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VoIP at $15 a Pop
AndersBrownworth writes: "Creative has released what they are calling the VoIP Blaster, a $15 USB device (2 for $20) that lets you plug in a normal POTS type telephone and make Voice-over-IP calls to anyone on the Internet. Creative has some closed source software with it that they manage to sneak per call charges in with, but ignoring that one can install the open source fobbit software and do point-to-point unmetered VoIP calls to anyone else with a G.723.1 codec VoIP phone. I just got off a NC to CA call placed from behind a firewall and the quality rocked. It sounded far better than a cell phone. The Fobbit software is fairly solid on FreeBSD and Windows with a couple bugs in the Linux port." This device has been out for a while now, with mixed reviews, at least with the included software, but it's nice to see this effort to turn off the meter.
I'm still waiting for true IP-phones and autonomous adapters to become affordable. One key argument against VoIP is the high reliability of POTS which is hard to achieve when one computer per end-user device comes into the equation. USB adapters don't change that, but the autonomous devices which are designed for the one purpose of providing telephone connectivity do.
Whats the point in this product ?, all you need is a PC + soundcard + 10 pound headset (0 pence for me, I all ready have one..) from somewhere like Game or EB.
Then go download some free VoIP software from the web, theres plenty of them.
Think there are enough pop ups at the review site?
Hopefully the general public won't be scared away from VoIP because of the ease in which anybody can record a very clear conversation with considerable ease. Also, wouldn't anybody be able to pose as someone else by manipulating their IP address?
Many of them do, the point is they use that to charge you per minute, while it cost them NOTHING per minute. A bit of a scam. Though they may have been exagerating, I'd be willing to bet the software will let you make ip2ip calls free while connecting to to a ip to pots hookup for some fee
I believe the reason the software was labled as "Closed Source" was to make the point that it couldn't be changed to allow the use of a free service, and that it would require seperate software do so.
Business News and Resources: www.usasource.net
"that lets you plug in a normal POTS type telephone"
That's the big deal here. I wish I'd had one of these in college when I was making long distance phone calls to my girlfriend. We used IRC and other chat things sometimes, but the good old telephone was much prefered.
We would have saved almost $1k in those days.
So if I use fobbit to circumvent Creative's own software, is that like using bnetd to circumvent Battle.net?
Here come the lawsuits... :P
Wow - where can I get a computer with a USB port (which mine is slightly lacking) for $15 with one of these cards bundled?
BARGAIN!
So yes, it is free, someone else said that you have to provide a credit card to use the service at all, I personally doupt that, but either way they would only charge you for PC-to-Phone use.
So I'm eager to get one of these things and add some encryption to it. Since it's USB, it should even work with a laptop.
It looks like charges are for calls to ordinary phones, where someone has to provide the interface to the POT system.
According to the Creative website, you are only charged if you try to call a POTS line. This is handled by a third party service that can connect you to pots lines all around the world. Currently long distance calls to US pots lines are $0.05 per minute. Mexico City is $0.15.
The main problem with the VB is that it is only an FXS (foreign exchange service), not an FXO (foreign exchange office). Which means that it cannot be connected to a pots line without blowing up the unit. I am working on a way to create a software based FXO using the VB and fobbit. For the unoficial fobbit faq and more info on other projects, go to:
t ml
-d4emon
http://www.omikrontech.net/madmax/mai/fobbitfaq.h
"Grandma? Can you hear me? GRANDMA! ITS ME! YEAH!NO IM USING THE INTERNET TO CALL YOU... THE INTERNET! THE I-N-T-E-R-N-E-T!!!!"
Fortunatley this wasnt a VOIP quality issue, grandmas hearing aid had just went out.
Has anyone experimented with wiring one of these into their home telephone wiring? I'm contemplating wiring one of these to the second pair in my home wiring, and then picking up a couple of 2-line phones. Could make it a lot more useful, but I'm not sure it would support too many devices.
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
That MS NetMeeting + a good headset can't?
A quote from the open source driver site...
Also please be advised that this software is probably worth exactly what you paid for it (nothing!), so if it destroys you computer I can't be held responsible. It is mainly a learning exercise for me, so use it at your own risk.
Nice huh?
So that would take care of the usual audio quality problem of "sounds like you're talking from the bottom of a garbage can."
I'm more concerned with "choppy"-ness. There IS a solution to this. The Telcos have been doing "voice over IP" multiplexing on their own X.25 packet trunk lines for years.
I'm less concerned about encryption than most (Its a lousy way to maintain security anyway unless you're using biometric keys [double encrypt with the receiver's and the sender's keys for really private conversations]) which is a lot of work to ask my machine to do just to talk with the ex-wife once or twice a month.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
dialpad has had this for years. i have not used dialpad in quite a while (i moved to sweden, and it charges me just as much to call the states as my long distance carrier does)
here is the dialpad store that sells a ton of handsets you can plug into your sound card.
Why use USB?
When considering the rise of broadband technology and the convergent devices and the emergence of IP based DTV/VOD Systems the logical conclusion would be to use a network technology (i.e Ethernet) rather than USB. This offers the practical advantage of allowing the POTS phone(s) to be plugged directly into a broadband connection, without the requirement of a PC next to the phone.
Regarding call charges, these are probably break-out charges from the Internet into the Telephone network. A necessary service for this device to be used practically, i.e. calling an ordinary Phone.
What is it with you guys, do you all work for Senator Disney? +2 interesting??? How about +3 funny!
The post is an obvious allusion to CD->MP3 recording combined with a healthy dose of tongue-in-cheek paranoia. It's a hell of a lot easier to tap somebody's PHONE and make calls than it is to tap an IP connection right now.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
I bought one of these VoIP blaster things a long time ago (3 months) assuming that because they supported a standard codec that they would interoperate with other mainstream VoIP products and services(which it doesn't), but even with the fobbit software its fairly useless. The only time this hardware will become useful is when one or more of the VoIP > POTS gateways (like Net-to-Phone) supports it, which they don't. Fine, if you've got another geeky friend across the world with the same product you can use fobbit and VoIPBlaster to talk to them using a POTS handset (the POTS handset thing being the whole thing that makes this thing cool) but until theres a gateway to a larger audience, its kinda like saying that you've got a great way to communicate with an incredibly small group of people. I even tried to hardware hack this thing to simply be a POTS handset > speaker/mic jack to no avail. Unless all your friends buy them, this thing is useless. It currently sits at the bottom of my junk bin.
For the love of god, please someone tell me they've figured out a way to make this work with one of the major gateways, so I can dig it out and stop feeling so damn stupid for buying it.
I think that the possible way this could happen is if someone wrote dummy audio device drivers that made this thing show up as an audio I/O device (but then we get mushyness from being compressed, decompressed and recompressed) or hack some gateway software like net-to-phone to support it.
Maybe now that this thing has been slashdotted it will happen. Please?
What you meant to say was: ..."
"Creative has some closed-source software that allows them to sneak in per-call charges,
The target audience doesn't know anything more about ethernet except "Hmm, I can plug the phone modem cord into either hole, but the big fat cord from the cable modem only fits into this one, so it must go this way".
The technical support required to get something like this set up in an "Ethernet. Etherwhat? What's that?" environment would be costly, and make the product less attractive to users.
"What? Of course I have a switch! How the hell do you think I turn my lights on?"
"Hub? Don't you hubba-hubba me, buster, or I'll call the cops. Now tell me where to plug this fuckin' thing in!"
Think about it. This is NOT a toy marketed at geeks.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
All right! Go FreeBSD!
Creative has some closed source software with it...
Is this really necessary? Do the editors have point out that certain software is "closed source"? What conclusions are we to draw from that...
Personally, I use this information as a synonym of "forget official support for linux, you'll be forced to use windows.". I.e., since I'm almost always under linux it means "don't buy it unless you find first an open-source project supporting it".
actually I don't call my girl friend with it
That's cos you don't have one! Hahah, you l0ser
Does anybody know of anywhere that sells it in the UK? It doesn't appear to be on the UK Creative website...
This is simply fantastic! I would love to try this out. Just wonder what would happen to the Telecom companies around the world who AFAIK depend on long distance telephony as the major source of their revenues...or will they transform into unified service providers providing bandwidth for data, voice, video & other applications?
All I can say is a WOW... It's about time somebody bypassed the lame default software! I'm trying to download it, but surprise the site is slashdotted! I wonder if this software is even remotly 323 compliant!?
So is it phone sex or cybersex? ;)
Does fobbit support VOIP -> POTS calls? If not, then it is only good for using the VB in a shared connection or behind a firewall. If it does support VOIP -> POTS, then I'm running out to buy a few of these beasts before they vanish into the ether. I didn't see anything about whether or not VOIP -> POTS was supported on fobbit's site, but the site was running really slow.... Anyway, if anyone knows, I'd love to know, too.
Love,
Jay and Silent Bob
Does anyone know how much bandwidth you need in order to get telephone quality audio?
I'm asking because I ditched my fancy-schmancy cable modem for my current connection: a dedicated 128Kb IDSL line. The bandwidth sucks, but I get 8 IPs and can run whatever kind of servers I want.
This sounds pretty cool, but I'm wondering if I can spare the bandwidth.
"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
Who, come to think of it, is one of the biggest boosters of VoIP. Hmmm...
sPh
Not to promote or trash VoIP or promote Qwest, but why would I want intermittent connections of VoIP when land-line POTS companies offer the same deal? Qwest does $0.05/min for any state-to-state call at any time, and I don't pay a monthly fee (auto-billed CC). I also don't have to turn on my computer to make the phone call.
Note that I have no affiliation whatsoever with Qwest, I'm just trying to make a point that I've never had connections of the same quality of POTS with any "over IP" voice connection. The only exception would be my Cisco IP phone at work, but that isn't hopping across the country's routers, either..
Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
anyone know of any free software that allows pc to phone dialling?
Sounds great and useful, but it seems only
:)
available in the US and Canada?
