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Voice Over IP Goes Global, The DNS Way
Posted by
timothy
on Sat May 22, 2004 05:39 PM
from the can.you.hear.me.now dept.
from the can.you.hear.me.now dept.
awehttam writes "A couple of geeks have setup a non-profit public DNS root designed to map phone numbers to Internet protocols.
These days we're hearing lots about Skype, and Voice over IP. Asterisk - the open source PBX - is nearing its version 1.00 release, Free World Dialup has applied to run the .tel top level domain, Good old Bell's are migrating to native IP, private sector layer 2 clearing houses are exchanging bits between companies the like of Packet8, China Telecom, MIT and Harvard and even the various regulatory agencies are pondering just what to do about things.
In the mean time, consumer SIP phones are dropping in price, and free and open source software is helping to drive a new generation of provide the services networks." Read on for more.
"You just knew the other shoe had to drop. E164.org let's people register their existing phone numbers, and aim various services including VoIP towards a URL on the Internet. Now you can have your calls sent to your Free World Dialup account, or routed to your home Asterisk PBX instead, possibly where you have a $20 card attached to your phone line letting you make and receive calls through both your regular phone line and the Internet. E164.org isn't just about VoIP though, it can also map phone numbers to Email addresses, Instant Messager URL's, or any other protocol that fits in the "foo://bar" scheme of the 'net. :)"
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End of Long distance calls? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:End of Long distance calls? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:End of Long distance calls? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:End of Long distance calls? (Score:4, Insightful)
Unless your cell phone bill is $0.00 you are actually paying for those calls. Your provider has simply determined they can charge you a flat rate at your usage level and still make a profit.
Parent
ah, too late! (Score:5, Funny)
TeamSpeak (Score:5, Informative)
Re:TeamSpeak (Score:3, Interesting)
Ventrilo (Score:3, Interesting)
Ventrilo [ventrilo.com] is also free.
TeamSpeak = audible IRC (Score:3, Insightful)
A group of my friends have a Teamspeak server set up (on my cable line) and we leave it going 24/7 so anyone can join when they like and see if anyone else is around; typically if we are not on TS, we don't wont to be bothered or can be 'knocked' by IM.
Teamspeak is more like IRC in that you can have lots of people on channel at the same time. Its really reliable too, our uptime record on a dodgey old 350Mhz SuSE box is 64days - only interrupted by a blown PSU.
Re:TeamSpeak (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:TeamSpeak (Score:2, Informative)
Skype is more a replacement for your phone (thats why it uses more bandwidth, better sound and quality... also less latency) while teamspeak is more of a voicebased irc, perfect for games, but not something for my parents.
Re:TeamSpeak (Score:3, Informative)
While teamspeak is nice for some stuff(channels, lower bandwidth, selectable codec), I have never been able to eliminate lag with any combination of options.
I set it up on my home lan (just 3 computers) and it still had about 3/4 of a second to a second's lag. I also tryed it on a DS3 teamspeak/IL2-FB server, and it still had around a second of lag.
This makes it utterly worthless in my book, no matter its other benifets. End up telling someone which server to join...dont hear a answer
This is only the beginning (Score:3, Interesting)
Progress is good but wha (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Progress is good but wha (Score:5, Interesting)
After 2 weeks with it, I've decided I'm going to drop my landline.
Parent
Re:Progress is good but wha (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't get me wrong, I think Vonage is great, and I really like the service - just that sometimes it will break up, or give us strange echos, or other things.
The Vonage MTA is connected straight to our DSL router (I don't remember the brand), on our SBC DSL line. There's no firewall
Link collection great, but more info? (Score:4, Interesting)
Jonah Hex
Re:Link collection great, but more info? (Score:2)
Re:Link collection great, but more info? (Score:3, Insightful)
1) Buying the Asterisk-compatible card does not help out the company who has done 95% of the development, both hardware and software, that makes that board do something: Digium [digium.com].
