Why You Need VoIP
There are many factors that make VoIP a great choice today. Whether you’re worried about the monthly bill, or need to make long distance calls, or run a business: there is something in VoIP for everyone. There are also many factors and situations in which you might want to consider using an internet phone service.
If you have to make calls abroad, VoIP is a must. The prices can range from free calling to low $.03 a minute calls to major countries. Even third world country rates are significantly cheaper. Many VoIP companies offer phone numbers in foreign countries. This means you could live in the USA, and have an Australian phone number, so anyone from Australia could call you locally, often free. Most second numbers are only $5-10 a month, and some companies such as SunRocket offer two free numbers. You can even have two phone numbers for the same phone. This means that if any of the two numbers ring your one phone at home will answer. SunRocket offers a distinctive ring so you can know which number is being called.
For a business, many of the VoIP offerings can help you cut down on expensive telecommunications bills. Many businesses have saved thousands by switching to VoIP. Companies like Packet8 offer Virtual Offices with all the features such as PBX, that you may have grown accustomed to with landline phone service.
The biggest bottom line for the average consumer may very well be price. While normal landline companies charge anywhere from $60 to $120 a month for phone service, VoIP services tend to cost $25 or less a month for their unlimited calling plans. This can easily lead to savings of up to $1,000 a year for the average American household. If you use a cell phone for your major calling like half of America, and only wish to use the home phone for minimal calling, plans such as ViaTalk’s $9.99 for 500 minutes a month may suit you.
Yet even if you desire the inexpensive, but reliable big-name service of Vonage, you will stay save hundreds of your phone bill. Vonage, perhaps the biggest brand name in VoIP, now offers unlimited calling to the USA, Canada, Italy, France, Spain, Ireland, and the UK, all included in their for $24.99 a month unlimited plan.
So there are many reasons to use the internet phone. The international calls you need to make can be crisp, clear and inexpensive. The business expenses of companies all around America are drastically lowering because of VoIP. Or for the average household, lowering the monthly bill by $1,000 a year can be a definite advantage. There is most definitely a reason for everyone to switch to the internet phone.
Is Nat Traversal Holding Back VoIP and Ip Communications Adoption?
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications is quickly becoming an integral part of the consumer and business markets. High quality multimedia communications along with rich presence, universal mobility and availability, and lower cost are some of the benefits VoIP brings to end-users. For operators, it promises new revenues from new and converged services, service bundling, increased customer loyalty, and lower capital and operation expenses by building and running a single IP-based network for all communications services.
The increased penetration of broadband Internet, the main driving force behind VoIP adoption, also poses one of the biggest challenges – VoIP calls do not work well in many broadband situations for NATs and Firewalls break VoIP.
To address my concerns about NAT Traversal and the future of VoIP I had the CTO of Eyeball Networks, a leading software provider for VoIP, video telephony and instant messaging, answer a few questions.
What is NAT, and why should I be concerned about NAT traversal?
More than 90 percent of PCs or end-devices access the broadband Internet using private IP addresses. These private IP addresses get mapped into real Internet addresses using a mechanism called Network Address Translation (NAT), which is implemented in all broadband access devices (also called broadband routers such as from LinkSys, NetGear or SMC) and sometimes also in the service provider network.
NAT traversal refers to the problem, and solution thereof, where two computers behind NATs sometimes fail to communicate with each other for features such as IM, VoIP, file-sharing and online-games. If you are building devices, applications or services involving Internet communications, then NAT traversal should be a concern.
What are some applications NAT traversal technology is used for?
A list of applications requiring NAT traversal technologies follow:
•VoIP and video telephony
•File-sharing such as picture and video sharing
•Online games
•Collaboration tools such as presentation and white-boarding
•Any other applications using client-to-client data transfer
How has the availability of effective NAT traversal solutions changed the way VoIP and other IP-based services are delivered and used?
