusive distribution, it gives consumers the freedom to choose what service works best for them, and gives Google Phone a much wider base of possible customers.
2. Open Platform — I don’t think I’m alone in using my phone as more than just a phone. Anyone that’s been trapped on a busy commuter train while it’s stalled for the umpteenth time knows that sometimes phones can provide relief in your ability to play games, check the news, or even catch up on some work while you’re waiting. iPhone is inflexible in this regard. It is a closed-platform device, meaning that what it comes with is all you can do with it. There are no third-party browsers, no RSS feeds, no games, no checking your reference materials. Apple is the only one who can create programs for the iPhone. While the basic platform of iPhone may be great, this is a seriously limitation in its versatility and appeal to savvy customers. Why upgrade to something that does less that your current phone? Google Phone would be wise to make their system more similar to that of other smart phones. It’s my feeling that a phone should be able to adapt to my needs. I shouldn’t have to adapt to its capabilities.
3. More Storage — Now, this may seem like a petty complaint, seeing as how the largest of the iPhones comes with 8GB of storage, but the iPhone is being marketed as a device that will make it unnesscessary to carry both a phone and an iPod. To really match the capabilities of both, the iPhone is going to need a heck of a lot more storage than it’s currently offering. I, for one, like having options of what I can listen to on the go, and tend to leave a majority of my music catalog on my iPod at all times. But if you want to have videos and movies on there as well, that doesn’t leave much room. Granted, this is considerably more than most MP3 phones are currently offering, but that’s no excuse. I am hoping that Google Phone will exceed the iPhone in this regard, especially if it’s going to be a video player as well.
4. High Speed Internet Access — For all the talk about iPhone being a great way to download music, browse the Web, look at Google Maps, etc., it is locked by its connection with Cingular into using the EDGE network. What this means is near dial-up level speeds, not the near-DSL speeds of 3G phones. I realize that the addition of 3G technology puts a big drain on battery life (another issue with the iPhone) but in many places in Europe and for businesspeople here in the U.S. a phone without 3G capabilities is simply unacceptable. And let’s not forget about WiFi Google Phone would be at a great advantage to be able to connect to WiFi as it would allow users to surf the web and even make VoIP calls (something that might truly revolutionize the telecommunications sector) all while hanging out at their favorite WiFi hotspot. Google Phone could easily step onto the market with a product that allows for high-speed connections. I think I would almost expect it, given that Google built its empire on Web-based enterprises.
5. Removable Battery — This may just be me, but I have a hard time trusting Apple with battery life after the pathetic performance of the battery in my iPod. And while I know they’ve improved the performance of their batteries, they haven’t made it any easier to change the battery in any of their devices without special tools and a lot of patience. The iPhone isn’t any different in this respect. The battery is built into the system just like the iPod. What might suffice for an iPod is a lot more difficult to get by with on a cell phone. If the Google Phone featured a more easily accessible battery, I’d feel a lot better using all the features of the phone without worrying about the phone going dead.

I don’t doubt that despite its limitations the iPhone will sell like hot cakes once it’s released. (It’s hard to resist when it’s just so pretty!) But if Google were to come out with a phone that was just as sleek but could do more, the choice for a lot of consumers — at least those not blinded by brand loyalty — would be simple. I know that I for one would rather have a phone with more flexibility in how I’m able to use it than one that looks pretty in the few minutes it sees the light of day outside of my pocket or bag.

]]> http://www.voipnow.org/2007/04/five_things_i_w.html/feed 0 http://www.voipnow.org/2007/04/25_things_you_d.html http://www.voipnow.org/2007/04/25_things_you_d.html#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2007 18:14:22 +0000 admin http://voipnow.org/?p=9 One of the greatest advantages of VoIP over traditional phone service is its versatility, but with the wide array of new features coming out it can be hard to keep track of all of the options that are available. Don’t feel bad, unless you are attached at the hip with your computer it can be almost impossible to keep up- but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be enjoying the same features as those with a less healthy attachment to their computer. Here are a few ways to get you started using your VoIP in ways that you might not have thought possible.

Basic Features

1. Call Forwarding — You can’t be everywhere at once, but fortunately your VoIP can help you get calls where ever you are. Most VoIP providers have a call forwarding system, in case you can’t reach your home phone, your power is out, or the service simply isn’t working. Call forwarding can send your calls to an alternate cell or land line so you won’t miss any important calls, or even not so important calls.
2. Call Recording — Almost all VoIP programs have some kind of call recording. Some, like Sightspeed and Gizmo Project, have the capability built into their software, but most should be able to record calls by using an additional program like HotRecorder. HotRecorder should work with almost all VoIP clients, and has a great selection of features. Call recording can be a great add-on for those who do a lot of VoIP interviews for podcasts or those who simply like to have a record of their calls.
3. Voice Mail to E-mail — Ever want to review your voice mails without having to listen to them one by one? Many VoIP providers such as Vonage and Lingo have voicemail that is linked to your e-mail. When you receive a voicemail you are sent an e-mail with the caller’s number and name and an audio file containing their message. This way, you can listen to voice mails in order of priority, not necessarily in the order that they were received.
4. Call Mapping — Want to know where your calls are coming from or going to? Gizmo Project users have the built in capability to map their calls. Simply place a call, click “map it” and your location and the location of your recipient will be laid out on the map. Aside from alerting you to potential Vishers, it may not be an entirely necessary bit of technology to have, but it sure is neat.