2) Digium has announced an FXO module for the TDM400 board that replaces the X100P. In other words, you can add up to 12 FXO (talks to telco) or FXS (talks to telephones) interfaces in the same computer, instead of just a couple.
There's nothing immoral about buying the off-brand X100P's, but it doesn't h
Re:Link collection great, but more info? (Score:4, Informative)
Even the 'cheap' ones are expensive when you realize what they actually are... Altruism only gets you so far. If they wanted $30 I'd buy from them, but $100? No way.
Parent
Skype to POTS idea (Score:5, Interesting)
Currently Skype is a computer to computer only program, but I have an idea to make it somewhat better.
At signup each user should put in his local calling area/country codes whatever they all are.
Then each user has the option of donating his phone line by hooking up his modem to the phone cord.
Whenever someone wants to call a phone number they could try Skype, or a similar program, and the Skype network would then go search for any available modems in that area code. If there is one then your call would be sent over the net to that computer, and out on his modem.
Now obviously this is a pretty generous donation on the part of the users. There fore there would have to be controls given to the user such as only allow people to call through your line if they are sharing their line. And there needs to be a polite "get off my phone I need it" button for when a Skype user is using your phone and you need it. Something like a message interrupting the call saying "the host modem owner want to use his phone line, please end your call in 30 seconds or it will be disconnected for you."
And if there are no modems available in the area code you wish, you will get a message telling you so.
I think this is would be a nice way of getting around long distance even to people who don't own a computer and/or use Skype.
Are there any technical problems with routing audio info taken from the internet into the modem in the computer without the host having to listen to it over his speakers?
What do you guys think?
Re:Skype to POTS idea (Score:2, Informative)
modem dials
person on the other end picks up
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRR PTSSSSSSSSSSSS"
You'd need a PBX with a FXO card to transmit voice over a regular phone line.
Re:Skype to POTS idea (Score:2)
What am I missing here? Instead of having the modem use the mic input it could use an audio signal that your computer took off the internet.
Help me to understand the issue you raised. If it turns out this idea sucks as, well it was worth a shot anyways
Re:Skype to POTS idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Skype to POTS idea (Score:2)
If that turns out not to be possible, you wouldnt use this for a call that required privacy. If that is the case it sounds like paying long distance would be worth it for the privacy that you want. therefore you wouldnt even be in the market for this use.
Re:Skype to POTS idea (Score:2)
F.F.S.! People still use email for conversations. You know, where you send plaintext to your ISP, through the mailservers of a load of people you don't know, to the mailserver of someone you don't trust.
And we're worried about privacy of phones? (hint: text-searching is easier on peoples' emails)
No, encryption isn't used. I've never once received a PGP-si
Re:Skype to POTS idea (Score:2)
Re:Skype to POTS idea (Score:3, Informative)
I'm not going to pay $0.08/min (peak) for someone in the US to talk to someone down the road.
And that's assuming the software is infalliable. Immagine if it broke and you started placing calls to Azejabstan for £2.50 a minute? Given the average buggyness of most software combined with the general attractions of phone systems to phreakers I would expect a call charge after the first month that could be accidental
Re:Skype to POTS idea (Score:2)
You could put a list of the area codes that you can call for free to into the computer and it is pretty easy to make sure only those area codes are used.
I guess it was short sighted of me to think that everyone had free local call...sucks to not be in the US. Companies know that we wont pay for anything by the minute.....except cell phones...
End of Phone Numbers is just the beginning (Score:5, Informative)
Marrying phones and computers in the home is going to open a whole new avenue of technical exploration, and unfortunately, exploitation as well..
Josh.
Excuse me but (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe less fancy and more clarity would improve the eloquence of the posts...
kind of worrying? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:kind of worrying? (Score:3, Funny)
[_] Sane design.
[_] Educated users.
[X] Unbelievable amounts of luck.
