VOIP: The Next Generation

Today’s experiment in Voice Over IP is as follows: I’m running the free X-Lite software telephone on my Apple iBook here at Yankee in New Hampshire. X-Lite is configured to register with my Asterisk PBX back in the office in Charlottetown.

The end result is that when callers “press 1 for Peter” when calling the office, the calls get routed to my laptop.

Conversely, I have a Charlottetown dial tone here when I need it.

I just got off the phone with Johnny, then Catherine. Quality appears to be fair to poor — possibly because I’m just using the iBook’s built-in microphone. I’m going to do some twiddling.

Comments

David Richardson's picture
David Richardson on November 1, 2004 - 22:28 Permalink

xten.com announced ‘Eyebeam’ for OS X several weeks ago which includes echo cancelation (the original xten client did not). I haven’t tried it (purchase only), but it is likely to offer superior voice quality.

Paul Emond's picture
Paul Emond on November 2, 2004 - 03:05 Permalink

Adam and I had similar experiences with his ibook and Asterisk. We chalked it up to the ibook’s internal speaker as well. A headset (ideally bluetooth) would make all the difference I believe.