Traditionally NAT traversal has been one of the critical barriers for widespread VoIP adoption. Development of IETF standards such as STUN, TURN and ICE provide a rich set of mechanisms for an interoperable standards-based and scalable solution to this problem. Availability of an effective NAT traversal solution such as Eyeball AnyFirewall Engine has removed this barrier providing guaranteed traversal of VoIP calls through NATs, firewalls and web-proxies. It is effectively bringing VoIP and other IP-based services to plug and play level between devices, applications and service providers.
What are some of the challenges traditionally faced by developers of client-to-client networking applications, especially in peer-to-peer and VoIP settings?
Traditionally developers did not have proper technologies and tools to solve the NAT traversal problem for client-to-client networking applications. For example, for VoIP applications the developers/operators faced the following issues.
Some products implemented only partial NAT traversal solution. For example, many VoIP phones only support STUN, and therefore cannot be used for client-to-client data transfer by most broadband Internet users.
In most cases, operators settled for using a relay server (such as Session Border Controller) for all calls. Since all calls are relayed, the relay server becomes a bottleneck (and expensive) for service scalability, and deteriorates call quality by injecting additional delay, jitter and packet-loss. Also since SBCs implement proprietary protocols products from one vendor do not work with those from another vendor.
In some cases, developers have developed proprietary NAT traversal solutions (such as Skype) that do not interoperate with others.
What types of features and capabilities is the VoIP industry looking for in a NAT traversal solution?
Here is a list if features and capabilities the VoIP industry is looking for:
•100 percent traversal of VoIP calls through NATs, firewalls and web-proxies.
•Standard-based solution to ensure 3rd party interoperability (IETF drafts STUN, TURN and ICE).
•Works without changing NATs, firewalls or other infrastructures.
•Most calls should be peer-to-peer for best media quality and scalability.
•Comprehensive solution with handset/client and server components.
•Small footprint for the end-point solution with support for multiple PC and embedded platforms.
•Mature and field-proven technology.
•The bottom-line is that when a user purchases a VoIP phone or service, it should just work in all cases without any service scalability bottlenecks.
What is AnyFirewall Technology and how is it being used by companies in the VoIP industry?
The award winning AnyFirewall™ Engine is the industry’s leading NAT traversal Software Development Kit (SDK) for guaranteed VoIP and video call completion across NATs, firewalls, and Web proxies. AFE incorporates the most — comprehensive implementation of the IETF standards STUN, TURN and ICE. Eyeball’s patented AnyFirewall™ Technology offers – for the first time in the industry- a completely software-based solution that is standards-based (i.e. STUN, TURN, ICE) and primarily peer-to-peer resulting in 100% VoIP and video call completion. Our customers are integrating this technology into soft phones, video phones, set-top boxes, and PDA-based mobile phones.
Why use STUN, TURN and ICE for NAT traversal technologies?
STUN, TURN and ICE are results of international standardization body IETF which is responsible for developing all Internet-related protocols. Together they provide an excellent methodology for NAT traversal which is being standardized in order to ensure interoperability between products and services from different vendors. Earlier efforts on NAT traversal solutions such as application level gateways (ALGs) and session border controllers (SBCs) either did not work well enough or had interoperability, performance and scalability problems. STUN, TURN and ICE have received widespread industry support from vendors such as Cisco, Microsoft and Nokia; and has been adopted for CableLabs IMS specification for next-generation communications architecture. Eyeball AnyFirewall Engine provides the most comprehensive implementation of STUN, TURN and ICE along with features such as UPnP and http-tunneling.
In a nut shell I found that NAT devices and firewalls are major barriers to the widespread adoption of VoIP, and IETF work STUN, TURN, and ICE provide an excellent methodology to address this issue. However, implementation of these methodologies requires considerable insight and experience. Eyeball Networks has invested many years to develop its AnyFirewall technology, the most comprehensive implementation of STUN TURN and ICE, to enable service providers and device makers software to ensure 100% firewall and NAT traversal of IP communications. If VoIP providers and device makers take advantage of this AnyFirewall Technology Nat Traversal will no longer be a concern, and IP communications will one day overtake the usage of traditional phone lines.