I read people were using it to call people in
Africa? If I would buy such thing and import it,
I guess it would work with the Fobbit tools?
Or am I missing a link somewhere?
Creative Worldwide websites don't show the product
in Europe..
Geert
I work in telecom and we have a VOIP product. I have had an ethernet phone hooked up to my DSL for a long time. The only gateway that I have access to, is in Dallas, so I can only make local calls here, but I call a good friend of mine in Mexico everyday on this thing (We put a phone on her cable modem) and it works perfectly. Once in a while you will get some jitter or lost packets, but mostly it is just like talking on a real phone. When the quality starts to degrade it will be more like a cell phone and if the net is really messed up it will be unusuable. But 99% of the time we talk with no problems. I have also talked to someone from singapore on it, and that was crystal clear, they had no idea that I wasn't in the office and that I was at home. This is the future. Of course I don't think people will be running it over the standard internet, just because there is no QOS, but if all the backbone providers started prioritizing voice traffic people could do that. Also yeah it is easy to record a conversation like this, we have used a Radcom sniffer that we have and it will play back the audio stream. For encryption though I think it would be stupid to add it to the phone, people would be better off to setup an IPSec link between the people they want to call, just cause these phones are already expensive enough and they don't really have enough power to handle crypto onboard.
fobbit.com seems to be /.'ed at the moment. Here is the page on Google Cache.
What kind of cell phones do you got in the US? VoIP phone sounds better than a cell phone? Atleast in Europe, the GSM-900 and GSM1800 (G3 UMTS - under testing) the quality rocks. Either its good quality or no connection.
Maybe the people in the US need to switch from the old, now defunct smoke signals to digital cell phones?
Europe, Asia and Australia have had it for quite a time already.
NumB http://www.engvig.net
It means "less than idealogically pure", comrade. Great Stallman will never sanction this money-grubbing device - please to avoid new technology until workers control means of telephony.
what bugs, does it affect quality or connection?
will it work well w/someone using a 56k dialup w/AOL (other than the obvious problems w/AOL)?
Anyone have more info? I have checked the SF site but I do not have the device myself. If I am going to save some money (and pay for two) then I need more info.
Thanks in advance.
Without QoS this just will not work. Typical RTD throught the Internet is in excess of 200 ms. For anything near PSTN voice quality, you would need something around 50 ms. ...sorry, you can't call the fire department, your ISP is down
About a week ago someone told us about this device that Vonage is putting out for $20/month.
You don't have to have any special software, just a high-speed connection. Just plug in the Cisco voice router and go. Plus you get voice mail, call forwarding, online accounting, free long distance, and a real phone #. I've gotten mine and I've only lost a call once. That call was to a person in the boonies who was using a bad cell phone. 'Nuff said.
The sound quality is about 95% of a regular phone line. My only compliant about the system is that there's just under a quarter second lag between what someone says and what you hear, but that could because of my ISP.
Plus if I'm going out of town I just find a hotel with high speed Internet and plug my device in. Bomb I have an instant direct line back to the office or wife and kids(if I had a wife and kids, which I don't but that a different story). And no annoying hotel phone bills.
Web appliances are the way to go! Now if we could just get IPv6 in use and get rid of NAT we could get rid of telephones numbers. We could have IP # or domain names instead.
fone://commandertaco.slashdot.org could be the future.
[VoIP/Web Appliance evangelical rant complete, have a nice day]
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
Wow. Mine only weighs an ounce or so. Must be that crappy British made stuff.
> why would I want intermittent connections of VoIP > when land-line POTS companies offer the same > deal? You don't, but you do want it for international calls. I'm in Holland and using this service I will also pay $0.05 wich is hard to beat over land lines. When you check out the rates for other countries and compare it with what you pay using POTS
But the main use will be PC-to-PC calls and this unit allows you to connect you POT to your PC and use it for voip. Basically this makes Telephone + PC = IP phone. Since I own the phone and the PC already it's a way cheaper deal then buying a IP Phone...
Only for VoIP-to-PSTN calls, that require servers to handle the switching.
but ignoring that one can install the open source fobbit software and do point-to-point unmetered VoIP calls to anyone else with a G.723.1 codec VoIP phone.
Which are free with the Creative software. This software won't save anyone a dime in call charges.
What it adds is support for firewalls, and allows you to use the device without registering with a credit card. It loses the ability to do PSTN calls.
I assume the VOIP blaster comes with a license to run G.723.1 inside the device, but these patents would impede the development of free software that could use the data stream from VOIP blasters for purposes other than talking to other G.723.1 hardware devices.
It sure would be nice if the VOIP blaster had a mode where it could just transmit and receive raw audio samples (preferably by the standard USB audio class interface).
Also please be advised that this software is probably worth exactly what you paid for it (nothing!), so if it destroys you computer I can't be held responsible. It is mainly a learning exercise for me, so use it at your own risk.
Nice huh?
Its just a more blunt way of saying exactly the same thing Microsoft says with any product you buy from them: namely that the product you buy may not be suitable for any purpose, and that the manufacturer (Microsoft in that case) absolves themselves of any and all damages their product may cause.
