Your VoIP options

There are three ways to try out Voice over IP

• Free software, such as Yahoo Messenger or Windows Messenger
• Specialised VoIP software, such as Skype or Firefly
• A full featured service, including a hardware VoIP phone

Free Software

The easy way to try VoIP out is free software. You won’t get many features, but you'll get an idea of the quality your setup can provide. Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Messenger can make VoIP calls.

In Yahoo!, start a conversation as you normally would in an instant messenger, then click the ‘Voice’ button. Press the 'Talk' button at the bottom of the chat window to activate your microphone or click ‘Hands free’.

TIP: If this sounds like something you might do, and you have a microphone, speaker and an adequate soundcard, you can get away without buying additional equipment.

Specialised VoIP software

Standalone VoIP software has more features, such as improved sound quality, and error correction, and call flexibility.

Firefly is an Australian VoIP software program. It also offers calls to regular phones anywhere in Australia for 6.9 cents per minute through a service called Freshtel. You can find the software and more details on its pricing structure at www.freshtel.net.

Skype (www.skype.com) offers a similar service — it’s widely known and charges 1.7 Euro cents per minute within Australia.

In both cases, you need to register for an account number. That number is used to dial other members of the same VoIP network. You can also dial regular phone numbers, but you won’t be able to connect to members of another VoIP network.

To call somebody, enter their account number or select them from a list of contacts, and press the call button. Standalone VoIP products don’t need you to hold down a button to talk, you can just chat as you would over the phone once you’ve opened a connection.

Full featured services

To get the most features, try a service that uses more advanced equipment.

Engin is an Australian VoIP service that offers?plans with?different levels of equipment. Its main advantage?is that you can get a regular phone number, so people can call you no matter what VoIP service they use.

The basic Engin service is $9.95 per month. It comes with a ‘softphone’ that works much the same as Skype or Firefly, including the ability to call regular phones. It’s one of the few services that offer a flat rate charge of 10c, independent of how long you talk, for local calls or calls between interstate capitals.

To use Engin's more?advanced, and more expensive, monthly plans with additional features you’ll need either an IP phone or an ATA:

• An IP phone is like a standard phone, but it uses an Ethernet connector instead of a phone connector. You plug it into a network router, and because it has all the necessary equipment on board, there’s no need for additional software.
• An ATA is an analog-to-digital converter, which digitises your voice when you speak into a regular phone. One end connects to your phone and the other to your internet connection. You’ll usually need software on your computer to use an ATA.

With either an IP phone or ATA, you talk into the phone handset just as you would using a regular phone. Buying hardware is a big step, though. Many IP phones and ATAs are engineered to work with a single provider only, so switching providers isn’t cheap.