For more information on Eyeball Networks visit NatTraversal.com
All names and trademarks are copyright of their respective holders.
Why Google is considered the best search engine
Back in the early days of the web, Yahoo, Lycos, Excite, AltaVista, and Ask Jeeves were the prominent search engines and directories of the time. People would go to one or more and used the sometimes widely-varied search results to find what they were looking for. There were dozens, if not hundreds of other smaller and specialized search sites. Enter Google, a relative latecomer, coming of age in the late 90’s, now the undisputed search engine on the internet today.
Google’s search engine became the undisputed leader early on, despite the heavy competition. According to major computer magazine reviews, Google, then still in Beta (a term for a phase of early development and testing of software) produced better, more accurate search results than Yahoo or any of the other major players, in less time. Google utilizes highly refined “crawling” technology. These “crawlers” literally searched the web, sifted its content and categorized its search attributes. Google would also “cache” sites and pages, so it contained multiple versions of its content to further enhance the pages’ search-ability.
What really differentiates Google is their page ranking system, which allows it to differentiate the sites that pertain to a particular search query better than others. By not only evaluating the content, but also at how many links go to a particular web site, Google can effectively “rank” the quality of the content being searched. This results in better search results to the user. Google also licenses its systems to companies for their own databases and archives to make their searching capabilities better. Their success was always based on their fundamental technology of improved searches.
Google also takes searching a step further by specializing it even more. Its shopping search site, Froogle, allows a user to search multiple shopping sites for a particular item from one place. Google both indexes many shopping sites like Ebay and Amazon, as well as accepts input from other on-line retailers, at no charge, to be indexed in Froogle. The shopper saves much time and clicking and merchant sites get better exposure by focused search results. With its acquisition of Deja.com, Google also has the largest searchable database of Usenet posts. Giving it even further enriched search capabilities. Furthermore, with its Google AdWords, it can also present highly targeted ads that pertain to what the user is looking for, even further increasing the value of the search experience to the user.
Google is now much more than just a search engine. Users have access to a variety of free services and benefits courtesy of Google. By branching out even further with free email, chat, voice, earth satellite imagery with Google Earth, and even video on demand with YouTube, the user’s experience is even further enriched.
Google’s standing as a search engine is beyond question. Surely there will be future technologies and innovations that promise to make searching even more powerful and accurate. The only question is, will Google get to them first?
How to make it in voice overs
How to make it in voice overs.
Being a success as a voice over talent can be compared to the success rate of the amount of actors in Hollywood. Namely the success rates are few and far between and most find themselves working in diners waiting to be”discovered”. Its even harder for voice over actors since that when most people go to Hollywood and audition they have the premise that they can “act”. Namely being able to shamelessly perform on a stage and enact with their bodies, faces and voices what the casting director tells you to do. Not everyone can do this however enough are capable of doing so that there is a surplus of actors to the amount of films in production. The problem with voice overs is that you are not required to perform on a stage rather you are to read a set number of lines in an enclosed sound proof booth and try to add emotion and finesse to what you are saying. A vast majority of people who have undergone even high school education are capable of doing so, its not something which is limited to a specific set of individuals.
In order to be a success you have to set yourself apart and go for voice over jobs that will help you expand your career portfolio.
1st. Watch cartoons.Yes I know this seems ridiculous however a vast majority of voice over jobs that pay well are in the cartoon industry. There is an endless stream of new cartoons being created to entertain kids and young adults a like. Starting your career in voice overs as a cartoon character my seem ridiculous but if you do well with one cartoon you would be hired by the same studio to do another then another. Watch some cartoons with a genre that you think you would enjoy watching. Voicing a genre that you yourself like watching will improve your work immensely. Try to get a feel of the way the voice actors in the cartoons speak. Of the way they say certain words. Try to emulate them to an extent but use your own unique style.
2nd. Take classes. You can’t just jump right into the industry and expect to be accepted. Industry officials will always choose a more experienced voice over actor than one who is just trying out and has no experience. Taking up classes will help you gain the experience you need to be accepted.
Here is an example of a voice over school
http://alisocreek.net/voice-ov er-agents.html
They offer voice over classes online if you’re not in the immediate area.
3rd Get an Agent. I cannot emphasize how important it is to get an agent. Agents find jobs for you instead of you looking for them on your own. This greatly simplifies your life and an agent is also a purveyor of good advice regarding what career path is best for you as a voice over actor.
http://showbizltd.com/_sbl_pag es/voice_artists.php
This website should help you on your way in finding a voice over agent. You can also choose to send a demo tape to certain talent agencies in your area (after inquiring if they accept voice over actors) in a format that your voice over school recommends
Possible careers in voice overs are:
Radio Ads Radio Announcers
TV Commercials
Books On Tape
Cartoon Voices
Film Voice Jobs
Television Voice Over
Instructional Videos
Its completely up to you as to what career path you should take but getting advice from your agent is definitely helpful.
Good luck in making it in voice overs. You never know, I might actually hear your voice one of these days in a cartoon and would never know that you followed my advice.
Voip: a Reasonable Gateway to Effective Calling
VoIP is a technology that masters in converting the voice into digital signals. These signals then are transferred via the internet to the receiver. The Voice over Internet Protocol is a facilitating technology that can be used to make calls directly from a VoIP phone, a computer or even a traditional phone that remains connected to an adaptor. In addition, the facility can also be used wirelessly in locations where there is an availability of the network. So, now airports, parks and farmhouses can be made Voice over IP enabled and internet enabled calls can thus be made.
For a quality VoIP experience, a broadband high speed connection is required. This broadband connection can be acquired with a cable modem, a DSL or even a local area network. Computers and a VoIP phone are required for some special services, while the other services need an adaptor to be connected to a traditional phone. The whole system works with a switch that is a gateway for transmission of signals from one internet server to another. The digital data is perfect for the internet to carry messages and deliver them to the recipient.
The VoIP service is advantageous as it can store incoming calls to a Voice mail account, send/receive a voice mail as an email attachment, enable 3-way calling and gives the provision of talking to the entire family simultaneously. The other advantages of a VoIP call are that it is cheap as compared to the traditional land lines. Moreover, the system is based on non reliance which means that the service can be accessed at the same call cost irrespective of specific geographical distances. The VoIP phone service combines both voice and data communications on a single network and this is the reason why the internet is used to serve both forms of the traffic.
The process of VoIP telephony is based on a simple process. A device needs to get connected to the internet by any means. This device may be a phone or a computer. In case of a computer, a modem can be used along with a microphone for making the calls. But a traditional phone needs an Analog Telephone Adaptor (ATA) that converts the analog voice to digital format by the use of an Analog to digital converter. By the use of the Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), these digital bits are then compressed using codecs that actually segment voice signals and later store them in voice packets. The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) then work in compliance with the entire process to send the compressed data over the internet. The message then passes through the designated switches. This message later on is decapsulated so as to retrieve the same voice data. Following this, a decompression is performed that revives the original digital data that is again converted to the analog form after passing through a digital to analog converter.
The VoIP technology is ideal for it offers features that are not available with the traditional phone systems. Also the availability of high speed internet connection that is a pre-requisite for efficient service is easily available everywhere. This is the reason why the market is expanding and people are now opting for this technology to remain connected.
Internet Telephony over Peer to Peer Networks
Peer to Peer technology (P2P) first came into focus through companies like Napster and Kazza, who developed file sharing applications that would allow users to share their own files, as well as search for and download files of other users on the network. Instead of relying on a centralized client server relationship, a peer to peer network gets its strength from each individual node, adding bandwidth and processing power with each new member for the good of the many.
Much like the Borg of the later Star Trek episodes, peer to peer can scale indefinately without the use of expensive central servers, and from a cost standpoint -resistance is futile!
