| ____________________________________________________________________ |
| ____________________________________________________________________ |
| Copyright © voipsolutionjournal.com - 2007 All Rights Reserved - VOIP Solution Journal VoIP Solution Journal Selecting a VoIP Solution Phone System for Home and Business. |
________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
|
| Selecting a VoIP Solution Phone System for Home and Business. |
| VOIP Solution Journal |
| | VoIP Phone | Voip PBX | Business Small VoIP | Vonage VoIP | VoIP Service Provider | | VoIP Phone System | Business Service VoIP | WiFi VoIP | |
________________________________________________________________________
The VoIp Solution Workbook is a comprehensive guide to terms and definitions that
are commonly used in reference to understanding a VoIP Solution.
are commonly used in reference to understanding a VoIP Solution.
| Softphone |
In computing, a softphone is a software program for making telephone calls over
the Internet using a general purpose computer, rather than using dedicated
hardware. Often a softphone is designed to behave like a traditional telephone,
sometimes appearing as an image of a phone, with a display panel and buttons
with which the user can interact. A softphone is usually used with a headset
connected to the sound card of the PC, or with a USB phone.
Softphone Applications A typical application of a softphone is to make calls via an
Internet telephony service provider to other softphone or to fixed or cell phone.
Service provide may offer PC-to-PC calls for free, but PC-to-phone and phone-to-PC
calls usually are not free.
Other type of softphone connects to a private branch exchange (PBX) through a
local area network (LAN) and is used to control and dial through an existing
hardware phone. This is often used in a call center environment to make calls
from a central customer directory, and to "pop-up" information on the screen
about which customer is calling, instantly providing the operator with details
of the relationship between the caller and the company using the call center.
It's important to differentiate softphones from services based on softphones.
Skype, Google Talk, and Vonage are Internet telephony service providers having
their own softphones that you install on your computer. Unfortunately these
three major providers are not inter-operable, and you can't place a direct call
between them.
Communication Protocols To communicate, both end-points must have the
same communication protocol and at least one common audio codec. Most service
providers use a communication protocol called SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)
by IETF, except Skype which is a totally proprietary system and Google Talk
which is based on Jabber.
Softphone Features A typical softphone has all standard telephony features (DND,
Mute, DTMF, Flash, Hold, Transfer etc) and a lot of new ones like Presence, Video,
Wideband Audio and more. The minimum codecs set is G.711, GSM and iLBC.
Softphone vendors may offer more codecs and different feature set.
Softphone Requirements To make voice calls over Internet, you should have:
Any modern PC with a microphone and a speaker, or with a headset, or with
USBphone. Reliable Internet connectivity like DSL, WiFi, cable or LAN. 28.8
dial-up modem may be enough if you use a codec compressing the speech to this
bandwidth. Account with an Internet telephony service provider.
Attributes and Credits
The information and facts supplied on this subject
derive from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
the Internet using a general purpose computer, rather than using dedicated
hardware. Often a softphone is designed to behave like a traditional telephone,
sometimes appearing as an image of a phone, with a display panel and buttons
with which the user can interact. A softphone is usually used with a headset
connected to the sound card of the PC, or with a USB phone.
Softphone Applications A typical application of a softphone is to make calls via an
Internet telephony service provider to other softphone or to fixed or cell phone.
Service provide may offer PC-to-PC calls for free, but PC-to-phone and phone-to-PC
calls usually are not free.
Other type of softphone connects to a private branch exchange (PBX) through a
local area network (LAN) and is used to control and dial through an existing
hardware phone. This is often used in a call center environment to make calls
from a central customer directory, and to "pop-up" information on the screen
about which customer is calling, instantly providing the operator with details
of the relationship between the caller and the company using the call center.
It's important to differentiate softphones from services based on softphones.
Skype, Google Talk, and Vonage are Internet telephony service providers having
their own softphones that you install on your computer. Unfortunately these
three major providers are not inter-operable, and you can't place a direct call
between them.
Communication Protocols To communicate, both end-points must have the
same communication protocol and at least one common audio codec. Most service
providers use a communication protocol called SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)
by IETF, except Skype which is a totally proprietary system and Google Talk
which is based on Jabber.
Softphone Features A typical softphone has all standard telephony features (DND,
Mute, DTMF, Flash, Hold, Transfer etc) and a lot of new ones like Presence, Video,
Wideband Audio and more. The minimum codecs set is G.711, GSM and iLBC.
Softphone vendors may offer more codecs and different feature set.
Softphone Requirements To make voice calls over Internet, you should have:
Any modern PC with a microphone and a speaker, or with a headset, or with
USBphone. Reliable Internet connectivity like DSL, WiFi, cable or LAN. 28.8
dial-up modem may be enough if you use a codec compressing the speech to this
bandwidth. Account with an Internet telephony service provider.
Attributes and Credits
The information and facts supplied on this subject
derive from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page