This particular free software product chooses to state that in more obvious terms. Personally, I find the honesty a breath of much needed fresh air.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
That VoIP/POTS gateway seems to be what you're paying for, when you really get down to brass tacks.
I kind of wonder what the economics and politics are of getting such gateways in different localities. How much do they charge, and is it in line with real cost of the service?
In one way, providing the IP->POTS service could be new business line for many of the little mom n pop Internet Service Providers. All they'd have to do is to change some modems to call out instead of just waiting for incoming calls. The incoming calls could be destined for long distance service for voice input instead of just computers talking to computers.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Oops! Isn't the software included? If so, how about:
..."
"Creative includes some closed-source software that allows them to sneak in per-call charges,
I was looking around on the creative site, and I could only find a link to voip from the US site. Also, the call charges are all in dollars and only from calls originating from the US.
:)
Can voip be bought and used in Europe? If not, can an american version be bought in the US and used in Europe?
To me, this sounds really good. It sounds way better that normal PC-PC calls, since you can make PC-Phone calls.
I'm just waiting for the day I can hook up a normal phone to my computer, pick it up and get a dialtone, and dial a normal number... that would be cool... wouldn't it?
Sheesh. So I looked into buying a pair for $20US and I checked the shipping to Canada, it's going to cost another $26US! So we are now up to $46 after the exchange rate and duties I'm sure I would be look at $80Cdn. For both of them
Voice-over-IP companies seem to be targetting price, when really the price of long distance calls is basically 5 cents/minute within and between Canada and the US if you shop around.
I think VoIP should be coming up with new, must have features to sell their products, and couple that with an also low price.
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood. FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet anther charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
A good chunk of international traffic is already converted to IP. All of the major US carriers have contracts with ITXC (http://www.itxc.com) which sends your voice traffic over the internet, and then attaches to local network at the destination. They constantly test a variety of paths to keep QoS at levels where you (the user) have no idea it's not circuit-switched. So VoIP with QoS is not only possible, it's already here and in use. And the best testiment to the quality of the product is the fact you can't tell when you are using it. Not exactly a great marketing slogan...
There are a few projects running to provide Linux support for these things aside from the Fobbit driver. The effort I'm involved with is at https://sourceforge.net/projects/voip-blaster/. The focus of our effort is to get support for the VoIP Blaster written into OpenH323. So far, the Windows client (OpenPhone) work with the device and the Linux code is pretty close to working.
For those of you who don't know about it, OpenH323 has several pieces including a VoIP -> PSTN gateway, answering machine, and MCU for 'conference' calls (although this doesn't work with the VB due to license restrictions on G723.1). There's also the Asterisk project - a Linux-based PBX system which I've heard also has support for the VB.
Rob
Perhaps Innosphere would actually be supportive of open source and other third party software to connect to their network. They are, after all, just charging for use. The more usage the network gets, the more money they should make. At only $0.15/minute to call China, I'd sure like to use their service.
Maybe the people in the US need to switch from the old, now defunct smoke signals to digital cell phones?
What is it with Euros and wireless phones? Are you really that proud of having good wireless coverage of your ten square mile country ;) ?
I think more along the lines of what you are talking about is this voip solution, it's just what you are talking about. Yeah you have to pay a monthly fee but it's really not that bad. Linksys also makes something that plugs directly into the phone and your cable modem. It uses the net2phone service.
It seems the downfall (at least for me) for the creative unit and the linksys is that I want to have an incoming number for these things. Having to mess with multiple phone lines to make long distance calls seems like switching phone companies all the time to get the lowest rate. A pain in the keister.
Okay, so you get mad that AT&T is shutting down the Cambridge AT&T Labs, then happy with a device that lets you make long-distance calls for free.
There must be a million little utilities for generating touch tones, but you probably don't even have to bother with that. If your computer is connected to the phone line by a modem that understands the AT command set, ending the phone number with a ";" will tell your modem to just dial a phone number and leave the line open without trying to negotiate a data connection. For example, "ATDT16505551212;" will dial 1-650-555-1212 and hold the line open. "ATH" will hang up the line.
As soon as i can get it in denmark i will be a happy man. so for now im sobbing arround :(
There isn't much like the scent of a fresh harddisk
Shipping and "taxes" on these items is exorbitant - to the tune of $8.73 for two units, UPS ground. As a UPS account holder, I can tell you that shipping to a business address anywhere in the same region only costs about $3.50. They're making their profit somewhere.
Make me wonder if there could not be a free long distance service that works like Seti. Everyone that is on the service "lets" other people use there computer to make local calles using a voice modem. You could then use someone elses modem to make your call. You would have to have a space phoneline, a modem that would do voice, and a broadband connection. Then of course there would be the legal issues. But it could be fun.
How do we call home on our cell phone to the computer and then have the computer call an international number and let you talk through that?
Sounds like some fun.
IMarv
Trusting software vendors is no smarter than trus
[...] OpenH323 has [...] a VoIP -> PSTN gateway [...]
