[ale] VOIP recommendations?

[Michael Trausch]

On 08/23/2011 07:23 PM, Bob Toxen wrote:
> I recommend that you "try before you buy".  I suggest having a demo of
> proposed equipment, preferably right around Noon or 1pm and/or 9am to
> see how it sounds.
> 
> The quality of VOIP varies greatly, usually due to bandwidth and latency
> of the network.  Most Internet Providers' Internet access is NOT
> designed to support latency-sensitive applications such as VOIP.

That would be one most excellent reason to actively avoid the use of the
Internet itself for routing VoIP traffic for mission-critical purposes.
 For that matter, having any sort of a phone switch on the Internet
presents an additional set of vulnerability points that can potentially
cost a _lot_ of money: VoIP switches are targeted with alarming
regularity (I am regularly adding rules to iptables here to block attack
attempts on my phone system).

> Many such solutions have poor phone quality, typically "choppy" sound.
> Such a solution for a company would loose customers.

One reason why I recommend putting VoIP on the inside of the business,
but interfacing with the telecom system using traditional hook-ups.
Ideally, as well, one would not use the same network as used for other
types of data unless the network is properly setup to strictly adhere to
quality of service rules for specific types of data (such as SIP).

	--- Mike

-- 
A man who reasons deliberately, manages it better after studying Logic
than he could before, if he is sincere about it and has common sense.
                                   --- Carveth Read, “Logic”