Asterisk PBS is awesome (Score:2, Informative)
I hope patents won't impede these developments (Score:3, Insightful)
The combination of two obvious technologies (telephony and TCP/IP) should not be patentable.
We'll see how this turn out.
The various Linux telephony projects being mentioned left and right are hopeful developments.
Now that (soon to be "legacy") regelar phone networks are being migrated to TCP/IP, I think the time has really come to finally seriously start making the switch to ipv6.
Packet 8 (Score:5, Interesting)
There are a few glitches every now and then. Somedays it won't let my calls go through, but usually my voice mail bails me out. It's just as reliable as a cell phone, and much much cheaper.
coming soon to a legislature near you (Score:5, Insightful)
Expect to see legislation with some assinine label like "The VoIP pro competition rules". This will be of course a couple of millions lines of regulatory text that will be sold to the public as "deregulation".
What will this legislation accomplish? It will help the baby bells and large phone companies hold on to their market shares and stifle competition.
Jaded? Me ? Naaaaa, just experienceed with more than a decade of being told "We are for de-regulation" while signing bills that give the big guys even more. The FCC unep ruling recently is a perfect example of such double talk.
cluge
Hmm, shame about the name... (Score:5, Funny)
I mean... VOIP? Try discussing that in a bar or in a non-technical environment. No, seriously, go try it: how do you even pronounce VOIP? I guarantee that you'll get laughed at, or stares at the very least.
Therefore, I suggest that we replace Voice Over IP with Talking Over The Internet, or TOTI. Think about it!
Instead of discussing VOIP down the pub, you can talk about the latest TOTI that you saw Samsung introduce. Or ask if your fellow geek has checked out the new TOTI down at the phone store. Or if you see a nice looking young lady (or man!) in town, you can whistle and challenge those around you to check out that TOTI.
You see? It's perfect. Sure, it isn't as descriptive as VOIP, but it gets across the main idea, kind of. I mean, yeah, there's going to be the odd pedant that will contest the change, but don't listen to them- they're probably a taxman in real life or something.
how about VOX (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
If nothing else (Score:5, Informative)
VoIP Quality (Score:5, Informative)
The key to voice quality with VoIP is latency. Most VoIP endpoints have a built in jitter buffer which is able to recover from some latency, usually around 3ms, but after that is begins to be difficult to carry on a conversation. The latency here is the latency between you and the provider's media gateway, such as an Asterisk box. Normally if you have less than 50ms of latency, then you'll notice no degradation in call quality. If you begin to have more latency, the quality of the call will begin to drop off.
I've been using Nuvio [nuvio.com] for almost 6 months and it rocks! Latency on my cable modem is around 30ms back to their servers so I rarely, if ever, have a quality issue. Their web interface is pretty cool and they do some cool stuff you can do with regard to voicemail and e-mail. Plus it's not PC based, just plug your regular phone into the adaptor they send you and you can take your adaptor with you when you travel, plug it into any broadband connection and still make and receive calls just like you never left home. This is pretty cool because I travel a lot and if the hotel has broadband in the room, it works great. I even have a few virtual phone numbers across the country so people I know in those cities can call me for free.
As someone mentioned before, it's a lot like cell phones. You just have to look at what you're getting and decide if it's right for you. If you'd rather pay less than with a regular phone provider and be able to make TONS of long distance calls where an occasional dropped call is ok, then go sign up with Nuvio [nuvio.com]. It's really as good as the reception is with a cell phone, and most of the time lots better. It all depends on the latency.
Non-profit? (Score:2, Insightful)
One down, one to go (Score:3, Informative)
Thanks to efforts like E164.org, one day phone calls will be just another service running on the Internet. There will be no fees for doing simple peer-to-peer connections (me calling you to say hi), however special content and services will still have fees. Gateways to POTS* will be one such service for the foreseeable future.
