VoIP - the details, and how to do it

(Posted now even with some TBDs in it - just in case I never get back to it)

We have now been using "do it ourself" Voip (i.e. not something we buy and pay money from directly from our phone or cable company), and are very happy indeed. Since while we have done this we have several friends who have gone "cell phone only", and mentioned that they don't have home service anymore because they couldn't justify the cost - well, this post is for you, guys.

First, a summary of costs - rather than explain all of the possibilities, I will simply explain what we did, which is a pretty good place to be given all the obsession I applied to it. I did my homework. With the system described below, your monthly phone cost will be about $3.50 per month plus $.02 per minute (outgoing or incoming) to US and Canada. And that includes all the fees which in this case is just a 911 surcharge of about a dollar per month. You use your standard phone wiring and standard house phones - indeed, if you transfer your old number (if you currently have standard phone service), you can do it such that your family didn't even know anything changed. (Also, although I don't think this is useful to most people, if you only need an outgoing number, (want to be able to place calls from your home phone, but still use your cell phone to receive them), then your only monthly cost will be the $.02 per min.

Also note that compared with some solutions, the method I describe here does not use your computer, and indeed your computer does not even have to be turned on for the telephone to operate. And voicemail is handled "in the cloud" by the VIOP provider, not by your computer.

First, the things you need before you start - you probably have all of them:

• You should already have some form of high speed internet which can reliably support at least 80Kbps traffic both upload and download speeds. A cable or DSL (phone line) modem will do it - satellite systems probably won't work to well, due to voice delays.
• Your cable or DSL modem should be on around the clock, regardless of if your computer is on. For most this will not be a problem.Most are wired this way anyways.
  
• You may or may not have a router / firewall. If you don't have one and don't need one, that is OK - the ATA you are going to buy will actually double as a hardware firewall. If you do, well, things will work just fine.
• You can test your computer connection by going to this test link. I tend to get scores in the 4 to 4.2 range, and can report very good call quality.

Then, you need to do the following things:

1. Get an account with a VoIP provider. The provider I selected is http//:www.callcentric.com, because they offer a "pay as you go by the minute", which is much cheaper for our usage pattern, while still allowing transitions to "unlimited" plans at a competative price (if you use, say over about 1000 minutes per month). We are very happy with their customer service, etc.
2. From callcentric, buy a incoming telephone number. This is a number that can be called by any analog (or VoIP) phone in the world (or VoIP accounts, for that matter). These cost $1.95 per month, and offer incoming calls at 1.8 cents / minute. You will probably want to transfer over your existing number, and in most areas this is possible. However, I would suggest doing it in two steps, which lets you evaluate things first before dropping your exisiting phone service - get a "new" number for your area, play with it, then later change it into your (transferred) home number. One caveat about VoIP, at least with callcentric: you probably won't be listed in your local phone book. I think you can get listed in the national 411 database, anywho, etc, but you will probably be dropped from the local phon company white pages, because... you're not paying them any money. Anyways.... some people pay extra money not to be listed anyways.
   
3. Buy an Analog Telephone Adaptor (ATA). I'll save you all the work (I first made a wrong decision) - get a Grandstream HT-502, even if you don't need all of its features. This adaptor has one feature you DO want, which is what is called "flexible dialing plan setup" - something the cheaper Grandstreams don't have. This box will cost you about $47 with shipping - I bought mine from Telephony Depot.

Once you have this all, do the following - note that only at step 7 do you change your current phone connection - you can fully test the system on a standalone telephone until you are ready to changeover. You will probably have to disrupt your computer system while you configure the ATA:

1. Check to ensure your callcentric account is in order, and that you have both incoming and outgoing service. If you want, you can do a "software only" test, and install a "softphone" on your PC (see http://www.callcentric.com/support/device/xten/softphone) and test the system using a USB headset before you even connect up the ATA.
2. Connect the ATA into the system. I suggest putting this box between your cable/DSL modem and your router (if you have one) or computer. You do this by plugging the cable modem into the WAN port on the ATA. For now, if you have one, leave your router disconnected from the ATA, and plug your computer's ethernet port into the LAN side, at least until you have the device configured properly. For now, don't hook to your overall telephone system - just plug any plain telephone into it for testing.
3. Setup your ATA for the very first time. This is a bit complicated, and will require some patience, but you will only have to do it once. The HT-502 manual provides some reference material, and Callcentric provides standard instructions for configuring a HT-486 (a smaller brother of the HT-502) here but instead I would suggest following my detailed setup instructions - since your computer may or may not work on the web during configuration, I suggest printing them out.
4. Note on step 3: as part of my listed configuration, I changed the default IP address that gets assigned to the LAN port - from 192.168.2.1 to 193.169.2.1. Once this is done, you will have to go to the 193.169.2.1 address. This change seemed necessary to make it work with at least my router.
5. After configuration, verify that you can indeed place calls, receive calls and that you are happy with everything. Now it is time to get your computer network up and running (if you have a router - if you have only one computer, skip this step). Do this by disconnecting the PC from the LAN port and plugging your routers WAN input into it. Then connect your computer back into the router port it was originally connected to.

Now everything is working fine, you have a single phone connected to your ATA, which can place calls and accept calls on the incoming number you bought. At the same time, if you still have phone service from your telephone company, you haven't broken anything either, since you haven't tied this into the house. Evaluate with your single phone as long as you want.

Eventually you will want to switch over your old telephone number (optional). To do this, you contact Callcentric and tell them you want to transfer your old number to the inbound number you purchased from them. It is going to take several weeks for this to actually happen, though - communications between the companies, including your old company who is not going to rush to lose you as a customer. Eventually you will be informed that your number is indeed switched over Note that at this time, your prior phone service is now disconnected.

Now the final step is to change your house telephone system to your ATA, instead of the phone company. To do this, do as follows:

1. Disconnect the phone wires at the entry to your house (if your phone company has not already done so). Once this is done....
2. Using a telephone extension cable, plug the telephone jack on the ATA into your house telephone jack - the ATA is now functioning as the phone company, and driving your houses wiring, including all attached phone extensions.
3. Test it using your standard house phones, and you are done. Enjoy saving $30-40 per month, while having a richer set of features to boot.