VoIP choices with wireless?

loopymum

I've got wireless broadband 1mb up and 1mb down. I've got a linksys wrt54gl wireless router and a laptop.

Havent yet paid for the router, they want €120 for it, seen it just now on kompett for €67.

We dont have a phone line, new build.

I want to get voip service, probably from Blueface, thats the one I see mentioned here all the time.

What are my options? Should I try and give back the wireless router I got? (The suppliers say on their website they can agree on a trade-in on equipment) and buy a wireless with voip built-in or try something else?

At the moment the wireless router is locked to me. I only found out this when I asked how to change the network key and they said they can unlock but I will be full responsible then.

I'm a little confused! so any help is appreciated.

Thanks
Loopy

Foxwood

loopymum wrote:

I've got wireless broadband 1mb up and 1mb down. I've got a linksys wrt54gl wireless router and a laptop.

Havent yet paid for the router, they want €120 for it, seen it just now on kompett for €67.

We dont have a phone line, new build.

I want to get voip service, probably from Blueface, thats the one I see mentioned here all the time.

Before you start spending money on hardware, try a "softphone" client on your PC, with a headset/microphone, and see what the sound quality is like. Stick €12 into a vopistunt.com account, and get an 01 number for inbound calls, and see whether you find the sound quality acceptable.

(You can get an inbound number for free with freespeech.ie, but it's a bit more complex to get set up - the voipstunt client pretty much works "out of the box").

If you're satisfied with your VoIP experience with these providers, then you can start thinking about spending a few quid to get a proper hardware setup in place.

FSL

I've got wireless broadband 1mb up and down. I have a Linksys pap 2 connected to my router, to which I have connected my handsets and dect stations. I ported my Eircom number to Blueface and dispensed with Eircom. It works fine I now pay less for broadband plus all my calls than I was paying Eircom for line rental, my calls and and a pathetic dial up.

I have lastmile broadband and I use Voipcheap via an ATA unit that has PSTN backup, I find that the voice quality can be so poor at times that the service is almost unusable - Probably contention as service is worse during the early evenings.

All my incomming calls are via Eircom PSTN, my current set-up is not reliable enough for me to drop the landline.

nilhg

I would recommend anyone thinking of trying VOIP to run this test several times a day for a while before you spend much money. Blueface's network test application is also very good but takes longer to run and can be harder to interpret.

bullrunner

hi,

i 've run this test a number of times. Everything except quality of service is consistently high enough to run VOIP. However the QOS varies by the server location that I select (ie in the states vs london) by 11% to 98%....

so is my connection good enough for VOIP? (I ask coz i currently have sound quality issues for the person on the other side of the conversation when i ring somebody)

tx

watty

Blueface also offer a free test account.

None of the VOIP suppliers can manage QOS, other than a VOIP supplier that ALSO supplies the LLUed DSL or QOS managed Wireless directly to you. Only some wireless and no Bitstream reselling have QOS for VOIP, which is only of advantage if you use your ISP's VOIP and voice gateway. As soon as you use a 3rd party VOIP supplier there is no QOS management possible.


So yes quality on a 3rd party across the Internet service will enormaously depend on the route and destinatation. Little to do with your own ISP unless you call someone on the same ISP.