VoIP Hacks: Tips & Tools for Internet Telephony (Hacks)

Voice over IP, as with most emerging technologies, in the process of shaking up the world, in this case Public Switched Telephone Network and Plain Old Telephony Service. The author starts of the book off at the most basic entry point for most consumers into the world of VoIP, which is background about the main commerical carriers such as Vonage. The introductary chapters continue to build on the most elementary approach, giving the reader advice on modifying the soft phone[s] that the respective carriers will allow or provide to the consumers, such as alternating ring tones. It isn't long before Ted is explaining how to compeletly re-wire the house over to a pure VoIP infastructure using the existing wiring in your home as well as an, or the ATA provided by the carrier. While this is undoubtly over the casual readers head and possibly comfort level it is good see that this option is explored and explained for those that might not be aware of this solution. Of course, other VoIP solutions are explored. Skype, is mentioned and basic features are explored, although the detail provided on Skype is not as detailed as those of other solutions, which maybe due to the coverage for Skype under the Skype Hacks book. However, the coverage for building your own VoIP via Asterisk is quite detailed and in-depth. Options that explored for this approach, are call forwarding, hold music, voice mail applications and distinctive ring as well as basic advice on setting up and compiling the application. The process appears to be able to easy to implement, but alas was not tried due to this reviewers use of Skype for his VoIP needs. Also in the closing chapters of the book, issues of improving QoS are addressed as is the legacy signalling protocol that H.323 is since the adoption of SIP. Since QoS is vital to ensuring that VoIP traffic receives the bandwidth that it needs Ted gives us some basic commands to find out if there is jitter [dropped datagrams] and some ways to fix this issue. However, it should be noted that this chapter, as with most of the later half of the book is more in line for larger scale operations that use Linux/Unix and building their own office VoIP solutions. To summarize, VoIP hacks does offer something for everyone, although the hacks provided in the latter chapters are geared to the enterprise level deployment of VoIP. That's not to say that the information is not relevant or even eye opening, just the average home user will find little to apply this to.

Do you love to tinker and optimize? If you do, then this book is for you! Author Ted Wallingford, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that contains only a small subset of VoIP knowledge; but, enough to serve as an introduction to the world of VoIP and teach you how to use it to save money, be more productive, or just impress your friends. Wallingford, begins by introducing you to some Internet based VoIP phone service providers who can help you replace your traditional phone line with a cost-saving, feature-rich VoIP line. Then, the author shows you how to customize and maximize productivity-enhancing telephony applications. He also introduces you to Skype and Skyping. Next, the author shows you how to install, configure, and hack Asterisk, an open source PBX. Then, he continues by showing you how to add hardware hacks to your VoIP setup--and how to customize them. The author also explains how you can monitor VoIP and troubleshoot it using traditional admin tools. Finally, the author shows you how to use hard-core voice. In this most excellent practical guide, the author provides dozens of hands-on projects for building a VoIP network. More importantly, he shows you how to tweak and customize hardware and software to get the job done.

I enjoyed reading this book. It's got great information on the different VoIP services and how they work. And it has a bunch of fun recipes that you can use to play with the services. I really enjoyed the one about altering your voice. As well as the information on how to record iChat and Skype. That is really handy.

VoIP isn't just a fad or the hot thing in the computer/Internet world, it's what is beginning to, and eventually WILL replace the old style AT & T phone system that has predominated in the world for the past 100 or so years. With the availability of high speed Internet and the technology to go along with it, VoIP (voice over IP) has re-engineered how we talk to each other, making voice communication faster, quicker, and CHEAPER than ever before. AT & T and the big phone companies have long raped consumers of their hard-earned dollars with tons of fees and overpriced "features". Its was only a matter of time before a better alternative came about, and now it's here and the # of new VoIP users that come online every day is staggering. As a user of VoIP I can tell you that I personally love it, and I would never go back to the old land line connection. If you enjoy learning about VoIP and you want to learn how to do more with it, this book is for you. Going beyond the regular setup "tricks", VoIP lists out plenty of fun and interesting things to do with your VoIP connection. Whether it's downloading little applications to track your usage or learning how to control the lights in your home with your IP phone, this book will please all the geeks out there in the world who need to go past simply using their connection, needing to get into the guts of how it all works. If you want to learn more about VoIP and some of the fun things you can do with it, this is a fun book to add to your collection. **** RECOMMENDED