VoIP Phone Basics - Using VoIP With Your Existing Phone

By Kevin Nelson

If you're like most people considering switching over to VoIP phone service, you already understand the great value VoIP can provide as well as the cost savings. Let's face it, that's one of the main reasons people make the switch to VoIP.

But one of the things that often times holds people back is that they're worried about not being able to use their regular phone, perhaps being tied to a computer in order to make calls or having to buy expensive hardware that's compatible with their new phone service. Neither of those is a good option but you can breath a sigh of relief in knowing that your existing phone will work just fine with most of the major players in the VoIP market.

Connecting Your Existing Phone

When you sign up with you VoIP phone service provider, they will give you an adapter that allows you to use your existing phone with the new VoIP system. This means you don't have to worry about being tied to your computer or shelling out more money for additional hardware. The adapter will have several plugs for you to connect items to, including your phone, your computer and your Internet connection. The adapter does all the hard work of converting the phone signal so it's VoIP-compatible.

Activating Your VoIP Phone Service

Once you have your phone all set up, all you have to do is activate your service. Of course each provide has different ways of doing this so it's best to check their user guide to get the full details on this part, but usually this can be done via the Internet or over the phone. In addition, they can provide any troubleshooting tips if you hit a snag, but that's doubtful because regardless of which company you choose, the setup process is quite easy.

Enjoying VoIP Phone Service

Congratulations, you've just entered the exciting world of VoIP! After your service is activated, you can begin using your phone like normal. The only difference is now you'll probably have way more features and better service than you got from your local phone company.

Once you experience what it's like to have access to unlimited long distance calling anytime of the day, discount rates on international calls, voicemail, caller ID and other features all built-in to most VoIP calling plans, you'll quickly understand why millions of other consumers have switched to VoIP and why this new phone technology is increasing in popularity every day.

How long can you afford to pay higher phone bills each month? Find out more about how to choose a VoIP phone service that can help you keep more money in your pocket while you enjoy enhanced calling features your local phone company would nickel and dime you for. Find money-saving links to top-rated VoIP providers by visiting http://www.BuyersGuideToVoIP.com

VoIP Tutorial - Things You Need To Get Started With VoIP

By Juzaily Ramli

Now that you�ve decided that VoIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol is right for you, there are a few things that you have to do to get started. The following are steps you can take to immediately enjoy the benefits of VoIP.

Updating Your Computer

First on your list is to update your computer. You need to have a High Speed Internet connection. Also you would need to have updated video and audio Codecs as well as the latest version of DivX. Updating your computer is easy by utilising tools or programs such as your Windows Update.

Deciding on a Service Provider

The next step is for you to decide on a service provider that can offer you the right VoIP service plan. As there are many companies offering such services, you could make the decision easier by writing down a list of your needs, wants, as well as features in that fit your needs. Compare the many plans available and make your choice.

One thing to remember is that there are normally two plans available: Residential and Business. Residential plans can either be a basic plan which provides a certain amount of talk time, or an unlimited plan which provides unlimited local and long distance access. On the other hand, a Business plan can provide services such as multiple phones, longer talk time, better unlimited calling plans, added business features, voicemail and faxing features, as well as other extras like listings in the yellow pages. Make sure that you choose a plan that is catered to your needs. The service provider that you finally decide on can also assist you in determining what other computer requirements you will need to have. Again, it is important that your computer be up to date and complies with the service provider�s requirements.

Getting a Telephone Adapter

The telephone adapter will be given to you by your service provider. With this adapter, you can now convert your everyday household phone into a phone that works with your VoIP service. Using an Ethernet cable, connect your telephone adapter to your Cable or DSI modem. Then connect your telephone to the adapter with a phone jack. Besides a regular phone, you could also opt to use a portable phone to the adapter, and have the ease of a portable phone that works with your VoIP service. However, this is just the standard portable phone used indoors, not to be confused with a cell phone.

Choosing Your Own Telephone Number

Now you have the option of choosing your own telephone number, one of the best features that VoIP offers. If you are contemplating on keeping your old number with your new VoIP system, discuss this with your service provider first. Most VoIP service providers will allow you to do this. However, keep in mind that selecting a different number or area code has many advantages. To start with, for family members and friends who do not have unlimited long distance calling options, choosing the same area code as theirs can immediately save them money. They will definitely thank you for having being given the opportunity to call you as if it were a local call.

On a larger perspective, this option is very advantageous to those who own businesses that are aiming at specific regions. Say you own a business in Florida, yet at the same time, you would like to expand to Los Angeles, California. In choosing the Los Angeles, California code, you could easily increase sales and productivity as you now have a local number that customers can call. This would also reduce the need for a toll free number.

