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Network World - Linksys VoIP phone for Vonage a treat

GEARHEAD INSIDE THE NETWORK MACHINE

Last week we took a break from our VoIP obsession but this week, we can't help it, VoIP is back. Several of you have written to back up our suspicion: The problems we've been having with Vonage lie in the SBC network.

Interestingly, all of you who have cable broadband report nearly flawless performance with Vonage. It may be that cable's generally higher data rates make Vonage's VoIP better or maybe, as we have mentioned, the rumors are true that some telcos shape traffic for what they say are QoS reasons that just happen to degrade VoIP sessions they aren't making money on.

If there are any SBC techs out there who would be interested in helping to solve this problem, please get in touch. We'd really like your help.

While we've been wrestling with ourVonage problems we haven't been otherwise idle on the VoIP front. Nope, over on the Skype side of the VoIP universe things are busy We just tested a new Skype-related product from Linksys, the Cordless Internet Telephony Kit (otherwise known as the QT200),and we're very impressed.

The CIT200 works only with Vonage and consists of a wireless handset with a charger stand (which obviously has a wall wart power supply) and a separate box - the base station - that connects to your PC via USB.

The PC setup is simple. It installs the USB drivers and sets up the connection for your existing Skype installation or installs a fresh copy of Skype if needed. That's it! If your Skype worked before you installed the C1T200 it should work now.

You can program telephone numbers into the CIT200 as well as use the numbers you have already defined in Skype or your existing Skype speed-dial entries.

The handset has all sorts of setup options ranging from basics such as setting its internal clock to registering and de-registering which base station is paired with the CIT200 handset.

The sound quality of the CIT200 is very good and only limited by VoIP service quality It also is a speakerphone, shows caller ID, has a minijack for a headset and has a remarkable unobstructed range of around 300 feet. Not only that, the base station can support up to four CIT200s and the handsets can be used intercom-style.

To our amusement the CIT200 produces a variety of weird tunes and sounds for various functions other than ringing; for example, it sounds a peculiar arpeggio when you put it in its charging stand. We haven't quite figured out what all the sounds mean but that doesn't seem to matter. At around $130 the CIT200 is rather pricey but it is a terrific piece of hardware and does the job very well. Linksys, please note: We definitely need to test this product for an extended period, say, the next couple of years.

If you've been tracking the VoIP universe you may have heard of a project called Asterisk (www.asterisk.org). If you haven't, you really need to keep your eye on this.

Asterisk is fantastic. It is a complete, open source, Linux-based multi-protocol,software-only PBX that runs on Linux, BSD and Mac OS X. It has all the features you would expect from a serious business-quality PBX, such as providing voice mail services with directory services, call conferencing, interactive voice response and call queuing, three-way calling and caller ID services. And it can handle ADSI, Session Initiation Protocol and H.323 (as both client and gateway) traffic.

Asterisk also provides open APIs and supports scripting in a variety of languages. In short, it is remarkable and in many people's eyes has the potential to change how companies think of PBXs.

You can find a lot of information on Asterisk's Web site and there's even a book on the system called Asterisk: The Future of Telephony by Jim Van Meggelen, Jared Smith and Leif Madsen. This is an excellent guide to the why what and how of Asterisk. Highly recommended.

Your recommendations to gearhead@gibbs.com. Oh, et cherchez le Gibbsblog (http://www.networkworld.com/weblogs/gibbsblog/). Merci.