Since I found mzsel more gone from home then before; I had the pleasure of using almost all means of communication available in today's world.
Most interesting is of course VoIP, which mostly comes in the simple form of download-install-run Skype, or for the ones at slighty higher level the service from for example Visual Online.
Because about one year ago I was not really happy with Skype when used at peak hours, I also jumped on the Visual Online VoiP bandwagon after George started awaking my interest in this service.
Bought of course right away the equipment (Zyxel 660HW router, Zyxel 2000W WiFi VoIP phone) - that was the fun part- and then got everything installed.
The VOIP phone was a cool gadget, but not userfriendly (don't give it to the wife
) The router was great- since you could really modify everything via a Web IF or telnet- but had 2 drawbacks:1- no analog phone port on the router, so it was either getting a SATA device and let the computer run 24hrs a day, use the WiFi phone, or only use the computer and headset when placing a call.
2- the range of the Wireless signal of the router was ridiculously short.
What I did like is the part where people can call on the VoIP phonenumber; a big plus over Skype if you want to be available by phone if the only thing you can use is a Lan connection and a laptop to avoid these crazy roaming rates.
Therefore I got myself a used Fritz!Box 7050 from ebay and configured it for use with the cordless Dect phones we anyway already had at home.
Now this was getting realy cool! Either setting a prefix to be used (like *121#) to use the VoIP service instead of the regular telcom provider, or create a list with "Wahlregeln". Now this saved me a lot of money!
Recently, though, proper communication with this service was not always available, because of various reasons, so it was difficult to have a normal conversation from far away with the laptop while calling home.
One of the reasons being probably an overloaded network; another the extreme "pickiness" of the sedrvice in respect of the handling of SIP packets.
So It could be that in one hotel everything worked great via WiFi or cable, while in the other one it was a disaster.
And I really hate it if something works on one day and fails on the next...
Started using Skype again a bit, as well because of the webcam function, and must say the quality of both Audio and Video is great!
I don't know what has been done, but this "peakhour" problem seems to be totally eliminated..
And then I found something in between the two, which proved extremely reliable; cheap; and as easy to use as Skype: VOIPbuster
After installing, you can make free calls to certain places, but with a timelimit. You can decide to register by one of the available options, of which one is to buy a credit for 10 Eur.
After that you can call for free to the fixednumbers in a lot of countries for a period of 120 dayz.
After that, it is said you have to pay the “regular” fee; which they are competing for to be the lowest in the market!
There is a ton of options available for use in combination with callback services to your GSM etc, so you can use it in the way which suits you best. Even you can get Java apps. so you can use it with your mobile or PDA..
Funny enough you can use it as well with the Fritzbox, just like any other VoIP service (which makes it better than Skype), so you can call for free with your homephones.
For me it is currently the winner!!
Elzo.