Perhaps a bunch of volunteers or entrepreneurs could set up home servers to allow incoming H323 connections to make local phone calls.
There was an effort to allow for free fax transmissions this way a few years ago. It used DNS as the mechanism for keeping track of which servers could make local calls to which phone number prefixes. However, I haven't heard about that project in a long time.
Anything from them with the word "Blaster" after it usually is terrible.
If any of you have worked for an ISP you could attest to the quality of the "Modem Blaster"
It's not the OS it's the user that sucks. If it's user friendly, you get stupider people. - clinko
My VoIP Blasters just arrived last night, and I had a few hours to play with one of them.
:)
The long and short of it is, if your only making calls in North America (from North America) its a waste of time and money. Theres enough flat rate/unlimited calling plans that will be cheaper, and better quality. I have a 1.5mbit/640kbit DSL line and making a call 400km's away up here in Canada was not that great. I would guess the latency was around 150-200ms, and even though I could hear the other party crystal clear 99.9% of the time, they complained my voice was "choppy" and it would miss the first/last bit of whatever I said. (silence detection I assume)
The Windows software is a little clumsy as well, it seemed difficult to control it entirely from the phone, without touching the computer. I'm guessing PC to PC calls (less latency,and not gateways in between trying to minimize network bandwidth) would be much better with this device, as I think the main problem was with InnoSpheres network.
There is something really cool about your cordless phone being plugged in to your computer and dialing 192#168#1#1, only to have the phone connected to that computer ring.
Open Source Time and Attendance, Job Costing a
Let's see...
$1000 for the PC and hardware
$20 month for the 'Net connecction
$0.05/min for the phone call
Tech knowledge to set it up
Hassle of cranking up PC just to make a phone call (Call you right back, I gotta reboot my phone!)
all to replace $15, proven reliable hardware, and LD rates that can be had for $0.029/min from BigZoo.com.
And what is you IN state long distance? What is you minimum use fee for $.05? VoIP is good *now* with IPv6 (QoS) it will be ever better. Do you know why you can get rates as low as $.03 today? Because VoIP has been providing much need competition to the LD carriers.
Gee, I just love you man. You're -1 AC madskillz and love of god just give me the horn /. readers. After all, what's the point of the pagewidening? Surely that servers no purpose other than amusing the individual who posted it?
Why attack someone like that? Hmm, maybe they were just bored like most of the other
I like you. You are my friend. Can I write about you in my diary?
God is dead and no one cares.
Let me give you an idea how lousy cell phones are here. SprintPCS has been running ads for about a year now talking up their PCS network. The common thread in their commercials is someone who has been yelling over his/her cell phone to be heard, or someone who wasn't heard properly, with tragic results. They then emphasize the idea that with Sprint, calls are clearer.
As a current Sprint customer, and a user of Verizon (supplied by the office) (yes, I'm a two-phone geek), I'd say that Sprint's commercials seem to have some basis in fact, but they aren't that much to crow about either.
Verizon has a tendency to drop calls and have a sort of hiss in the background (then again, maybe it's the cheap pos phone). Sprint is definitely about as clear as a standard phone, but the coverage seems spotty.
If anyone's got a good reccomendation for a new provider when my service agreement expires in November (I think), I'd be interested. I live in the Raleigh area, so personal experience there weighs pretty heavily.
What is your Slash Rating?
It is 5 cents/min to the U.S., and 29 cents/min to Russia (which I call alot). With my AT&T plan I have now, I get the same rate domestically and 23 cents/min to Russia.
I also checked the international rates to other countries and they are higher too. Now why oh why would anyone use this?
I've been using the Creative VoIP for a while so let me share my experiences. I bought my first units >9 months ago and between me and my friends to whom I've recommended this we've purchased 25 units. (I'm not kidding.) Because it isn't available globally, I've had to personally purchase most of them and ship it to globally. It used to be $20 a unit then.
They are currently being used in the US, UK, India and Australia. Most of them are on POTS* 33.6 kbps Dial-up. I have a unit at home on DSL and one at work. Any one of my friends can connect to the net and call me. I also take one with e when I travel Internationally since it is cheaper to dial into the net locally and use this to make calls to the US!
The software allows you two modes of operation, PC to PC, which is between two VoIP units and PC-Phone which requires you to set up an account before you can proceed but allows you to call any POTS phone. The unit includes a Card for $5 worth of calls. although it says it expires on November 5th 2001, it still works. (Not a bad deal, if you consider you can purchase 2 for $20 and get $10 worth of calls)
When making PC-PC calls, there is very little lag. Occasionally, from the dial-up end, there will be a break of a second or two and the next bit will contain both the current and lapsed conversation overlaid together.
PC-Phone calls to the US are quite good, with a slightly higher lag. I often receive calls on my mobile phone and that increases the lag a bit, with compression on both ends! Calls to the UK are just as good. Calls to other countries are much more expensive and the lag is greater.
I've noticed several questions being asked why is this required, Why cant you use a headset/mic & free software.