What this means is that we're in for a revolution. We're rapidly moving from a model where the Internet is run over phone lines to where the phones are run over the Internet. IOW, basic communications go from a metered service produced by a relatively small group of very lucrative companies, some of which are still state-owned monopolies, to the Internet model which we all know: A basically cooperative network where people purchase the bandwidth they need and agree to connect to their neighbours in order to join the big network. As I'm sure you've already figured, selling that bandwidth will still be big business, but nowhere near as lucrative as selling metered service.
The big thing to get here is that the production of value, i.e. stuff that people are willing to pay for, will move from the center of the network to the edges. That is, from the big (sometimes monopolistic) phone companies to you and me. Welcome to the Internet revolution, you thought it was mostly over but in reality it's just starting. Oh, and if you thought the RIAA was running scared, they have nothing to fear compared to the big ol' phone companies.
So what do I mean by "one down, one to go"? Two things, actually. First, e164 directory services are the first step, the second involves VoIP providers creating an environment where they can exchange traffic and get paid for services they provide to other providers. Say a user on your VoIP provider in the US calls a POTS number in Norway via a VoIP provider in that country with a POTS gateway. Peering the actual voice traffic is just one part of the exchange, peering the business end of things is the other. But this too will fall into place, sooner rather than later.
The other thing I'm thinking of as "one to go" is TV. Today most countries are building separate infrastructures running parallell carrying different services: Voice over phone lines, TV over cable or OTA** and Internet over whatever's available. I'll give you an example:
In Norway the Storting (Parliament) has decided to spend $0.5 billion to build an OTA infrastructure to transmit digital TV signals. Once the new network is in place, the old analog network will be switched off. And you thought the US digital TV mandate was bad...
My prediction is that before the new digital TV network is in place it will already by severly outdated, completely overrun by the Internet revolution.
The world is rapidly becoming digital and the Internet is the enabler. There is no future in building any kind of infrastructure unless it is dedicated to carrying Internet traffic. Wired, wireless, optical, satellite, it just doesn't matter as long as it moves the bits.
Welcome to the revolution, we're just starting.
* POTS: Plain Old Telephone System
** OTA: Over The Air, traditional broadcasting
e164.org is the same as alternic (Score:3, Informative)
e164.arpa is the "real" root zone that e164.org is trying to replace. There are good reasons for wanting an faster/better/more clueful interface to ENUM, because e164.arpa is clogged with political sewage. However, I would want to see an organization with a little more clout behind them before I'd ever consider putting any time or money into an alternate root service; don't be surprised if suddenly you see a "cost recovery" (cough, cough, , cough) charge for usage.
Re:e164.org is the same as alternic(mod parent up) (Score:3, Informative)
I'm disappointed the Slashdot editors didn't notice that e164.org is in essentially competition with e164.arpa; this is very important to understanding what e164.org is about. As the parent says, it's like Alternic or, to avoid the unfair comparison with Altnernic's business practices, New.net.
I don't accept my sibling post's claim that e164.org is not in competition with e164.arpa but is merely "supplementary": that's like saying ".travel" is "supplementary" to .
What about ENUM? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Slashdot... (Score:2)
On this point I agree with you, infact my computer did lock up for more than a few seconds when I opened that pdf.
Is that adobe's fault or what? Seems like they have a knack for bloatware...
Re:DNS to phone (Score:3, Informative)
When someone 'calls' user@domain.com, they have a choice of how to contact you. Typically the service provider will match caller capabilities to the registrations in the service database.
The end
Re:DNS to phone (Score:3, Insightful)
probably because there are too many joe smiths.
Phone numbers pretty well for the most part.
I wonder if google has thought about google phone? Make it part of the new Google IM service and offer a free gig of on-line voice mail. Comppressed using Speex from the Ogg project just to make it all as geek cool as possible. Of course the should make a Linux i386 version as well as a Linux PPC versi
SpamOverVoiceOverIP (Score:4, Interesting)
- Unregulated
- Dirt cheap
- Easy to script a 5 sec call to millions of numbers
Parent