Installing and Activating Your VoIP Features

Your VoIP service plan comes with an array of added features. For residential plans, these could mean Caller ID, Voicemail, Call Forwarding, Call Block and Do Not Disturb. Constantly check with your service provider to get a full listing of features that come with your chosen plan. If you opt for a business plan, you would enjoy services like free fax lines, multi phone users, and integrated VoIP and web features. VoIP also provides the same features in the basic plans. Again remember that when deciding on your service provider, compare the various plans available and choose one that best fits your needs.

Accessorising

As VoIP gets more and more advanced, a whole new group of accessories are introduced in the market. Today, you have the luxury of choosing from many types of VoIP phones, headsets, even VoIP videophones that incorporate your audio with video.

Enjoying Your VoIP Service

Now that you have everything you need, you can start enjoying your VoIP service. Regardless if you choose the basic or unlimited plan, you will realise that with VoIP, you now enjoy more freedom, reliability and greater standards of quality, not to mention the most cost effective method in meeting all of your telecommunications needs than you ever thought possible.

Juzaily Ramli is the owner of the site that provides VoIP tutorial to get people to switch to and get started on VoIP. He also writes about business VoIP targeted to those who are running their own business to increase their productivity. His site can be found at http://www.voip-revolution-info-site.com

Outstanding VoIP Voicemail Features Makes Getting VoIP Voicemail Extremely Convenient

By Chris Landry

There are many types of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) protocols that are employed by the VoIP providers currently providing VoIP calling plans. Luckily for the consumers, the VoIP providers have listened to what functions the consumers want in their Voicemails. Almost all of the VoIP providers provide Voicemail with the standard VoIP calling plan. The special feature of the VoIP voicemail plan is in how the consumer can access his/her VoIP voicemail message.

In general, there are 4 ways in which a VoIP consumer can access their voicemail. When you add the four ways up, you will be able to access your voicemail from virtually anywhere.

First, you can access your voicemail through your primary VoIP telephone by dialing *123 or some other combination of numbers (VoIP voicemail access code varies by provider). The automatic attendant will let you know how many voicemails you have and walk you through retrieving all of your new voicemails and saving/deleting your old emails. It is quite a slick system.

The second method is via a local voicemail access number, where you can call a local telephone number from any telephone (Cell phone/Land line/ VoIP phone). When you dial into your local voicemail access number, the auto attendant will ask for you to punch in your VoIP phone number and password to be able to access your VoIP voicemail system.

The third method is through your VoIP provider online account management portal. You can go to your Provider�s VoIP homepage and access the �Customer Login� portal by typing in your username and password. Once into the portal, click on the Voicemail tab and you can listen to your new voicemails over Internet connection.

The fourth method, and possibly the most useful, is every time you get a new VoIP voicemail, you are sent an email. That email will state that you have a new voicemail from your VoIP account, the date the voicemail was received, and an attachment of the voicemail as a .wav file. One outstanding feature is that you can save the .wav file on your computer�s hard drive and email the voicemail to friends, family, or coworkers.

The above are generally how most VoIP providers give consumers access to their voicemail (but not all). Be sure to check each VoIP provider for how they provide their consumers access to their voicemail.

VoIP voicemail service is only one of the things to consider before choosing a VoIP solution. In fact, there are many things to consider when choosing a VoIP provider. An educated consumer generally results in a satisfied consumer. Please see our VoIP: Things to consider article to find a list of more things to consider when choosing a VoIP provider. You can Compare VoIP providers side-by-side at www.VoIPChoices.com.

Chris Landry is the foremost authority on residential and small business VoIP providers. Chris is the founder of http://www.VoIPChoices.com. Chris has prequalified several high-quality VoIP providers and compares them by price and features at http://www.VoIPChoices.com. Chris can be reach via email at Chris@VoIPChoices.com.

VoIP Phone Reviews

By Bob Hett

VoIP is the fastest growing internet communication service. With features and services not normally found in traditional landlines, it is fast becoming the number one choice of people.

At first, people have been skeptical to use VoIP but soon found out the effectiveness and convenience of VoIP.

VoIP phones are now changing people�s perspective on the use of telephone. If you want a phone, it can be a good choice.

VoIP offers standard features that regular landline phones often charges extra. For instance, free or low cost long distance calls are often not available in regular landlines. This is because VoIP uses the internet to make a call. Since the internet offers free information, and fast communication, VoIP phones take advantage of this feature to transmit the calls free.

With a VoIP phone, you can take your personal number wherever you are. You can make and receive phone calls from your number even if you are traveling as long as there is an active internet connection to where you are going.

There are many VoIP broadband phone provider in the market today, choosing the right one would be very beneficial for your business or personal for your use.

Here are some of the things you should look for when choosing VoIP service providers:

Audio Quality

Recent advancement in technology allows better sound quality with reduced noise. This means that a VoIP service provider should have excellent audio quality when making calls. If you experience lags or delays in your phone calls, you should think twice before subscribing to the company another time.