Compared to any of the net services such as Net2Phone, Dialpad, etc., The quality is much better. I often get quality that is equal to long distance calls (figures, since the Telcos use compression to, some of the IP based). It is also much convenient to be speaking into a phone rather than a Headset/Mic. If you have broadband and are connected to the net always, you can use it like a regular phone. Pick-up and dial. anyone who wants to speak to you just has to call your number and it will ring. You have a choice of phones, I personally use it at home with a 2 line cordless, one for POTS and the other for VoIP. A friend I gave it to uses it connected to the office EPABX.
The unit is not perfect and has it's drawbacks. Although I've never had to call support, the word is it's bad. This could be because it's just an OEM product Creative re-brands. Email support, which I have used, is decent but takes 2-3 days for an answer. It's is handled by the OEM manufacturer InnoMedia. They also provide the PC-Phone service called Innosphere. Because it uses different ports each time it makes a connection, it is difficult to get it working behind a NAT/Router or a Firewall. When I need to use it in the Office, I temporarily open up the Firewall. It is not H.323 compliant. It works with Windows only. There is no driver for Linux or the Mac. Both users need the same hardware to talk**. And of course, your computer has to be on at all times.
There are other alternatives. Aplio (http://www.aplio.com/) makes a self contained unit which has an inbuilt Modem and Ethernet connection. No computer required, just a phone. It however costs $200 - $300. What would be nice is if all the different VoIP providers would standardize on a common interface to allow you to talk to using a different device. Just like email or POTS.
I have just started experimenting with Fobbit (http://www.fobbit.com/). A person I recommended VoIP to is using it (VoIP & Fobbit) to provide calls between two users across the company VPN. There is also a project for VoIP Blaster integration into Open H.323 at SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net/projects/voip-blaster/)
Spock
PS:-
*POTS - Plain Old Telephone Service
**InnoMedia, the manufacturers, have a software equivalent called BuddyTalk (http://www.buddytalk.com/). Although at launch time it was not compatible with the VoIP unit, when I contacted them last year, they told me that they were working on a new version of both the BuddyTalk and VoIP software that would allow communication between both platforms and also work behind NAT/Routers and Firewalls. It was to be out 'Real Soon Now'.
This would be good if I could get a regular dial tone from it. I have a regular POTS line to my house, DSL and a cell phone. The only thing the POTS line is used for now is for the Directv receiver and Tivo. I'd like to ditch the POTS line. I know I can get an ethernet card for Tivo but I don't know what to do about DirecTV. It wouldn't be such a problem if I weren't addicted to the NFL Sunday ticket.
Has anyone gotten to run on OS 9 or X with Virtual PC 4 or 5?
The hardware is quite good (quality-wise), perhaps it's time to go with Fobbit(?)
-Daniel
The problem with computers is that they do what you TELL them to do, not what you WANT them to do.
Even for foreigners 5c a min isn't a great rate to the US.
I pay ever so slightly less using a calling card FROM MY CELLPHONE in the UK to call the US. A rate like 1c a minute would catch my attention and I used dialpad a lot when it was free - but i'm not going to pay that kind of money, sorry creative.
Consultant: No. You'll need new hardware.
Manager: I see.. How much does it cost to run?
Consultant: Well, power will be required to run the devices. We could work out a rough cost per year...
Manager: The existing phone system does not require external power.
Manager: How about our network?
Consultant: Well, since this transfers data across the network, you'd probably have to upgrade.
Manager: I see.
Consultant: And, we would probably reccomend that you have a seperate network for the system so it doesn't interfer with your daily network usage.
Manager: What about cost over the internet gateway?
Consultant: Well, I'm sure that it wouldn't too much more bandwidth through your gateway than you are currently using.. and you can 'dial' anyone in the world with the same system!
Manager: I see. Let me get the straight: If we installed this, we would suddenly have a power bill where none exists now.
We would need to install a second networking system, or have a degraded phone system.
We would have to improve our internet gateway for external communications.
We currently have (as many large businesses do) long-term contracts with our Telco which would would need to negotiate out of. These contracts tend to be 5, 10 or 15 year long contracts.
We would need to buy new handsets from a specific? company to replace existing handsets.
We would also have to change our well developed and planned phone to person system. Currently if you call our tech help desk you can tell them you name and location and the location where you are moving to and they will have the phone redirected within the hour and a new handset installed (if required) within 24 hours. Would we have to change this?
Consultant: I don't know.
Manager: My final question to you is: What happens if it fails?
Consultant: (Very nervously) I don't know. Switch back to the old system while the problems are fixed?
Manager: You mean, have two systems up at the same time? Interesting solution. How much would all this cost us?
Consultant: I don't know.
Manager: "No"
I'm not putting down the technology here, I'm just speculating what would happen if you tried to pitch this at a large company with an existing telephone system.
Move faster
but I should find out... :)
What is your Slash Rating?
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Duh, the target market is not business it home users.
Encryption: I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to encrypt it...