Business

1. Find Me, Follow Me — Also referred to as Call Hunting, Find Me, Follow Me is a feature that can increase the efficiency of your business’ VoIP service. Not at your desk? No problem. The system will find you. When your number is dialed the system routes the call through a list of numbers that you define. You can have the numbers called simultaneously, so all your phones ring at once, or sequentially, either in a preferred order or in accordance with your scheduled activities and locations. Once the list has been called and no connection made, the system may route the call to voice mail.
2. Enhanced Voice Mail — If you’re using your VoIP line for business and personal calls, enhanced voicemail can be a great way to manage those messages. Enhanced voice mail allows users to set up different voice mail messages depending on the caller so that business and personal calls hear a different message. If you’re out of the office and want to make changes to your pre-recorded messages or listen to your voicemail the service can be accessed remotely, allowing you to take care of business from anywhere.
3. Real-Time Document Editing — The ability to change and create documents while on a conference call can be a great advantage for any business working with remote clients. Skype users can download TalkandWrite which will allow them to work with another user as if they were in the same room. You can type, draw, erase, point and change anything within the shared document, and you don’t need a web design degree to do so. All of this while voice or video conferencing, making team projects a lot easier to manage.
4. Customer Service — For a small business, providing customer service can be a costly endeavor, but using VoIP you can reduce your costs and make getting in contact with you as simple as clicking a button. VoIP clients such as Skype and Gizmo Project have small icons you can embed in your webpage, eBay auctions, or e-mail allowing users to simply click on them to contact you. They also let customers know when are you available to take calls or when you’re away from the computer making business interactions easier and simpler both for you and your customers.
5. Language Translation — Don’t let language barriers be an obstacle to taking your business global. Skype now offers a downloadable add-on called the Universal Chat Translator. Don’t get too excited, it only works on text conversations, and is by no means a fail proof method of communication, but it does offer translation for over 14 different languages, a great start for those wishing to communicate with foreign clients. And if you’re interested in learning a new language, the program also provides voice reading of the text so that you can learn to pronounce words and have conversations in real life as well. If you need something more advanced, Skype also offers a language line which routes calls through interpreters who can translate English into over 150 different languages. It is a bit pricey, though, at 2.99 per minute, but if your business stands to make a profit from the call, it could be worth the investment.

Entertainment

1. Music Streaming — Many VoIP clients provide ways of integrating music into your VoIP experience. Yahoo Messenger has Music LaunchCast, which gives you free streaming radio with stations options that will please just about everyone. Yahoo users can buy and download songs from the website as well, a subscription is $7 a month for unlimited downloads. And if you’re in the mood for something new? The Last.fm plug-in for Skype can give you recommendations based on your old favorites and allows you to share your playlists with your Skype buddies.
2. Avatars and Sound Effects — Almost all VoIP clients have access to some sort of pure silliness designed to entertain and possibly reduce your productivity. Many clients have this feature built in, but if for some reason you don’t, you can download an add-on like vEmotion which will let you add sound effects and background music to your conversations. If you want to get even more creative with your VoIP, you can download CrazyTalk. CrazyTalk allows users to create avatars which will lip-sync what they are saying. So if you’re not having a good hair day (or a good face day for that matter) and you have to video conference, let a fluffy kitten do your talking for you.
3. Gaming — In the old days, online gamers had to communicate with each other through text chat or third party VoIP services. It’s pretty hard to concentrate on building or conquering a fantasy empire when you have to keep switching back and forth. Now, VoIP is seamlessly interfaced with many online gaming programs. The biggest of these, TeamSpeak, has over a million users. With integrated VoIP precious gaming time isn’t wasted typing out instructions to teammates and all of those previously wasted minutes can be spent conquering, killing aliens, or negotiating deals much more efficiently.
4. TV and Video Streaming — If your computer isn’t located conveniently near a TV, not to worry, your VoIP can let you watch TV and videos to maximize your free time. Raketu has ipTV as part of its basic services allowing users to watch a wide variety of programs including an outdoor adventure channel, reality show, cartoons, and music videos. Now you can watch TV with your friends without having to leave the house.
5. Voice Distortion — So you’re dying to make prank calls with your VoIP but want to make it a little more interesting (and not get caught). Scramby has got you covered. Its preset voice distortion settings allow you to sound like anything from a tiny elf to Darth Vader.It could be particularly fun for gamers who play different characters and want their voice to match. If you’re more ambitious, you can create your personal distortion settings to get just the sound you want. Scramby also comes complete with a variety of sound effects and background noises. It’s enough to bring out the kid in anyone.
6. VoIP Dating — Need a date? Your VoIP might be able to help you out. A service called Verbdate uses Skype accounts to allow users to talk to each other over a VoIP call before meeting. Verbdate isn’t your only option- one of the largest online dating services, Match.com has also started a similar VoIP option called MatchTalk. With both, security is taken care of, as the calls are made from anonymous numbers, so you don’t need to worry about gaining a stalker instead of a dream date, and whether or not the service tells other users you are online is up to you.

