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You get cards specifically designed to interface VOIP systems to analog lines (IIRC they are called FXO cards). Looks like some winmodems can also be modified to do it ( http://www.voipuser.org/forum_topic_806.html ).

There are also providers that let you access POTs over the internet (for a price ofc but those prices are often pretty competitive especially for international calls).

By definition, a NAT router effectively creates a "default deny" rule on all new, inbound connections. This makes it qualify nicely as a firewall, and provides a considerable degree of security.

How does this not make sense?

If you were to create a firewall for a public IP address, and reject all inbound connections, that would be "security". That NAT does this by default effectively makes it a "firewall"....

Please explain how NAT provides no security benefit?

Also, you don't need a publicly accessible IP for every workstation or node to use IP telephony - you need only one public IP address. See this site or this site for details on how to make this work.

This one has been discussed many times in here. There is one major problem with the peer-2-peer topology used by Skype, and that is the use of "super-nodes" - effectively anyone in the "chain" can become a proxy, relaying other users traffic (which becomes serious when many users are behind NAT, as other users are unwittingly proxying voice traffic). There are also security and privacy issues (once someone breaks the encryption). Interesting article on this here:- http://www.telepocalypse.net/archives/000610.html Overall I think Skype is an interesting product, and has had a good outing. I don't atually think it will last the long term, without some serious changes to the way that the software works, and integration to other networks. The reality is, to fulfill both those requirements, Skype will probably need to go SIP. But they have created the brand strength to do that now. Dean ( from: http://www.voipuser.org/forum_topic_734.html )

> Looks like gizmo is $3.00/month for inbound calls. Not a bad deal.

Yeah, Gizmo charges. What i was saying is that Gizmo makes the nicest softphone application. At the moment it's hardcoded to use Gizmo accounts, but the 2.0 version that's currently in testing (for Mac OS X) seems to support 3rd party SIP/IAX providers.

Since Sipgate only providers Windows software once the 2.0 release of Gizmo is out they'll be a consistent softphone out for Windows/Linux/Mac that'll work with any SIP provider.

> The "sipgate" is saying "Customers who sign up with sipgate for geographic phone
> numbers in the UK, must reside within the UK." Looks like I could get a number in
> Germany, which could be handy.

Their are other providers out there that do similar.

http://www.voipuser.org/ provides a non-geographic UK number that can be pointed towards any SIP number for free.

http://www.voipstunt.com/ provides a free number in several countries. I believe they require a small fee (10Euro for 3 months i think) which gets you unlimited calls to many countries for free, and cheap calls to many others (which comes out of the 10Euro you've paid). Voipstunt only has Windows software but, again, they are SIP/IAX providers so any softphone should be able to connect (including the forthcoming Gizmo 2.0 ^_^).

I don't personally have any experience with any of these companies except Gizmo, which suits my needs perfectly. I have one of their UK local call-in numbers and it all works with no problems at all.

Here's a free VoIP to POTS (real phone) service. http://voipuser.org/

As for B), it's illegal in the United States to send unsolicited commercial messages which the recipient must pay for. This is why junk faxes (paper/ink), and most junk cell calls (minutes) are illegal. If you have a free incoming/sender pays incoming, I suspect it would not be illegal if you weren't on the DNC.

As for getting paid for incoming, I'm currently doing that with my voipuser account. I get an outgoing minute for every incoming one. I've got my UK phone number on my websites, and I use it in contact phone #s on sites that said they wouldn't sell my information. It's hooked up to an asterisk box I've got running, which has messages like "Your call is important to us. Please continue to hold for the next representative..."

I mainly use the time for international outbound, as I have a cell, but it saves me a fair amount of money. Since I always check the "do not contact me/do not share checkboxes", nobody should call me in the first place.

There's a free sip to pstn gateway at http://voipuser.org/
Calls are limited to 10 miniutes.

http://voipuser.org/ gives free pstn calls to dozens of countries.

There's a free sip to pstn gateway at http://voipuser.org/

• http://www.voip-news.com/1/voipwifi.htm
• http://www.zyxel.com/product/P2000W.php
• http://www.vonage.com/
• http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2005/ voIP_WiFi.asp
• http://digital-lifestyles.info/display_page.asp?se ction=platforms&id=1761
• http://www.voipsupply.com/home.php
• http://www.voipuser.org/forum_topic_1072.html
• http://www.voip-info.org/tiki-index.php

Please tell me how a bunch of FOSS hackers are going to set up a network so that I can call nearly any phone in the world at dirt cheap prices?

Ask these guys.

See voipuser.com etc.

Did you mean voipuser.net? The .COM and .NET sites are parked domains. (And the .ORG requires the WWW)

For a start, you're paying your broadband costs.

Here in the UK, I have a deal with Bulldog (4Mb line, non-VoIP phone included) as a monthly fee. All calls to landline phones in the UK are unlimited and 'free'. On top of that, however, I have signed up with voipuser and outgoing VoIP (including calls routed to POTS) is 'free' including international calls to quite a lot of areas (Hong Kong, USA, Australia etc.). It's 'free' because incoming calls are made to premium rate numbers which subsidise the outgoing costs. I'm not sure how much longer this service might last...

I can't see what Google has to offer over this.