Voice over IP

[richardmyers]

I'm gonna save £200 a year moving over to Airnet and have the added pleasure of knowing it was my choice

There's going to be a cloud of 'smug' over Hull if many more of us switch!

[hullnet]

I was going to sit back and let hullnet and co be the guinea pigs a little longer

lol! are you going to get a voip phone, or not bother with a home phone at all? My phone bill was 57p last month with my own voip phone a lot different to the £15 a month with KC.

[marko]

lol! are you going to get a voip phone, or not bother with a home phone at all? My phone bill was 57p last month with my own voip phone a lot different to the £15 a month with KC.

I wasn't going to bother but 57p? Is there also a line rental? I know absolutely nothing about voip. Can I ask, How does it work? And how are you charged?

[dunny]

now dont quote me on this but i know a LITTLE about voip. what it does is that it works via the broadband on a payg service the more you use the more you pay if you dont use you dont pay but its free to install i THINK

[dylan]

Basically you get a virtual telephone line (as opposed to a real life copper line) delivered to you over the Internet. This 'virtual telephone line' is known as a SIP trunk.

In order to use a telephone on the virtual telephone line you either need to buy a special type of phone (called a SIP phone) or an adaptor that you can plug your existing phone into (called an ATA or analogue telephone adaptor). Your SIP phone or ATA is connected to your router (usually by an ethernet cable).

Some SIP trunk providers charge you a monthly fee and some don't. Other than that it's like having a PAYG phone. You top up your account on the Internet and pay for what you use (and some providers chuck in 'x' amount of minutes for a monthly fee). Most offer a geographic telephone number (for incoming calls) such as 01482.

Take sipgate.co.uk for one example. They give you an 01482 number for incoming calls for free, and you pay for any calls you make. Sipgate's tariffs are here: http://www.sipgate.co.uk/user/tarife.php

It's always best to shop around for providers depending on where you intend to call, how many calls you usually make etc, etc.

Hope that makes VoIP a little clearer.  

[marko]

You lost me after "Basically"  

Nah, seriously....Thanks for that dunny/Dylan. I understand it a bit more now. I don't think I'll bother with voip. Tbh we have more calls coming in (and that's probably only around 10 per month) than we ever make. Hopefully people will leave us alone if they have to ring our mobiles lol They always ring just when I stick a dvd on!

[hullnet]

You lost me after "Basically"  

Simply put
1. Get one of these SIP's (£10) http://www.talkip4u.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=26 plug one end into your home phone and one into your router.
2. Join a voip company, I use http://www.connexin.co.uk/payasyougo.htm (£5 setup which gives you an 01482 number, then add some credit for outbound calls I put a token £10 in, like you I dont use the home phone much)
3. Setup the SIP (its a bit of an arse on the above device!)

There you go, for a total outlay of £25 I have a home phone with £10 credit, of which I used 57p this month when my wife called her mum for 55mins! (what do they talk about for 55 mins!  no charge for incoming calls.

[Fr34ky]

The more i read the more i am liking this airnet

Now just gotta get the funds sorted for the initial outlay.

Not sure i will bother with VOIP as i have Skype and so do most of my friends etc...and thats free. But on the other hand like most people, i am sure, have a contract mobile and have so many thousands of free texts and hundreds of minutes to use lol

[marko]

Simply put
1. Get one of these SIP's (£10) http://www.talkip4u.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=26 plug one end into your home phone and one into your router.
2. Join a voip company, I use http://www.connexin.co.uk/payasyougo.htm (£5 setup which gives you an 01482 number, then add some credit for outbound calls I put a token £10 in, like you I dont use the home phone much)
3. Setup the SIP (its a bit of an arse on the above device!)

There you go, for a total outlay of £25 I have a home phone with £10 credit, of which I used 57p this month when my wife called her mum for 55mins! (what do they talk about for 55 mins!  no charge for incoming calls.

Ooh I like the look of that! That's really cheap. I couldn't see anywhere how long credit lasts. Is there a limit? If not, £10 credit could theoretically last years just like pay as you go mobile.

I may just change my mind again. 

BTW got an email from Airnet last night saying they will put the application in the post today so hopefully I should have it tomorrow or Friday. I'm very impressed with their communication so far.

[hullnet]

Ooh I like the look of that! That's really cheap. I couldn't see anywhere how long credit lasts. Is there a limit? If not, £10 credit could theoretically last years just like pay as you go mobile.
I may just change my mind again.  

Like you I'm not sure if the credit runs out or not? It does not mention it anywhere even in the terms and conditions so I'm guessing not.

Dylan, you may want to spit this post seems we have gone off track a little.....

[dylan]

@hullnet - I've split the thread. Also, Connexin seems reasonably priced. 

I wonder if any SIP providers do cheap 0845 calls?

[marko]

Hmm....Just tried to register for pay as you go VoIP with Connexin and they don't accept Maestro debit card

I hope there's a way round it. I don't want a Monthly plan (Direct debit can be set up for that). Anyone else had a problem with their card?

I've contacted them so will hopefully hear back soon.

I see one of their offices is in Kirkella.

[psa@hull]

Took a few days for my Connexin account to be setup, but used credit card.  It only charges account when you want top up so maybe worth using credit card if you have one.

Airnet are due to launch their VOIP this month - just waiting for this to be activated and only set up Connexin as an interim measure.

You may also find Sipgate of use.  They do a pay as you go service as it's NIL to set up account and get a number to receive calls.  I had no problem with this on IPAD using Fring, but despite trying everything that I could think of I couldn't get Sipgate to work with a PAP2!  Tried all settings for NAT on router but wouldn't have it, but Connexin worked straight off with basic settings.

[marko]

Thanks psa, I'll check out Sipgate.

Yeah Ricky said they're about to launch soon when he was here installing last week, I think a starting price of £4.99 Don't know if that's per month or a one off then pay as you go. It's pay as you go I'm really interested in due to how little use our land line gets.

I popped into Maplin today and asked if they had any VoIP gateways and he said no, only a couple of phones that need to plug straight into the pc. I think it might be time for then to stock up on a few

[dylan]

If you want somewhere local to pick up from, rather than ordering over the web, you could give Solwise a try.