What is VoIP? Voice over Internet Protocol is just a method of transmitting voice over the public internet and private IP networks. The technicalities are immaterial but with modern IP telephones, many of the issues such as echo have largely been overcome. What are the benefits?

• Free calls. Many suppliers offer free calls between users of the same service but Voipcheap even offers free calls to UK landlines and several overseas routes including the USA.

• Calls between operators are often free.

• Number portability -You can have a London number in Scotland and you can shift your own existing number to anywhere (in most cases).

• Several calls can be handled on a single broadband enabled line.

• Virtual working. You could run a business with everyone working from home and linked to each other as if you were using a telephone system in a single office.

• Disaster recovery

• More resilient than ISDN What are the options available? SIP – provides multiple lines over one broadband connection. This can either be connected to the public internet or private end to end connection via a service provider. It can be ADSL or SDSL - For the purposes of this document, we are looking at the typical home-worker who would like a couple of extra lines without paying for the normal BT line rentals. SIP Gateways – These are “black boxes” that sit between a telephone system and spoof it into thinking it has an ISDN line, when in fact it’s a SIP line. It enables PBX users to have the benefit of VoIP without changing their system. Skype – This is a proprietary VoIP service and is therefore not compatible with normal VoIP equipment. You should check Skype to mobile costs. They were very high at the time of writing. Hosted PBX – For the larger home-worker or business, this can give multiple extensions over a single broadband connection. Service providers Service providers come in many shapes and sizes but you need to shop around and check who is offering the best deals. Also, check the mobile rates because BT is often cheapest off peak using your normal analogue telephone. Mobile calls are where all the money is made and where your main costs hide! Many try and charge a monthly fee but you really need to balance this against your call pattern. Most do not have per second billing which means if you make a mobile call at 7p per minute and your call is 61 seconds long, you are going to pay 14p for the call. They all have a habit of changing their tariffs as well. Here are some examples:- Orbtalk – pre pay and no monthly charge. Probably the easiest to set up and one of the most comprehensive packages. Call charges are OK but not exceptionally cheap. You get a free geographical number for incoming calls so you could have a central London number and be in Scotland. Voice mail is also provided when you spend your first £10. It even emails the voice messages to you. Sipgate – More complicated to set up and not the cheapest but a large user base. You get a telephone number with this service as well. Includes SMS service. Voipcheap – Several strings attached but completely free calls to UK landlines and even some international routes. Calls are priced in Euros so you are exposed to exchange rates. Initial sign up is 10 Euros which seems to increase to 12.5 Euros once you add on a handling charge and 19% VAT. 90 days to make as many calls as you like to land lines free of charge

How to Set Up a Home VoIP Telephone Service

subject to a generous weekly limit so this is ideal for a UK and some international telemarketing campaigns. Another top up gives a further 90 days. No inbound number provided at the time of writing. Also has low cost text messaging where you can spoof recipients into thinking you sent the message from your own mobile. How to set up a simple home office VoIP Service We will examine how to set up an Orbtalk service. This service does not require a stun server to be set up so is relatively simples. You can use a software phone or buy a VoIP telephone such as Polycom or Grandstream. Adapters are also available to plug an ordinary telephone into. The adapter plugs into the router (as with the Snom) and an ordinary telephone is plugged into the other end). If you are buying a new router, something like the Fritzbox will also give you ports to run a fax and ordinary telephones without any extra equipment. For the purposes of this exercise, we are going to use a Snom 320 which are readily available on EBay etc with a standard router. If you want to keep your PC switched on and use a cheap Tesco headset, then a softphone may suffice X Lite = http://www.counterpath.com/x-lite.html&active=4 . X-lite has a full downloadable set up manual. With a VoIP telephone, your PC can be turned off which is far more planet friendly as it plugs directly into your router. What you will need:-

1. Router with spare RJ45 socket or networking hub (See pics). This does not usually need to be a VoIP enabled router if you are using it for a single extra line.

2. RJ45 cable 3. Mains socket nearby 4. Snom 320 telephone or equivalent

Sign up to Orbtalk https://myaccount.orbtalk.co.uk/signup.php . Choose your number etc. They will send you instructions to set up the service. Connect the Snom to the router with the RJ45 and plug it in. Once the Snom has booted up and updated itself use your web browser to access the Snom programming. This should be achieved by typing the IP address of your Snom into your browser. If you hit settings and select reboot on your Snom, the IP address will flash up for about 5 seconds. It will probably be 192.168.178.XX/ where XX is normally a 2 digit number. Just type this number with all the full stops into your browser. Don’t put www in front of it. You should see the following screen (see note below regarding firewalls):-

We are going to programme Line 2 as Orbtalk so click on identity 2. Type in the information provided by Orbtalk and REMEMBER TO CLICK SAVE. You should be up an running. If not reboot the Snom as described before and you should see your Orbtalk ID come up on the LCD.

Put your user name from Orbtalk here (Usually

a number starting 7). Same goes in

Authentication username. Display name can be

your own name

This is what will show on your LCD when you

select the service

You can put your name in here (blanked out for

security reasons)

Don’t forget to save

changes!

RJ 45 goes in here. The other RG45 (light

cable) allows you to plug another network

device into the telephone and as such, replaces

the RJ45 socket given up on the router.

The other end of the RJ45 usually goes

into an RJ 45 socket on your router

marked LAN

This button scrolls the

display through the different

service providers

The attraction of the Snom and many other SIP telephones, is the ability to have several services on one telephone. So in this case, outgoing calls can be made on Voipcheap whilst incoming calls and voicemail work on Orbtalk. Please note! Using the public internet is always going to have the problem of congestion during busy periods, contention, bandwidth provided by your supplier etc. QoS – Quality of service can be variable unless you pay a higher fee for a top quality ADSL service. If you cannot see your Snom software in your browser, temporarily disable your firewall and see if it works. If it does, adjust your firewall accordingly. Jargon Buster SIP – Session Initiation Protocol ADSL – Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line SDSL – Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line ISDN – Integrated Services Digital Network Stun Server - Simple Traversal of User Datagram Protocol through Network Address Translators (NATs)

E&OE. This document may be freely reproduced, distributed and stored on servers. Copying or alteration of any of the content

into another document is prohibited without the authors permission. Any information is provided “as is” and used at your own

risk.

Copyright Robert Biggs – Telcom’s Advisor and Business Mentor rb@mentornet.co.uk www.mentornet.co.uk Tel. 0845 241 46 96

Voipcheap is

on “Line 3”