Mobility

1. Mobile Phone VoIP — While VoIP is getting increasingly mobile there are still some limits on where and how you can use your VoIP when you’re away from home. Many companies now have VoIP phones that allow you to make calls on any available Wi-Fi connection. This could be great if you need to make mobile calls at VoIP prices- but be aware that there are disadvantages to this as well. You have to be near a Wi-Fi connection in order to make a call, making your ability to make and receive calls somewhat limited. Plus, since most people already have a cell phone, this requires carrying around an additional phone. There is currently one alternative to this for Skype users called EQO. EQO lets users access their contacts (primarily through Skype, but other VoIP clients such as GoogleTalk, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger should work as well) and and make calls through on their mobile phone. How is this possible? The service sets up a conference call between your cell phone, your computer, and the person you are trying to call. The only disadvantage to this is that you are paying for the call both on your cell phone and with your skype account since most cell phone plans charge for incoming calls.
2. Bluetooth Capabilities — Bluetooth can’t totally free you from ties to your computer when you’re using VoIP but it can give you a little more freedom to wander around (not too far) while making VoIP calls. Bluetooth technology seems to be in just about everything nowadays, so most newer computers should already be set up to use Bluetooth. In fact, you might not need much at all if you already have a phone that uses a Bluetooth earpiece. Synching it up with your computer can be pretty easy, and allow you to get out of your desk chair once and awhile.
3. Remote Desktop — Ever had someone call you to ask about help with a computer problem and you would be more than happy and able to help if you could only see what it was they were talking about? VoIP might have a solution for you. Unyte which works with Skype, or Unyte Lyte for Yahoo, allows you to share your desktop with other users. With a simple click of a button you can allow users access to your desktop and shared documents, which can make helping someone over the phone a lot simpler.
4. Wake-Up Calls — If you’ve ever been late for a very important meeting you know how critical a wake up call can be to the business traveler. Fortunately, there is an easy solution for Skype users. In about 5 minutes by following these simple instructions, your Skype can be used to set up a call that will ring your hotel phone, hopefully waking you up and getting you out the door.

Convenience

1. Telemarketer Blocking — There’s nothing more annoying than dinner being interrupted by a phone call from a telemarketer. Well, VoIP has an option to prevent getting those annoying calls. Telemarketer blocking allows you to automatically disconnect the line when a telemarketer tries to reach you. How does it work? Telemarketers use machines that automatically dial numbers-much faster than normal- so if you’re unlucky and pick up one of these calls you will hear a pause before the salesperson tries to give you their pitch. The blocking feature detects these calls by the few minutes of silence, and sends a tone to the dialer mistakenly telling them your phone is out of service. All that and your phone never even rings!
2. Calls on your TV — The phone never fails to ring right at the climax of your favorite TV show or in the middle of a critical part of the game. Normally, you’d have to get up to answer to know who the call is from without even knowing if it’s important enough that it can wait a few minutes for you to call back. Now, if you are a Skype user, you can get VoIP phone alerts on your TV with mcePhone. You can see your online status, get information on incoming calls, or if you’re watching a something particularly good you can block all calls for a given time period. And the best part is that all of these features can be controlled by the remote, meaning you never have to get out of your chair.
3. Audio Caller ID — Caller ID is a simple enough feature, but you have to be near the phone in order to see who is calling and if you’re not in the room this isn’t always the best situation. Audio ID lets you set up a different ring for each of your users to let you quickly know who’s calling without having to be in the same room as the phone. This way, you’ll know if you need to make a mad dash for the phone or if you can simply let it go to voicemail so you can finish your laundry or beat that level on your video game.
4. Click to Call — Since the web has made paper phone books almost obsolete it makes sense that being able to dial without actually having to dial would be the natural next step. Now, almost all VoIP providers have a click to call feature, allowing you to click on a phone number in your address book, on the web, or in an e-mail and be able to instantly dial that number.
5. Home Security — So you’ve left the kids at home while you’ve gone away for the weekend and want to make sure things are under control and your house isn’t being destroyed by an all-night party. VoIP can help you set up a simple monitoring system that you can access from a remote computer, provided you have a webcam at home and more than one sign on for your VoIP service. Just leave your VoIP client and set up to auto-answer calls and get your webcam running. Then, sign onto your VoIP from a remote computer, dial home, and voila, the webcam video should pop up.
6. Track Your eBay — If you’re an eBay fanatic there’s an easy way to keep track of everything you’ve bid on through a simple to use add-on for Yahoo Messenger. After you’ve installed the addition you’ll be able to track watched eBay listings, monitor bidding activity, and view items recently won.

As use of VoIP expands, so does it’s versatility. These 25 items are only a few of the possible uses for VoIP out there, but they are a great way to get started in taking advantage of all that VoIP can offer. Get started on making the most of your VoIP experience and who knows, maybe you’ll come up with a few ideas of your own.

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