Peer to peer Internet Telephony is, like Napster, a software application that you download on to your computer from a peer to peer VoIP service provider. The softeware, or soft phone as it is called, is free to download and calls to or from anyone on the network are free. The only hardware you need is a headset, or a microphone and speakers. Internet telephony headsets are cheap and come in USB or can plug directly into your sound cards.
For those with web cams, many providers allow you to make video calls to others on the network for free. Services offered with this technology go above and beyond the Telcos, with conference calls, call forwarding, instant messaging and chat – peer to peer Internet telephony literaly turns your computer into a telephone/vidiophone communications center.
Like the traditional VoIP providers, calls within the network are free worldwide, but calls to a PSTN number will usualy cost you if it is an option. You can in some cases, have different numbers in other locations so that people can call you from a land line even from other counties toll free. Even if you do have to pay to get on the PSTN, the rates are so much cheaper than a telco.
Just like the other forms of VoIP, developers have had some technological hurdles to overcome. Quality of Service, NATed firewalls, and centralized directories of members using a dynamic IP address are just a few. Also, as calls and instant messages are routed through the public Internet, encryption is a must for any user.
Internet Telephony in Ecommerce
Probably the best known company and indeed a pioneer of peer-to peer Internet telephony is Skype. Originaly founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, two of the innovators behind the P2P network Kazaa, Skype was bought by eBay in late 2005 for 2.6 billion dollars. With over 100 million users according to eBay, its safe to say that Skype is the industry leader in peer to peer Internet telephony. Ebay would like Skype to evolve into a customer service application, allowing potential buyers to communicate directly to Ecommerce enabled web sites online and in real time.
Peer to Peer and the Gaming Comunity
Another area where the peer to peer idea has taken off is the online gaming community. PeerMe is a peer to peer internet telephony company that caters to gamers, offering PC-to-PC and PC-to handheld voice communications, instant messaging, and peer-to-peer file transfer over public Internet connections. They have recently partnered with game distributor Boonty, offering a broad selection of downloadable games in many languages. Gamers can form communities, evaluate and purchase games, and communicate with friends via voice and text online in real time.
P2P Internet Telephony for Small Businesses
The cost effectiveness of a decentalized peer to peer voip solution has not been overlooked in the business community. Market leader Avaya has developed the one-X Quick Edition line of SIP telephones that is a non server based IP PBX system. Connected to your LAN, each phone contains the software necessary maintain the PBX, and knows about every other phone on the network. An ideal solution for small businesses with many branch offices, the stay at home telecomuter, call centers and customer service centers.
Over at the Gizmo Project they have developed a business software solution that supports the open source Asterik PBX software, and has free calling to anyone on the Gizmo peer to peer network. Under the All Calls Free plan.employees make free calls to the landlines and mobile phones of co-workers in 60 countries.
The biggest advantage of a peer to peer internet telephony solution is the economical start up costs (usualy the price of a headset), and the ability to turn your computer into a world wide communications center. While a Soft Phone and a headset is the norm for most providers, hand helds and IP desk phones are rapidly gaining ground in P2P internet telephony. Peer to peer networking for online communication – a technology coming of age for web sites, gamers and the small business community.
VoIP Pbx: Advanced and Innovative Version of Pbx
A VoIP PBX is a switch station that manages telephone calls, mostly over the IP networks, wherein all the conversations between the business users are sent in the form of data packets. It streamlines the in-house phone networks of the facilitating businesses. Therefore, the business users can share a number of lines to connect their external clients, worldwide.
As the name VoIP PBX suggests, such a system performs all the switching and connecting of the Voice over IP calls through a private branch exchange. This IP PBX or private branch exchange is quite popular among the business entities– especially the ones holding a global presence. The business entities can use the IP PBX systems for connecting all their internal phones to an external line. Therefore, a combination of an IP PBX system and VoIP phone service allows the business entities to converge voice and data networks into a single system. As of a result, it leads to cost-saving, simpler management of calls as well as greater functionality.