I'm not technically oriented, so bear with me. I assume there is no way with this or any non-commercial VoIP solution to *receive* calls? I'm planning to get rid of my landline and just rely on my cell phone, but it might be more comfortable to have a speakerphone than using a cell phone at home. If someone had my IP address, could I receive a conventional phone call? I'm assuming not, just curious.
A few more tech details here.
---b
So I plug this in and install some software. And I get someone at the other end of the country to do the same. How do I call the other person? How does the person call me? How many of us need static IPs? What kind of NATing breaks it?
-kb, the Kent who is wants to know, but who also had to post something to undo a moderating mistake he made.
Why you ask? Because you can plug a standard phone into it! For example, I have a cordless phone plugged into mine, allowing me to make and receive voip calls anywhere in my house. In addition, the audio quality is pretty good and I don't have to pay the extremely high Telecom rates to talk to my friends in the Caribbean. For $15 that's not bad!
I still would NOT feel comfortable with local phone service over IP. Internet connections go down far more often that phone - and I don't want to be trying to call 911 and dying because some freaking router is hung.
I doubt whether packet switched systems can ever be made as reliable as circuit-switched.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
There are two parts to VOIP that keep it from being mainstream - even for reasonably dedicated geeks (such as myself).
The first part has always been a familiar hardware interface for placing and receiving calls - a standard telephone handset, not a headset/mike. The Creative unit is exactly what I've been waiting for. Making it a USB interface was wise - everybody who has purchased a computer in the last several years has USB while not everyone has ethernet or unused soundcard ports.
The second part is a transparent software interface - something that doesn't require that I fire up a GUI or that I point and click, doubleclick, or whatnot. I want to pick up the handset and dial a number. But what the dedicated geek in me wants to do is dial an IP address. A reqular dotted quad where the dots are entered using the "*" button on the phone. I don't want to call grandma using VOIP-to-POTS, I want to call other geeks who also have static IP addresses.
The software on my system (and on that of my geek friends) should have the option of being loaded when the system is booted or on demand. It should provide a dialtone when I pick up the handset. It should provide a "ringing" tone as it connects. It should provide a "busy" tone if the system being called is already engaged in a call. If the system called doesn't answer, my software should be able to either leave a voicemail message on that system and/or provide me the option of attempting a re-dial at some interval with the option of either delivering the voicemail or ringing my handset. In short, it should act pretty much like the combination of a telephone and an answering machine.
All through the handset.
After you buy the Creative VoIP blaster, you still have to pay 5 cents a minute, and it only works on the PC that you have installed this device. Sign up for long distance with IPhoneBill.com and you'll get 4.9 cents per minute, flat rate. Check it out. And it works with all your regular phones on the same line.
So...which of the lying scoundrels is trustworthy and cost effective enough to sign on with? I see lots of ads for, say, Cingular, and one of my co-workers says it sounds pretty sharp, but I'm inherently distrustful of anything that's given a glossy marketing campaign.
What is your Slash Rating?
The Innomedia/Creative Labs voip blaster was
announced and sold 18 months ago at COMDEX.
Of course the fobbit thing is only a few months old.
and the majority of BGP routes on the internet STILL don't have QoS.
I could not agree more.
And I'll probably get IP banned again for saying so. *shrug*
J'attends la révolution fasciste!
Bonne Chance, Monsieur Fuhrer.
Cool. I can hook this up to my laptop with the 802.11b wavelan card and have my own $20 cell phone - just a little more bulky :p
"If I could only live my life with my threshold at 4... " -- Wil Wheaton
In all seriousness, to 99% of the people on Slashdot open-source means free software.
I would love to see anyone who actually opens up and edits code for the good of the community.
If I wrote some cool peice of software I would not want to make it open source either. I would want to make money off of my hard work. Why should some hippie kid get something I invested my time into for free? Freeloaders.
Find somebody with a Sam's Club membership and get them to buy you one of the 600 or 1000 minute cards they sell, they are flat rate, rechargable, and come to about 3.7 cents/min after tax. Sure, you have to dial twenty-some digits before you can make a call, but that's what speed dial is for :-)
Well, I'm sorry you have a bad cell phone. I have a rather nice samsung. It is my phone, I don't have a lan line. But i guarantee you it's better than any VoIP setup...esp. over a cable modem w/ unreliable upstream...maybe the side coming to you is clear. Either way that comment was just absurd as my cell phone is crystal clear and a lot of times clearer than my noisy phone lines at my parents house.
:(){
VoIP does not mean simply "Voice over the internet". Roger Wilco is not VoIP. Neither is Internet Phone. Etc. ETc.
VoIP is a set of standards for going standard telephony-like things over the Internet. IT allows for integration of the IP-based system and the standard telco system. IT's actually quite complex and detailed.
If all you want is voice between two computers, VoIP is overkill.
The benefit as I understand it of the VoIP blaster is that it does real VoIP. You can hook it up , subscribe, and get *real* telephone service to it. A phone number. You can make real calls to anyone, anywhere, and it will work quite well.
It's like replacing the last mile & local telco with VoIP & some remote telco.
On that note.. anyone know of any VoIP providers who will actuall, say, route you a lot of calls & numbers over the net?
