A Brief Intro to VOIP

If you have an ear open to new computer technologies, you are sure to have heard about VoIP. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is an emerging set of applications which allows you to make telephone calls over the Internet.

It is already starting to replace existing telephone networks, with some people and businesses opting to cancel their traditional phone line and use VoIP instead.

VoIP was originally developed to provide voice communication between computer users in different locations. Although it still has this application, it has been further developed into a telephone network in its own right.

People using VoIP can call any telephone anywhere in the world and can receive calls on telephone sets connected to the Internet or Local Area Network (LAN).

Background It all started back in 1995 when Israeli computer enthusiasts made the first computer to computer voice connection. In the same year this technology was developed into a software package called Internet Phone Software. All that was needed to talk to another computer user was a modem, sound card, speakers, and a microphone.

The software digitized and compressed the audio signal before sending it over the Internet in data packets. These voice connections could only occur between computers which had the software installed.

The sound quality was very poor -- nowhere near the quality of standard telephone connections. The technology continued to be developed and by 1998 gateways had been established to allow PC-to-phone connections.

Later that same year phone-to-phone connections that used the Internet for voice transmission were set in place. These phone-to-phone connections still required a computer to initiate the call, but once the connection was established, the callers could use a regular phone set.