This article was written by Don VanSyckel, the club president, as a part of "The President's Pen". This article appeared in the November 2019 WYSIWYG newsletter.
VOIP Phones part 2
by Don VanSyckel
First what is Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology. As we all know voice, music, any sound can be digitized. This means any sound can be represented by a series of digital bytes. A music CD for instance does not contain an audio or music in the traditional sense. The recording studio digitizes the audio and music in the studio. Ships the data off to a CD production facility which produces the CDs that you purchase. A CD is all digital information. The CD player reads and processes the digital data into sounds that you can hear. Another example many our you are probably familiar with is an MP3 music file. Same idea as the music CD just the data is a different format.
The pieces of the VOIP phone system are 1) a VOIP vendor, 2) internet service, 3) a VOIP phone adapter at you house, and 4) a real telephone at your house. The telephone plugs into the VOIP phone adapter. After all is set up the telephone is used exactly like phones have always been used. The VOIP phone works in a manner analogous to CDs. Your phone number is transferred to your VOIP vendor when you sign up. This means that when someone calls your phone number the phone system routes the call to your VOIP vendor. The equipment there processes the information about the incoming call and contacts your phone adapter, commands it to ring the bell and supplies caller ID information. When you answer the phone (pick up the hand set) the phone adapter signals the VOIP vendor that you answered.
The VOIP vendor hardware then "listens" to the incoming phone line and digitizes the sounds it "hears". The data is sent to the phone adapter. The phone adapter converts the digital data into sound which you can hear on the phone. The reverse is done for what you speak into your phone such that the VOIP vendor's equipment produces sounds sent out the phone line to the incoming caller.
The connection between the VOIP vendor and your phone adapter is via the internet. The phone adapter type that I use can be inside my internet router because it reaches out to the VOIP vendor periodically to query if any information needs to be sent to the phone adapter.
You can purchase a package that includes hardware and service or you can purchase your own phone adapter and get services from a provider. I purchased a phone adapter. I signed up with a service named CallCentric and I purchased a generic phone adapter for my house. The unit is a Cisco Linksys Phone Adapter PAP2-NA (I believe the NA is North America). This unit actually supports two separate phone line although I only have service for one. This unit is out of production but is readily available from various outlets. I use the phone wiring already in the house to connect the phone adapter to the wireless phone base station in the kitchen.
I'll go into detail about the various features available from CallCentric in a future column.
Now put the November meeting on your calendar because it's going to be great with Mr. Tapaninen. See what's hot for the holidays.
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