In general, the VoIP PBX solutions are high on technology. These systems can be used to switch calls without any trouble. The calls could be from the VoIP users to traditional PSTN users or between two traditional telephone users. One can say that it works the same way as a traditional PBS system does.
A typical IP PBX consists of a set of external phone lines, a computer server to manage the call switching, a set of internal phone lines and some form of console for manual control. Importantly, it is incomplete without one or two SIP phones, an IP PBX server as well as VoIP gateway that connects with existing PSTN lines. This helps the business users to lease only one line and have many people using it. The phone number allotted to each phone on this system depends upon the internal numbering. Usually, numbers on the internal lines vary from three to four digits and are often referred to as extension numbers.
Moreover, in the IP PBX VoIP systems, the business users are able to enjoy various advanced features such as call logging, call conferencing, voice mail, answering services and many more. In the market, there are many IP PBX systems and most of them deliver various benefits such as:
1.Flexibility: These systems offer flexibility to deliver voice traffic to virtually any location.
2.Lower cost of ownership: The business entities can save on their communication expenditures. As matter of fact, the users are able to enjoy long distance calls at significantly low rates, as overhead administrative costs can be ignored.
3.Next-generation business applications: These systems are technically empowered to deliver the best services– in terms of voice quality– to the users.
The business entities migrating to the Internet telephony solutions require IP PBX systems for communication. This is because communication over this advanced systems come with benefits such as cost efficiency, scalability, manageability as well as performance advantages.
The Growth of Wholesale VoIP
The Growth of Wholesale VoIP
VoIP grew very quickly in the retail market so it goes without saying VoIP grew in the wholesale market. VoIP is the next generation in IP communication that is happening today. In the year 2006, the US market for VoIP advanced dramatically adding close to four million households making the revenues grow quickly in the high- tech market. This serge of growth in the retail market escalated very rapidly and the ability for VoIP providers, carriers and resellers to get high quality routes to international destinations at low prices has created a VoIP commodities trade market.
Voice over internet protocol is what VoIP is all about which brought forth the serge of new companies like Vonage, Cisco, Skype, Call Manager and a host of others who are utilizing the VoIP technology. This new technology is a process of using the capabilities of the IP with the phone in order send voice. The developers created an industry around VoIP technology in the desktop applications, telephone services, and corporate phone systems. VoIP a core technology that drives everything from voice-chat software loaded on the desktop PC to Mac full-blown IP-based telecommunications networks in large corporations. VoIP is a major invention for the corporate world and for the home; it is an excellent way to save on the phone bill.
VoIP is not actually that new the concept has been around since the 1990’s but phone companies were afraid that VoIP would destroy the long distance revenue generated. Since its conception, VoIP has become one of the mainstays of IP usage for both large corporations, small companies and the householder. The retail sales for VoIP have escalated so greatly that now the wholesale volume has increased immensely. This is the time for any brokers or agents to get in on the growth of wholesale VoIP. The VoIP market is positioned for sustained robust growth. Statistics predict residential VoIP will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 116 percent through 2009. The growth of VoIP is not just within the USA countries like Western Europe, Mediterranean, South Africa, and Africa is the fast growing mobile markets of the region.
The market soon will be flooded with VoIP-enabled cell phones that connect with your WiFi directly so that you will not have any interruption to your calls if you need to switch from one system to the other. This is just one of the new innovative products that seen its way on to the market. Just like all families of technology, the window of opportunity is open for only a short time. The first few users of VoIP faced with the technical difficulties that not all end users encounter when a new product hits the market so for a while, VoIP put on the market but suddenly everyone began talking about VoIP again. Engineers have worked long and hard working out the bugs and broadband providers have expanded and upgraded their networks.
Now that VoIP became mainstreamed, there are different ways that you can become a part of the program making a large profit. Agents find that they prefer to be connected with a company like Access Line marketing the product to their prospective clients. Wholesale VoIP resellers are finding a few good routes for VoIP termination and are buying, selling and trading routes from all over the world for profits at VoIP marketplaces websites like eTermination.com. VoIP is here to stay and now is the time to start brokering the deals.
