Slashdot Mirror

I don't know why my parent post got modded as a troll as they are all valid points. Perhaps I did not cite my references.

As someone mentioned earlier, here are the patent numbers: 6137869 [billing algorithm for voip], 6104711 [dns for voip],6282574 [dns for voip], 6298062 [conversion of PSTN signals to IP packets and providing PSTN services over IP networks], 6359880 [Wireless VOIP router]. I am not going to link these to the patent office because it's tedious, but you can look them up for yourself.

Net2Phone, launched their VOIP services back in 1997. In order to establish said services they implemented most if not all of the above claimed patents and did so before most of the patent applications were filed. The only two which were filed before the service was launched were the first two patents in the above list and they are certainly not unique and unobvious. Billing for VOIP services? Pretty obvious since they announced their pay service in 1995 which was 2 years prior to the patent application. The second one was simply DNS extended to provide things like caller ID. Not exactly ground breaking but this is perhaps the only leverage they may have IF nobody else was providing VOIP services at the time or prior to. That is a big IF because it is likely many of the telcos were already using something similar for digital cell phone networks such as GSM (which is also a packet network created around 1993).

Of course there is also the Network Voice Protocol which was the first implementation of VOIP invented in 1973 which preceded all the patents. My point is, they really don't have much of a case with these patents.

Wasn't that Net2Phone?

Here is the companys timeline. http://web.net2phone.com/about/company/timeline.as p

And here is the archive of their website from february 1997 http://web.archive.org/web/19970205073734/http://w ww.net2phone.com/

Net2Phone were using the PC as a phone some time before 2000 - http://web.net2phone.com/about/company/timeline.as p. PC to US freephone numbers were free, with US/Canada landline calls charged to pre-paid credit. It was a bit on the choppy side (on a 28.8K connection) when I tried it around '97/'98, but the interface matched that described in the patent abstract pretty well.

If you are considering using Net2Phone, please read the fine print first.

If you go for a period of 90 days without making a Net2Phone call, you *forfeit* your *entire* account balance.

From the FAQ:
http://web.net2phone.com/consumer/commcenter/helpp ayment.asp

Will the funds I add to my account ever expire?

Your funds will never expire as long as you make at least one paid call every 90 days. For example, if you make a paid call on January 1, your funds will not expire as long as you make at least one paid call before April 2. If you do not make a paid call in that 90-day period, any remaining funds in your account will expire.

Eliot Spitzer - are you listening?

Net2Phone has been able to do this for years and there are possibly others. What's the point?

First used their XJ100 on their VoiceLine service a few months ago. Worked great. Battery life was pretty good too - a couple hours of talking before it had to be recharged.

Only disadvantage ... 802.11b only. No WPA.

From work:
- on my PC: Skype client and Skypeout account and an adapter-phone, USB-based . This way I talk to friends or clients over Skype (free), if they have it installed, or over POTS, if they do not have Skype
From home:
- setup similar to the above, for my little office, in addition to which - for the reast of the house - I use Net2phone

I've been using Net2Phone's Communicator (desktop based VOIP service) for awhile now and I've been pretty happy with it. They recently removed the adverts that were contained in the desktop which had been my primary annoyance (since the service costs money, essentially, you are paying to see their adverts).

I have run into problems occasionally where it will give a largely useless error stating they are having "Technical Difficulty" and can't place your call. Annoyingly, it seems to do this both when you mistype a phone number and when it is a problem on their end, so its difficult to guess where the problem is.

I also rely on Skype's PC to Phone service a good deal, particularly since it is a good deal cheaper than Net2Phone. Unfortunately, it has problems with NATs, so some (such as my girlfriend, with whom I talk the most) will have difficultly. Consequently, we're unable to use the free PC to PC service, which would probably save us lots of money.

In my experience, no one service is completely reliable (and none close to the reliability of a landline), so its good to have a backup in case one fails.

I do a similar sort of thing already for international numbers in order to avoid the very high long distance rates that T-Mobile has for international long distance. Using Net2Phone Direct you can get a local number somewhere in the United States, which you can call to access their VoIP service. If you set up your account to recognize your number on callerID, it won't ask for your account number or PIN, and then it will ask for the number you wish to call. Thereby, it saves me a fortune on all my international calls. All I need to do is program the local US access number with a wait signal before my friends number, like +12022169400w011491795555555, and I'm set. I highly recommend it. Only draw back is that your caller ID doesn't come through to the people you are calling.

It's possible, but the available wireless VOIP handsets are 11b only and don't support WPA (both are showstoppers for me).

Net2Phone XJ100 802.11g Phone

802.11g but doesn't say anything about WPA. Might be proprietary and only work with their VoiceLine service though. I don't know.

Doesn't receive faxes, and is a Windows-only client. Looks like $0.10 per page.

You sound a lot like a consumer (:-), so check out things like Net2Phone and Dialpad. But also check out Free World Dialup. Vonage is trying to replace your whole phone line, including local and inbound calls, rather than just skimming your outgoing long distance calls.

Consumer-oriented services typically want your credit card to set up an account, though there are other models. Business-oriented services usually have more interesting options for billing, accounting, grouping users together, incoming calls, etc. Hardware ranges from single-line frobs to 4-line PC boards to 24-line T1s to PBXs, etc. Check out www.openh323.org if you're interested.

check out net2phone. They are a complete VOIP solution provider. So the phones/software/etc is all proprietary and only works with their service, but the rates are pretty incredible and it's damn simple to setup from inside a firewall.

These should help you;

Vonage
Net2Phone
Quicknet

I just use my cell phone now for all voice calls and connect to the internet thru Cable. Sprint cell phone service is not too good, but they are cheap with my company discount..

Got a good international dialing plan with a calling card kind of provider (Cytus) where the phone number and pin number (you choose it) remain the same and they charge your credit card / bank account periodically. Now net2phone also offers this service.

This is the best, anyway I wasn't using my landline phone much - just got junk marketing calls! I save $25-30 every month.

I use net2phone as a cellphone suppliment as I have no need for a landline. Yes its over broadband cable, but still works excellent. Check it out also, use a handset like a yap handset if you can find one. (eBay?) I would imagine that the SprintPCS is stuff is enough bandwidth.

Nortel Network's Succession products do have SIP as well as H.323 compatability, and they are designed for building large VoIP networks. Also see SIPCenter for other venders. Hopefully we will see services built with this stuff soon, and then SIP phones, and SIP software for your PC will be more useful.

Wihtout that deregulation we couldn't have this or this, amoung others.

Although I haven't tried it myself for overseas calls, Netscape was touting something called Net2Phone. Their site says they do international calls. Domestic calls, while not FREE, only cost one cent per minute.
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong."