Eric at Lucii.org on 5 Oct 2010 04:58:53 -0700


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Re: [PLUG] Recent VOIP Experience Anyone?


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Good question!  The truth is: I don't know - it's a guess.  I'll have to do some
planning and research.

I presumed that insufficient processing power and/or RAM would not allow for two
lines working simultaneously without echo or other audio problems.  In addition,
this system will be my primary home and business phones so it needs to be
reliable.  I don't thing a 5-year old PC would be a good choice on either count.
 I have such a PC sitting on a shelf in my basement which is why I mentioned it.

This is my first draft of requirements:
(It is a home and business system since my office is in my house.)

* Two lines with separate numbers.

* Wired directly into the house wiring so standard 2-line phones can
  be plugged in throughout the house.

* Voice mail for each line that I would be able to retrieve remotely.

* Route calls automatically by the least expensive route - SIP, Skype,
  etc. (I don't even know all the options for this yet.)

* Perhaps a third line so that I could conference with three people?

* A powerful UPS or alternative power system for extended operation
  in a power outage.

* Should be efficient to keep the power bills down and be 'green'.

* I do not expect to have IVR (press 1 for ...) but might add that
  to the business line in the future.

* Possible future addition: two remote lines for my children who
  are away at college.

Eric



On 10/04/2010 11:04 PM, Carl Johnson wrote:
> Since I'll need some new hardware for this project it won't happen right away. I suppose an old 1.5 GigHz P4 PC with 512 MB of PC-100 RAM won't give me satisfactory service with Asterisk :-)
> 
> 
> Why not? How elaborate of a setup are you planning?
> 
> "Eric at Lucii.org" <eric@lucii.org> wrote:
> 
> Three things...
> 
> One: I don't like the locked down aspect of Vonage either.
> 
> Two: Vonage may seem very aggressive with their price but the core service,
> connectivity, is extremely cheap.  I _suspect_ that Vonage is making money hand
> over fist and the price is all out of proportion to the underlying technology cost.
> 
> Three: The MagicJack is no longer on my 'recommend' list.  This week I found out
> that you cannot call the freeconferencecall.com - or any other free conference
> call company from your MagicJack.  Instead, they sneakily re-direct you to their
> own free conference call system.
> 
> It turns out that they might be doing this to avoid "huge fees" from the CLEC
> that routes the conference call.  See:
> http://clarkhoward.com/liveweb/shownotes/2009/09/02/16566/
> What these "huge" fees are I don't know but for $20/year income it won't take
> too many per line to start losing money.  In any event, why won't the MagicJack
> company be up front about that?  Why not offer me the opportunity to pay the
> fees for those calls where they can't cover them?  This is poor corporate
> behavior in my opinion.
> 
> 
> I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE!
> 
> Well, not exactly.  I just think it's time to explore an Asterisk solution.  I
> wanted to do this for years but I also don't want to do this.
> 
> It will:
> 
> * add a significant hardware cost
> * cost me time to learn to set it up
> * cost me time to administer it
> 
> I'm going to research some of my options over the next few weeks.  I know that
> Lee Marzke has use Asterisk quite successfully.  (Hey Lee, does your service
> charge you extra to call one of the "free" conference calling companies?)
> 
> Since I'll need some new hardware for this project it won't happen right away.
> I suppose an old 1.5 GigHz P4 PC with 512 MB of PC-100 RAM won't give me
> satisfactory service with Asterisk :-)
> 
> Eric
> 
> On 10/01/2010 10:03 AM, Carl Johnson wrote:
>>>> I'd agree 100% that vonage is great from a functionality perspective. I just don't like the proprietary "locked down" aspect of their devices. 
>>>>
>>>> "Claude M. Schrader" <plug@claudeschrader.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Eric's link is very damming, but on top of that, the price alone should
>>>>> give you pause. Vonage is very aggressive with their price, and are
>>>>> exponentially more than magicjack. $20/year isn't a business plan - there has
>>>>> to be something augmenting that.
>>>>> Claude
>>>>>
>>>>> On 18:17 Thu 30 Sep     , Amul Shah wrote:
>>>>>> On Sep 30, 2010, at 1:26 PM, "Claude M. Schrader" <plug@claudeschrader.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 08:54 Thu 30 Sep     , Eric at Lucii.org wrote:
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>>>>>>>> I use a MagicJack for one phone line.  It's only $40 to start and $20 per year
>>>>>>>> but it _requires_ a Windows PC or Mac to work.  This connects to the network
>>>>>>>> directly which is excellent and it's still outrageously cheap.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I know this is a potential flamewar, but there are also privacy implications
>>>>>>> with MagicJack.
>>>>>>> Claude
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Pointers please. I know some people who are using magic jack. Time to bing it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Amul
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ___________________________________________________________________________
>>>>>> Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
>>>>>> Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
>>>>>> General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>>>>>
>>>>> -- 
>>>>> Claude M. Schrader, CCNA
>>>>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/claudeschrader
>>>>> AIM: phillyclaude
>>>>> Email: claude@claudeschrader.com
>>>>> Jabber/Google Talk: cschrader@gmail.com
>>>>> ___________________________________________________________________________
>>>>> Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
>>>>> Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
>>>>> General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>>>>
> 
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
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- -- 
#  Eric Lucas
#
#                "Oh, I have slipped the surly bond of earth
#                 And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings...
#                                        -- John Gillespie Magee Jr
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___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug