Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT: VOIP

In reply to:

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Nope, modern TiVos with modern software include TCP/IP connectivity. All you need is the USB/ethernet adapter.

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DirecTiVos still need a landline.

How about Packet8 or Lingo? Anyone try them?

I have an on-topic question for all of you...

VoIP - when you see this written and say it aloud, what do you say? The main options being:
pronounce individual letters: V.O.I.P
or say it as a word: Voyp

This question comes about because I learned about VoIP a few years back in college, and it was *always* V.O.I.P. But I just saw a commercial the other day for "Yak VoIP" and they kept saying "Yak Voyp" over and over again. I can't express how annoying it was.

Hmm... V.O.I.P. seems like too much of a mouthful. I say voyp. Seems to me like acronyms are about evenly mixed between pronounced as "spelled out" and pronounced as a word.

I usually say Voice Over IP, but would probably use Voyp as an acryonym before V.O.I.P, just because Voyp is shorter.

One nice thing about voip is that I can use a voip softphone client and load that into my Dell Axim PDA. I then can use my Dell Axim or laptop like a cell phone. Then when I travel anywhere in North America the cost is no different if I was calling here in Toronto or NY or LA. It costs all the same as long as I can get a network connection.
http://www.vonage.com/features.php?feature=softphone

Saturn....where is the PocketPC client?

http://www.xten.com/index.php?menu=products&smenu=xproppc This is the pocket pc version of the xten client by vonage. All you need to do is transfer the PC softphone setting to the Pocket PC softphone.

If you want to try a free VOip softphone use Skype. I can test it with you since I have an account which I share by putting it on my Dell Axim or my Laptop. I use this mostly when travelling since it one of the only ones that works even through firewalls. I jump into networks on the street and make my phone calls on my Dell Axim via wireless. A lot of open networks can be jumped into specially around residential condos in any downtown city. This way I don't pay for long distance cell bills when I travel.

http://skype.com
This client is also so cool that you can purchase timeblocks for a cheap 20 Euros and can then call real cell or land lines for mere cents a minute. Also even if you don't have a PDA or laptop you can stroll into any internet cafe anywhere in the world. Download the client and install it in the machine you are using and make phone calls to anywhere if you have bought one of those blocks of time. I believe Skype is not that big in North America but it is very big in Europe. All my Euro friends contact their families this way.

I downloaded Skype, but didn't have anyone to test with and didn't want to pay for time without trying it out first. I also found a couple stories online about people that paid for time and then had problems actually being able to use the time.

Update....

I have my telephone adapter setup from AT&T, and able to make outgoing calls(phone number get cutover later in the week). So far the quality is VERY impressive.

Downside, and I should have looked into this beforehand, you have to dial the 10 digit number...this is a bad thing with kids. Vonage has 7 digit local dialing. This could warrant a switch in a month.