(say, if I want to avoid using the local telco completely and I want to bring in my business 800 line over my big fat internet pipe, then break it out into a standard PBX on my end) (No, I don't mean using a channelized T1 or something and multiplexing voice on it..)
"I just got off a NC to CA call placed from behind a firewall and the quality rocked."
What does a firewall have to do with the quality of the VoIP call?
Let me guess.. the gerbils make more of a whirring sound when the traffic passes the firewall, typically reducing the quality of audio streams.
Victor
In the US, as long as there is a licensed operator at both stations to come on and give a callsign id every 10 minutes (time may be off, don't have a manual in front of me) then it's all good. My club used to run 3rd party traffic calls to the "North Pole" for the local children's hospital at Xmas time every year. Perfectly legal under FCC rules. There used to be a bunch of questions specifically about this on the old Technician exam (or tech + now)
Though I expect that'd change if everyone were doing it...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I just tried ordering a pair and even had two in my shopping cart at the discounted price and was in the process of checking out when suddenly, my cart emptied itself and you can't get the "good deal" for two. Now they're $15 each and there is NO discount.
Sheesh!!! Needless to say, I'm not going to order them now. I don't like being jerked around like that!!!
Don't anthropomorphize computers, they don't like it.
When I first went to the Creative site a half hour ago they offered an option for two of the VoIP Blaster phones for $20, but when I went back to lower the hammer on the deal they no longer seem to have that option under Select Style. So I guess these suckers are now $15 a throw, call it the Slashdot effect.
ITCX is only used for calling some 3rd world
countries.. whether this is because 1st world
telcos payed off the licensing authorities to
say that VoIP isn't good enough or because it
actually isn't good enough is anybody's guess.
Ok...the link to Creative has them for $15 each, but where are the 2 for $20 deals at?
Cisco has a similar device used to change a regular handset into an IP phone. Not sure on the price though.
8 6/
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/pd/as/180/1
Josh
That's my big question -- can I use my modem over it? I would like to get rid of my land-based phone line, but I still need it for my TiVo to call in. Can the TiVo modem negotiate a connection over the VoIP Blaster? I guess, based on the name of the device, it cannot. But that could just be Creative marketing to the biggest segment interested in such a thing.
Can you do data calls over a voice line that is a voice over data line? -- Err could my TiVo's modem dial out over this thing so I could get rid of my phone line?
I am Jack's HTTP Server
You heard it here first. If and when we migrate to IP V6, VOIP will drive POTS out of business. I expect the transition to take place over about 30 years. QoS? It's in there.
Not to promote or trash VoIP or promote Qwest, but why would I want intermittent connections of VoIP when land-line POTS companies offer the same deal?
Because I (like a lot of my friends)
1)have no POTS
2)have broadband
3)have a long-distance girlfriend
I've got unlimited night-and-weekends on my cell phone, but the day charges are eating me alive. $0.05/minute with VoIP versus $0.35/minute for cell phone overage is a no-brainer. Quest sounds like a good deal, but I'd have to pay ~$35/month to get the phone service just so I could use it.
I have been using the Fobbit software with my Voipblaster for several months now. I talk to my family in Indianapolis from Chicago almost everyday. I have RCN cable internet, my folks have Comcast. I have used the Voipblaster under both Win2K and Linux (Redhat 7.2). Also both my folks and I use the Zone Alarm firewall under Win2k or I use the Linux Firewall and the Fobbit software works just fine Sound quality is very good. I can not tell the difference from POTS. The only problems I have had is that the VoipBlaster will not ring my 2 line 900 Mhz cordless phone/answer machine from Radio Shack. I have run the telephone thru a auxilary ringer designed for over coming low REN signals, then to an older separate answering machine then back to my 2 line cordless phone. Otherwise works great. The software is very easy to install and configure. I have talked for hours straight with no loss conversation. Once you deduct the cost of several hours a month saved in long distance from your Broadband bill it take a lot of sting out of the price increases. Think about it with this device every member of your family could have a their own separate line for the cost of a USB Hub, and the Voipblasters.
It can be configured to use only TCP, though the quality can degrade if there is lag.
Vidi Vici Veni
Thanks for the sig
I added up all of the taxes and charges on my phone bill the other day and they came to over $14. That was with NO long distance. I buy the 3.5 cents/minute cards at sams club for that. If there is any single reason I would like to get rid of my phone line it is to stop this government fleecing.
Does anyone know if I could use this to talk to someone who doesn't have one? I.e., can I use this unit while the other person uses software and a mike?
if i can hook iup my modem to VoIP and get connected to the Internet ;-)
I've tried to pick up a couple of these from the Creative site, and every time I try, I time out getting to the HTTPS order entry system. Is their HTTPS server DOA?
www.eFax.com are spammers
opexagent.com
3.8 cents per minute (when you prepay in $20 increments). _NO_ other charges. ever.
No extra numbers to dial.
I have it at home and at the office.
Makes it sort of fun talking to the telemarketers form AT&T and MCI, cause they cannot come close to matching the price.