A Beginner's Guide To VOIP

What exactly is this strange acronym? Many don't know what it means, but a lot probably have heard of it or used it. It stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol and it basically is voice communication over the internet through programs like Google Voice or Skype. Voice sounds are changed into binary bits, and then sent through the internet where it is converted back into voice sounds and delivered to the other end of your phone call. VOIP is useful when you don't want to pay for an added phone package and purchase a home phone when your internet can handle a phone call and you already own a computer microphone and headset. Some of the advantages are that you can simply highlight any phone number, right click and then hit ‘Call Number'. You don't have to punch it in to a phone after running to grab it, you can do it quickly and easily within a few clicks.

It's a lot lower cost as well, as services like Google Voice and Skype are entirely free, able to call phone numbers in the US and Canada entirely free. There's a lot more functionality, you can use Skype to Video Chat, and you can also record conversations easily if you need to record them for important business or other purposes. You can also save numbers and names easily and store them on your computer or on a cloud service, meaning that you can access them from anywhere and at anytime. You can even take your VOIP phone or account with you wherever you go, and wherever there is internet, you can take calls. This can even include WiFi on a couple of specialized VOIP phones.

If you work for a call center, you could even take your phone wherever you go, meaning that you could work wherever you wanted to work. Even if you don't actually have an internet service, you could take it to the library or something and connect it to a computer or internet and work. However, it's important to note that you need a quality internet connection in order to take clear calls without any hiccups or problems in the same way that cell phones need good service in order to take calls. However, many connections have enough bandwidth to accommodate you, and even in places like airports you'll find that you can receive and send calls easily and clearly.

Another advantage to VOIP calling is that a lot of the time, you can send your calls internationally, entirely free. This is an advantage that few phone carriers will ever offer, and if you have family or friends, or even business partners that live far away in different countries, then you should definitely look into getting a VOIP phone and losing the old one.

You may think that VOIP phones implies that you can't really receive calls easily, as you have to be on your computer to send calls, and how would it work to get called back when you don't really have a phone number. Well, VOIP phones are becoming a lot more than just a microphone and speaker services, with phones you can buy online that can both send and receive calls, which look much like a traditional phone but the difference being that they are connected to a computer or to a network. In some cases you can program your cell phone or any type of home phone to hook up with your computer and call through that. People everywhere are searching for VOIP during the recession, especially with phone companies appearing like one huge monopoly only interested in getting all the money they can out of you.