Basics of VOIP

If you have been paying large long distance phone bills, it's time to introduce you to the basics of VOIP. Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP or VoIP) is the latest telecommunications internet technology that is predicted to be in use in close to 5 million American homes by the year 2006.

It will allow you to make long distance calls over your internet connection, bypassing most, or all of you your long distance provider's charges. However, several large telecommunications companies have caught on to the growing trend for consumers to bypass their charges, and have reacted by offering "packaged services" that include your regular, local phone line service and the VOIP service that will let you place calls over the internet. When discussing the basics of VOIP, it's important to realize that there are actually 3 types of VOIP technologies that are currently in use.

The first is called ATA or Analog Telephone Adapter technology. The ATA technology does exactly what it sounds like; it takes the analog signal on your regular telephone line and translates it into a digital signal. That digital signal is then sent via the internet.

This is the type of service that the large telecommunications providers are offering. They will mail you the ATA and you can set it up easily on your own. Another of the technologies that is necessary for understanding the basics of VOIP still has to do with the phone itself. Instead of using an adaptor to change a regular phone into a VOIP compatible one, you purchase a phone that is designed for making VOIP calls. But that phone won't plug into a regular phone jack (RJ-11).

It will have to be plugged into an Ethernet connection (an RJ-45 jack or a spot on your router). The necessary hardware and software to make a VOIP call is included in the phone itself. The third technology involved in learning the basics of VOIP is the most exciting for the average consumer, as it doesn't require a monthly service charge from a provider in order to make free long distance calls. It is computer-to-computer VOIP service.

In this case, you download free or purchase low-cost software that turns your computer into the "phone." In addition to the software, you'll need speakers so you can hear the other party, a microphone so you can speak to them, a sound card in your computer, and a preferably high-speed internet connection so the signal can travel fast enough to avoid delays in what you or the other party hears.

The person you call doesn't need to be talking to you over a computer; a regular phone will work just fine. You can use the service on your end to make calls to anyone, anywhere without a charge. Now that we've looked at the basics of VOIP, you might be interested in trying it for yourself. But what you don't realize is that you most likely already are.

Telephone companies have been using the technology for several years in order to route the mass number of calls they receive more efficiently over their networks. But to try VOIP at home, download software at sites such as www.skype.com. If you already have the needed items mentioned above (speakers, microphone, sound card and high-speed internet connection), you can be making free calls in as little as 5 minutes.