BEST VOIP PROVIDERS? WHO DO YOU RECCOMEND?
 

After being severely shafted for the last 5mths by Virgin (no lube either:Whatever_ ) on my phone bill at home, I've decided to opt for VOIP.

My biggest requirement besides the obvious things like call quality, cost etc. is to be able to divert calls to my mobile when out on call at the lowest price.

Your thoughts would be appreciated;):thumb:

We use Home - Gradwell Dot Com ...

I've used draytel.org for the last 6 months without any problems.

Decided to give Draytel a trial and see how I get on.
Thanks for your help:thumb:

Cost is usually less for voip, so is the quality, though its also down to the provider, data systems were never meant to run voice applications and hence wont be as good, but it doesnt mean its not for you.
As for the mobile, be in for a shock, voip on a mobile is a no-no really, most of the big mobile companies have barred the use of voip applications on their network because they use up far too much bandwidth, take note that the bandwidth will hit your bill if you do use a mobile voip application.

Tony:)

You might want to look into getting a QoS (quality of service) router.

Something that gives priority to VOIP traffic over all over traffic, our call quality is currently poor because of this.

Thanks Tony, I'm really looking to use the call forwarding features rather than anything else. This feature alone will slay my current charges by over 50%:thumb:



I'm going to be using a Draytek 2800g Vigor coupled with a Cisco 7960.
I'll also be giving the VOIP dedicated bandwidth so hopefully all should be OK:p

I'll let you know how I get on once everything is set up. I'm just waiting for the router to be delivered so by the weekend I should be live.:thumb::D

just for info, qos will only have any effect when your uploading from you home network, if thats where your using it... will have no effect at all on incoming traffic. common miss-conception even with engineers who i talk to who should know better;)

daz

No offence Tony, but you need to read up a bit before making wide statments like those... :thumb: data networks handle voip perfectly if set to do so, and voip uses around 22kbps... not sure of how many mobile operators prevent voip traffic, wouldn't have thought any would now though...

daz

At work we are in a shared office, they have given us an IP address but using a packeteer are throttling us to about 2mb down and 1mb up.
Our VOIP is poor when anyone in the office goes on the internet.
Any suggestions Dazza, we have a router but it doesn't have a lot of features on it.
Would setting up NAT to send all VOIP traffic to the base stations IP address help? It obviously sorts itself out anyway but it can get quite crackly.

I suspect it's mostly due to the number of machines (12 ish) hanging off this one small connection that's to blame really.

Ditto :) VoIP can be toll quality as per the MOS test results and will work if deployed right. My company has successfully been operating on pure VoIP for the last 18 months.

With regards to mobile operators, it's not down to bandwidth. It's because their infrastructure isn't designed to handle real-time traffic. Plus why invest heavily into deploying VoIP when they already have a lucrative cash cow ;)

Your main issue is down to bandwidth consumption.

Some steps to take.

I would suggest looking at prioritising your VoIP over your Data. Easiest way is to replace your router with a router that supports QoS. Something like the DrayTek Vigor 2910 would do the trick.

You need to identity what VoIP codec you are using?

Identify the number of concurrent calls at peak times?

Look at how your LAN is setup.

Getting the answers for the above isn’t as difficult as it first looks :)

I'd need a list of kit, please let it be Cisco:lol1: at least i'd have a chance, and a network diagram...
from what you've said, the packeteer should be able to shape the traffic and provide QOS, if not you could put a swicth in before the packeteer and police the traffic before it get to the packeteer i.e.pre-empt the dropped packets the packeteer is creating with its throttling... I normally do this on frame relay networks before the provider polices and drops packets in the network... there are ways to get excelent quality... just need some thought.. after all 16,000 BBC staff can't be wrong:thumb:

Yep it's on Cisco :D My company specialises in CCME and I'm guessing you need CCM with the number of staff. I'm happy to give a few pointers for designing a VoIP infrastructure.

Guys
Have you looked at justvoip.com where you can use the voip service by connecting your landline phone with the destination phone. i.e. you only use the computer to request the call. Your landline phone rings, you answer, then the destination phone rings and they answer. Cheap as chips and call quality is perfect. You can also do computer calls to destination phones as well if thats your bag. We have been using for months now and very satisfied.