Little or no delay transmission is needed for your voice to reach the person you are calling. A one-second delay can mean the difference of making a simple answer of �yes� or �no�. Remember that voice delays can mean misunderstanding, and precise answers are extremely important in businesses.

Reliability

Imagine making an important business deal or talking to your family and friends and your call is suddenly cut off. This is a bad sign that your service provider is not making sure that you get your money�s worth.

Get a VoIP service provider that offers maximum reliability and free try out periods to ensure you that they give the best service to their subscribers. Although cheap rates are attractive, try their services first before committing.

Customer Service

VoIP service providers should offer customer support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This can help you if you ever have problems using VoIP.

The customer assistance service should be quick and take care of their subscribers immediately after making the call. Know if the VoIP service providers you are planning on subscribing have customer assistance. Customer service can be found in the VoIP service providers or by calling them.

Features

VoIP service providers should offer standard features like; free long distance calls, emails, fax, web conferencing, and videophone and others for no extra fee at all. Still quite a few VoIP service providers out there charge for these extra features. Get a VoIP service provider that offers maximum standard features free.

Price

VoIP is supposed to be free or cheap. Get a VoIP service provider that offer free long distance and low monthly payments. Make sure that not only it should be cheap but also offers quality service. Most providers offer trial periods, use this to determine if it is worth spending you hard earned cash.

However convenient it might be to own a VoIP phone, there are still drawbacks for it. For example, you should have a high-speed internet connected.

Since VoIP phones depends on your internet connection, this means that disconnected internet, no VoIP service. Slow internet connection is also a factor. With slow internet connection, expect audio delays.

It is wise that before getting a VoIP phone, you should determine that the internet connection in your area is broadband and reliable.

Here are some of the top VoIP service providers:

Vonage

Sunrocket

VoIP.net

Time Warner Cable

Packet8

If the following companies do not cover your area, you can always find VoIP providers in your area. Just make sure they offer quality services and choose one used by your family and friends so you can call them free, wherever they are.

Bob Hett has extensively covered the VoIP Service Provider industry as an analyst and has researched the various companies for factors based on price, reliability, support and overall quality. Learn more at VoIP Phones.

Cheapest Solution in VoIP Broadband Phone Service

By Daymon Hoag

VoIP is an abbreviation for voice over Internet protocol. It
is easy to confuse VoIP with broadband phone service. Though
broadband phone service uses the voice over Internet
protocol to send and receive phone calls, it is not actually
VoIP. As of now, VoIP basically comes in three forms,
PC-to-PC, PC-to-Phone, and Broadband telephone service.

You may have used the most common PC-to-PC or PC-to-phone
VoIP services without even realizing it. Have you ever used
Yahoo Messenger to call someones computer? If you have,
you've used Yahoo's free PC-to-PC VoIP service.
Additionally, Yahoo Messenger allows you to call someones
home telephone from your computer for a small fee. This is
called PC-to-Phone VoIP.

Broadband phone service also uses VoIP but allows you to
make and receive calls on your home telephone the same way
you always have. While PC-to-Phone, and PC-to-PC only
require a software download to use the service, you'll need
a broadband phone adaptor to be able to use your home
telephone with VoIP. Once installed, broadband phone service
is very much like a traditional land line with just a few
exceptions.

Now we know VoIP is the means of transmitting voice data
over the Internet, and PC-to-Phone, PC-to-PC, or broadband
telephone are the VoIP hardware and software solutions for
VoIP. Armed with that information, which is the cheapest
solution in VoIP for you? Free VoIP is not always the
cheapest solution in VoIP. Let me explain.

As mentioned before, PC-to-PC VoIP is often times free with
Popular Instant Messenger clients such as Yahoo Messenger,
MSN Messenger, and now, Google Talk. These messengers
provide an excellent free service which allows you to talk
to friends and family over long distances through your home
computer and speakers or headset.

What if you need to call someones home telephone or business
phone? That's where PC-to-Phone Voip comes in. PC-to-Phone
allows you to call a telephone from your computer. Though
PC-to-Phone isn't free it's very cheap, sometimes around 1
cent per minute or less. Examples of Popular PC-to-Phone
VoIP services are offered by Yahoo Messenger and Skype.

Broadband telephone service allows you to make and receive
phone calls without the aid of you're computer. Broadband
telephone is hyper popular since it cuts out the telcos and
dramatically reduces your phone bill. Some VoIP companies
offer unlimited local plus long distance calling for a flat
fee of less than 20 dollars per month.

As with anything else, the cheapest solution for VoIP is
going to be determined by your usage of the service. If
using your computer to talk with your contacts does not
bother you, by all means use PC-to-PC or PC-to-Phone. If you
want to reduce your phone bill, and enjoy the convenience of
talking on a normal phone, broadband telephone is going to
be the cheapest solution in VoIP.

Daymon Hoag is the founder of Cheapest Service where you can shop for Over Internet Phone Service